Which bootlegs are you listening to right now?

GeoScott said:

I've been listening to the September 2005 shows since last week. The shows sound fun, and I'm sure it has been discussed in the past, but does anyone else find the recordings to be of.......ummmm.....lesser quality than other years?

Yes, they are.. part of it is because they are shitty mp3 192kbps only.. but yeah, some shows sound definitely better than others, but overall 2005 bootlegs sound quite bad.. a pity, I'd wish they would re-release them all in flac format at least, or even better flac-hd.. a sweet 2005 boxset cd would not be bad, too

Kitchener 2005-09-11

Portland 2000

Osaka 2003

I've heard an awful lot of shows from 13-14 now and whilst there are many enjoyable performances of it, Milton Keynes is the first where I feel Mind Your Manners (on the boot) stands shoulder to shoulder with the album version.

Nailed. It.

Milton Keynes '14

Final show of an epic Euro tour; Pendulum opens again. I caught this 4 times on this tour, I think here and Berlin are my favourite versions. Wash follows to make it's only appearance of the tour, Jeff's bass so cool throughout. Nothingman and Black is simply a beautiful pairing and you'll be hard pressed to beat an opening 4 songs to a show. The band then crank up the gears with blistering versions of Go and Brain Of J (first time played in England I believe). Ed has a quick check with the crowd before the pace continues with Comatose, Save You and Hail Hail. Mind Your Manners is on a different level, easily one of the best live performances of it the band has done to date. After Lightning Bolt, we get the first performance of Nothing As It Seems in the UK for 14 years. After Sirens, Ed recalls a story of when the band came to England to mix Ten. Let The Records Play and Spin The Black Circle are paired together again to good effect with Rearviewmirror bringing the main set to a close.

On a perfect summer's evening, Yellow Moon is a great choice to open the first encore. Simon Townshend joins Ed onstage for his song I'm The Answer. At the time I thought it was a strange choice and I maintain that view listening to the boot. Footsteps and Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns is just simply perfect; this was probably the greatest 15 minutes of any gig I've attended. Ed then plays a fine lines of Believe You Me from his Bad Radio days which leads into Better Man. From the little snippet played, I'd certainly like the band to revisit this song at some point. Save It For Later is tagged onto the end of Better Man. The latter part of the encore is intense with the trio of Jeremy, Lukin and Porch.

The second encore begins with a cover of Rain, with Dhani Harrison joining in on backing vocals. Daughter is next. Before tagging in War, Ed makes a passionate and angry plea about bringing to an end war and bloodshed around the world. It's extremely powerful, very reminiscent of the Showbox speech back in 2002. Which makes it all the more sad that 12 years later Ed is still making these speeches. On the back of that energy, Blood seems the only choice to follow. Alive and Rockin' In The Free World (with OFF! and Ray Cameron) bring the show and tour to a euphoric end.

Leeds, Leeds, Leeds 2014 (the version with The Real Me...). What a gig! MK isn't far behind, I'd forgotten how good that was.

Decided to go through the 2000 boots again but this time in order.....

#1 Lisbon '00

Of The Girl starts off the first show of the 72 date World tour. It's a beautiful rendition, easing in the crowd before launching into Evolution and Animal. Red Mosquito makes an early appearance in the set and with Corduroy, it's a solid start to the set. A trio of Binaural numbers are next - Grievance, Light Years and Nothing As It Seems. All three sound good but Light Years and NAIS are different class. Absolutely loved Given To Fly, more slowed down than it's played nowadays. During Faithful, Matt's drumkit gives. It's clear to hear and fair play to Matt continuing to battle through the song. Ed goes into Untitled while the drumkit is fixed. It's still not fixed by the end of Untitled so instead of playing MFC, Ed goes into Last Kiss. A minute in and Matt's back! The slide guitar in Thin Air is absolutely beautiful, a real delight to listen too. The outro to Daughter is extended but there is no tag. Evacuation is by far the worst performance of the new Binaural songs. After forgetting lyrics on Wishlist & Evacuation, Ed does it again on Immortality but there is beautiful singing from the crowd to help him out. Black is simply epic. Go brings the main set to an end.

It's a high tempo opening to the first encore with Last Exit and Jeremy. Small Town lowers the tempo briefly; Alive brings that tempo back up, the outro is different than what we're used too now - it slows down and Ed adlibs before building back up again. Pretty cool. Alive closes the encore.

The guys come back for just one more song - a loose Yellow Ledbetter.

A nice start to the tour.