I’ve always loved the idea of sharing shows with some connection to each other. An obvious and easy connection are shows within the same time period – a year, or a tour, or a run of shows at the same venue. But I really love trying to find slightly more obscure, or at least different connections.
Mainly I get bored throwing up random shows and I like to find ways to make this blog interesting (at least to me anyway).
Trouble is all of that takes time and a little research.
I have a terrible memory. Unlike some folks in this hobby, I don’t have an immediate recollection of who played bass guitar for Bob Dylan in the fall of 1982. I don’t even know if he played a show in the fall of 1982. I don’t know what Neil Young was doing in the spring of 2001, or if Van Morrison was at the top of his game (or the bottom of it) in 1994.
I’m probably most knowledgeable with the Grateful Dead and even then I can only speak in generalities. I know about the tour of Europe in 1972 and the Wall of Sound in 1973 but I can’t tell you which shows are best.
That’s just the way my dumb brain works (or rather how it doesn’t work.) That means I have to do a little thinking and a little research to find some connective tissue for shows I might want to post. Then I have to actually try to find recordings of those shows.
All of this takes time which is why I’ve talked about this idea fairly often, but very rarely actually done anything about it.
I’ve been feeling antsy lately so I thought I’d give this a go. Obviously, I did Bob Dylan’s Fastbreak Tour yesterday. I’m working on a short tour Jerry Garcia did in 1994 right now.
I’d definitely love to hear any of your suggestions. It can be a time period or a bunch of shows from throughout an artist’s career at the same venue, or anything really. I’m just trying to mix it up a bit.
themidnightcafe.org 
Would love to know if more shows by Morphine could be found. Cracking live band, different sound, great musicianship.
Oh I haven’t thought of that band in a long time. I’ll see if I can find anything by them.
I like the idea of a connecting thread to shows. For instance, when you shared a bunch of shows from Freddy Koella’s time in Dylan’s band 2003-’04, that was wonderful.
Here’s one to consider if you’re fielding ideas. In 2008-2010, Van Morrison played “Astral Weeks” more or less in order in the second half of many shows. Each show was/is just transfixing, jaw-dropping.
So it could be a lot of fun to gather all of those shows together. If it’s helpful, I could try to assemble a list of all the shows (maybe 25 or so?) where I believe he played Astral Weeks in full.
Many of them I’ve gotten from here so they’re already posted, just not assembled. But for instance, when I was googling around I found the article below and realized I don’t have the Montreal 10/1/09 Astral Weeks show – just as one example.
https://www.brooklynvegan.com/van-morrison-pl-2/
Another “theme” post I’d love to see is when the Stones were playing “Sticky Fingers” in full – not that many shows, all around 2015.
And really, any tours by almost any artist where they played an album in full at least several times. For instance, I’m enjoying the boots from the current U2 Achtung Baby shows in Vegas.
Those are all very good ideas. It seems like a bunch of artists were playing an album in full several years back. I know Springsteen did several, U2 did The Joshua Tree as well. Wilco did a run of gigs where they didn’t play an album in full but they did play every song they’ve ever recorded over several nights in Chicago.
Any of those could be fun.
I wish I had the abilities to make some compilations of these things but I’m just not that talented.
Well I just sent you a message concerning Bob Dylan’s “Short Break” Tour. At the end I mentioned Neil Young’s “Ragged Glory” era – I love “White Line”… So there is a very tasty Crazy Horse project….
I think this indicates that I would enjoy collaborating on some projects to help to enhance the already impressive scope of the Midnight Cafe!
Currently I am working on a massive “dance anthology” – at the edit stage now – there were over 6,000 tracks – but I have cut over 500 so far – mostly duplicates and/or rough recordings! I am about mid-way.
Where did you send the message about Dylan to? I’m not seeing it. But yes to any collaborations you wanna work on.