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boston area events of note:


thursday, january 8th

forest henderson

the new collisions

the lights out

sir q

@ great scott


saturday, january 10th

head automatica

radio 4

@ great scott


sunday, january 11th

whistlejacket

voxhaul broadcast

local natives

the union line

@ tt the bears


monday, january 12th

varsity drag

the rationales

nate rogers (ex-scamper)

@ tt the bears


thursday, january 15th

illinois

@ great scott


thursday, january 15th

the raveonettes

@ the paradise


friday, january 16th

dear leader

hallelujah the hills

faces on film

@ the paradise


saturday, january 17th

the rosebuds

the love language

the fatal flaw

@ the middle east downstairs


sunday, january 18th

frightened rabbit

@ great scott


sunday, january 18th

department of eagles

@ the brattle theatre


saturday, january 24th

longwave

wheat

bon savants

@ great scott


saturday, january 24th

arts at the armory benefit

mission of burma

the neighborhoods

@ the somerville theatre


saturday, january 24th

vic chesnutt

elf power

@ the middle east


tuesday, january 27th

annuals

jessica lee mayfield

what laura says

@ the paradise


friday, january 30th

andrew bird

loney dear

@ the orpheum


wednesday, february 4th

the pretenders

@ the orpheum


thursday, february 5th

illinois

mean creek

you can be a wesley (cd release)

@ great scott


wednesday, february 11th

the godfathers

@ the middle east down


friday, february 13th

los campesinos!

@ the paradise


saturday, february 14th

animal hospital

travels (cd release!)

arms & sleepers

mary page

@ pa's lounge


sunday, february 15th

the pains of being pure at heart

pants yell!

the depreciation guild

@ the middle east upstairs


sunday, february 15th

fujiya & miyagi

@ the paradise


wednesday, february 18th

m. ward

@ the somerville theatre


saturday, february 21st

norm macdonald

@ the wilbur theatre


tuesday, february 24th

ben kweller

the watson twins

@ the somerville theatre


tuesday, february 24th

tapes 'n tapes

wild light

@ the paradise


wednesday, february 25th

comedian eugene mirman

'the will to whatevs' book tour

@ the brookline booksmith


thursday, february 26th

jimmy eat world

'clarity 10th anniversary tour'

@ the new house of blues


thursday, february 26th

blizten trapper

alela diane

@ the paradise


saturday, february 28th

swirlies!

gregory & the hawk

@ the middle east up


saturday, february 28th

fountains of wayne (acoustic)

everyday visuals (acoustic)

@ the paradise


saturday, march 7th

airborne toxic event

alberta cross

henry clay people

@ the paradise


wednesday, march 11th

fleetwood mac

@ the garden


saturday, march 14th

throwing muses

screaming females

50 foot wave

@ the middle east downstairs


saturday, march 14th

a.c. newman (new pornographers)

with dent may & his

magnificent ukulele

@ the paradise


sunday, march 29th

morrissey

@ the house of blues


visit tourfilter for more shows




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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Mp3s: My Bloody Valentine @ ATP NY

Well, here it is, the first full set I'm sharing from my seems-like-a-dream trip to the inaugural All Tomorrow's Parties NY in the Catkills last month, and I'm starting at the end with My Bloody Valentine's grand festival finale. I've been debating not posting this one -- how could my tiny clip-on stereo mic possibly funnel what MBV delivers? These Mp3s can't reproduce the full-body experience of being inside the Stardust Ballroom at the kitschy Kutsher's Country Club for that aural assault. If you know MBV, you know this was their first stateside appearance in 16 years, and it was the only way to cap off 3 days and 35 opening bands. Hell, there was no logistical way they could have headlined any other day -- I'm sure there was a risk that the speakers on that special-ordered sound system (and some attendees ears) wouldn't survive it. Better to get every other band out of the way just in case.


I've written before about my favorite-ever live shows here on the 'Nac, but for new visitors, I count MBV's 1992 appearance at Axis in Boston (with openers Buffalo Tom and Mercury Rev) in my all-time top five. I went in expecting greatness, and came out transformed. The 16-minute intentional-catastrophe during "You Made Me Realise" (long-since dubbed 'the holocaust') was easily the most intense in-concert experience I'd had in my life to that point, made moreso by the fact that it was entirely unexpected. With the internet still in its infancy, I'd not read much about that tour on Usenet groups, and it was only another rabid fan in the front row beside me who said "You will not believe what they do at the end." as we waited for them to take the stage. He'd seen them the night before and was still reeling (and he's also the reason I know exactly how long our jet-engine breakdown was, since he was prepared to time it). When the wave started, rose up, and washed over us, I was simply lost -- eyes closed, entranced, with no concept of time or place. As their revelatory set ended and the lights came up, more than half the crowd had disappeared. With no way to prepare themselves (and no free earplugs like ATP), most at Axis were literally pushed outside, some of my friends (MBV loyalists all) included.

That quick drive down memory lane is to explain why I was slightly, only very slightly, let down by MBV's ATP NY set -- it couldn't possibly have lived up to that first time. I knew they were doing the "YMMR" breakdown again, so it could only feel a bit gimmicky in its repetition. That's not to say I wasn't into it, but this time my mind and eyes wandered a bit (my ears? impossible). I turned around to see hundreds of fingers in hundreds of ears; I watched as many bailed out, either too worn out or too pained to take any more; I noticed the massive hanging speaker system swaying from soundwaves; Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a small piece of the ceiling fall; I watched as my camera slowly vibrated off its resting place on the railing in front of me. In 1992, I was too engulfed to notice anything of the sort. In distraction and expectation lies the difference. Had I not had previous experience to lessen it, it may have been my favorite performance of the fest, but it wasn't. That, I'll share later.

Here's MBV's ATP set, which will be posted here for a very short time. Like I said, I'm hesitant to share it at all, but once I started seeing other live recordings (linked below) from MBV's reunion tour show up online, along with all the ubiquitous (and sonically sub-par) YouTube clips, I figured this was worth adding to the archives, so I spent some serious time EQ-tweaking my source files to make them sound better. I also encoded them at 256kbps rather than my usual 192kbps. Enjoy...


Some MBV online resources...
  • Their official site, Wikipedia entry, Come In Alone fansite, and their MySpace page.

  • Additional Audio: As I mentioned above, there are a few recordings from the reunited MBV available online, including the entire 6/13/08 ICA London warm-up show courtesy of the Wired blog. The rest are all stateside, including the 9/23/08 NYC show at the Traders Den (login required), the 9/27 Chicago show at The Decibel Tolls, and the 9/30 San Francisco show at Waves and Wires. The Decibel Tolls also shared up a couple of 1992 MBV shows (Paris and Vancouver).

  • Video: Tons via an MBV YouTube search.

  • Photos: My Flickr-hosted shots are here. Fellow Bostonian and ATP festival attendee Doug Orleans just shared up all his photo and video from the weekend here, with his MBV shots at the end of this set. Much more to be found through a full My Bloody Valentine Flickr search.

  • Easily Stream any and all 'Nac-hosted Mp3s at ye olde Hype Machine.

  • the fine print... If anyone has an issue with these Mp3s being made available, just let me know (my contact info in the 'nac faq). Live sets recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps (256kbps for this one) Mp3s. Files are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.

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