I was the biggest Blues Traveler fan back at West Point. As the world around me fell into the malaise of grunge, I got into this whole classic rock/blues phase. Lotta Led Zepplin and Eric Clapton among others, but among contemporary artists, Blues Traveler were my favorites.
The band had a heyday back in the mid- to late-90s, so I guess I'm not the only one who liked them. Haven't heard much about them lately, though, despite Spotify listing a decent number of new and new-ish albums.
This album is from the heyday. They had more commercial success with Four, but personally, I always preferred their debut album, Blues Traveler. This particular show had a lot of cuts off that album, so yeah, I liked it a lot.
The War on Drugs: Live Drugs (2020)
Got this via recommendation on Twitter and loved it instantly. Had literally never heard of this band before yesterday. By last night, Sally and I were trying to figure out whether or not we could make it to their New Haven show in early September.
Spoiler alert: I don't think we can.
Mostly because the only seats left are at the back of the balcony, and I don't feel like standing around in the mosh pit. Hard pass, actually.
The band has a decidedly laid back, classic rock sound, but the live album reminded me a lot of early Dire Straits. Definitely worth a listen.
Jackson Browne: Running on Empty (1977)
Jackson Browne is another one of these classic rockers who's been quietly putting out albums in a steady rhythm since way back in the day. His Spotify Sessions (2015) is worth a lesson, as is the 2021 pandemic album Downhill From Everywhere. And yet, my favorite remains Browne's live album, Running on Empty.
Sally and I are going to see Browne in concert next month, and I have a feeling that he's not going to play a lot of this older stuff. Which I get. Dude's music catalog is probably 500 songs by now. He's never going to get to all of them. Still, I'd really like to hear "The Load Out" and "Stay".
Sigh.
Sammy Hagar & the Circle: At Your Service (Live) (2015)
I never would've looked this one up had Sally and I not gone to see Sammy Hagar this past Friday night. Fun show. Loud as all Hell, but an awful lot of fun, too.
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| Overlook from one of the side bar areas at Bridgeport's new Harbor Yards Arena. |
This album is definitely worth your time, especially since it's not like Van Halen is ever gonna release another live record.
The Bee Gees: Here At Last... Live (1977)
Sally bought this for a buck at a garage sale a few years ago, and by the time we finally got it on the record player, a long time had passed. Little did we realize that we only had one half of the two-disk set.
Well, we liked that one disk so much that we re-ordered the album, and now it's a weekend staple.
The Bee Gees, man. We don't often think of them as, like, a power rock trio, but yo. They hit the top of the world at a time before artificial, electronic music was a thing. So yeah, obviously they were amazing in concert.
They had to be. That's how you had to make it back in the 1970s.
I really like this record a lot.
The War on Drugs became one of my new favorite bands a couple years ago when I heard their cover of the Dead's "Shades of Grey" on a compilation album. I bought a couple of their studio albums but not any live ones.
ReplyDeleteI just bought their 2014 album, LOST IN A DREAM, and I love it. It turned out to be a double album, which surprised me because it's *maybe* 53 minutes of music. But I guess you can get exactly 45 minutes of music on a standard vinyl record, and here we are.
DeleteThe vinyl version of the live album has not yet arrived.