Live Release » LiveTrax » DMBLive added on 12/19/2008
When Dave Matthews Band was first starting out in Virginia in the early nineties, they encouraged fans to record their shows and trade them with friends and fellow fans. After a few years, once the band made it big, they were forced to disallow soundboard patches because bootlegging had become such a problem.
In an effort to drive these higher-priced, lower-quality bootlegs off the market, they also released the first in a long, ever-evolving series of live releases, Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95. After releasing a concert about once a year in stores from 1997-2003, the band began another series of releases, available only through their official website and known as LiveTrax.
DMB has now joined the ranks of Phish, Pearl Jam, Metallica, et al in offering digital, soundboard-sourced, live concert recordings online at www.dmblive.com. After scrapping such plans several years ago in favor of the LiveTrax series, there are now five full-length concerts available for purchase in either MP3 (compressed) or FLAC (lossless) format.
This first batch includes the following shows:
4.22.93 (Dave and Tim) - Prism Coffeehouse - Charlottesville, VA
4.26.94 (Dave Matthews Band) - Town Point Park - Norfolk, VA
10.22.94 (Dave Matthews Band) - Blue Note - Columbia, MO
10.24.02 (Dave solo) - Benaroya Hall - Seattle, WA
3.29.03 (Dave and Tim) - Appalachian State University - Boone, NC
The two full-band shows are the oldest full-length shows released to date, and the latter of the two has never seen a full recording in circulation; in fact, the full setlist wasn't even known until Minarets archive was unearthed a few years ago. The April show features a ten minute version of Rhyme and Reason that is unique to those two weeks in DMB's history. The two Dave and Tim shows are among the best the duo has performed. The Charlottesville show is one of the very first gigs the two played together, and the Boone show is widely considered the best of their 2003 tour. Finally, the Dave solo show is one of the few full-length gigs Dave has done by himself, and it features a few rarities, most notably an acoustic Raven.
One noteworthy attribute of these releases is that they appear to be completely uncut—all of Dave's speaking between songs is included, which hasn't been the case with most shows released until now. These shows are also mastered from their original soundboard recordings, so they will theoretically sound better than their fan-recorded counterparts.
This batch of shows features three live-release debuts: Get in Line, Angel from Montgomery, and Funny How Time Slips Away. Also being released for the first time are two Tim Reynolds solos: a Neil Young Medley (After the Gold Rush and Ohio) and Stranger in a Strained Land.
There is also a slew of songs that had seen fewer than five releases until now: Fool to Think, Stream, You Are My Sanity and a partial Blue Water are being released for the second time; Raven is seeing its third release; Stay or Leave, The Long Black Veil, and Loving Wings are being released for the fourth time; and we now have five versions of #36, Help Myself, Cry Freedom, and Christmas Song, six versions of Minarets and The Song That Jane Likes, and seven versions of The Best of What's Around and Pay for What You Get.
Based on other bands' similar programs, it is likely (though unconfirmed) that the vast majority of future shows will be released on dmblive.com. It is remains to be seen what the onset of this new series means for the current LiveTrax series.
I have a question about this: Is it clearly a bootleg, or can you compare it to official live recordings?