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The entire fully completely album is better live.
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Best of Better Live:
Poets **
Escape is at Hand for the Travellin' Man **
The Wherewithal
100th Meridian
Fully Completely
50 Mission Cap
Fireworks
Wheat Kings
Highway Girl hehehehe
(Edit: How could I forget Membership! especially London 07 98 )
Best of Better Studio:
Played as a complete album: Day For Night
No matter how great all each of the songs are live, you can't beat the mood of the studio version
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LIVE LIVE LIVE
My two cents worth:
Better Live:
100th (hands down has to be the best live tune..full of energy everytime)
Grace, too (only live)
IOD
fire in the hole
locked
fully
twist my arm
all tore up
NIOS
scared
little bones
dire wolf
three pistols
Great either way:
freak turbulence
fireworks
unplucked gems
wheat kings
heaven
courage
studio only:
greasy jungle
yawning or snarling
thugs
fifty mission cap ( this one surprised me, but I've never heard it done well live but I love the energy it creates when your at a concert)
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Sorry, Good life is a beautiful song, probobly one of their best in years, but it is terrible live. Baker uses a weird flanger/phazer effects peddle. Not a fan of that. Best tune live by far is IOD.
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I'm gonna add to this discussion, but not quite in the same vain.
There are some Hip songs I'd just rather not hear live, for one reason or the other. Either it's just not a song that's real high up on my "like/love list", or i've seen it so many times I wish something else that I haven't heard would take it's place. ie Springtime, Little Bones, Membership, Goodlife, NOIS, Blow, Fireworks, Courage
Then there are the songs i've heard many times live, but to hear them again just completes my live concert experience, ie Poets, Grace, Fully Completely, Fire In The Hole, ABAC, 100th, Daredevil, Nautical, Vapour Trails, Something On.
The last group are the songs I maybe have heard, or haven't heard live but would love to hear, ie Titanic Terrarium, So Hard Done By, Tiger The Lion, Escape, Gems, Sherpa, The Bear, The Darkest One, Don't Wake Daddy, The Luxury, Opiated, Another Midnight, Inch An Hour, Eldorado, Thugs.
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My feelings are like a log of you guys. Grace is sort of a low key opener on DFN but live, that's a different story. Everytime they play it it's a bit different and takes on a whole new meaning. Other live gems include Fire and Fully. The church burning imagery that Gord frames in Fire is sooo cool (it's really quite mounful and beautiful Tom, back to you).
Studio tunes that I dig include Music @ Work that compresses great energy into that 3 minute span.
I do dig the sound on FC unlike some of you but think that the overall overproduction done on the album is completely responsible for the minimalist approach taken on DFN and Henhouse, etc.
sonofdad
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better live:
Poets
Chagrin Falls
Save The Planet
At The Hundredth Meridian
Fifty-Mission Cap
Fully Completely
Looking For A Place To Happen
700 ft. Ceiling
Blow At High Dough
NOIS
So Hard Done By
Yawning Or Snarling
Grace Too
Freak Turbulence
Summer's Killing Us
as for the rest of their material i can't really say that any of it is one way or the other
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Clear!
ZAP!!!
Problem Bear brings another thread back from the dead!
Now that both IBE and the live recordings of the latest tour have sunk in, I'll throw in my two euros about In Between Evolution only. (I know listening to the recordings is not the same as being there, but it wasn't my fault - Atlantic Ocean and all.)
Heaven: About the same. I find the song sort of distant somehow either way.
Summer: Scientifically proven to be 9000 times better live. It sounds manic and twisted live, while on the album it wins points solely for being bizarre. I think part of it is that hearing a voice crack on a CD seems unacceptable, while hearing a voice break in concert is entertaining when you're singing a song like this one. There's a moment on one of the livedownloads concerts - either London or Ottawa, I don't remember - where the lead and the background vocals break almost simultaneously. It's very funny.
Gus: The same. I love it either way. (Come to think of it, all ties are hereby awarded to the live versions, if for no other reason than the crowd noise. I like GD making the whip-por-will sound, too)
Vaccination Scar: The album. It just doesn't seem like a "big" enough song to start a live show with, IMHO.
Nashville: Live. GD's vocals sound a little thin to me on the album. It sounds throatier and angrier in concert.
NOIB: Album. I like the mood and don't know if it would be possible to recreate it live. The interplay of the guitars is just about perfect.
You're Everywhere: Album, though I can't put my finger on why.
Makeshift: Album, by a lot. In concert, it bounces along like Fireworks, while on the album it has a deep rock groove, which causes me to thrash my head around like a high school student. Also, GD's vocal performance on the album is one of his best ever. He hasn't topped it (or equalled it) in any of the recordings I've heard.
Meanstreak: Album. It's a mood thing again.
The Heart of the Melt: Haven't heard it. Well, maybe once, but I can't remember it if I did. Mod club, I assume.
One Night in Copenhagen: Live, though I don't care for it either way.
Are We Family: Way better live. On the album, it gets lost a bit in the midst of three mid-tempo songs in a row. I didn't realize how GENTLE this song is until I heard the live version. Part of me wishes it had been stripped down to a Fiddler's Green level on the album.
Goodnight Josephine: Album, which is what I would have expected. It's just about perfect there.
So that's six album, six live. I should probably say, though, that I will expect concert performances to take the lead as they perform these songs more. For example, I always thought Poets was one of their weakest songs and, immediately after Phantom Power came out, I didn't think the live version was much better. However, I consider the current version of Poets one of their best numbers.
Cheers,
John
[/i]
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I think I need some clarification on the question. Is it which songs usually sound better live or which songs have ever sounded better live? For every Hip song, I can think of a live version that I like better than the album version, but that might be an unfair comparison, since there are so many live songs to pick the best from and always only one studio version.
Either way, I think as time has passed, there aren't too many songs that I wouldn't take the energy from hearing live over the perfections of a tune from the studio.
Anthony
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Best HIP song live is New Orleans because not only does it sound great but there are so many different live versions of it, it never gets old. Now then, the best HIP album song is also NOIS. Even better than the live version. OMG it's like hearing it for the first time everytime it comes on the radio or at the bar or party. Tell me that's not the truth. Now if the band played it live exactly like it sounds on the album we could die happy, Gordie would have to imitate his old voice to do this though, and he is capable I'm sure.
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Although all the songs are better live...two which have the biggest difference are:
Gift Shop and Good Life..
This is a silly thready I think...cause if you are posting here I assume you only listen to live versions anyways...
studio grace too? come on guys...ha...HA! INNNNCOOOOOOOOMMING!
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Probably repeating some thoughts of others here, but oh well...
Songs definitely better live (although still excellent in album version):
Grace
Fully
100th
Blow
It's A Good Life
... et cetera, et cetera!
Songs so good on an album, they'd kick ass live... if only I could get to hear them live! (grrr...)
Yawning
Titanic
Bring it All Back
Greasy Jungle
Put it Off
I agree that it isn't a strong enough song to be a consistent opener like a "Grace, Too" yet.
