Chameleons Vox
2011-11-16
The New Parish
Oakland CA
taper: thehappyone
gear : Church Audio CA-11 cardoids > Olympus LS-5
set
00 - intro (1:39)
01 - Don't Fall (4:05)
02 - Here Today (3:49)
03 - Monkeyland (5:17) (YouTube: babyletscruise66)
04 - Second Skin (8:24) (YouTube: candlesdie) (babyletscruise66)
05 - Up The Down Escalator (4:03) (YouTube: benlweible)
06 - Less Than Human (4:21)
07 - Pleasure and Pain (4:47)
08 - Thursday's Child (3:58)
09 - As High As You Can Go (3:54)
10 - A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days (5:06)
11 - Paper Tigers (4:16)
12 - View From A Hill (9:36) /band intros/
encore
13 - Nostalga (5:34) (YouTube: benlweible)
14 - In Shreds (4:59)
15 - Things I Wish I'd Said (false start) (0:09)
16 - Things I Wish I'd Said (6:22)
DOWNLOAD - FLACs in a zipfile
MP3 version is available as well
(Original notes included with the DIME seed, which is still running!):This is a 16-bit / 44.1kHz recording. Total 80:28, slightly CD-R unfriendly, I'm afraid...if you have to use that archaic you can trim off the audience encore calls after the end of 'View From A Hill'.
Very special as this is the first time the Chameleons (Vox UK version) had played the entirety of 'Script Of The Bridge', meaning airings of a few songs not played live for an age and anon. Both Chris Oliver from BSL and John Lever played for both the Vox and opening act Black Swan Lane, whom I also found enjoyable. Nice to see Lever behind the skins, as I reckon the drum intro to "Soul In Isolation" (not played tonight) an absolute masterpiece.
I really can't fault the performance or Mark's impassioned delivery, as he sounds as good as ever, though I found the Vox US version from last year more intriguing because one could relate to the enthusiasm of young musicians struggling to achieve the Chameleons sound versus the more accomplished ensemble playing the more recent dates. I've seen some amazing shows this year, so the bar's set very high, so
I had to adjust my expectations appropriately here. Still, this was worth seeing...though the experienced was marred by a few drunkards choosing to storm in during 'A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days', ironically enough.
Back to Birdy...
It's easy to compare him to another Manchester bassist of note, though of course considering he's also the original vocalist, unlike that other personage, there's little worry about in terms of inappropriateness...though I'm eager to see him write and perform new songs at some point in the future again, since he is a marvelously talented songwriter/performer and by (almost) all accounts a seriously generous, kind person.
Think the Church mics (clipped to the inside of my Kangol) did this show fair justice, only adjustment was a little bit of channel balancing, as for some reason it sounded a bit unbalanced towards the right channel.
Kudos to bcingyou for getting his version out so quickly, by the way! It's still available on DIME.
REMEMBER
* Do not redistribute for material gain!
* Please preserve this information file, I'm actually okay with MP3 transcodes (not on DIME of course!), but it pains me when any information about the origins of a recording get lost.
* Above all, enjoy and PLAY LOUD!
Notes for the AMH edition:
This turns out to have been a superlative recording, I was excellently positioned. Some of these songs haven't been heard live since the early 80s, if ever.
I have to say that Mark Burgess is probably in as fine vocal form as any artist who has been performing his material for 30+ years. As mentioned, I videoed the last main set track and all the encore tracks, but unfortunately lost these in a HDD crash. I also didn't go to the Club Du Nord show a few days later.
Up The Down Escalator: "There's no Eden...there's no Eden anyway". I can now report that Mark has finally found (update: and lost) his Eden.
Videos from both 2011 Bay Area appearances
Monkeyland - 2011-11-16 The New Parish (babyletscruise66)
Second Skin - 2011-11-16 The New Parish (babyletscruise66)
Second Skin - 2011-11-16 The New Parish (candlesdie)
Up The Down Escalator - 2011-11-16 The New Parish (benlweible)
View From A Hill - 2011-11-16 The New Parish (benlweble)
Swamp Thing - 2011-11-20 Club Du Nord (marcoantonio)
Swamp Thing - 2011-11-20 Club Du Nord (logiclust)
Swamp Thing - 2011-11-20 Club Du Nord (candlesdie)
Second Skin - 2011-11-20 Club Du Nord (marcoantonio)
A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days - 2011-11-20 Club Du Nord (NashSpaceRocket)
Soul In Isolation - 2011-11-20 Club Du Nord (candlesdie)
