Sound Quality decent, show itself is awesome. I'm a huge mason jennings fan so i am biased but I love it. would highly recommend, i keep it in my car and make my friends listen to it and they like it too.

To my ears, and in comparison to some of the other MJ shows on archive, the sound here is beautiful--clean and sharp.

Moreover, Mason plays most of his best tunes, and so it's strong as a unified show. And he's playing in front of his Minneapolis fan-base, instead of, as in some of the earlier shows deposited here, a crowd chatting away while eagerly waiting Jack Johnson or whomever.

My limited enthusiasm has more to do with style here. He's always been, I think, at his best playing guitar to a small crowd, for instance during his residencies at Minneapolis's tiny 400 bar, or at least (like at his first larger-venue First Ave show) playing in the same style. The big auditorium here seems to have brought out the Elton John in him. Guitar lines (like on the very sad Ballad of Paul and Sheila) are replaced with piano lines, and in the process lose some of their punch. Compare his uninspired piano version of "No More Auction Block" to Bob Dylan's (also not primarily a piano player) on Bootleg Series 1, and you get the feeling that MJ needs to either work a lot more on piano or stick to guitar where he really excels. His writing is variable, and some of the weaker lines (does Ulysses HAVE to go on with so MANY "boo-daaa's"?) take on way more emphasis when sung piano-lounge style than they do as accompaniment to good guitar playing, and don't hold up in that spotlight

As for tracks, the Cash cover is not real exciting, but the Elliot Smith cover is effective. I think the other standout performances here, if you just want to sample this are Killer's Creek, Crown, California II, and Darkness between the Fireflies.

Sound Quality is pretty awful. "Wow" my buns...Some hot tracks though.

if I had my way, all shows would be like this one

If you are new or old to Mason's music this show is worth your time to download!

This is one of the best Mason Jennings recordings that i've been able to find, which doesn't say much. But it's a pretty descent recording considering that it's not a soundboard recording. I like that the crowd isn't too loud as i've found in some recordings. There are a couple brief instances where a crowd member disrupts the recording, but they're hardly noticeable. This show is good in the sense that he plays a lot of his new songs and he talks a lot, which is a good thing if you want to know more about him. But I definittely recommend this show.