Live Music Is Better - The Taper's Thread

One from a killer hill country blues band in an intimate room...

Struck up a friendship with Steve Malcolm (Lightnin' Malcolm) - an incredibly talented and great dude - and his booking agent over the years and always got permission to record when they passed thru the area. His partner in the band, Cedric Burnside, is RL Burnsides's grandson. I'd seen Cedric play with RL back in the 90's.

I love these guys, not just for their stellar playing, but for their commitment to keeping the hill country blues alive as an art form. It's unique, it's special and it's disappearing. A handful of artists like these guys are sustaining life support.

This show was at The Evening Muse, an intimate room that maxed out at 100 if you really packed it. The owner (Joe) really cares about sound in his venue. I remember the first time I taped there - set up my mics about halfway back and asked Joe if I could get a board patch. "If you really want one, I can do it. But where you're set up with the equipment you have, you're good." He was right.

Taped this flying a pair of mics about 25' from the stage. Requested this song during the set (I had heard them play it live before, but it was still unreleased) and got the immediate response from Ced and Steve.

Listen to this and you'll get what Joe was sayin'.

Turn this shit up!

Cedric Burnside & Lightnin' Malcolm - 'Me And My Lyin' Ass' - The Evening Muse, Charlotte, NC 12-1-2010

 
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Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
There are very few bands that can seamlessly flow from cocktail music to ballads to pop to rock to alternative to blinding white noise and do it all supreme justice.

What an anomaly. What an underrated band. What an absolute treasure.
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I saw them on this tour. Georgia had a sore throat that night so she didn’t sing. It was all Ira songs and instrumentals. A lot of psyche guitar freak outs that night.
 
Don't think I've posted any of my Meat Puppets recordings before so to make up for lost time, here's a double shot.

Really nice recording which is what you usually get in the intimate Visulite.

Fun fact - Doug Sahm's son, Shandon, was the drummer on this tour.

This one is crankable...

Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun > Backwater - The Visulite Theatre, Charlotte, NC 9-21-2011


 
The early 90s meant alternative and grunge bands were feasting on heavy radio play, big record sales, playing large venues and big paydays.

The early 90s meant many incredible bands weren't getting played, record sales were down, and they were playing small, intimate rooms you'd never dream of seeing them in.

And that brings us to tonight's post - The Kinks in a 600-capacity club.

Recorded in the middle of a raucous, sold-out crowd but quite solid. Great show. The Kinks always brought it live...

The Kinks - Low Budget - Rocky's, Charlotte, NC 4-27-1993


 
Here's one from the glory days of the Carowinds Palladium.

Been revisiting some Jeff Healey recently and rediscovering what an incredible guitar player he was.

"You can lay it down just like Jimi. That's pretty impressive. What's that? What? You're blind? What!"

Taped this JH set when he was opening for Little Feat. Kinda felt sorry for Little Feat...

Jeff Healey - 'See The Light' - Carowinds Palladium, Charlotte, NC 8-12-1989

 
Who loves Mavis Staples?

Actually, who doesn't love Mavis Staples.

If you got a problem with Mavis, you got a problem.

I managed to make a pretty good recording of Mavis covering Talking Heads in a 1K capacity room from a spot way in the back. Good times...

Mavis Staples - 'Slippery People' - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 11-13-2016


 
Most folks know Tim Reynolds as an excellent foil to Dave Mathews, but he's got a thumpin' power trio in TR3 that smokes that DMB shit.

TR3 played a local Oktoberfest 11 years ago and I was present maintaining my already tarnished reputation with many beers a'flowin' and lotsa tape a'rollin'.

A soulful cover of Purple Rain that The Unpronounceable Symbol would bless...

TR3 - 'Purple Rain' - Oktoberfest, Hickory, NC 10-12-2013

 
And now for something completely different...

Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad bringing some summer to the dead of winter.

Pretty nice sound on this one - GPGDS embraces and encourages tapers, so the mics were flyin' openly in the sweet spot.

Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad - Ther Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 2-10-2010

 
Here's a fun one - Death Valley Girls.

A wondrous amalgam of psych punk featuring the supersonic vocals and Farfisa organ of Bonnie Bloomgarden.

Taped this when DVG were opening for Roky Erickson.

Fun fact - Larry Schemel, DVG guitarist and brother of Patty, also played guitar for Roky at this show.

Death Valley Girls - 'Disaster Is What We're After' - The Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC 9-2-2017

 
If you've never dug into the diverse and wonderful music of Alejandro Escovedo, what are you waiting for?

Here's a song about the Chelsea Hotel with a story about AE opening for The Sex Pistols and trading baseball cards with Sid Vicious.

Taped this gig as a duo with Alejandro on guitar and Susan Voelz on violin.

Don't let that instrumentation fool you - this shiz rocks...

Alejandro Escovedo & Susan Voelz - 'Chelsea Hotel '78' - The Visulite Theatre, Charlotte, NC


 
X has announced their final album and just embarked on their final tour.

If you've never seen X, go see them. If you've seen X, you already know you need to go see them.

I taped this show 15 years ago. Here's the 3-song encore of How I Learned My Lesson > Blue Spark > Soul Kitchen...


X - 'How I Learned My Lesson - Blue Spark - Soul Kitchen' - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 6-11-2009


 
Here's one from a band I really liked that never quite caught on.

Earl Greyhound was an interracial NYC power trio that could bring the raw power, the power pop and all other things a band with varied influence multiple singers could. I still have the shirt I bought at this show which had the sublime tagline "Mix The Races, Melt Your Faces".

This is the one and only time I remember having a chance to see them live. They were the opener on a JJ Grey & Mofro / Shooter Jennings triple bill.

This song is the closest they ever came to breaking through. It highlights pretty much everything Earl Greyhound did well, but it's a perfect showcase for drummer Ricc Sheridan. This guy plays with the power and swing of Bonham, and he is an absolute beast.

You get the idea on this enjoyable but imperfect recording so I'm gonna link the official video so you can bask in the power of Ricc.

Earl Greyhound - 'S.O.S.' - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 10-29-2009





Hey @MyWifeHatesTrain - Kamara Thomas, the badass bassist/vocalist in this band has been living in Durham for quite a few years. She fell back to Americana/World/Activist roots after EG. She's a vocalist on the Meltdown Rodeo record. Maybe you caught her somewhere and didn't realize any connection?
 
Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
Here's one from a band I really liked that never quite caught on.

Earl Greyhound was an interracial NYC power trio that could bring the raw power, the power pop and all other things a band with varied influence multiple singers could. I still have the shirt I bought at this show which had the sublime tagline "Mix The Races, Melt Your Faces".

This is the one and only time I remember having a chance to see them live. They were the opener on a JJ Grey & Mofro / Shooter Jennings triple bill.

This song is the closest they ever came to breaking through. It highlights pretty much everything Earl Greyhound did well, but it's a perfect showcase for drummer Ricc Sheridan. This guy plays with the power and swing of Bonham, and he is an absolute beast.

You get the idea on this enjoyable but imperfect recording so I'm gonna link the official video so you can bask in the power of Ricc.

Earl Greyhound - 'S.O.S.' - The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 10-29-2009





Hey @MyWifeHatesTrain - Kamara Thomas, the badass bassist/vocalist in this band has been living in Durham for quite a few years. She fell back to Americana/World/Activist roots after EG. She's a vocalist on the Meltdown Rodeo record. Maybe you caught her somewhere and didn't realize any connection?
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Am unfamiliar beyond Meltdown. Will probably go down that rabbit hole though.
 
I was lucky enough to see Lou Reed live 3 times in my life. This is from the last gig. Lou in a 1k capacity club. Never thought I'd see him in a room that small but that was a fringe benefit of how screwed up things were in the late 2000s music industry.

This tour was very special as Lou brought Steve Hunter back into the fold after decades of absence. Steve is one of the incredible guitarists along with Dick Wagner on the 'Rock 'N Roll Animal' record. Sublime Lou.

Here are two songs from my recording.

The first, 'I Wanna Know' from the LP 'The Raven', is based, like all of that record, on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Lou is often described as deadpan, but this performance featuring a call and response vocal with Tony "Thunder" Smith is like VU in a southern church on Sunday morning. Relentless soul and power.

'Video Violence' maintains the vocal emotion from Lou and adds some guitar fireworks from Steve Hunter.

This was such a great show. I was so privileged to be there.

Lou Reed Live At the Orange Peel, Asheville, NC 4-26-2008





 
Tonight's mining of ye olde hard drive uncovered a fairly recent nugget - Bob Mould solo electric recording in a tiny room 5 years ago.

If you've never seen Bob Mould solo electric, just picture Bob Mould playing with a full band and eliminate the other members of the band. The same ferocity and energy are there.

This is a straight soundboard feed which I usually hate on their own for their dryness and holes in volume of instruments. Since this was just guitar and voice, I could work with it on its own more easily. The vocals were way more up front so I applied some compression to level things out and added just a bit of EQ for warmth.

It's one you can definitely crank...

Bob Mould - Hoover Dam>Stand Guard>See A Little Light - The Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC 9-22-2019

 
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Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
Tonight's mining of ye olde hard drive uncovered a fairly recent nugget - Bob Mould solo electric recording in a tiny room 5 years ago.

If you've never seen Bob Mould solo electric, just picture Bob Mould playing with a full band and eliminate the other members of the band. The same ferocity and energy are there.

This is a straight soundboard feed which I usually hate on their own for their dryness and holes in volume of instruments. Since this was just guitar and voice, I could work with it on its own more easily. The vocals were way more up front so I applied some compression to level things out and added just a bit of EQ for warmth.

It's one you can definitely crank...

Bob Mould - Hoover Dam>Stand Guard>See A Little Light - The Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC 9-22-2019
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He’s playing solo electric in Melbourne in October. I wasn’t going to bother, but I might have to check this out.
 
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