Boot Tracker; Magic Round Up

With the tour about to commence again I figured it was time for a quick round up of bootlegs I haven't discussed at length here before.

First there is the the incredible matrix recording of the San Jose show of last April 5th. The taper combined a wireless recording with his own audience tape. The results are stunning, even though the sound is a bit thin. Without a doubt one of the best sounding bootlegs so far. You can easily take this one over anything that Crystal Cat has released this tour.

Talking about Crystal Cat, they released their version of that already legendary Red Bank show Springsteen did at the Count Basie theater. Since it is a beefed up version of the recording that has already been floating around you can let it pass you buy. Crystal Cat really botched this one up. They made it into a two disc release. "Thunder Road" actually comes at the end of the first disc, destroying the concept of the show. I'm glad I got this one for free and didn't shell out my hard earned cash on a silver disc copy.

The last one of interest is the third Essexboy release of this tour, the Magic Manchester show from May 28th. Unfortunately this otherwise fine taper has obviously been struggling with the Stadium leg of the Magic tour. I appreciate the effort of this taper of recording and getting the shows out to us, but all three of his recent releases have been very tough to listen to. If you were there you might want to pick it up, but otherwise just let it pass you by. I would rate the recording on this one 1 out of 5. And that point really is for the effort. Taping involves a lot of stress, getting your gear in the venue. I can imagine this tape being the biggest disappointment for Essexboy himself.

Download the San Jose Matrix in mp3 here
Get the Crystal Cat Red Bank release in mp3 here
Finally Essexboy's Manchester night in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.