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.

[Lakini's Juice]

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.

I think it was the 1997-2000 SS/TDTH era

Friends of Live.com was at full throttle
some of the best FOL holiday gifts (Vine Street 7", merica 7")
The acoustic sessions, b-sides
Videos were on heavy rotation and were on of their most creative and appealing
The band got a lot more attention and were exciting to watch live.

[alexou]

SS-tour and the pre TDTH for Ed's voice...


His voice on a song like Cheetah (We're breaking up part) is stunning. He still has most of the rawness of the early days with more subtle nuances or melodic driven voice when needed. It was maybe their most creative time, but saddened by knowing frictions about that record process (ie choice of songs on it) would come up and start to break it.

My first concert was there as well and they were playing kind of the same sets, but with Ghost and Unsheathed so it was nice to hear them at least once.

[Voodoo Lady]

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.

[Bob]

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

[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.

[Bob]

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.

THIS.

I remember the SS release like it was yesterday. I went to Tower Records for the midnight release and couldn't rip the plastic off fast enough once it was in my hands. I had only started to listen to them hardcore in June of 1996, so I was peak fanatic at that time. Don't ask how many times I watched the Lakini's Juice music video.

I also remember my local radio station getting a copy of the album early and sitting in a hotel bedroom by the radio while my friends were partying in the other room and losing my mind over Gas Hed Goes West.

[mghost1997]

For me the SS tour and 1997 was just magic. Sold out amphitheaters. Manbreak, Luscious Jackson.

Band sounded great and Ed's voice was powerful. Him belting out "Where did I go wrong" during Ghost was unforgettable.

[JonSnow]

Any year prior to the year 2000, apparently. It looks like Y2K took down something after all.

[dangum]

1997 would have to be the high point in Live's career. In 1997, Live released an album, toured the world, appeared on numerous high profile TV shows and completed an entire album cycle.

Let's look at the highlights:

Album: released in my opinion an album that is in their top 3. Debuted at #1. 227,000 copies sold in the first week (who remembers the Straight Outta Champaign website who proudly had this fact on their homepage?). This was the last album that didn't suffer from leaks and where fans all heard it for the first time at the same time.

Singles: Three singles released, all three came with high quality music videos. Live even found the time to create a video for Ghost that wasn't released until years later. Thanks Swami!

Tour: The band started with theatre shows in the US and Europe, moved onto sold out arenas in Australia, back to Europe for a few festival shows then finished with amphitheater shows in the US. Over 120 concerts. Although setlists were rather static, this tour did include some memorable shows. In Melbourne, Live played their longest set ever (for the time).

Media: The band performed on TV shows such as Letterman, Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live and Much Music. These shows were events where millions watched.

Internet: This was the time of fan sites. There were multiple places fans could hang out (Live-Web, SOY mailing list, the list run by Stijn). Live had one of the leading edge web sites with video, photo and audio content. Ed had his edko.org site that contained a tour diary that was updated regularly.

In conclusion, although Live may have excelled in certain areas in different years - 1997 was the standout year for me.

[Plive]

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

And now.. share your recording 😉

[Bob]

And now.. share your recording 😉

If I had one, I totally would, cuz then I'd have a recording of New City, which to the 30 of us here who care, that would be gold.

Only thing I've got from that era is the ticket stub for that Bumbershoot show.