If you are anything like me, a rite of passage for listening to a new artist is delving into their live performances. If you are like me, the artists that you listen to range from the ages of 50 to 70, which means that their imperial phase is long behind them, as are frequent and affordable concert tours. This often leads to perusing recorded live material as opposed to waiting years and saving over a hundred dollars to see a concert. While many artists will release one or two live albums in their career, these obviously encompass one concert on one tour each. So I looked for more music. This naturally led me to discovering concert bootlegs. Back during the age of physical media, bootlegs probably weren’t worth the money, because the quality of bootlegs are often less than that of officially released material. And I’ve heard that they often cost an obscene amount of money as well. But, unfortunately, the age of vinyl and CDs are behind us. We are now in the digital age. One of the benefits of the digital age, however, is that these bootlegs are often free. Digital versions of bootlegged concerts are up for free download on many sites, and this allows for easier access to the wealth of material contained on them. This is a growing list of some of my favorites, complete with links for your downloading and streaming.
New Order - Reading Festival, UK - August 29, 1993
available on Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/NewOrder_1993-08-29
New Order usually aren’t known for being a particularly good live band, and this is kind of for a good reason. During their musical prime (the 80s) they were often a drunk or coked out mess onstage, flubbing notes and (ahem) mistaking lyrics. But by the time of the short Republic tour in 1993, their live act was significantly cleaned up. This was NO’s last performance for about 5 years, and it is a great one. The setlist draws mainly from 1993’s Republic and 1989’s Technique, though the classics of Bizarre Love Triangle, True Faith, and Blue Monday of course found their way into the set. The renditions of the songs are not sloppy or messy, and there are interesting versions of these songs. For instance, True Faith is largely similar to the Substance version, despite Bernard’s distorted guitar being more present. Bernard also changes the lyrics of True Faith, as he often does, and throws in a verse about, as the uploader fuzzybluerain says, “a certain moonwalking pop star”. The comment is quieted because it was originally recorded for the BBC, but if you listen carefully you can still hear it. Similarly, Bernard makes probably his funniest comment yet at the beginning of Blue Monday: “This is that f*cking song again… hey, but it’s our biggest hit!” The version of Perfect Kiss is absolutely awesome, with the rawness of the 80s versions but… listenable. Hooky’s bass is so drowned in chorus it sounds like… well, a choir. The recording quality is also outstanding on this boot. It approaches live album quality, and is consistent throughout. You can hear the crowd but they don’t drown out the band by any means. A great recording, and one every New Order fan should listen to.
Depeche Mode - Dodgers Stadium, USA - August 4, 1990
available on DMlive wiki - https://dmlive.wiki/wiki/1990-08-04_Dodgers_Stadium,_Los_Angeles,_CA,USA/Source_1
In 1988, Depeche Mode played their first headlining stadium show, at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in Pasadena, USA. Obviously this was a huge milestone for them, and cemented them as a huge electronic act that could fill stadiums, without relying on guitars or drums. A professionally recorded live album, 101, was released alongside a video and documentary in 1989. But in 1990, when Depeche Mode released and toured their universally acclaimed album Violator, no official recording from the tour resulted. Alan Wilder said that they didn’t want to do another video or live album right after doing one for the Music for the Masses tour, which was understandable at the time. However, it has been over 35 years since the Violator tour concluded. Ask any Depeche Mode fan what some of their greatest DM-wishes are, and they will tell you that they want Alan Wilder to come back. Jokes aside, they will probably ask for an official release from World Violation, because one has still not been released. But; bootlegs exist. And one of the highest quality boots from World Violation is Dodgers Stadium, August 4, 1990. This is a very good quality recording, and has a great setlist. Material draws mainly from Violator, but also from older classics. Shake the Disease and Black Celebration are both played here, and so are Everything Counts and Master and Servant. One of my favorite parts of this bootleg is Martin’s performances. Guitarist, keyboardist, and main songwriter Martin Gore always takes the stage to perform a few songs where he leads the vocals, but these on here are special. He performs I Want You Now and World Full of Nothing with only an acoustic guitar. 21st Century DM performances often have Martin singing acoustic piano versions of classic tracks/deep cuts, but never with an acoustic guitar. These versions are very good and very interesting to hear; in fact, I probably prefer them to their recorded versions. Dave is in fine form as well, his deep baritone not yet gravelly and hoarse. It is also interesting to hear the original live versions of the Violator tracks. I found the version of Enjoy the Silence interesting. It is fairly similar to the album/single version, but with added instrumental breaks consisting of recorded speech in Spanish (?) and wah wah guitar breaks. Thankfully they left the aural electronics alone! It’s a danced up version, and it’s a great version of the song. And it’s a great bootleg to boot!
Depeche Mode - KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, USA - December 12, 1998
available on DMlive wiki - https://dmlive.wiki/wiki/1998-12-12_KROQ_Almost_Acoustic_Christmas,_Shrine_Auditorium,_Los_Angeles,_CA,_USA/Source_1A question I often ask myself; if you could see Depeche Mode on any tour, which would it be? My answer has shifted over time, and may still continue to, but currently, my answer would probably be the 1998 Singles Tour. A retrospective tour in nature, the setlist drew almost exclusively from the band’s singles released between 1986 and 1998. Which means that the setlist is solid. The recording quality is an excellent pre-FM broadcast. You can hear the bass, which is… definitely something you take for granted before listening to bootlegs. The live versions are superb on this recording. It opens with Barrel of a Gun, which goes pretty much how the album one does, except between the chorus and second verse, Martin adds a nice palm muted/distortion metal guitar flourish. In my opinion, The Singles Tour version of Walking in My Shoes is the best one. It perfectly blends the rawer, more rock oriented version from the 2001 Exciter Tour and the more dark and electronic heavy version from the 1993 Devotional Tour. It has live drums but still the electronic atmosphere. Martin’s guitar sound on this version is amazing, made clearly evident in Walking in My Shoes and In Your Room. This is likely also my favorite live version of In Your Room. They essentially play the single version, but with added guitar solos, and again, that captivating, slightly relaxed, slightly ominous guitar tone, which I absolutely adore. The performance is, after all, called “Almost Acoustic Christmas”, and while no Christmas songs are performed, the band do take the stage to do acoustic versions of three songs; Sister of Night, A Question of Lust, and Enjoy the Silence. Martin takes lead vocals on the former two, accompanied solely by Peter Gordeno’s piano. I always love it when DM do Sister of Night, acoustic or not. His vocals are great on the Lust performance, but the real highlight is the Enjoy the Silence performance. It is mostly acoustic, one might say, almost acoustic. Dave is on lead vocals as usual, but the guitar hits chords (on that tone again!) and the piano does the heavy lifting on this one, in addition to some occasional drum fills. This version feels experienced, almost like they have earned this gorgeous acoustic performance. Lastly as a bonus treat, they play Never Let Me Down Again, with the addition of the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan on guitar and vocals. Dave, obviously not wanting to get shown up by Billy the Pumpkin King, goes back to rock god mode for this performance. The listening of this concert feels almost like a requirement for DM bootleg listeners, so you are obligated to check it out whenever you can.
U2 - Las Vegas Sphere, USA - December 13, 2023
available on U2start - https://u2start.com/shows/2334Yeah, I’m kind of on a U2 kick at the moment. Have been for half a year! But this was my first U2 bootleg I ever listened to, so it’s my only point of reference for them. In other words, I may think it is outstanding when, in comparison to others, it is less amazing. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this bootleg. As you may know, U2 had a residency at the futuristic Las Vegas Sphere from 2023-2024, in which they played the entirety of the Achtung Baby album, with other “greatest hits” sprinkled in throughout. I chose to get a recording from this “tour” because Achtung is the only U2 studio album I have heard, so I would know most of the songs on it. Because I almost entirely listen to music on CD, I burnt the concert to a blank disc after downloading, but the CD couldn’t hold the entire show. So I had to cut out lots of songs, keeping only most of AB (Tryin to Throw and Love is Blindness excluded), All I Want Is You, Desire, Streets, and With or Without You. I will update this after having listened to all of it, which will only happen after I’ve listened to ATYCLB and Atomic Bomb (Beautiful Day, Elevation, and Vertigo were included in the set, and I don’t want to “spoil” these probably excellent albums because of a bootleg). But anyways, this bootleg is good. Really good. The recording quality is superb, possibly the best I’ve heard yet on a boot. You can hear a touch of fuzz on the quieter moments, but mostly it is solid. Good balance between audience and band. Speaking of the band; drummer Larry Mullen Jr is absent from this performance. He is substituted for Bram van den Berg, who I quickly learned is an absolute beast on drums. He pounds the drums so hard throughout nearly every song he plays on, bringing another level of energy and “rawk” to the show. Edge captures the feverish playfulness of songs such as The Fly and Mysterious Ways, but also uses his timeless, classic guitar tone on Streets and Ultraviolet. You can actually hear Adam on the bass in this bootleg, which I like. I think that U2 records (after 1983, that is) do suffer slightly from Adam being too low in the mix. You can hear him clearly on this show. And Bono… does not sound like a 63 year old man. Not most of the time, anyways. His range is almost entirely intact, and where sheer vocal power once was, there is now a thoughtful, introspective sound. But don’t get me wrong, his power is not all gone. I also have become acquainted with Bono’s “speeches” between (and sometimes during) songs. Even as a U2 fan (and dare I say, a Bono fan) they do grate after a while. Then I looked back on the setlist online and found that half of the more “annoying” ones were snippets of classic rock songs, and forgave him. And some of what he says is nice anyways. Great show, great set, great performers, great quality - you know what to do!