We've talked about it in the past. Now let's do it.

Let's name the Top 5 bootlegs for each tour, with as many as 5 more suggestions. The sound has to be pretty damn good for a boot to make the list, but sound quality is not the sole criteria. We'll weigh in the performance (i.e., the energy level, the setting, the setlist, etc.) because that matters, too. Otherwise we'd all be listening to the Atlanta Rising boot, which won't even make the list.

I'll keep a running list here at the top of what the consensus seems to be for each tour. It will change, of course.
Anybody who wants other ideas can probably dig through this thread someday for suggestions that fell short. There are going to be a lot of excellent boots that don't make the list.
So let's get started.

This is the 'Ghost Of Tom Joad' tour thread, covering the dates 1995-11-21 to 1997-05-26.

1995-11-29 Berkeley (Berkeley Night, CC)
1996-02-17 Hamburg (Hamburg Night, CC)
1996-03-13 Stockholm (Cirkus Night, CC)
1996-04-19 Berlin (Berlin Night, CC)
1996-04-24 London (Brixton Night, CC)
1996-09-25 Akron (Tom Joad Blues)
1996-09-26 Ann Arbor (In Michigan Ev2)
1996-11-08 Freehold (Freehold Night, CC)
1996-11-26 Asbury Park (Asbury Park Night, CC)
1997-02-12 Sydney (Sydney Night, CC)
1997-05-07 Vienna (Ev2)

1996-09-26 Ann Arbor (In Michigan Ev2)
and there was a great sounding boot from a show in Austria if I remember correctly, I have to check

Edit:
1997-05-07 Vienna

Agree on the Ann Arbor. A couple of more suggestions:

1996-09-25 Akron (Tom Joad Blues)
1997-02-12 Sydney (Sydney Night)

I would definitely cut the list of "best boots" for this tour down to these three:
1996-04-24 London (Brixton Night, CC)
1996-11-08 Freehold (Freehold Night, CC)
1996-11-26 Asbury Park (Asbury Park Night, CC)
Everything taken together (sound, performance, setlist) these are the outstanding shows.

There are a few more runners up, like Sydney, Berlin, Milano, Stockholm but then again, many more shows would have had a "runner up" quality ...

I agree.

Berlin's good - not sure about the performance since I haven't listened to enough to say, but it has the best sound of the tour.

That should be 1997.

Listen to the man... he's the only person on the planet who has all the shows from the tour (sans Salt Lake City, of course).
I think I would add Cirkus and Sydney, but as the core, these three should be it.

Hm ... I´m quite sure that I am not the only one, you have no idea how many crazy people there are. But, then again, you´re on the SPL
And SLC, well, maybe with a future ÜberÜberÜber project, even this one may surface!

[quote=mikeg]I would definitely cut the list of "best boots" for this tour down to these three:
1996-04-24 London (Brixton Night, CC)
1996-11-08 Freehold (Freehold Night, CC)
1996-11-26 Asbury Park (Asbury Park Night, CC)
Everything taken together (sound, performance, setlist) these are the outstanding shows.


I agree!

Well, we need five, whether you like it or not.

Even if you have 3 outstanding ones that clearly need to be included and then have to pick two more from the runners up section???
Sounds silly to me ...
I suggest you discuss changing the rules from "we need 5" to "we need 5 max"

5 for each tour is a good rule. We should stick to it, even if for a couple of tours people only think that 3 or 4 should be definitely considered 'outstanding' boots/shows.

we need two more 'standard' shows; Freehold and Asbury Park were special nights, but don't represent much of the GOTJ tour

2 standard shows.........Sydney and Ann Arbor.

I had similar thoughts, maybe that is even a reason not to consider them at all?

I would not think so; the final shows of the Rising and Magic tour, let alone WOAD, were not that representative for these tours either, so where would you make the cut? 5 Songs from the respective album? 10?
In this regard, it will for example be difficult to classify the recent NY shows in any category. Misc or WOAD? They are part of the tour, but WOAD....?

How about "At the Ryman" 12.12.96? Fun performance. Or the EV2 version of the Vienna show? Oops I see Vienna is on the list already.

I think some of you are in danger of over complicating the issue. If a show was part of a tour to promote an album, then it should be included in that tour's list - if worthy. Doesn't matter how many songs were played from the new album.

We need one from the '95 leg... how about 12/17/1995 Beacon Theatre? - Standard set for that point, 2nd performance ever of "The Wish".