The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now
Local Current Blog

Music Vault opens on YouTube, featuring over 13,000 live music videos

by Jay Gabler

July 08, 2014

Today, almost every moment of each big-name concert is captured by one or more fans with phones and posted online. Now, thousands more shows up to and including the digital era are getting the YouTube treatment.

Music Vault—a recently-launched online offshoot of music memorabilia store Wolfgang's Vault, described by Rolling Stone as a "bootleg haven"—has published 13,000 concert videos on its YouTube account, remastered and revelatory. The performances range from vintage shows by classic rockers like the Who and the Grateful Dead to recent performances by buzzbands like Rubblebucket and Lucero. Promising updated playlists and daily additions, the YouTube vault is a move by the curators to get in on the increasing trove of ad revenue flowing from Google's streaming video service.

Minnesota music fans will find lots to like in this bonanza of live performances. Here's Prince, our Local Current Artist of the Month, playing "Controversy" in 1982.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0pewqF8POE

If you're wondering what you missed (or have been trying to forget what you didn't) on the poorly-reviewed Bob Dylan/Tom Petty 1986 tour, here's a sampling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rDcm4SyppM

The Bad Plus take on Vangelis's Chariots of Fire theme in this clip from the 2006 Newport Jazz Festival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQWKK6qV-c

Among the newest videos is this 2013 recording of Haley Bonar playing, incongruously, in the lobby of Aloft Minneapolis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKKRhhqoHlo

There are also several videos of Hellogoodbye and other bands playing the 2011 Free Range Film Festival in Wrenshall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH7oPxtnbqo

Here, Deer Tick cover the Replacements' "Bastards of Young" in 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nMG91PFD1o

What are your favorite videos from the vault? Post them in the comment section!

Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.