Perpetual Groove 4/6/07 DAUD (MP3, FLAC, STREAM):
PGroove is on a roll. The dynamic band recently released the kickass record LiveLoveDie, and last weekend they treated their Athens base to some fine tuneage at the Georgia Theater. What stands out about these guys for me is the quality of their songwriting. All of the tunes on LiveLoveDie are credited to Perpetual Groove as a band, which makes complete sense, as each member makes a strong impression on every one of the songs. Between listening to this album and listening to this show, I’m really impressed at each member’s ability to throw down when needed, and also to lay back when needed. Many jamband musicians let their egos carry them away. Not PGroove.
Don’t let the fact that this is an audience recording fool ya —Â it sounds great. The acoustics at the Georgia Theater seem to lend themselves to some fine audience recordings. Honestly, at points I got sick of the band’s trance jams, but for the most part I was entertained listening to the whole show. One of the things that speaks volumes about the band’s large repertoire is that they only played two songs from LiveLoveDie. And PGroove used to rely heavily on covers, but at this show the band only played one cover: an incredible version of The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony that literally stopped the show.
Perpetual Groove will be playing the biggest gig of their career on Friday at the Little John Coliseum in Clemson.
The Police 3/4/79 Pre-FM (FLAC):
Ever since The Police announced their upcoming World Tour, old bootlegs have come flying out of the back of some aging rock fans’ closets faster than you can say “de do do do, de da da da.” One of the sweet gems I’ve picked up recently is this show from Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley, California. Drummer Stewart Copeland attended the University of California briefly, making this gig a quasi-homecoming. This incredible-sounding show from the Outlandos d’Amour tour features a hungry band playing their hearts out.
If you head to YouTube and look at live Police videos from this era (as opposed to the Syncronicity tour vids from 1983), you’ll see that the early days featured the trio showing tremendous stage presence that seemed to disappear in the later years. While the setlist from these Outlandos shows aren’t too different from each other, the way the audience reacts leads to different banter, jams, and song segments from The Police.
If the fans were into a show, the band was into the show. That spirit really comes across during terrific versions of Can’t Stand Losing You, So Lonely, and Be My Girl. Check out how racuous the crowd becomes as Andy Summers speaks the monologue Sally at the end of Be My Girl. Good times.
The Rolling Stones 7/18/78 FM (FLAC):
The Rolling Stones 1978 tour is one of the worst they ever played. Many of the shows were slopfests that reminds me of listening to Phish’s Coventry concerts. I don’t know what Keith Richards was on, but it must have been some really powerful shit. Now, that being said, the tour did have its moments. Luckily the best of the tour has been complied for us as part of this kickass torrent.
First up is a full show from Ft. Worth that was sourced from the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio program. The band runs through sicky sicky versions of When The Whip Comes Down, Miss You, Tumblin’ Dice, and a terrific take on The Temptations’ Just My Imagination. The third and fourth discs of this set presents the best versions of each song they played on that tour that were available from various sources. Let It Rock kicks ass, and it’s pretty cool that the Stones played Hound Dog for Elvis in Memphis.
Check out this set for the few moments of clarity from the Stones ’78 tour.
Now it’s your turn: What have you downloaded this week? Fill us in…
2 Responses
go pgroove go! weeeeee