As someone who has about 25 live dmb show's I must say that this is definitely a great one.

Starting the concert off with a powerful "Don't Drink The Water" the band continued that energy through the whole show.

Some of the highlight's include:

The first major live release of crush.

A great version of an unreleased song "Granny"

The one-two punch of Dancing Nancies-->Warehouse (listen for the salsa outro on warehouse and the bartender intro to nancies)

An excellent Two Step with butch taylor teasing a famous new york tune.

One of the fastest most energetic ants marching performance's I've seen the band give the song...without the long intro though.

The somewhat rare Help Myself...a good performance of the song.

Cortez The Killer with Warren Hayes.. nice.

Jimi Thing with warren hayes... One of my favorite performances of any song by any band ever. Wow. Listen for dave's scatting and the tease of buffalo springfield's "For What It's Worth". Get this album for this song...trust me.

Watchtower...a raging performance of this song. Not quite up with hendrix yet but dmb are coming close as the year's go by.

Finally the show closes with a great performance of the song "Stay"...not the best song to close with but it fit's nicely here.

Check this release out if you're just looking for great music.

I own both the CD and DVD -- bought the DVD first, and decided that I simply had to have the album as well. I'm ecstatic that "Cortez" finally made an official release. Fantastic cover.

I write this review, however, to say that a previous reviewer has no idea what he is talking about. He cites two specific examples -- Boyd's "Nancies" solo and Roi's "Warehouse" -- as problems with the concert. He calls the former "out of tune." I speak as a musician when I say that there is a large difference between "out of tune" (which he wasn't) and "dissonant" or "polytonal" (which he was, at times). Being out of tune is not good, i agree, but dissonance and polytonality is what makes a lot of DMB's music great. This solo was an example of that.

Now, as for Roi's "Warehouse" solo. I speak as a sax player of some ten years when I say that this solo was brilliant. Believe it or not, not every sax player wants to sound candy-coated like Kenny G. It's called "color" and "character." I can guarantee you that almost every thing Roi did in his solo, he did on purpose. Someone with his skill doesn't do those things accidentally. Those altissimo notes are hard to play that beautifully, but he pulls it off masterfully. And sampling "Everyday People" ("And so on, and so on, and shoobee doobie doobie")? Brilliant.

Another previous reviewer wrote about the "Hey!" during the "Warehouse" opening "stop-and-go" break. If you'd watch the DVD, you'd see that Stefan throws his fist into the air on every "HEY!" They love it. It's called interaction.

(Although, if you want to talk about annoying, how about the crowd speeding up clapping during the opening of "Two Step," then getting off from Boyd when he brought it back down to tempo? Ick. That was the only annoying part of the whole concert.)

4.95 stars => rounds to 5 ;-)

Their freshest sounding live release since "Listener Supported" puts DMB right back on top of the heap.. After the disaster that was "Everyday" it is good to see the band back in good form for this one-off concert in support of New York City Public Schools and other charities. Off the heels of Dave Matthews' solo release "Some Devil" many fans were concerned with the direction of the band. But this concert, which was performed the day after that release in September 2003, served to put those short-lived fears to bed. I would venture to say that this live release nearly matches the energy and quality of DMB's vaunted first live release "Red Rocks". This set features a wonderful 5.1 stereo mix and lush audio quality as compared to the two previous live releases - "Folsom Field" & "Chicago".

The highlights include: a rousing reading of Neil Young's "Cortez The Killer" featuring a blistering performance from Gov't Mule's Warren Haynes, delightfully teasing versions of "Dancing Nancies" & "Warehouse" that build to awesome crescendos, a 19 minute version of "Two Step" that blows the doors off any other version previously recorded, and a freewheeling performance of "Jimi Thing" with the aforementioned Haynes that includes an interpolation of Buffalo Springfield's "For What Its Worth".

The definite lowlight is yet another inclusion of "All Along The Watchtower" in a DMB live release. Ugh! Please make it stop! Haven't we heard this song enough?

This excellent recording shows what DMB can be capable of when they are on and when they devote the proper technology to capturing their sound, which only wets the appetite for the upcoming much anticipated 6 disc release of the 2002 Gorge shows, set to come out in early 2004. The price of this set along with its excellent sound quality and performances of classic as well as newer material should appeal to devoted DMB fanatics and casual listeners as well.

I was reading some of the other Amazon reviews of Dave in Central Park and decided to write a review. Having been to many many Dave concerts in tons of venues, I can say that I would have loved to have been at this concert. They played the best I have ever heard them. I have been to a bunch of Dave concerts where I thought to myself, "Oh, I wish they played..." I can't think of anything that wasn't played at this concert. Dave played an almost 20 minute Two Step that is amazing. There is another review that says they don't like the solos from this concert and they wish they just played the songs. To this guy I say first of all you aren't really a Dave fan, and second of all that is what makes it the best Dave concert ever, and third go buy a studio album. Cortez, the Killer, the great Neil Young song was also played at this concert by Warren Hayes(the Allman Bros guitarist) and Dave. This is one of my favorite tracks from this concert. For those of you who don't know, Cortez, the Killer was written by Neil Young about Hernando Cortez from Spain who quite bloodily invaded the Azteks of Mexico by sailing from Cuba to Mexico. Anyways, enough of my rambling. Great concert that I would pay endless amounts of money to go back in time and see.
P.S. Great Jimi Thing and Dave changed of couple of the songs to be New Yorky...he added in/changed some of the lyrics.

WOW. I was blown away when my friend showed me the DVD. These are the best versions of the songs that they have ever done. Their is only one itty bitty thing negative about this album: Boyd Tinsley messes up a few times - more than usual at least. Like in Crush - @ 1:06 he comes in very flat, and it makes you wince. But other than Tinsley, they play like gods.

Also, the mix was good. MUCH better than Folsom. Carter's snare @ folsom sounded like crap. Here, the kick drum and the snare are the best ive ever heard them. The kick is very punchy and the snare is a mix between how it was on Before These Crowded Streets, and Busted Stuff.

I must say everyone shined on this album. Killer solos by everyone. Even Dave, who scat sings towards the end of Jimi Thing. They NAIL the four-stroke ruff ending of Two Step. Stefan has a set of new licks plus his solo before Watchtower - where he ad libs the Star Spangled Banner. Butch Taylor is more prominent in as well.

Best DMB album yet. These guys know what they're doin.