Which was Live's best year? Options

[dangum]

Which year in Live's history would you consider to be their best (or your favourite)? You can base it on the music produced that year, the publicity received, awards given, albums sold, online interactivity, touring locations etc. or any other metric you like.

[Merica]

It’s actually hard to narrow it down & choose a year from 1992-1997. What an exciting 6 year span. However, I think I’ll go with 1997. I was a junior in college and remember going to the mall with friends on a Sunday in February to get the Secret Samadhi CD. It was cloudy & cold and that added to the darkness of it all… seeing the album cover & listening to those songs for the first time. Dark, mysterious, & heavy. Sitting at my dorm room desk, and taking the plastic wrap off the CD, looking at those pictures for the first time & reading & analyzing the lyrics is one of my most vivid memories. I strongly remember even the smell of those liner notes. The SNL performance is also one of my favorite moments. They were dark, gritty and blew the roof off the joint. Ed in all black (‘cept the white socks) with that strange symbol on the back of his shirt… Pat in his leopard print pants… CT with his slicked back hair and that beautiful sea foam green guitar… So damn cool they were!! Gave me goosebumps. 1997 was their pinnacle of coolness. I still love that album so much.

Love this.

1998-2000ish TDTH era, no question. You got a mix of the hits from TC and SS, and the rock of TDTH.

For me specifically, they played a secret show in September of 1998 at the Crocodile in Seattle the night before the Bumbershoot festival, which was still a year out from TDTH's official release. I had no idea what to expect coming off the high of SS from just a year prior (I saw them three nights in a row on the SS tour and went from Vancouver BC to Seattle to Oregon) and was blown away. I was front row and had the time of my life. They were on FIRE that night. Just look at this setlist:

WFG
Still Aroused
Selling the Drama
Sun
Sparkle
AOY
Overcome
Face and Ghost
Turn My Head
Vine Street
New City
Meltdown
I Alone
Don't Wait

LC
LJ
Change

I MEAN COME ON

Insaaaaaane setlist.