2008-09-30

My Bloody Valentine + Spectrum - 2008-09-30 - Concourse Design Center SF

 

Photoset by Donte

This post is to fully document the MBV/Spectrum Concourse Design Center SF show, which is probably the loudest show most people who went have ever been to!

For more recollections, please visit the Alternapop site.

Spectrum
2008-09-30
Concourse Design Center
San Francisco CA USA

taper:      lammah
location:   About 20' in front of the mixing desk in the center of the warehouse
equipment:  Sonic Studios DSM-6L mics > bat box > iPod 5th gen classic w/Belkin Tunetalk mic/line-in >  Adobe Audition > CD Wave Editor (tracksplits) > FLAC(6)

tracklist:
01 - Transparent Radiation  (7:47)
02 - How You Satisfy Me   (5:27)
03 - When Tomorrow Hits   (5:13)
04 - Revolution  (11:51)
05 - Suicide   (11:32)

Total 41:46


Peter Kember and company playing as "Spectrum"...almost lost in the Noise that is MBV.

The last gasp for this particular iPod as it had enough of being subjected to the aural assault of MBV and locked up.  Ended up having to pull out the HD and having to hook it up and recover the data on there, unfortunately damaging the internal cable soldered to the unit.  I did recover the MBV set (recorded up to midway of 'Soon') but the copy dmaster shared on DIME is far superior to mine, so I  don't think I'll be seeding it.  [note: mine will make its debut here!]

I had do some tweaking with this to get it to sound listenable, involving dealing with brickwalling due to overdriving the mic-in, parametric re-EQ and notching out an annoying 8500hz whine that for 
some reason I was picking up.  I did shortly afterwards purchase an Edirol... There's also a brief stutter at 3:55 of 'Transparent Radiation' no idea what caused that.  Nor can I explain the slagging-off of EAR at the start, to each their own I guess.

obEarplugs:  yes, I did take out my earplugs for MBV, which weren't the venue-supplied ones. For about 5 seconds.  One would have to have been insane or stoned (or at the very back) to listen to Shields and Co. without them, even to the songs before YMMR's 'holocaust' section.

PLEASE:  Do not redistribute for material gain or make MP3 transcodes of this recording publicly available

Video recordings 

Transparent Radiation (1:30, the second half audio-only)  (chasingphantoms)


This is the only known video for Spectrum, though I did find a clip from them playing at the Hemlock Tavern that got missed in my original compilation of Hemlock live clips.

Revolution, live 27 Sept 2008, Hemlock Tavern, 8:31, filmed by ymousavinia
Excellent quality!



MBV after the break....

2008-09-26

Mission Of Burma - 2008-09-26 - The Independent SF



Mission Of Burma
2008-09-26
The Independent
San Francisco CA
USA

taper: lammah
equipment:  Sonic Studios DSM-6L binaurals > batbox > Belkin Tunetalk > iPod Nano 2nd gen
processing: Adobe Audition (re-EQ/declip/compression) > CD Wave Editor (tracksplits) > FLAC(6)

Setlist

00 - pre-gig  [12:33]
01 - Playland  [2:58]
02 - Peking Spring  [4:29]
03 - Nu Disco  [3:53]
04 - Eyes Of Men  [3:14]
05 - Anti-Aircraft Warning  [2:29]
06 - Academy Fight Song  [3:40]
07 - Max Ernst  [3:17]
08 - Devotion  [4:13]
09 - Execution  [2:42]
10 - That's When I Reach For My Revolver  [4:17]
11 - Outlaw  [3:16]
12 - Fame And Fortune  [3:49]
13 - This Is Not A Photograph  [7:12]
14 - All World Cowboy Romance  [6:33]
15 - 1001 Pleasant Dreams  [4:48]

16 - 2Wice  [3:35]
17 - Let Yourself Go  [4:00]

Total  81:06

DOWNLOAD / STREAM  some MoB....

(contemporaneous writeup)

Here they are, Mission Of Burma doing "Signals, Calls and Marches" in its entirety.  Well, almost, don't think they did "Red".  Can I get my money back?  Only kidding, these guys certainly didn't disappoint.  In fact, they smoked.

Amazing as their old stuff is (I have truly died happy seeing 'Revolver' played live), their lastest album (Obliterati) seems to pick up where they left off...2Wice (encored here) is simply an amazing song.

I'd say I was let down by my kit, but it should have been expected given the sheer volume of their sound, which caused the auto-leveller in the Belkin to muffle everything due to attack of the drums.  

I've tried best to correct it, but for these sorts of shows I'm better off using my Hi-MD recorder and setting levels manually, which I better do if I have any hope of capturing MBV next Tuesday night.  Still, it sounds pretty decent.  There's a brief cut partway into "Outlaw" due to the iPod deciding to tracksplit, but it's a very small bit, and I've trimmed a little bit off to get the drumbeat to line up.

I've included some blurry photos (including a quite striking one of their backline which has OBURMA FOR OBAMA written on it) and a scan of the ticket. [P]

If you're wondering, I did tape the opening act (Hank IV, a local punk act best described as being fronted by a dead ringer for Christopher Hitchens w/o the posh UK accent) but accidentally deleted it!  Both tomzero and arrrrr32 say I didn't miss much, as while they were entertaining, their set wasn't one for the ages.  tomzero said he was writhing like Ian Curtis channeled through Ricky Gervais.  Ouch. [1]

REMEMBER, KIDS
*  While there's nothing I can do about this being converted to MP3 and being put up on Rapidshare, I'd prefer you dont.  Keep it lossless. [1]
*  Please do not leverage for material gain.  Bootlegging for profit sucks. [2]

lammah (my DIME handle)

Notes

[P]  This cam a month before the 2008 election where the "hope and change" of one Barack Obama would just turn out to be politics as usual.  Let's just say the president after him would deliver anything but, and of this writing is still scheming to stay in power even after his successor has won both the popular vote and the Electoral College.

[1]  This was written in 2008.  Turns out that I would catch Hank IV in May 2011, opening for A-Frames, and liked them quite a bit more than what my compatriots would have suggested, though perhaps even then they're still a bit PBN (Punk By Numbers)

[2]  Not as bothered now about K.I.L.L. (Keep It LossLess).  In fact, I'd subsequently start upping my recordings to YouTube.

[3] This is still very true!  

According to their Wikipedia, as of June 2020, the band is finished, so this is a good memento to document their live prowess.

I should add the following:

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.


2008-09-19

Odessa Chen / Carta / John Vecchiarella - 2008-09-19 - Hotel Utah SF

 


All sets recorded by myself with the following rig:
Sonic Studios DSM-6L > SS PA-06 batbox > Belkin Tunetalk > iPod nano 2nd gen 8Gb

As far as I know, none of it has ever been circulated, though the tracksplits/preparation were done shortly after this was recorded.

John Vecchiarella 

 

sc/01 11:09 
sc/02  8:27 
   01  5:40 
   02  4:10  
   03  3:49
   04  4:45
   05  3:48
   06  4:15
   07  5:13
   08  5:34
   09  3:27

Sorry, I have no track IDs for these.  Seems to have featured quite a bit of handling noise, and a bit of conversation with Carta.

 

Carta 

 

 00 soundchecking  3:56 
 01 Sexton   5:18 
 02 Santander   4:34 
 03 Hourglass   5:28 
 04 Sidereal  5:19 
 05 Perdido  5:56 
 06 Descension  10:21
 07 outro   1:31  
 
For Carta, "Santander" / "Hourglass" / "Sidereal" / "Descension" was released on 2010's An Index Of Birds.  Perdido appears on 2007's The Glass Bottom Boat.  As far as I know, first track "Sexton" (which is outstanding) has never been officially released.
 
 
 

Odessa Chen 

 

00 soundchecking  5:42 
01 Kill The Lights  4:58 
02 Made Up My Mind   4:36 
03 Harm  6:10 
04 Between Twilight and the Morning (new one)   4:35 
05 Snow Angels  5:17 
06 'Your Arms Around Me'  6:32 
07 The Ballad Of Paper Ships  4:23 
08 Small Birds  5:35 
09 outro  0:52
 
Both of these acts have gorgeous instrumentation, and Odessa wass in fine voice here for this show.  I remember the acoustics were weird because the bar was outside of the interior gig room but seemed to wrap around, so you could never quite forget that playing at the Utah was still in effect a bar show.

A couple of notes for songs played by Odessa.

"Between Twilight and the Morning" (which I had listed as 'Between Today and Tomorrow' and have amended) is on her 2013 EP Invisible Stories. 
 
I'm not sure if 'Your Arms Around Me' was ever released.
 
She sang vocals on a couple of Carta songs on their first album.

 
Some videos....  they're linked to a playlist so it should show you others of here.
 

Kill The Lights

 
 

Harm



Finally, I saw this on her contact page. 

I’m well aware of my shortcomings…so please hold any criticism and use it to inform the creation of your own work.  - ODESSA CHEN 

Well said.   I can tell you having produced a few of my own original works... I am in no way qualified to inform my own works with any criticism I may have of others!  That's not to say I can't critique the phenomenon of someone like Miley Ray Cyrus in terms of the lack of equilibrium in terms of her position in the mainstream or as a part of the machinery inherent in the sausage grinder of late capitalism (versus her own musical ability and muses), but what have I done compared to someone like that, much less someone like Odessa?