[photo by nyctaper]
Like most music fans of another generation, back in the day I made hundreds of mixed tape cassettes for friends, girlfriends, and personal listening. For about a four year period (’86-’90), literally every single one of those cassettes included the Tommy Keene song “In Our Lives”. While not Keene’s most well-known song, this gem of pure power-pop brilliance combined the perfect balance of sweet melody, chiming guitars and hooks to spare. Like a musical sugar addiction, I couldn’t get enough of this song or the album on which it appeared, 1986’s Songs From The Film. I still have the well-worn vinyl. It was Keene’s major label debut, and while the Geffen record may have been more produced and polished than the break-out Places That Are Gone EP, it nevertheless was a full long-player of Keene’s irresistible guitar-driven pop songcraft. Tommy Keene is currently on tour playing the complete Film album, and on Wednesday that tour reached The Rock Shop. The set warmed up with two more recent numbers and then jumped right into the album. What was obvious from the chill-inspiring open riff of “Places” was that Tommy has aged extremely well. As the band ripped through each track — there isn’t a clunker on the entire record — it was also clear that the songs had aged well too. This album would be as relevant and inspired if it were released today.
This set was recorded in the same manner as my previous trips to Rock Shop and the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!
Stream “In Our Lives”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/T1509TommyKeene1020/Tommy%20Keene%202010-09-15%20IN%20OUR%20LIVES.mp3]
Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)
Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].
Tommy Keene
2010-09-15
The Rock Shop
Brooklyn, NY USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-09-16
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:24:38]
01 Late Bright
02 A Secret Life of Stories
03 Places That Are Gone
04 In Our Lives
05 Listen To Me
06 Paper Words and Lies
07 Gold Town
08 Kill Your Sons (Lou Reed)
09 Call On Me
10 As Life Goes By
11 [band introductions]
12 My Mother Looked Like Marilyn Monroe
13 Underworld
14 Astronomy
15 The Story Ends
16 Black & White New York
17 Turning On Blue
18 Long Time Missing
19 [encore break]
20 Back To Zero Now
21 Love is a Dangerous Thing*
*with one verse of “Its Not True” (The Who)
If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Tommy Keene, visit his website, and purchase his official releases directly from Merch Store at his website [HERE].
Thanks Dan…sounds great as always!
Just saw the last night of the tour in San Francisco last night . AMAZING!!! Tommy rocked like nobody’s business and the band just cranked. Loud but loud in a way that made you happy and the songs from “Songs from the file” just sounded great. We all know about the production on the record, Tommy played the hell out of those songs and it just made me think about how his songs have been a part of my life for many years and still are.
It was unbelievable.
Wow! Thank you so much for this nostalgic nugget. I made a few mixed tapes back in the day, it was a rare thing when I made one that didn’t have Tommy Keene on it.
I’m a bit late to the party on this recording, but I’ve long been a fan of this brilliant, but criminally underrated musician, who is sadly no longer with us. Thank you for capturing and sharing this great performance/live show!!
R.I.P. Tommy Keene
Thank you again for sharing,
Queertone