Mention the double live album and a host of ’70s-era images flash to mind, none very pleasant: prog-rock bands with 20-minute drum solos, side-length instrumentals, ‘’Frampton Comes Alive.” Following such indiscretions, the double live album became a symbol of the era’s overindulgence, the untrammeled will to absurdity that represented pre-punk rock music’s fatal bloat.
After a very long hiatus, though, the spirit of the double live album has made a resurgence, appearing in a variety of new guises.
Wilco, Slipknot, Green Day, and the Dave Matthews Band are just some of the groups to drop double live albums in recent months. In some instances, the traditional double CD has been replaced by a CD/DVD hybrid — one live audio disc and one DVD of concert footage — while others embrace the double-live form as a means of capturing an onstage concert experience.
In fact, ‘’double live” has taken on entirely new meaning with the rise of CD/DVD live combinations, comprising one disc of audio and one of video (or sometimes both fused onto one disc). Coldplay [Live 2003 pictured], Maroon 5, Shakira, and Nickelback are just some of the performers who’ve released CD/DVD double live albums, their live albums joined by bonus DVDs of live material. Their efforts have recently been joined by Green Day’s ‘’Bullet in a Bible,” released in November.
Recommended Comments