Customer Reviews

Weekend On The Rocks [live CD & DVD]

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

With the songs they selected for this compilation there is a way to get all 4 nights. A box set is being offered on their official website. So if your looking for soundboard recordings of those concerts, that website is the ONLY one that offers it.

Anyways I'm going to write about this actual product. I must say this is almost exactly like The Gorge cd/dvd they put out a few years ago. Except the audio mix is a whole lot better. For those haters of DMB's latest album "Stand Up", prepare to be shocked from seing how good these songs are payed live. One more thing to note, the dvd is stunning and captures so much energy it's insane. The greate highlight from the dvd has to be Louissianna Bayou with Robert Randolph as a guest.

Beginning with the DVD, it is above average, containing a strong performance of "Stand Up" and a blazing "Louisiana Bayou" featuring Robert Randolph. The rest of the performances are pretty good (sans a bland "Dreamgirl"), although nothing really special.

The real meat of this package, however, lies within the audio disks. The first disk opens with a haunting "The Stone," which shows a more creativity in the running order than the Gorge (an opening PNP-->Repunzel... again?). Most of the first disk is gold, except for "Hunger...", which I never really cared for in the first place. The biggest gem here is "#34", which before this summer's tour was an extreme rarity, having never been played once in over 10 years. The disk also contains another song often played during the Summer tour, a fine cover of the Zombies' "Time of the Season". The disk brilliantly closes out with an epic "Bartender", a song I was desperately beginning to miss from the live releases.

The second disk starts off slow. "Pig" is an awesome song, and is performed well here, except that Dave's voice cracks occasionally and can distract from the strength of the rest of the performance. This is pretty much the same case with the version of "You Never Know" that follows it and a few other songs on the disk. However, "#41" is awesome here, and as far as the official live releases go, it is only surpassed by the version on Live in Chicago, IMO. This disk contains another rarity, "Halloween", and also a jammed out "Smooth Rider" (a song that was only a couple of minutes long on the album, here it clocks in at 12 minutes). And then, a solid version of "Everyday" to close it out.

A worthy purchase for DMB fans, if only for the fact that the majority of the songs either haven't been officially released live before (the Stand Up songs), or haven't been released many times (The Stone, Say Goodbye). Also contains a few rarities.

As with any Dave Matthews Band Album, you always have the people who absolutely hate it and the people that absolutely adore it. This is going to be another one of those times and I don't know why. This is actual music, with real playing and jamming, without a machine in the back to help them sing or play better. Most of the "music" around today is artifical, with the artist mainly in it for the money, not the music. I really like Dave Matthews Band, and regardless of what people thought of Stand Up, I thought it was fantastic. If you did too, then you will find a good number of those songs on this collection, all performed superbly live. It takes real talent to just jam along on a song and improvise musically right on the spot. As it always has been and will probably never change, people who are previous fans will compare this to previous albums and people that hate them will continue to hate them. Regardless of the greatness that this album is, the star rating will be low just based on thoughts of people without listening to it.

It's a good compliation of songs that were featured at the 4 day Red Rock event this summer. I think it's a little too much with the Stand Up songs, and they should have replaced American Baby with American Baby Intro which I think is probably one of the best live songs from the Stand Up album. Although I will say it is one of the few times that I've heard Dave not sounding flat in American Baby. The highlights for me are the first live releases of Pig (aside from the full weekend at the George set), Say Goodbye and Lousiana Bayou, Time of the Season, and Halloween.

I personally would have liked to have seen a full band version of Typical Situation from the weekend be included, Drive In Drive Out, Seek Up, Butterfly, Grey Street, and Hello Again. But that's why I also ordered the complete 8 disc weekend set from their website.

First let me reiterate that if you had any doubts about the integrity of "Stand up," this should effectively dispel them. The Stand Up songs (Like most other Dave songs) are infinitely better when recorded and performed live.

Everybody Wake Up and Smooth Rider are enhanced by great jam sessions. Disc 1 closes with a brilliant rendition of Bartender, and includes a strong cover of Time of the Season.

Jimi Thing was amazing as a closer for the DVD. Dave looks ecstatic as the band plays a stop-start jam similar to Folsom Field's Warehouse intro. Dave eventually breaks down into a long scat sesh and transitions smoothly into an incredible For What Its Worth outro to conclude the DVD. Breathtaking.

For me however the highlite was undoubtedly on the DVD. Louisiana Bayou features an absolutely chilling jam session featuring Boyd, Dave, and Robert Randolf, who absolutely rocks out on his pedal steel guitar. Boyd, famous for his brilliant violin solos, even took a step back, seemingly overwhelmed by Randolph's energy. If it sounds good on the CD, its even better on the DVD.

I am huge Hi Fi nut and even bigger Dave Mathews Band fan. I also try to choose wisely when it comes to purchasing CD's and DVD's that are at a high enough standard for me to play and enjoy at home. Saying all that I bought this CD in hopes that the DVD and CD's would sound great and guess what? They do! I will start by mentioning that with this collection you get to hear Dave and the Band perform the classic hit "Time Of The Season" both on CD and DVD (Awesome). For a live album this has to be their best and I have them all. The DVD is very well done so much so I would have bought it seperatley if I knew it was this good. The picture is very clean and crisp and with the choice of 5.1 and PSM audio this is a great deal. The camera work is done with the listener and watcher in mind and is quite well done. With the panning and zooming kept to a minumum I was able to really feel what it would be like on stage looking at the crowd rock'n away to "Crash Into Me" and observing Dave and all the talented musicians facial expresions and really enjoy jamm'n (wow). If your a sax fan you will without a doubt enjoy this compilation. If there will be a full lenght DVD of this concert I would be all over it.

If you are going to complain about these "highlights" go to DMB's main web page and order the box set of the ENTIRE WEEKEND. The box set also includes the DVD. This is just a few of the songs from the 4 night run ar Red Rocks.

a stellar performance by a band that somehow always keeps it interesting and unusual, but consistently good, for their audience. This one features powerful versions of Louisiana Bayou, Halloween and Stand Up (among others) with appearances by very talented guest musicians.

Add to all of this a remarkable contribution to hurricane relief; and you've got an amazing and worthwhile release!

Simply put...went to all 4 shows that weekend, loved it, but several of the songs on the 2-CD set were not the best from that weekend. This 2-disc set has some great stuff on it, but some should have been put aside (Stolen Away on 55th and 3rd, Everyday)in favor of others (Intro to American Baby-9.9.2005, Exodus-9.12.2005. Lie in Our Graves-9.11.2005). No disrespect...this is some of his best live stuff, but I recommend getting the 8-disc set from the DMB website. Some songs are repeated on different nights, but no song is played the same twice. Definately worth the extra cash!

This is a condensed form of a 4-night stand from 2005. If you're willing to make the big plunge, go for the boxed set, available on the band's website - it covers much of their catalogue, and the audio, to my untrained ears, is almost perfect. Much better than the poor quality of The Gorge release.

As for this release, it's a nice change of pace from the full-concert recordings of other live albums. Like Live At Folsom Field before it, this is mainly a showcase for their latest album, in this case Stand Up. And while many fans and critics decried that album for being too studio-ish, the tracks work in a live setting, for the most part. American Baby is gritty and energetic, Stand Up (For It) is a rousing tune (especially the video included on the DVD), and Smooth Rider is very expanded jammy tune that's a far cry from the ho-hum album version. The energy doesn't always work for the new studio songs - Hunger For the Great Light is louder and faster, but the lyrics are still cringe-worthy; Steady As We Go is just as boring as it was on the studio release. Louisiana Bayou is also greatly improved when performed live, and we're offered two versions of it - one, on the CD, and one on the DVD, which includes Robert Randolph in a fantastic version. Seems pretty silly to include both, as the DVD version is far superior.

The other non-Stand Up songs are mostly good choices - somewhat rare choices such as the instrumental #34, the meandering Pig and You Never Know, the ominous The Stone, the emotion of Say Goodbye, and perhaps the best version of Bartender I've ever heard. There's also a great version of Halloween, played impromptu due to the crowd calling for it. It's not a song for everyone, but for fans, it's also a great rendition. Songs like Everyday and #41 are very solid, if not a little typical.

As for the DVD, it's also refreshing in that it mostly showcases older favorites, and not just the songs on the CDs. These are some great versions of old favorites like Crash Into Me, So Much To Say-Too Much, Recently, and Jimi Thing. Too bad it also includes pretty dull versions of Dreamgirl and Everybody Wake Up.

This is a great release, but I can't help but question some of the song choices (like the aforementioned 2 versions of Bayou). Knowing how great the full 8-disc release is, I can't help but notice some of the better or more rare songs that were left out - a great cover of Blackbird, which precedes Steady As We Go, for instance, or perhaps the high-energy performances of Tripping Billies or Hello Again.

If you're a casual fan, go with The Central Park Concert. If you're hardcore like some of us, get the full release from their website. If you fall somewhere in between, get this.