Certain songs have things I call great "moments." It's not the same thing as a hook. It's a specific point in the song that, for some reason, stands above any other. It's a point where you say, "Wow, that's really clever."

One such moment is in "Send Me On My Way" by Rusted Root (from the album When I Woke). It comes right after the first time the chorus is repeated after the bridge. Before this point, the chorus has flowed into the lyrics "Send me on my way" in a major key, but this time, at time marker 3:18, it turns minor. The minor iteration leads into a female vocalist singing in thirds above the lead singer's voice. The whole sequence is maybe 10-15 seconds long, but it's just fantastic, and that moment is when Rusted Root presents the idea in a minor, not major, key at 3:18.

So when I bought Rusted Root Live recently and saw that "Send Me On My Way" was on it, the first thing I listened for was how the band handled this transition. The bridge, predictably, is much longer in this version. Then it's time for that magic point. Unfortunately, Michael Glabiki hits the critical note with all the precision of a Charles Smith brick. It was disappointing. I'm all for authenticity of live music--studio engineers can engineer anything into perfection--but this was particularly egregious. Oh well.

A similar thing happened at a Bruce Hornsby concert I attended several years ago. Bruce was playing with a new band, and they started to perform "The Tango King" (from the album Hot House). The bridge in this song features a slowly unfolding series of thick, dissonant chords in brass, building upon each other. The harmonies pile higher and higher until at 2:43, the ultimate thick chord is repeated multiple times before collapsing into a resounding G major. The moment is unmistakable, propelling the rest of the song for another two minutes to its end.

When Hornsby and his band performed the song at this concert, they botched this moment. Or, maybe it was more understated than it should have been. At any rate, it was disappointing because as soon as the song started, I was looking forward to this point.

A success story? The Dave Matthews Band in New Haven in October 1996. "Ants Marching" (from Under the Table and Dreaming), which features one of the greatest song moments of all time. This is at the close of the bridge, at time marker 3:58, when the most challenging of increasingly complex harmonies finally breaks, with a masterful drum accompaniment, into the song's primary riff by 4:07.

The live version was even better. I couldn't believe it. From the first note, I anticipated this partciular point in the song, and the band drilled it like a swish at the buzzer.