What?: Live double-disc album from Californian's Counting Crows.
Why?: I loved their first album. It's one of those albums I know off by heart. I knew that CC liked to heavily rework their songs live and thought that would be interesting to hear. I also though hearing live versions of the songs from the second album might make me like it more.
Tell me more!:
The two discs are two complete shows, both from TV broadcasts (VH1's Storytellers and MTV's 10 Spot). In today's age I suppose this would be a three disc with the vision on a third DVD disc.
I used to love live recordings. I used to spend insane amounts of money trading cassette tapes of terrible quality fan recorded gigs. Not any more. Today I crave quality, and if I'm to listen to a live recording it has to be of a truly innovative band, like Secret Chiefs 3, or a band I absolute love to death, like Faith No More.
The VH1 recording is interesting for being acoustic, with the songs I know from the first album being heavily reworked with completely different instrumentation and piano accompaniment. Interesting... but good? "August and Everything After" is so ingrained in my skull, that messing with the songs to this degree is just... annoying. I admire a band who takes risks and messes with their songs, even if it's probably because they're well and truly sick of them. But either they went too far, or I'm just not in the mood for it.
The songs from the second album are pleasant enough but unfamiliar, even though I'm sure I've listened to it numerous times.
The second disc is less interesting, being a straight rock-band recording, although they still mess with the compositions a little.
It is strange to see a live album, which often serves as an unofficial best-of, after only two albums, although as a fan of Faith No More I would know this isn't that unusual. Speaking of Faith No More, David Bryson, guitarist of Counting Crows, helped mix Angel Dust. Just saying.
Counting Crows are one of a long list of bands who have recently embraced the idea of selling their live recordings online. I'm sure there are much better recordings www.livecountingcrows.com than these two shows. Although I'm torn, because if they were not released, I'd argue they should be, as because they were broadcast on TV I'm sure they would be heavily bootlegged, which argues they must be popular, and therefore worthy of official release. Right? I'd also argue this would be a much better package with the vision, although I almost never watch the live concert recordings I have...
I enjoyed, briefly, hearing different versions of the tracks I know, but I enjoyed much less than half of this, and I can't really see myself listening to it much again.
3/10
