(8/10) Soundgarden - Live on I-5 (2011)

Reviewing live albums can be a bit difficult sometimes, generally I try not to focus on the songs itself but on the performance quality, lenght, tracklist and improvisation/extras. In this case Live on I-5 is a pretty decent live album that in my opinion is long enough but lacks variety. Of course some people may have different preferences about the tracklist, I feel most of Soundgarden's casual audience sticks to Superunknown, this may be the reason I'm not completely satisfied with it since I've heard most of their discography and I like their punk roots as much as I liked Down On The Upside which in my opinion is very underrated when compared to Superunknown. The sound quality is good enough for me, there's little to no improvisation involved (specially not jams, maybe one or two, a short jam in Spoonman for example) and the tracklist is 60% Superunknown/Down On The Upside, with the former being the protagonist (they obviously couldn't let out hits like Black Hole Sun or Fell on Black Days).

A song that is sadly missing from the album (unless you preordered it):

Regular version tracklist:

1. "Spoonman"
2. "Searching with My Good Eye Closed"
3. "Let Me Drown"
4. "Head Down"
5. "Outshined"
6. "Rusty Cage"
7. "Burden in My Hand"
8. "Helter Skelter"
9. "Boot Camp"
10. "Nothing to Say"
11. "Slaves and Bulldozers"
12. "Dusty"
13. "Fell on Black Days"
14. "Search and Destroy"
15. "Ty Cobb"
16. "Black Hole Sun"  
17. "Jesus Christ Pose" 

Matt Cameron – drums, percussion
Chris Cornell – vocals, rhythm guitar
Ben Shepherd – bass guitar
Kim Thayil – lead guitar

http://www.soundgardenworld.com/

(8/10) Mastodon - Live At The Aragon (2011)

Artwork en alta resolución.

1. "Oblivion" - 6:31
2. "Divinations" - 3:43
3. "Quintessence" - 5:13
4. "The Czar" - 10:42
5. "Ghost of Karelia" - 5:24
6. "Crack the Skye" - 6:07
7. "The Last Baron" - 15:55
8. "Circle of Cysquatch" - 3:04
9. "Aqua Dementia" - 4:22
10. "Where Strides The Behemoth" - 2:52
11. "Mother Puncher" - 4:16
12. "The Bit" (Melvins cover) - 5:31

Live At The Aragon como su nombre lo indica es un album en vivo lanzado por la banda atlanteña Mastodon a mediados de marzo de este año. Junto con el cd que como veran contiene una interpretación completa de su (hasta ese momento) último album de estudio, lo acompaña un dvd que ademas de traer el footage de dicho show tiene algunos extras interesantes, como una "película" que relata vagamente la historia detrás del album a medida que van pasando las canciones. Personalmente me hubiera gustado un setlist mas variado pero para aquellos que esten enloquecidos con Crack The Skye el album está bien reproducido de principio a fin.
Entre los puntos bajos se encuentran algunas de las vocales, que en ciertos pasajes cerca del final parece que fueron tomadas de otro show o reemplazadas, y el hecho de que si están esperando algo de improvisación van a encontrar poco y nada, aunque no lo necesitan realmente... pero algun "jam" habría sido bienvenido.

Troy Sanders – bass, vocals
Brent Hinds – guitar, vocals
Bill Kelliher – guitar, backing vocals
Brann Dailor – drums, vocals
Derek Mitchka - guest keyboards

Mas información.

www.mastodonrocks.com