Like everyone else, I’ve been obsessing over the Nugs boards from the Fillmore run—Night 3 was ridiculous, but Night 5 doing all of Disc 1 of Okonokos back in the room where it was captured in '05 felt like such an incredible full-circle moment.
Revisiting Okonokos off the back of that run just reaffirms how peak this era was. It’s easily the best capture of the band there is, beating out Live Vol. 1–3 (even if Live Vol. 4 from Terminal 5 still takes the crown for me, with Z being a super close second). Given that the 2005 shows were right after the release of Z, that record naturally anchors the set, headlined by "Dondante." It's an incredible performance, though it's wild hearing the build into "You had me worried, so worried" before the crowd scream became a staple. Hearing that roar live at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta last year gave me absolute chills; you couldn't hear the crowd as well on the Nugs mix, so I ended up blending the board with a YouTube phone recording to make what I consider the ultimate 20-minute cut that I save for special occasions.
The record also pulls heavily from At Dawn, It Still Moves, and The Tennessee Fire. As I’ve said before, I’ve never loved the studio version of The Tennessee Fire—it just has some glaring sound issues. But hearing the classic lineup rework that material with real muscle and properly iron out the kinks completely transforms it, which is obvious on Live Vol. 4 and right here on "I Think I’m Going to Hell." It’s a devastatingly powerful, emotional recording. Outside of "Dondante," I don’t think anything after Tennessee Fire quite captures that raw emotion found in tracks like "I Think I’m Going to Hell" or "Old Sept Blues."
General standouts on the album are definitely "Off the Record," which is crazy how locked-in it was just months after Z came out. When I saw them in Chattanooga after Is dropped, you could tell they were still figuring out how they wanted to play that material live—songs like "Everyday Magic" are completely nailed down now, but it's amazing how fast they mastered the Z material back then. Other huge highlights are "Xmas Curtain," "O Is the One That Is Real," and "Steam Engine." But surprisingly, I’d have to say "Run Thru" is the best song on here. It normally isn't in my all-time top tier, but this specific version is unsurpassed.