Quote Originally Posted by The Captain View Post
I adore live albums BECAUSE they're so honest. There's no slick mixing or editing, it's just the artists, the venue and the crowd. It truly shows who can perform and who is just a studio product.

Springsteen's stuff jumps right to mind. Some of the jam band stuff from Phish and DMB is a lot of fun.

Maybe it's because I'm a musician too, but I really don't have as much respect for an artist until I've heard them live, because only then do I know they are as good as they sound on their albums.

Take care all.
Ding ding ding. The way I look at it, an artist's talents are validated and confirmed by their ability to perform in a live setting. Studio "talents" I certainly understand, but that is judged on a different standard, like how well the set of songs work together and work off each other to form a cohesive whole.

An Evening With John Denver is great. Stan Rogers Home in Halifax is absolutely amazing. There's also a whole list of bootleg concerts I have. For example, the best representation of Phil Ochs's work is in the concert called The FBI Tapes, not in any commercially released work.