The Gorge [Enhanced, Live, CD+DVD]

Dave Matthews Band | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 29, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Enhanced, Live, CD+DVD
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B0002790VG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,251 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finding New Ways to Package the DMB Live Experience, February 4, 2005

By 

Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gorge (Audio CD)

Music: 3.5 Stars; DVD: 3 Stars; Economic Value: 4 Stars

I've lost count but I guess DMB now has 'officially' released about 5 or 6 live albums (not counting those available through its website), and it's getting harder to come up with fresh ideas but, hey, here's a good one: instead of bringing a single show, let's take songs from the three night stand at the Gorge, and even better, let's put some on CD and others on a DVD.

"The Gorge" (2 CDs, 14 tracks, 112 min.) actually has a lot of great music on it. Highlights for me include the opener Rampunzel, The Song that Jane Likes (from "Remember Two Things"), the somber and touching Gravedigger, the pleasant Everyday (check out the crowd's singalong at the very beginning), and the hard charging "Kit Kat Jam". Not nearly as good are the 2 monster tracks Two Steps (19 min.) and Lie in Our Graves (17 min.).

The DVD (120 min.) contains 9 more songs, with 3 mini-documentaries and the video for Grace is Gone. As to the concert clips, this coulda, shoulda been wonderful. Alas, the editor truly made a mess of it by changing non-stop, literally EVERY SECOND, the camera angle. After a while it becomes so annoying, I could hardly stand it anymore. Among the songs, Halloween and Ants Marching are standouts. The most revealing moment actually comes after the credits when the band retreats backstage after one of the shows and comments on that evening's performance.

Because the songs are diced and sliced, this may not be the best DMB live album, but I will say that you get great value for your money. Two hours of music and another two hours of DVD, and all for about $20, that's hard to beat!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of The Gorge, March 12, 2005

By 

Matt Froehlich "zender" (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gorge (Audio CD)

Yes, it is quite hard to really sit down and watch this dvd, due to the constantly moving camera angles. It can be confusing, but the dvd is great to just put on as background music. Oh and By the way, the 17 minute version of Lie in our graves is incredible, and worth buying the whole thing just to listen to that one track. Overall a great buy

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just Go Big and get all 3 Gorge'02 shows in a boxset...., July 20, 2004

By 

Kevin Perry (Seattle, WA. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gorge (Audio CD)

Alot of other bands could take a cue from DMB and be better about consistently releasing real quality entire shows, particularly WSP, but in this release even the Dave Matthews folks erred a little. Be warned that this is a compilation of all 3 days of the Gorge run, so no show in its' entirety is included here, but you get a nifty DVD. I'd suggest getting the whole run as there are some performances here that are right up there among all the shows DMB has released to date. (The exceptions are Red Rocks and Luther College, but those 2 shows are head and shoulders above almost any live recording ever.)All the music from the Gorge Sept.'02 run is in a nice little box for about fifty bucks at the band website. I am not getting anything for suggesting the whole box as a purchase and I love amazon.com and readily reccomend them for an amazing shopping experience from end-to-end, but you just need to get every note when it comes to inspired music like this rather than just the highlights-it's impossible to condense the great stuff played here on 2 discs and was a little surprised that the widespread official release of the Gorge was done this way. So I rated it 3 stars overall due to the "hacked up" nature of how the songs are presented. The whole box is in the neighborhood of 4 1/2 stars in my opinion. But I'm just a guy who likes to hear the whole deal when sinking into some tasty live tunes, and something of a completist.

And yeah Dave's voice is hurting some places here-the "Satellite"-my fave DMB song always-is pretty horrible when Dave can't come close to hitting those tough high notes-sounds like a 10 pack-a-day smoker trying to rock out at a lame karoke bar or something, but that notwithstanding you get mostly nice prime Dave Matthews Band. 2002 definitely a peak year so far and this deserves many listens. Thanks for your time!