Country's Top Band of the 90s Does Fantastic Live Show
The Mavericks were my favorite country band of the '90s and the early '00s. Led by Raul Malo, the Mavericks defied genre-fication by playing a wide range of music, from traditional country to pop to Latin/Cuban-flavored music (strongly influenced by Malo's Cuban heritage) to crank out hit after hit.

Unfortunately, these talented guys seem a bit restless, only performing together sporadically after their 1999 greatest hits album. Fortunately for everyone, they got together for a live show in Austin, Texas, and this album is the result. Largely playing their greatest hits ("Dance the Night Away," "I Want to Know," "What a Crying Shame," etc.), there are plenty of other seldom-heard songs on this album to make it worthwhile.

My personal favorite is the gospel tune, "Save a Prayer," which has everyone asking why Malo hasn't cranked out a solo gospel album instead of yet-another album of cover/cocktail tunes. He could be the best gospel singer in the world.

An ultimate party album, "Live" does this great band proud - a must for everyone who's forgotten that great country spans any genre and that The Eagles were once a mere "country" band.

LACKLUSTER LIVE
Very disappointed in this cd. For a "live" performance, the band didn't sound as energized as usual. Some good tracks, tho.

Mavericks Live in Austin, Incredible!
Get the DVD... Watch it and hear it through a DTS system. It's one of those concerts you watch, a month later you want to see it again. Very well put together. The audio mix is superb!

buy or rent the DVD instead
The DVD of this concert is excellent and sounds great. (Netflix has it)
However, the sound quality of the CD is flat----very dull. What a shame. I can't stand to listen to it.

A little sloppy, but fun
I saw the Mavericks a few times before they broke up, and on the Trampoline tour, I was disappointed that they had brought horns for the new songs, but sent them away for the older songs that could have been enhanced. It almost seemed lazy of Malo to bring horns, but not bother to write charts for the older songs.

That has been rectified, finally, by this album. Not all of the songs are gems, but the performances are solid and the horns absolutely add depth to the songs. My only real complaint is that the sound mix isn't great. Of course you lose some of the studio precision in a club setting, but it's not like these tapes came right off the board into your car. They could have cleared up some of the muddiness and mixed the horns and vocals a little higher.

Other than that, this is worth owning if you like the Mavericks.