Live Music Is Better - The Taper's Thread

Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
Here's a good one that I've never shared anywhere.

Had the rare opportunity to see Primal Scream a few years ago. Even rarer, it was in a 250 capacity club.

I found this one poking around ye olde hard drive tonight. Never circulated this one. When I saw it on the list, my initial thought was "I've been sitting on this a couple years. I need to get it out there." Then I saw I taped this 9 years ago. How can time pass so slowly and so quickly at the same time?

Guessing this may be @jamieanderson1968's bag...

Primal Scream - The Visulite Theatre, Charlotte, NC 5-13-2015 - Kill All Hippies

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Very nice. Primal Scream are like JAMC, when they are on they are like a bulldozer
 
My recent road trip to see Neil Young & Crazy Horse in Alpharetta (4 hours down, eat dinner and see the show with @Hemotep, 4 hours back) triggered the recollection of another one-day jaunt of similar proportion.

It's gotta be a really important band to me to warrant 8 hours of windshield time to see a couple hours of music. NY&CH definitely qualify. So do The Jesus & Mary Chain.

For Neil, I headed down I-85 across 3 states and hung a right above Atlanta into Alpharetta. For JAMC, it was practically an identical trip timewise, but I hung a left instead and headed into Athens.

Love this band. One of my Top 5. Taped this from front row center of the balcony...

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Georgia Theatre, Athens, GA - 12-13-2016

Reverence...



Nine Million Rainy Days...

 
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The loss of Bill Walton hit me hard. @TenderLovingKiller® had a status update paying tribute to Grateful Red and @imtheocean linked a video in the comments that sent me to the bowels of ye olde hard drive to retrieve a smattering of this show I taped back in 2012.

I was given tickets to this one in the 11th hour. Wasn't expecting much. One of the best shows I saw that year...

Mickey Hart Band - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 4-18-12 - Fire On The Mountain


 
Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
The loss of Bill Walton hit me hard. @TenderLovingKiller® had a status update paying tribute to Grateful Red and @imtheocean linked a video in the comments that sent me to the bowels of ye olde hard drive to retrieve a smattering of this show I taped back in 2012.

I was given tickets to this one in the 11th hour. Wasn't expecting much. One of the best shows I saw that year...

Mickey Hart Band - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 4-18-12 - Fire On The Mountain


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That's a great recording! Thanks for sharing.
 
Been mining the depths of ye olde hard drive and occasionally pulling up a forgotten gem.

Brian Jonestown Massacre recorded 15 years ago. They played one set that lasted about 2.5 hours.

Anton was well behaved...

Brian Jonestown Massacre - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 4-8-09 When Jokers Attack>Sailor

 
In the last half of the 90s. I struck up a friendship with Scott Lucas and Joe Daniels of Local H. Would always tape them when they came to town. Would always request 'Cynic'. They'd always begrudgingly do it even though they said it was such an intense song it drained them. Really good dudes.

On this particular occasion in 1997, the Local H opener was Failure touring in support of Fantastic Planet. I was rollin'...

 
More late nights. More IPA. More trawling the depths of ye olde hard drive.

Taped this back in 2006 in a smallish room. Likely the only time you'll ever hear Buddy Guy apologize for saying motherfucker. Still don't know where that remorse came from. Or why.

A hot Johnny Guitar Watson cover...

Buddy Guy - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 10-10-2006 - A Real Mutha For Ya


 
Asheville used to have a sweet free music and arts festival every summer called Bele Chere. It ran for over three decades. Bele Chere (ancient Scottish for 'beautiful living') began as a way to help revitalize a derelict downtown full of vacant buildings and low patronage and was eventually killed by the revitalized downtown business owners who considered it a pain in the ass. Irony.

Here's a pretty sweet capture from one of those festivals. We got RL Burnside and his usual 90's band (Kenny Brown on guitar and Cedric Burnside on drums) with Warren Haynes who sat in for half the set.

Taped this on the down-low standing in the middle of a drunken throng with my mics clipped to my hat. It's outdoors so there's a bit of phasing due to the wind but doesn't really degrade things that much.

Don't miss RL's toast at the end...

RL Burnside With Warren Haynes - Bele Chere, Asheville, NC 7-26-2001 - Goin' Down South


 
Another night, another hard drive dive...

Story around this one - Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears were the opener on this tour. I'd been communicating with Black Joe Lewis, and he gave me permission to record his set. Showed up at the venue, flashed the email Black Joe had sent me, and was told to wait til they checked it out. About 10 minutes later, a guy came back and told me I was good to go.

I entered the venue, found a nice spot about 40 feet back right beside the soundboard and set up the complete mic stand regalia in full view. Taped Black Joe's smoking set and hit the bar. Came back about 20 minutes later and just hung out around my gear while the headliner made their final tweaks. Waited, anticipated, expected to be asked to break my gear down and not record.

That request never materialized. I hit record and you folks can now enjoy some smokin' New York Dolls.

Thanks for everything Arthur Kane, Sylvain Sylvain, Billy Murcia and Johnny Thunders...

New York Dolls - Amos' Southend, Charlotte, NC 6-15-2009 - You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory > Lonely Planet Boy

 
Tonight's dip into the murky digital storage depths...

This is one of the earliest live NIN recordings you're likely to run across.

Taped this in a 1K capacity room in 1990. NIN was touring in support of Pretty Hate Machine and appeared as the opener for The Jesus And Mary Chain. That, my friends, was a double bill.

I've pulled better recordings, I've pulled worse. Quite listenable, nonetheless....

Nine Inch Nails - The 13.13 Club, Charlotte, NC - 2-25-1990 - Head Like A Hole


 
Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
Tonight's dip into the murky digital storage depths...

This is one of the earliest live NIN recordings you're likely to run across.

Taped this in a 1K capacity room in 1990. NIN was touring in support of Pretty Hate Machine and appeared as the opener for The Jesus And Mary Chain. That, my friends, was a double bill.

I've pulled better recordings, I've pulled worse. Quite listenable, nonetheless....

Nine Inch Nails - The 13.13 Club, Charlotte, NC - 2-25-1990 - Head Like A Hole
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Richard Patrick was playing guitar in this lineup. Underrated guitar player. And I think this was before Jeff Ward briefly replaced Chris Vrenna on drums. RIP Jeff.

The energy is palpable! What a show!
 
Posted a song from the opener last time. Tonight we got the headliner.

Fell in love with The Jesus And Mary Chain in 1985. Would be five years later before I had a chance to see them live.

The 13.13 Club was a converted elevator company warehouse that held about 900. A hard room with lots of brick but always managed to sound pretty decent there. I saw so many great shows there in the 90s. I wasn't more excited about any one than this one.

A couple things I remember most about the show -

The lighting. There were no lights whatsoever shining on the band. All illumination came from behind the band and shone out toward the crowd. Perfect lighting treatment to create a sinister, dangerous atmosphere.

The sound. This recording comes nowhere close to duplicating what this was like live. The low end was constant - it tried to bludgeon a hole clean thru your body. Depending on the song and which pedals were pushed by William, the guitars tried to either slice you to bits, shatter you like glass or grind your flesh down to the bone.

It was beautiful.

William lets loose right proper on this one...

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Kill Surf City - The 13.13 Club, Charlotte, NC 2-25-90


 
Here's one for @ranbalam

Masters Of Reality taped in 1990 in a smallish room.

A few notes from this show -
  • Ginger Baker was the drummer.
  • This was post S/T and pre Sunrise On The Sufferbus but a few songs that would end up on the latter record were played.
  • After a couple songs Chris Goss told us to settle in cause "it's gonna be a long ride" and then proceeded to play a 75 minute set. Not exactly my definition of "long ride" but I reckon it's all relative.
Even though the show was kinda short, it was really good. I made some sonic adjustments to this one and it sounds much better than I remember when I initially taped it. Listened through cans and just like long rides, sound is subjective so it might not jive for you. I'm fair and square so I'll refund your purchase price if not satisfied.

Here's 'John Brown' with a nice, extended acoustic slide intro...

Masters Of Reality - John Brown - 13.13 Club, Charlotte, NC 10-18-1990

 
Tonight's bootleg foolishness brought to you by Queens Of The Stone Age...and me, of course.

A blistering QOTSA set on their first trip to Asheville. Based on a lot of fan feedback this was one of the best shows of the tour. The band was sharp and the the set contained eight songs from "Era Vulgaris" that came across great live. Some choice older gems are mixed in here as well. We also got a great version of "The Fun Machine Took A Shit And Died". Josh mentioned spending the day walking around Asheville and how much he liked the town.

I was behind and above the masses at this sold-out show so there is very minimal crowd noise on my recording. My thanks go out to the band for embracing recording and to Hutch for his hospitality around the board.

Surreal moment of the night - I had my gear set up on the riser beside the board. Just before QOTSA were about to go on, a gent accompanied by a tall redhead was ushered in the opposite side and set up behind the soundboard. Both were pretty nattily dressed. The dude had on a boiler hat, high collared coat and he looked really familiar, but I couldn't place him immediately. After a few minutes, my little pea brain processed the visual info being sent and I finally realized - it's Jack White! What the hell is he doin' here? The tall redhead was Karen Elson. They stayed behind the board all night. At one point Jack had on some headphones and was helping Hutch mix the show. He seemed to be having a lot of fun. They stayed for all the main set and were whisked out just before the encore. Well......OK.

Queens Of the Stone Age - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 9-24-2007 - You Can't Quit Me Baby

 
Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
Tonight's bootleg foolishness brought to you by Queens Of The Stone Age...and me, of course.

A blistering QOTSA set on their first trip to Asheville. Based on a lot of fan feedback this was one of the best shows of the tour. The band was sharp and the the set contained eight songs from "Era Vulgaris" that came across great live. Some choice older gems are mixed in here as well. We also got a great version of "The Fun Machine Took A Shit And Died". Josh mentioned spending the day walking around Asheville and how much he liked the town.

I was behind and above the masses at this sold-out show so there is very minimal crowd noise on my recording. My thanks go out to the band for embracing recording and to Hutch for his hospitality around the board.

Surreal moment of the night - I had my gear set up on the riser beside the board. Just before QOTSA were about to go on, a gent accompanied by a tall redhead was ushered in the opposite side and set up behind the soundboard. Both were pretty nattily dressed. The dude had on a boiler hat, high collared coat and he looked really familiar, but I couldn't place him immediately. After a few minutes, my little pea brain processed the visual info being sent and I finally realized - it's Jack White! What the hell is he doin' here? The tall redhead was Karen Elson. They stayed behind the board all night. At one point Jack had on some headphones and was helping Hutch mix the show. He seemed to be having a lot of fun. They stayed for all the main set and were whisked out just before the encore. Well......OK.

Queens Of the Stone Age - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 9-24-2007 - You Can't Quit Me Baby
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A nice 1-2 there, Unc! Always think the Chris Goss influence on Queens isn’t given the mention it should, at least for those not in the know…
 
Tonight's selection courtesy of one of my favorite bands - The Cult.

At this gig, I used my tried and true method to get my gear into a traditional non-taping show - I'd ask the opening band for their permission to record and see where it went from there after I was inside. Followed that strategy at this show and it didn't (but also did) pan out.

Was given permission to tape and waited patiently at the door for security to hash everything out while my friends went in and secured a spot. Turns out my credentials couldn't be verified, and I was turned away. Before lugging my gear back to the car, I asked security if I could fast track entry on the side since I'd waited a half an hour getting shut out. They were totally cool and told me to hit the VIP line and go right in.

I took my big recording rig back to the car, stuffed my stealth rig anywhere it fit, and headed back to the club. The muscle kept their word, and I walked right in.

There was a balcony running around the perimeter of Amos' about 20' high. My friends had secured a balcony table dead center. I got creative, clipped my mics to my hat and placed my hat on the floor of the balcony underneath the table.

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then.

The Cult - Amos' Southend, Charlotte, NC 9-8-2009 - Big Neon Glitter

 
Tonight's installment - my first live encounter with Yo La Tengo 27 years ago...

Taped this in a slightly boomy room near the back. Mics placed on top of a ledge about 7 feet high in an attempt to quell the residual environmental noise. Sound settles in nicely once you give your ears a chance to sync with the recording profile. If you invest in this one, you will be rewarded.

Ira is always on top of things happening in the city they're playing as well as a sports fan. An exchange during this show...

"So, Muggsy Bogues. The MRI. Should he? Shouldn't he?" (Random shit yelled from the crowd) "I thought so."

If you're unfamiliar, this is a long, gorgeous instrumental that runs the gentle>loud>harsh>harsher>gentle gauntlet over the course of 10 minutes. Enjoy.

Yo La Tengo - Tremont Music Hall, Charlotte, NC 10-3-1997 - I Heard You Looking


 
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