Nac Flashback: Arcade Fire in Cambridge, MA
Posted on March 6, 2007 at 7:02 am | 1 Comment
In honor of today’s release of “Neon Bible”, the second full-length from Montreal’s Arcade Fire, I’m finally re-sharing what is easily the most-frequently requested live set here on the Almanac: my recording of the band’s revelatory performance at Cambridge, Massachusetts club TT the Bears back on Friday night, November 12th, 2004. Read the original post, in which I profess my pure amazement at what the lucky crowd witnessed, and check out the over-100 comments from ‘Nac visitors.
In addition to songs from their debut, “Funeral”, their TT’s set included a cover of Talking Heads‘ “This Must Be The Place” as well as a new song called “Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts” that I thought might end up on “Neon Bible”, but didn’t. Maybe a future b-side? Here’s hoping… ‘cuz it’s a beauty.
“Neon Bible” is available today from the esteemed Merge Records. Buy it here. I do so hope my pre-order arrives today.
Live at TT the Bears
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
on Friday, November 12th, 2004
01. Wake Up
02. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
03. Une Annee Sans Lumiere
04. Neighborhood #3 (PowerOut) / Rebellion (Lies)
05. This Must Be The Place (Talking Heads)
06. Haiti
07. Headlights Look Like Diamonds
08. Burning Bridges (unreleased)
09. Crown of Love
10. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
11. No Cars Go
12. In The Backseat
the fine print… If anyone has any issues whatsoever with this live set being made available, just say the word (contact info in the ‘nac faq). I am but a fan trying to share and spread the word. Recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. Tracks are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.
[Live MP3s] Sparklehorse in Boston 2007
Posted on March 5, 2007 at 8:23 am | No Comments
Boston, like many other places, has been lacking for visits from Mark Linkous and the touring version of his Sparklehorse. It’s not as if he hits the road frequently, and aside from an opening slot for the Flaming Lips here in 2003, his last proper Boston stop was almost eight years ago. That was a bit before I fell in love with 2001’s “It’s A Wonderful Life“, so the fairly deep connection I made with that album was confined to my headphones. In a way, that made the songs more personal; not sharing the experience with a crowd or hearing them taken beyond their studio context kept them pure and untarnished. After I’d overloaded my system with that brilliant disc, I spent a lot of quality time with his two previous albums, but neither would dig as deep as that first exposure did.
The six-year wait for a fourth disc was a long one; I surfed for news updates and checked his cryptic website often, finally getting whispers early last year that “Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain” was on its way. It arrived in September, and proved itself a worthy follow-up, with a wealth of good tracks, and showing a bit of songwriting growth while still using that unique mix of hi-fi/lo-fi studio wizardry Linkous is known for. There’s an undeniable “Sparklehorse sound”, a warm blanket that sits on top of his layered recordings that can’t be attributed solely to background crackles or his slightly-distorted vocal tracks.
He brought that distorted microphone, though not a crackling backing track, with him when he and his backing band came to Boston last week as part of the long-awaited “Dreamt…” support tour. The release of that autumnal album triggered a veritable deluge of Sparklehorse shows, and apart from a December holiday break, they’ve been on the road ever since. The tour actually finished up officially last night in Atlanta, and with no other dates on the books, who knows when we’ll see the man and his band again. Can’t possibly be as long of a wait as it was last time, though, can it?
If it is, we’ll have this live set to keep us slightly satiated. And despite Mark’s struggle with a case of the flu, it was a beauty. The gorgeous softer numbers (especially “Sad & Beautiful World“, “Gold Days“, & “Eyepennies“) fared a bit better than the ones that rocked out, I thought. I can understand the desire to turn parts of the live show up a notch, to bring some energy to the stage for contrast, but there were times when the drummer drowned out the rest of the band. It was as if the tasteful restraint he showed during the somber songs kept him bottled up, so he really let loose during the louder ones. His wide bandana and high-stick action moves (Adam called it “slow-motion swimming”) almost seemed like they belonged in a different band, but there’s no denying the talent he brought to the table, and the same goes for the other musicians he shared the stage with (check out their bios here).
Here are the live mp3s, with some accompanying links and photos. Fans will note that only two songs came from the latest album, and most can be found on the debut, “Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot“, so the set leaned heavily towards his early material. Even the two songs that were cut from the setlist (“Weird Sisters” and “Homecoming Queen“) are from that first disc, so it could have leaned even more in that direction. As I mentioned, Mark said he was fighting the flu, which may explain why those two songs were cut, but you’d never notice listening to his performance. And I’m not going to complain about the set’s brevity, though… any Sparklehorse is much-appreciated Sparklehorse.
Live at The Paradise
in Boston, Massaschuetts
on Monday, February 27th, 2007
[Download all 15 tracks in one ZIP file]
01. Spirit Ditch
02. Heart Of Darkness
03. Apple Bed
04. Hammering The Cramps
05. Don’t Take My Sunshine Away
06. Tears On Fresh Fruit
07. Saturday
08. Eyepennies
09. It’s Not So Hard
10. Piano Fire
11. Painbirds
12. Sad & Beautiful World
13. Pig
14. clapping for encore
15. Gold Days
Some Sparklehorse links…
A notable aside: At our show, a posted sign in the Paradise boldly stated: “Buy A CD, Meet Mark!”, and they weren’t kidding. Anyone who picked up a copy of “Dreamt For Light Years…” at the merch table got a wristband that allowed them to hang out after the show and chat with the ailing Mr. Linkous (did this happen anywhere else?). Now, having bought the thing on its release date, and no longer being much of an autograph-hound, I skipped the chance… but friends said he did appear and mingled with the crowd. As cool as it is that he did that, it also strikes me as a little on the odd side. Well, it’s certainly a way to sell more discs (wouldn’t most fans who really want to meet him already own the album?), but feels a little “un-Sparklehorse-ish” to me. Then again, the guy’s got a mild mountain-mullet that flies behind him thanks to an on-stage fan, and has a drummer named “Johnny Hott”, so I may not have a clue what “Sparklehorse-ish” is, beyond the recorded context. Y’know, I might as well have met him, ‘cuz I woke up the next morning with the flu anyway. At least I could have claimed I had the “Sparklehorse strain”.