dal975
The Fly
was always the most obscure tour for me through the years. My early boots tended to be JT-tour oriented and then I became a fanatic with the explosion of AB/Zoo TV, so I concentrated on that era and beyond. Maybe b/c the actual Lovetown tour was not featured on R&H, I tended to overlook Lovetown. I mean, I had "At the Eleventh Hour" and knew about the dream it all up again speech, but somehow the rest of the tour got overlooked for me.
That said, the more I interact with forum members, and with the accessability of You Tube and re-listening to some other boots I have, I am growing convinced that Lovetown may have been the absolute PEAK of their live performances. The improvisations, snippets, ad-libs, extended intros and outros, extended edge solos, and perhaps most importantly, the diversity of the setlists from night to night have never been matched by the band since (of course, just my opinion). Also, the sound quality of lots of recordings seems disproportionately outstanding relative to the time era. Although later tours were superlative, they of course were a bit more formulaic and repetitive. My thought is that without a new album to support, and having mastered the JT songs, they were completely free to let loose. For those out there who attended any Lovetown shows, what was the vibe compared to say, the earlier JT shows vs. anything later? How did the holiday season affect things? I started going to shows during the zootv outside broadcast (just missed lovetown- not that I would have flown to europe or australia at 14!)
That said, the more I interact with forum members, and with the accessability of You Tube and re-listening to some other boots I have, I am growing convinced that Lovetown may have been the absolute PEAK of their live performances. The improvisations, snippets, ad-libs, extended intros and outros, extended edge solos, and perhaps most importantly, the diversity of the setlists from night to night have never been matched by the band since (of course, just my opinion). Also, the sound quality of lots of recordings seems disproportionately outstanding relative to the time era. Although later tours were superlative, they of course were a bit more formulaic and repetitive. My thought is that without a new album to support, and having mastered the JT songs, they were completely free to let loose. For those out there who attended any Lovetown shows, what was the vibe compared to say, the earlier JT shows vs. anything later? How did the holiday season affect things? I started going to shows during the zootv outside broadcast (just missed lovetown- not that I would have flown to europe or australia at 14!)
