Listening to (and revisiting) Tampa now. It sounds f'n awesome. Like, seriously awesome.

It's been a while since I've cranked an '08 boot, and I'm struck by how loud, clear and powerful the mix is, and how damn good the band sounds.

I know there was a lot of back and forth on the '08 boots when they were released. And, yeah, there were definitely some issues: 10c, weirdness w/ Kufala handling the orders, the mixes, the performances, CDRs, etc. But now that time has passed, I think the '08 boots kick major ass. I dig the packaging. I dig that we actually had a chance to scoop up legit hard copies again. And I dig that the CDs were available online for fans, but didn't clutter PJ's spot on the rack in record stores.

The only iffy thing is Ed's vocals from a few shows (Camden, specifically) and the mix on a couple. But I think when the mix is on and Ed is sounding like Ed, these mixes go down as some of the best live recordings to date of the band.

Matt, Jeff, the geetars and Ed (for the most part) sound totally kick ass. And I believe Matt's drums have never sounded better. (See: "Given to Fly" and "Faithful" from Tampa.)

OK. Enough rambling. Thoughts?

I think my dislike of the '08 boots is strictly attributable to the poor mixing and mastering, I did a recent honest review of them and found the band's performances nowhere near as bad as I first thought either.

I still think the mix is horrendous but that's a personal thing, we all like a different sound.

I still love the delivery method in '08, they finally nailed it - MP3, FLAC or physical CD's. Brilliant - hope it continues in '09. I hope they bring Brett Eliason back too.

I totally agree with the delivery method - perfect!

Brett Ellison, on the other hand, got very lazy and sloppy in 2005 and 2006. There is no excuse for multiple songs on 1 track. It was time they parted ways.

Yeah, but at least the guy had a better idea of what the band's bootlegs ought to sound like (even though I think most of the '05 boots are pretty thin).

He stopped doing the multiple songs to one track by mid-'06 anyway, I think he figured out it was pretty lame.

I'm very pleased with them. Other than some early show mixing issues, they are probably my favorite sounding boots. They sound quite different that any other boots we'd gotten before. I like 'em.

Ever since 2000 I feel that the boots have gotten progressively worse, so I only bought 2 '08 boots (Hartford and MSG 06/24). As I expected the downward trend continued for me (with respect to sound anyway).

I think the mixing and mastering are absolute shit. Matt's drums still sound like cardboard boxes. Eddie's guitar sounds like shit. Mike's guitar sounds like shit (it sounds ok at some times, but most of the time it sounds horrible). But Stone's guitar sounds pretty good for the most part, and Jeff's bass sounds awesome as usual.

I did however love that we could finally buy cd's again, regardless if they're cdr's. This causes me to like the 08 boots more than the 05/06 boots which sounded slightly better, but not near enough to make up for the lacking of hard copies. It was awesome that the 08's weren't on store shelves but you could order whichever shows you wanted. I guess it was still cool that you could buy digital files also, even though I have no idea why anyone would want to. The packaging rocks, best yet in my opinion aside from the NA '00 boots.

I don't mean to rant but I have to get this off my chest, even if nobody reads it I can at least pretend someone did. All I have been wanting since '03 is for Matt's drums to sound good again like they did in '98 and '00 (they sounded different both years, but both tones rocked), and for Eddie's guitar to sound good again (he NEEDS to go back to the Hiwatt/Schecter Tele set-up again, seriously). Mike's guitar tone has been hit or miss since '03, some shows it is awesome, but others it is pure horse shit, and unfortunately it's usually the latter. But, I guess the tones of the instruments are due to the preferences of the guys in the band... fuck what is wrong with them?? The only ones with their heads screwed on right when it comes to tone these days are Jeff and Stone. I honestly cannot believe that the guys let Eddie get away with that horrendous guitar tone, thank Fuck he only plays on about a quarter of the songs.

I like the West Palm Beach show all around. Like the sound, like the performance. Some other performances that tour got a little sloppy. Unlike many on this board though, I have no problem with the sound of the recordings. Love those drums!

for me, I like the way 08 sounded, But nothing has sounded better than the 2003 shows. The japan shows are just priceless. U got one of the biggest band in the world playing to peanuts in small japan theatres and brett caught that atmosphere so perfectly.

Yes, those Japanese shows are so underrated.

Nagoya was awesome. My wife being from there, made that so sweet. It's so intiment.

i wish they'd just mix them like they did in 2000

Don't like to hear Jeff's bass, huh?

i just finished buying the rest of the 2008 boots and i'm listening to tampa now. maybe its just me, but i can barely hear mike. check out down and present tense. actually check out every song. anyone else notice this?

Yes.

i assume you agree with me? okay good, i'm glad i'm not the only one. i don't understandt his at all. mike is the lead guitarist, why would you not turn him up?!

That was the biggest issue people had with the first two boots in '08 - no Mike.

He gets louder after those shows but unfortunately I think the overall sound is still very lacklustre.

Yes Lips, I agree with you.

However, I quite enjoy the sound of the boots from later in the tour.

this is sort of off topic, but i just used my bootlegs to relive the shows i saw this summer (msgx2 and a solo ed show), and i think i will look back on this year with the same fondness i look back on 1998. if i had my way, this band would not put out a new album again this year. instead, they can do a dozen shows on the west coast in the same spirit as this year's east coast tour. oh, and if i could see them play red rocks, that would be just fantastic.

both wease and spenno i agree with you on the later shows. i've listened to hartford and both mansfields (only because i was at those shows and bought the boots right away) and agree that the mike problem is better. i bought wpb when it came out and listened to it and could not remember mike being so low, but i guess he is.

oh well...what are you going to do.