I found a link to the entire collection of Live8 performances available for download as separate files this morning. (Look on the sidebar to the left.) Having just gotten back from Ireland two weeks ago, and having missed the Dublin U2 concert by three days, the recent events in London just bring me down completely. Without getting too maudlin or stupid here, that shit sucks. In view of the effort and intentions of Live8, the idea that a bunch of assholes could target innocent people again to make a political point is just sad.

I don’t know if Live8 had the same political and international impact that Live Aid had in ’85; I know that the BBC documentary Jen and I caught in Ireland on Live Aid did a great job of reminding us just how much the world stopped to watch, get involved, and make a difference—and that feeling seemed to be missing this time around. Maybe it’s because I’m not plugged into MTV or the music scene (or because I’m not in High School anymore) but it just didn’t reach me like it did when I was 14. Did anybody else have this feeling?

That having been said, it’s great to see Pink Floyd onstage together again; Dave Gilmour looks wierd with short white hair, but he sounds a million times better than Roger Waters. Bono needs to take those stupid nail salon sunglasses off once and for all. Richard Ashcroft sounded great with Coldplay. Paul McCartney doing “Helter Skelter” stood the hair on my neck up. I’m still having a hard time with Chris Cornell and Rage Against the Machine, but it wasn’t too bad. (He can scream with the best of them, but he has a problem with the whole ‘spitting venom at the Man’ thing.) Green Day sounded tighter than a snare drum—props to them on their latest album. The sound feed in Toronto was the worst I’ve ever heard. Who was the tone-deaf tool singing with Stevie Wonder on Higher Ground? I can’t say I was otherwise all that interested in the U.S. lineup—(*cough*)Linkin Park(*cough*)Maroon 5(*cough*)Toby Keith(*cough*)—and what’s up with “Tami the HIV Positive Muppet?” I’d like to make a suggestion to the Henson folks: if we want to teach tolerance for other folks, we should probably concentrate on teaching our kids how to live with ASSHOLES first. Let’s try “Chip, the Conservative Christian Republican,” or maybe “Jasmine, the Ex-Sorority Girl Pharamceutical Rep.”

Just a suggestion.