 The official Dave Matthews Band website has announced that the first in a series of DMB Live releases.
In the early years of DMB the band allowed fans to draw directly from the soundboard in what was known as a "Bagby," (named for DMB's sound man Jeff Bagby). Unfortunately the quality of these recordings helped create a market for bootlegging, and ultimately the band disallowed soundboards in 1995.
DMB taping policy still allows anyone to record an AUD or audience recording of their performance using a microphone in the crowd. The primary advantage of official Live DMB releases is that the recordings are drawn directly from the soundboard during the show, and thus yield far higher quality reproductions.
The DMB Live series follows an archival series trend created by legendary Grateful Dead tape archivist Dick Latvala. His experience and understanding of quality shows earned him the role of selecting particular Grateful Dead performances, known as Dick's Picks, for release. In September of 2001, Phish launched its own live series known as Live Phish. Like the Dick's Picks recordings, the Live Phish series are complete, unedited, mastered shows.
Previous Live DMB Recordings such as Live at Central Park, Live at Folsom Field and Listener Supported were released under DMB's label RCA. LiveDMB recordings are a part of a grander business strategy to have live releases distributed exclusivly by the band, thus allowing them to capture all proceeds from the sale of the shows.
If DMB were to follow the lead of Phish, they will begin offering legal soundboard quality downloads of shows over the course of future tours. LivePhish often releases performances within 48 hours of a performance for under $10.00. (mp3 format)
The first release for the DMB Live series comes from 12/8/98, which "according to crew reports, were shows that showcase a period of musical growth for DMB in which set list standards were transcended into virtually new songs."
Guests at this show included Butch Taylor, Tim Reynolds, Jeff Coffin, and Bela Fleck. The setlist includes a #41 that is over 20 minutes long and merited inclusion on Warehouse 5, Volume 1. The song features an interpolation of "Sojoum of Arjuna" a song from Bela Fleck and the Flectones's Left of Cool.
The performance is consistantly stellar over the course of the show, and ends with a Last Stop featuring a prelude, the reprise outro, Bela Fleck's interpolation of Bach's "Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring" and "The More That We're Together" from Sesame Street.
The setlist opens up with an admirable Seek Up followed by Linus and Lucy, a cover of Vince Guaraldi's memorable Peanuts theme. To help build anticipation for this new release, we've created an mp3 of the Linus and Lucy from the 12/8/04 Worcester show.
 Download DMB's Linus and Lucy Cover. (Requires Registration)
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