You don't go to a science- fiction book club if you're looking to get laid. Unless, of course, you're wearing a black "Babylon 5" t-shirt stained with azure Boo- Berry aftermilk, drive a "Datsun," have a goatee and ponytail, fashion your desktop icons into "Space: 1999" ships, refer to your favorite show as simply "DSN," and have read both the entire Dune and Wheel of Time series. Similarly, you don't invest time and money into a live Sunny Day Real Estate record unless you've already sacrificed societal advancement after anxiously awaiting their second album for months, lost your voice screaming, "Although you hit me hard I come back," argued for hours over the new bass player's talents (or lack thereof), and/or searched eBay for a $75 copy of "Flatland Spider."

On this officially sanctioned (by the label, anyway) bootleg, Sunny Day Real Estate document another day on the job, in Oregon. Live albums always offer a precarious task for musicians. If a band merely fills the studio molds with too- perfect clarity, fans want for the lack of stage improv. If the band jams on the closing riff for six minutes, the fans yawn. So what is the perfect balance of fiddling and playing by numbers? If you've ever exclaimed, "Man, the guitarist adds a little vibrato to that one note in the hook! And the riff has this little extra stutter," ask yourself why this really matters. Do five subtle changes really warrant praise? And if it's freeform re- interpretation you want, go like Phish.

So Sunny Day Real Estate fans are left with 11 songs, six from How It Feels to Be Something On, two from LP2, and three from Diary, i.e. the standard 6:2:3 ratio of current: experimental: classic albums. The power of Diary's songs wanes with Jeremy Enigk's mysteriously higher- pitched voice. "J'Nuh" builds with scripted spontenaity. "100 Million" remains the worst song Sunny Day Real Estate have ever recorded (why offer this over something like "How It Feels to Be Something On?").

The recent songs hold up best live-- a testament to Sunny Day's improved songwriting skills. Otherwise, the only reason to check out this performance is to hear what the new bass player brings to the songs. And really, if you're sitting with headphones, crouched before the stereo, trying to find the difference between Joe Bass' and Nate Mendel's dancing fingers, perhaps you should sit back, drink some alcohol, and listen to Jeremy Enigk throw his throat into "Every Shining Time You Arrive."

My advice: own this only as your fourth Sunny Day Real Estate album. This mantra might explain why Live ranks #7,390 on Amazon.com, to A-Ha's Hunting High and Low at #3,459. The formula is simple: 8.0 for the diehards, 3.0 for everyone else, 5.5 total.

-Brent DiCrescenzo