Favorite Live Albums

Over the Rhine has been my favorite band since my friend Keith put a song called “Should” on a high school mixtape for me named “Matt Has Poopyworms.” For the record, I did not have poopyworms.

This is actually my second favorite live album by Over the Rhine, with the first being the recorded performance at their farm where I just happened to be in the audience. I love this album’s live tracks, but my favorite song is actually a studio recording - it’s a cover of “Everybody Wants to Feel Like You” by John Prine.

Everybody wants to be wanted I mean I ain't no scarecrow cop I don't need no transalazation I don't need no diddiley bop

Truer words have never been sung.

I went to Chicago by myself to see this show. I missed my original flight because I was too hungover to get to the airport on time. I had entered a writing contest and won a seat upgrade to the third row. I missed the opening act which I didn’t mind, and I was nearly late to her first song, but I got to my seat just in the nick of time.

You can hear me go “woo!” at the beginning of “Space Dog”.

And when she started “Father Lucifer” I thought I was going to lose my fucking mind. And also when she started “Yes, Anastasia.” And also when she started “Cool On Your Island.” And also when she started “Mother.” And especially when she started “Cloud On My Tongue.”

It was a magical experience.

The single best live album I’ve ever heard. Mixing, mastering, production, and of course Kate Bush’s performance, are all so perfectly executed. And what a performance she gives us.

The audience goes bonkers when she first appears, and they’re pin-drop quiet during the dramatic moments that demand close attention. The three act structure works perfectly and shines a bright spotlight on two quite deserving song cycles, The Ninth Wave from Hounds of Love and A Sky of Honey from Aerial.

The climax of The Ninth Wave, “Hello Earth,” is arguably also the peak of the live album in its entirety. Play it at maximum volume. “Watching storms start to form over America. Can’t do anything…” turned out to be an even more prescient lyric than when originally released. Before the Dawn was recorded during her 2014 run of performances and released in November 2016, just ahead of the beginning of the Trump presidency and its desecration of all things that make America, America. The interspersed dirge is an uncanny foreboding foreshadowing of the next four years in the U.S.

Standout performances also include “Lily” from The Red Shoes, “Never be Mine” from The Sensual World, “Prologue” from Aerial as a sweeping invocation and invitation (“Over here… Ring it! Shake it down! Bring it on! Let it in! …Will you come with us?”), “Joanni” from Aerial, and “And Dream of Sheep” which was shown as a prerecorded video-her diction and delivery are so impeccable it’s hard to fathom how she sang it being immersed in water.

This album is an artistic triumph captured and preserved. Never a dull moment, meticulous and immersive, it’s the first and probably only live album that makes me feel like I’m in the audience sitting next to Annie Lennox and Björk and Peter Gabriel (all confirmed to have attended).

It’s also a bit sad to listen to as I had a pipe dream about traveling to London to attend one of the performances (which all sold out in moments). Not actually going is one of my big regrets.