This week’s edition of GTA features a miscellany of terrific performances. We start off with an outstanding Ryan Adams’ show from last week before moving on to a Meters bootleg that comes straight from George Porter Jr. Prince, a funk all-star in his own right, recently completed a 21-show run in London, and we’ve got his hot after-show from Friday night that includes a terrific cameo by Amy Winehouse. Finally we travel back to 1967 for a look at the beginnings of Traffic. As usual we’ve included a link to MP3 files for all of the torrents we’ve reviewed.

Ryan Adams 09/21/2007 SBD Matrix [FLAC, MP3, STREAM]

Ryan Adams is currently in the middle of a lengthy tour with The Cardinals, and we’ve gotta give Adams some major kudos for allowing tapers to patch in to the soundboard during many gigs on the run (there are soundboards of nearly every recent show on the Live Music Archive). It’s good to see Adams learned something from Phil Lesh about how circulating free soundboards actually drives ticket sales. After scouring some of Adams’ fan sites, we got a recommendation that Friday’s show in Toronto was the best of the batch. If only finding soundboards of the best recent shows from every live band was this easy.

Both the crowd and Adams seem extremely happy to be in each other’s company throughout every song played at this show. I’ve heard so many negative things about Adams’ demenor and stage presence, but this bootleg shows Adams to be engaging in his personality and his musicianship. Many audience members shout requests throughout the night, and Adams’ playfully jokes “You all sound like cavemen grunting from up here.” Musically, the highlights were numerous, including the band’s incredible harmonies on Peaceful Valley and its jamming on Magnolia Mountain. Read on for three more downloads…

The Meters 01/01/1976 SBD [FLAC, MP3]

The Meters from New Orleans are one of the best funk bands in the history of the world, hands down. The Meters had the most successful year of their career in 1975 with the release of the still epic Fire on the Bayou. What better way to kick off 1976 than with a show in Louisiana? Check out the lineage of this sickysicky recording we found: “George’s Master Cassette > CDR.” You know a show must be amazing if it is getting circulated by a member of the band, in this case Meters’ ace bass player George Porter Jr.

And this show is bad-fucking-ass, from the Honky Tonk Woman opener to the Africa closer. The Meters were absolutely hitting their peak, as shown by a 19-minute version of Ain’t No Use that is all killer and no filler. It’s a shame these guys didn’t keep it together throughout the ’80s and ’90s. All of The Meters off-shoots that followed never approached the heights of the band featured on this boot.

Prince 09/21/2007 DAUD [FLAC, MP3]

Prince not only just finished playing 21 shows at London’s O2 Arena, he also played post-show parties on most of those nights. The final post-show party took place this past Friday night, and a decent sounding recording has made its way onto the ‘nets. During Prince’s regular gigs at the arena he would play most of his big hits and most popular tunes. At the after hour shows Prince would play more obscure originals and a bevy of funky covers. Friday’s show was no exception.

Amy Winehouse gets the party started both right and quickly when she comes out to join the purple one for her own Love is a Losing Game. The set gains momentum with each song Prince plays, climaxing in a nice run of funk covers towards the end of the show. Prince and his band also showed off their cohesiveness on Alphabet Street, What Have You Done For Me Lately? and the show-closing It’s Alright. Prince is clearly having fun throughout the night, and he really lets in rip on guitar. The man clearly is still at the top of his game, so hopefully all his talk about retirement is truly just talk.

Traffic 09/05/1967 SBD [FLAC, MP3]

After years of looking, I finally stumbled upon a tasty recording of Traffic from the early days of their career. Traffic from ‘67 is a completely different animal from the band that would go on to record John Barleycorn Must Die and Shootout at the Fantasy Factory. Steve Winwood and Dave Mason take turns leading the quartet through a bunch of trippy tunes that have much more of a pop sound than anything Traffic released afterwards. Mason left the band shortly after this gig, only to rejoin and then leave quickly twice over the next six years. It’s too bad Mason and Winwood couldn’t get along…

Two things standout from this recording: Winwood’s voice and the quality of the improvisation. Winwood is on top of his game vocally, adding powerful vocals to classics such as Dear Mr. Fantasy and Paper Sun. Dear Mr. Fantasy also has a rippin’ jam that features off-the-charts solos from both Mason and Winwood. Other highlights include Mason’s sitar playing on Hole In My Shoe and the high energy guitar-driven Feelin’ Good (not to be confused with Feelin’ Alright). If you are into Traffic, be sure to check out this time capsule of their early days.

Have you downloaded any interesting live music lately? Share with the rest of the class by leaving a comment below…