I was too young to see Elliot Smith before he passed away in 2004, but thanks to the wonders of technology, the great folks at the Internet Archive, and the kindness of Smith and his estate, I can enjoy and share with you this performance he gave in Atlanta in 2000.

His live performances tend to be a different kind of animal from the lo-fi Beatles productions he put together on his studio albums. It’s not fair to say that his live perfomrances are less lavish, some of them (this one included) pull out all the stops, but they certainly lose a bit of the dreamlike, haunting ambiance that follows from his studio output.

That is to say, Elliot Smith in a live performance feels more real and concrete than Elliot Smith in the studio. The performance quality here is top notch, and for an audience recording, so is the audio quality. I wish whoever taped this show would tape some more!

The full set is embedded above, and is available for download from the internet archive.

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