Search - Jerry Garcia :: Jerry Garcia Band

Been there, done that

F. J. PRISCO | Seattle, WA USA | 04/22/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"OK, I was waiting for this CD when it came out -- I'd seen the JGB many times, I knew how good they could be, and I really wanted a release that represented the band as it really was.



Well, this may have been that, but couldn't it have been a wee bit better? I thought the purpose of making a live album was to showcase highlights, not the average show. I've been through two copies of this album, because there's enough good performance on here to make a solid one-disc house-on-fire CD. That would include "Evangeline", "Waiting For a Miracle", and "Stop That Train" -- it doesn't matter if the original artists' versions were "better" -- this is JGB, this is what they were doing, and they did it well.



My complaint is that so much of this wasn't really as good as what the JGB themselves were doing at the time; a lot of it just lopes along, without much sense of anything eventful happening (a strong issue with the 70s JG issues as well). I recommend "How Sweet It Is" and "Shining Star" as more explosive, dynamic choices, then use this for filler tracks to make your own all-killer Jerry compilation."