[Photos courtesy of Todd Kancar]
Johnny reports:
“I’ve intently watched The Giraffes evolve on their albums over the past several years and they just get increasingly better. The same can be said of their live shows and, thankfully, they’ve managed to retain the raw, hungry ferocity that I witnessed the first times I saw them nearly four years ago. It’s no wonder that they convert otherwise mild-mannered citizens into rabid fans after a single concert. Guitarist Damien Paris, drummer Andrew Totolos, bassist Jens Carstensen and lead singer Aaron Lazar cannot be accused of putting on a mundane show. In addition to the brilliant music, it takes some serious talent to proficiently sing, play your instruments and perform interactive vaudeville while being pelted with cups of beer, assorted mystery liquids and a laundry list of other debris including pie filling, Chinese food and Dri-grip. I swear they must practice in their sleep. That being said, I’m still amazed that these guys aren’t huge. Lucky for us they still log quite a few hours in the ‘lil ‘ol Mercury Lounge and bring their unique amalgam of hard rock, punk, surf, Romani folk and progressive melodies to other similarly sized venues. Even at their worst The Giraffes repeatedly remind me of why I make every effort to go see live music. It’s a visceral, tactile experience that the best stereo system in the world will never duplicate. Friday night was no different. Despite the humid, rainy weather, both the group and the attendees were in a great mood and looking for a fun time. Barreling straight through for nearly an hour-and-a-half, the setlist culled songs from almost all of their albums and included three tracks from their yet-to-be-officially-released new album, ‘The Giraffes Ruled’. For a band that always aims to please, the title is quite apropos. The end of the night found all parties drenched in sweat, sticky and covered in lord knows what, but still bearing the same grins that started the evening. At the risk of sounding like a shill, go and buy one or several of their albums. Support a great band. They definitely deserve it and they certainly try very hard to earn it.
In addition to flying mics, I was fortunate enough to get a feed from the soundboard. The most excellent and very accommodating house engineer, Kyle, was kind enough to let me patch in and did an outstanding job mixing the show. In a venue that’s already respected for its fidelity, the sound was just about perfect. Any criticisms you may have about the quality of this recording should be directly solely at me. I’m pretty happy with it and hope you like what you hear as much as we did. Enjoy!”
Check out an excellent interview of The Giraffes done immediately after this show by Stefany Mohebban at The Rock and Roll Report music blog [HERE].
Download the FLAC/MP3 files and stream this entire show on the Live Music Archive [HERE]
The Giraffes
Friday, August 28, 2009
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY, USA
Source: MATRIX: SBD + AKG C 414 B-XLS’s > Edirol R-44 (WAV @ 24-bit/48kHz)
Lineage: R-44 (WAV @ 24-bit/48kHz) > USB > PC > Adobe Audition (mixdown, adjust levels, downsample, dither, tracking) > WAV (16-bit/44.1kHz) > Trader’s Little Helper (check/fix SBE’s, FLAC conversion) > FLAC ( level 8 )
Mercury Lounge house engineer: Kyle Lawrence
Recorded and produced by: Johnny Fried Chicken Boy
SETLIST:
[Total time: 1:26:58]
01. Intro
02. The Border
03. Done
04. Prime Motivator
05. Jr. At His Worst
06. Pisda Mati
07. The City
08. The Power Of Fatherhood
09. I’ll Be Your Daddy
10. “Can I get some more freedom in the monitor?”
11. Twin Girls
12. Sickness (This Is)
13. Clever Girl
14. The War
15. Honey Baby Child *
16. “OK, I will drink this but then what do you want to hear?”
17. Having Fun
18. Haunted Heaven
19. “If the drummer doesn’t get up, we keep playing.”
20. Smoke Machine
21. Sugarbomb
* Pierre Michel song
If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Giraffes, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases from the “stuff” links at their site [HERE].
Awesome show, thanks!
This was a FANTASTIC show! I too can’t believe that these guys aren’t huge yet, but came away from this show (and their Mercury Lounge show last night) happy as hell to see rock music in it’s truest form, live and loud, in a small, packed room. The Giraffes are pure joy. Thanks for sharing this show!