In the spirit of giving, here is my all-time favorite bootleg. It comes from the L.A. radio station KROQ's annual "Almost Acoustic Christmas" gig in 1997 (ironically, virtually nothing about most bands' performances are anything close to acoustic -- this is, in fact, a very plugged-in set). The set is short -- only 8 songs -- but the band was really on that night, and they give an incredible performance.

Some points of interest:

- Ed does some pretty cool lyrical improvisation in the middle of "Operation Spirit";

- awesome version of "Iris," including a bit more lyrical improvisation in the middle of the song;

- although this show took place almost two years prior to the release of TDTH, there are a few lyrics from "Sun" mixed in with "I Alone";

- due mainly to the last 25 seconds of the song, this is hands-down my favorite version of "I Alone" ever!

I recorded this onto a cassette tape on the night of the broadcast. Years later, I sent the tape to Dan, and he was kind enough to convert the show to audio files and send me back a CD copy. The quality is pretty damn solid -- very clear (as you would expect from a radio broadcast), and not much static to worry about.

I am posting this as plain old MP3's, since I am not sure how to make a torrent out of the files. To download, click on each link, type in the three-letter security code at the top right corner of the page, then click Download.

Enjoy it if you don't already have it!

1. Lakini's Juice

2. Selling the Drama

3. All Over You

4. Freaks

5. Operation Spirit

6. Iris

7. Lightning Crashes

8, I Alone

This post has been edited by edstipe: Dec 25 2006, 11:01 pm