Red Rocks Live (live compilation album)
by Various Artists

From EyeKanFly 04/08/2022 13:18

Very fine collection of live music celebrating the 75th anniversary of Red Rocks Amphitheatre (although released 2 years late on the 77th anniversary).

I think my biggest complaint with this album is the selection. Of the 20 tracks, only 3 were recorded before 2009: those by U2 (1983), Grateful Dead (1978), and String Cheese Incident (2003). An album celebrating the 77th anniversary of the venue having 17/20 tracks recorded in the last 10 years feels like less of a "celebration of history" rather than an attempt to grab what's current. In particular there's a big gap in the 90s, it would've been nice to see performances by Dave Matthews Band, Phish, or the Colorado Symphony cover this time frame. I suppose it's hard to include as many artists as possible AND include artists whose live tracks often ramble for 10+ minutes.

Also, it's a 3 LP set and the flip side of LP3 is an etching of Red Rocks. While I much rather would've had 3-5 more songs, an etching is a cool idea. Except... the etching isn't very good; it looks more like someone spilled their coffee on the record rather than an outline of the iconic rocks.