GREEN DAY - BBC Maida Vale Studio, London 2004

Who knew? Green Day was so bloody phenomenal at my beloved Forum on Tuesday night that I can't resist posting another boot from the boys.

No kidding, folks: simply put, this was the show of the year. It kills me that they didn't tape it for the ages; so far there's not even a single decent boot from the entire U.S. leg of the 21st Century Breakdown Tour, of which Tuesday night's three-hour blowout was the final night.

Here's hoping the band, or anyone else, decides to remedy this situation starting in one month's time, when the three-month European leg kicks off. You can do it, fellas!

To compensate, we have a short, sharp FM broadcast from the launch of American Idiot almost (good gawd) five years ago...

just in time for the launch of the musical!

GREEN DAY
BBC Maida Vale Studio - London, England - October 10, 2004 (FMB)
DOWNLOAD

GREEN DAY - Bridge School Benefit Concert, 1999

Tonight's show is Green Day at The Forum, first time I've seen them since the epic 1999 Halloween weekend up in Mountain View when my bros D.D. and G.G. and I attended both Bridge School Benefit concerts.

The '99 edition was only my second time at this wonderful annual event; I've been many times since, but Bridge XIII still stands as my favorite ever. Look at that year's lineup -- along with Green Day, we got Neil Young of course, plus Brian Wilson, The Who, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Pearl Jam, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, and Billy Corgan and James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins... inconceivable!

I remember the shows as if they were ten days ago, not almost ten years. I was excited, cold, high on weed and shrooms, fretting about dating some new chick and starting a new job...yeah, all told, closer to the best of times than the worst. Can't be too bad when you're at a show like this one.

So here's all 29 minutes of Green Day's terrific first set of the weekend; Green Day before they started reaching for Greatness, and were happy just to be good goofy fun.

GREEN DAY "Unplugged"
Bridge School Benefit Concert XIII
Shoreline Amphitheatre - Mountain View, CA - October 30, 1999 (SBD)
DOWNLOAD

PS -- Stay tuned; more on the way from Bridge School 1999...

STEELY DAN - "Katy Lied" Outtakes & Rough Mixes, 1974-'75

The Steely Dan Show stops tonight in Los Angeles, and I'm so very there. Have a groo-hoo-hoovy weekend, one and all!

STEELY DAN
Katy Lied Outtakes & Rough Mixes - 1974-'75 (STU @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

HEAVEN & HELL - Sweden Rock Festival, 2007

I'll be seeing The Creator of The Metal (all 8 fingers of him) and The Evil Elf Himself (all 67 years of him!) tonight at L.A.'s Greek Theatre. Heaven & Hell have been chugging along strong for a couple of years now, with no sign of slowing down. I saw them a year ago in San Berdoo on the limited-edition Metal Masters Tour, and they were magnificent, a most pleasant surprise...

For a taste of their salubrious, sibilant and supernal Satan sauce, check out this sample from Sölvesborg, Sweden. It's an hour-long FM broadcast of seven songs and salutations to Swedish sausages. Seriously: Dio sings "You’ll be dreaming of sausages!" The silly Swedish DJ chatter adds a li’l sumpm-sumpm to the stew as well.

Why all this speaking of sauce and sausages? What can I say... between Maestro Iommi, Dio and drummer Vinny Appice, Heaven & Hell is probably the most Italian group since The Four Seasons. So Ave Satani and Buon Appetito!

HEAVEN & HELL
Sweden Rock Festival - Norje, Sölvesborg, Sweden - June 7, 2007 (FMB)
DOWNLOAD

MUSE - Reading Festival, UK 2006

More monstrous epicness from Muse, this time an FM broadcast from their head-lining slot at the UK's gigantic summer Reading Festival (the next edition of which comes in three weeks, for our friends in Old Blighty). The band was riding high on the worldwide success of Black Holes & Revelations, an album so supermassive it even managed to somewhat break the band here in benighted America, land of Coors-slurping idiots whose idea of a rock band is ratshit like Nickel Park and Linkinback.

About a month prior to this festival show, held at the charmingly named Little John's Farm (capacity 80,000-plus), I had seen Muse at L.A.'s Greek Theatre (capacity 5,700). Seeing them in a venue of such modest size, knowing they could easily draw 15 times that number almost anywhere else on Earth, was an experience that could truly be described as revelatory.

MUSE
Reading Festival, Little John's Farm - Reading, UK - August 26, 2006 (FMB, m4a format)
DOWNLOAD

RAR unzip password: sgeltoob
(Thanks to T.U.B.E.)