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#1 on my list was Led Zeppelin, and while I'll never get to see them there are ways to get some of the same vibe.
I spent a good bit of this weekend going through a ton of old Zeppelin boots. Not only did their fans record and trade shows, but audience tapes and soundboards would inevitably make it into the hands of the Japanese bootleg companies who would tweak them a little, package them up and sell them for a small fortune. For some shows, as many as five separate audience recordings have been found, leading to huge arguments over which is the best. For a lot of the shows, you can find as many as 10 or 12 versions for sale. The people who do buy these expensive boots, though, tend to say FU to the bootleggers and make the recordings available on torrent sites.
Anyway, I listened to a bunch of shows, from '68 through '77, and there is an amazing wealth of great music there. Some shows, like September 4, 1970, are absolutely legendary, and for good reason. Some are relatively poor quality audience recordings which happened to be from a night the band was on fire. Some are pristine soundboards, with far better sound that most commercial releases of live albums.
So, I would vote again for Led Zeppelin as my first pick. They changed and matured greatly through the years, but they didn't get stale or fall into a rut. The shows from '77 pack just as much of a punch as the Fillmore shows from 1969.
If you have some Led Zeppelin "imports", pull them out and give them a listen. If you don't, get one or two from a friend. You'll be glad you did.
I spent a good bit of this weekend going through a ton of old Zeppelin boots. Not only did their fans record and trade shows, but audience tapes and soundboards would inevitably make it into the hands of the Japanese bootleg companies who would tweak them a little, package them up and sell them for a small fortune. For some shows, as many as five separate audience recordings have been found, leading to huge arguments over which is the best. For a lot of the shows, you can find as many as 10 or 12 versions for sale. The people who do buy these expensive boots, though, tend to say FU to the bootleggers and make the recordings available on torrent sites.
Anyway, I listened to a bunch of shows, from '68 through '77, and there is an amazing wealth of great music there. Some shows, like September 4, 1970, are absolutely legendary, and for good reason. Some are relatively poor quality audience recordings which happened to be from a night the band was on fire. Some are pristine soundboards, with far better sound that most commercial releases of live albums.
So, I would vote again for Led Zeppelin as my first pick. They changed and matured greatly through the years, but they didn't get stale or fall into a rut. The shows from '77 pack just as much of a punch as the Fillmore shows from 1969.
If you have some Led Zeppelin "imports", pull them out and give them a listen. If you don't, get one or two from a friend. You'll be glad you did.
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