For the Live Music Junkie: Concert Vault

Please. One more hit. Just one. That’s all I need. Another song, another act. It won’t hurt. It can’t hurt. I promise this will be the last place we go. Four hours later, we wake up on a subway train in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Live music can be a dangerous thing. The thrills of a live show, the blending lightshow, the stomach-shaking bass, the spit and the sweat, are irreplaceable, but the life of the live music junkie can drain one’s energy and bank account. Fortunately, thanks to the folks at Concert Vault, you can get your live music fix on daily basis for just $2.99 a month.

Concert Vault aka Wolfgang’s Vault started their collection by acquiring the master recordings from concert promoter Bill Graham’s archives. Graham’s archives, purchased by Bill Sagan in 2003, feature shows from Graham’s legendary venues including Fillmore East and Winterland, but their online collection includes plenty more live music resources. Right now I’m listening to a 1974 Steely Dan show from the Rainbow Theater in London. Also featured are the revealing acoustic performances from Daytrotter Sessions as well as some official releases (I found Rush’s Grace Under Pressure tour release that came out with their Replay x3 DVD) and other decent-sounding bootlegs. And it’s not just classic rock on the site, the ConcertVault features performances from artists such as the heavy metal of Exodus or the mariachi-Springsteen songs of Calexico as well as choices in the jazz, country, and blues genres. In fact, the collection of live music on this site is kind of overwhelming.

ConcertVault streams all of their offered material at 320kbps MP3s. Downloads of some concerts are also available for $5.00 offered but also at 320kpbs. This is slightly disappointing as the better the quality of the playback, the closer we as listeners can get to the real thing, but for $2.99 a month, the ability to stream Charly Garcia performing at Estadio River Plate zonked out of his brains makes it worth every cent.

Apparently, I’m super late to the game, and Wolfie’s Vault has been around for a while. Whatever. For the live music junkie, this website is freaking AWESOME. Streaming is continuous as you browse their library so you can create a custom playlist from a bunch of different shows or listen to an entire performance while searching for your next. You can also store concerts as a favorite by selecting the "heart" icon. Overall, a simple and fluid software to support a lot of music listening. Fun stuff.