Twenty years seems to be the magic number. Last night at Maxwell’s, The Feelies became the latest in a long of line of bands to stretch out over two decades and reclaim old magic. The band was tight as always, and performed two sets of nearly two hours of flawless music which included 5 encores. We last saw the Feelies at the old Ritz in 1988 when interestingly Big Dipper was the opener. In the last year, we have experienced Dinosaur Jr., Mission of Burma, Was Not Was, and of course Big Dipper turn back the hands of time, but for The Feelies this show had the added dimension of taking place at their old regular stomping grounds — the equally legendary Maxwell’s.
The crowd (which included such local luminaries at Yo La Tengo‘s Ira Kaplan) were almost reverential. Between each number, after the audience cheered there was an eerie silence as The Feelies tuned for their next number. When a rowdy patron near the bar was chatting too loud he was actually shushed by members of the audience. In the end, the church of the Feelies would not be denied after three encores, and called the band back for a second two-song encore.
The setlist was quite comprehensive as the band worked through much of their recorded material and sprinkled in some standard covers (two Velvet Underground staples) along with one interesting Neil Young number (“Barstool Blues”).
We arrived during the first song, so that we were not able to set up and record the first set. In between sets we assumed our usual location in this venue and recorded a matrix with the Neumanns and a soundboard feed of the entire second half and encores. The sound quality in the venue was absolutely superb and The Feelies crew did an outstanding job. We were fortunate to capture that quality. Enjoy!
Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)
Download the Complete 2nd Set recording in FLAC [HERE].
Feelies
2008-07-01
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard/Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Front of Board Neumann KM-150s > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, slight level boost, downsample, dither) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-07-02
Setlist:
[First Set was Not Recorded]
Second Set:
[Total Time 51:21]
01 Dancing Barefoot (Patti Smith)
02 Original Love
03 Deep Fascination
04 Outdoor Miner (Wire)
05 The Final Word
06 Sooner Or Later
07 Too Far Gone
08 Time is Right
09 Fa Cé-La
10 [encore break]
11 She Said (Beatles)
12 Barstool Blues (Neil Young)
13 We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together (VU)
14 [second encore break]
15 Fun To Be Happy (Love Tractor)
16 What Goes On (VU)
CD Cover Art [HERE] (Thanks Mark!)
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Feelies and visit their official MySpace page, and purchase their official releases at various commercial outlets. While all Feelies albums are out of print, and there are no plans to tour beyond this week of shows, they are working on new songs. Purchase their new CD when it is released!
thanks for posting this
Thanks!!!!
Last night was great I only saw the second set but still very happy.
I have that same ticket stubb, but I think the last time I saw them was July 4th 1991, their last show.
Having seen them on night 2, I’m even more delighted to have a record, particularly of “Time Is Right,” a very good new song. Thanks!
Thanks much for taping this show! I was at the 2nd night and was blown away not only by the performance but also by the sound at the venue. . .
w00t!
I was at this show. The first set was great, but the second set was even better.
I could be wrong, but I believe the instrumental was “Fun To Be Happy” by Love Tractor (that’s what someone told me, at any rate).
I am so glad you were able to record “Time is Right”. I’m looking forward to hearing it again.
Actually, not all Feelies albums are out of print – Twin/Tone will burn custom CDs of “The Good Earth” and “No One Knows” on request:
http://www.tt.net/coyote/projects/8673.html
http://www.tt.net/coyote/projects/8695.html
Crazy Rhythms was reissued according to amazon.co.uk this year too.
I’m delighted this reunion is going down so well.
Yes, the untitled instrumental is actually a note-for-note cover of the Athens band Love Tractor’s early single “(It’s) Fun To Be Happy”. That same cover was recorded and released by Glenn Mercer’s post-Feelies band Wake Ooloo.
Thanks SO much for preserving this set for posterity. I had VIP passes to the July 4th gig with Sonic Youth, but at the last minute could not travel from Georgia for health reasons. This is the next best thing!
– Jim Reed
Thanks for this!
I saw the Monday show, but the setlist was considerably shorter, more like yesterday’s show in the park.
JN
Thanks much on behalf of those of us stuck on the other side of the world beyond reach of the reunion….
I’d wait on any custom burns from Twin Tone. That sounds unauthorized as the band has the rights to the Good Earth material.
Twin/Tone is paying bands royalties, so I’d hoped they’d worked this out. Maybe not, though:
http://www.twintone.com/custom.html
There seems to be a lot of confusion about Feelies re-issues: “Only Life” is listed on Amazon as having just been released on Water Records, but almost no one actually claims to be carrying it. And I saw another comment thread about “Crazy Rhythms” and “Good Earth” being out on Bar/None soon, but Bar/None’s website has nothing about it…
Thanks for a great recording of a great show! I saw the Battery Park show and I believe there was only one cover in that set (Outdoor Miner). This set has them in spades, plus great versions of several Feelies songs. The energy inside the club must have been fantastic.
I am accessing from Japan.
Thank you so much for shering this splendid music. It is a kind of dream to hear “living” The Feelies again.
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!
FYI, my copy of the “Only Life” CD reissue just arrived, from some Amazon affiliate in Louisville. So it definitely exists.
“Only Life” is out there, arrived at Waterloo Records in Austin, TX a couple weeks ago, they have about a dozen for sale. Or order from Amazon. It’s a re-release with new liner notes, official date of release is 24 June 08, but Amazon only has two left in stock at the moment.
Does anyone have any links to other Feelies mp3s? Thanks!
Thank you very much for this, I saw all the 4 shows and they all were really great! It was like they never stopped playing together…
Just a word about the reissues of their albums: except for TwinTones custom burnings, all the other are unauthorized editions, and I know for sure that both the band and the record companies owning the rights worked it out to stop them.
Thanks again, take care
Massimo
A little bird tells me that there will definitely be new Feelies performances this Fall. The exact details of which I am not at liberty to reveal.
Another site spilled the beans on these as-yet-unannounced shows. Feelies are playing 9/20 and 9/21, Bowery/Music Hall. I was asked to say nothing until the official announcement, but elsewhere that courtesy must not apply.
did you mean to put “2008-07-02” in there under “Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper”?
I thought this was from the 1st.
On the 1st day of July I recorded, got home late and slept. On the 2nd day of July, I did the post-production work.
thank you nyctaper, i found about these shows to late. my girlfriend & I went anyway hopeing we could get in to that itty bitty room, but had no luck. so we drank our asses of at the bar, and got to meet Ira Kaplan, and Glenn Mercer after the show. Tahnks for the up!
I have the Twin Tone CDs, as well as the original albums, and the Twin Tone sound is fine. Of note, they’re also the only source for Yung Wu on CD that I’m aware of.