The three-CD/one-DVD set
Europe 2009 captures two different concerts: the CDs chronicles a July 5 concert in Lucca, Italy, and the DVD documents a June 26 show at the O2 Academy Brixton in London, England. Both concerts were given not long after the release of the band's 2009 album
Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King, so it’s not surprising that both draw deeply from that record. More interesting for longtime
DMB fans, though, is that this is the first official document of the band after the death of saxophonist
LeRoi Moore. The group reckoned with his passing on
Big Whiskey, but in some ways,
Europe 2009 offers a truer illustration of how they’re dealing with his absence, with the group finding some new twists and surprises within expected classics, seemingly gaining sustenance from the music while remaining a crowd-pleasing jam band.
–
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi