I’ve been going through all this music, and it’s outstanding - out of 50 unique shows, there are maybe 5 where the quality isn’t great, and from December 2012 through May 2014, the setlists get really repetitive. However, those shows would be treasures if they were all we had available to us, so I’m only criticizing it from the perspective of someone with access to dozens of even more interesting shows.
There are a total of 103 songs played at these shows, not counting anything listed as unidentified or an improv jam or tease. There are 53 songs that are played just once ever - and you can hear 34 of these songs just by downloading 6 shows:
2003-05-02
2004-07-29
2008-03-07
2009-03-11
2015-05-29
2015-05-30
During those 6 shows, the only Bernie concert staples you won’t hear are:
Y-spy (which appears in 19 of these shows)
Take me To the River (which is in 16)
Get Your Hands Off (15x)
BWO is Landing (15x)
Supergroovalistic… ((13x)
So Uptight (Move On) (12x)
But there are a handful of shows from 2013 where you can find all of those songs, except Supergroovalistic, but grab one of the shows from 98-01, and you’ll get that, along with comin’ round the mountain, thumpasorus, and downstroke, all of which he never played after 2004. 2000-12-28, 2001-08-24 and 2002-06-29 have all four of those. Both for quality and for the variety of the setlist, I’d suggest the 2000 or 2002 set.
If you just downloaded the first 6 I mentioned, one from 2013, and the 2000 show, you’d have an excellent representation of Bernie’s post-1996 live career, and at least one live version of 70 different songs, including all of the ones he liked to play live the most.
…of course, that’s IF you want to be efficient about it. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to diving into 90 hours of live Bernie - I’m loving it so far. No two nights are the same, really. Such great playing all around, and there will only ever be one Bernie.