Sleep - Live at Outdoor Party 1992 CA (video)

1 Dragonaut
2 Evil Gypsy/Solomon's Theme
3 Aquarian
4 Hot Lava Man
5 Scourge
6 Unknown

This show is definitely a rarity as I never knew it existed until I found it on someone's list after years of searching for other footage I hadn't seen or had a copy of. It's shot from some one in the audience who actually moves around the stage quite a bit, making for some good angles. The song choices are awesome as its the only video I have even seen of Sleep performing Hot Lava Man.

Al is playing through an Orange 'Pics Only' head and cab and Matt is playing through a Laney AOR 100 and a Fender head, which I believe he just uses for clean tones. Definitely pre-Green era, but the love for 1970's tube amps is pretty apparent.

The video quality is about 8.5 out of 10, but the audio is excellent. The footage can get fuzzy at times due to the degredation of the original tape, but it's well worth seeing for any fan. Although, I guess that can be said fot most of the footage out there...

It's cool to see Sleep playing in front of such a small and casual audience. You definitely see them before their transition years, which seemed to be marked by the Hawkwind tour, where they really seemed to come into their own.

Sleep - Live in Tallahassee, FL 1994 (video)

1 Dopesmoker (early version)
2 Holy Mountain
3 The Druid

This footage is available from Google or a couple sites. However - this footage I own is transfered correctly unlike the Google rip. It's not stellar filming and for some reason, Matt and Al are in the shadows for the entire show.

That being said, it is a great show with pretty good audio. It's also got the early version of Dopesmoker, which is pretty cool to hear.

Sleep - Live in Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle 1/23/1994 (video)

1 From Beyond
2 Dopesmoker (early version)
3 The Druid

This is a stellar show. I believe it came at the end of the 1994 Hawkwind tour and by this time, they were previewing Dopesmoker, albeit in a very different form. Some of the structure is there, and so are the lyrics, but the chord placement is almost all different.

The quality is a 10/10 - especially for the age of the original video. It feels like you are looking through the viewfinder. The audio is very good too and I plan on making an audio bootleg of this show.

It cracks me up that both Al and Matt are finishing joints at the start of the video, just chilling on stage, not a care in the world.

Sleep Bootlegs - inaugural post

So, I have decided to start this blog in hopes of finding more live Sleep content - whether its just fan shot stuff or heavily traded audio bootlegs, I'm happy to trade what I have on my list for what you have on yours.

A number of good bootlegs exist, but have taken me a while to get copies of through old message board posts and video trading lists from back in the days when VHS was the preferred medium.

I will update this blog as my collection expands and more shows come to my attention. At the very least, it should be a very good and hopefully comprehensive source of the catalog of live Sleep material.

As I get them, I will post synopsis of the bootlegs I have with quality ratings and some stills of the footage itself