80 search results for "Mountain Goats"

Mountain Goats: April 30, 2019 Brooklyn Steel

May 5, 2019

photo courtesy of Drew Messinger-Michaels

It was about eighteen months ago when the Mountain Goats played an epic show at Brooklyn Steel that we were fortunate to attend and capture. So the band’s return to the venue on the tour to support their excellent new album In League with Dragons, came with some real anticipation. And man, did the band deliver. John Darnielle was particularly loquacious on this evening (check out the number of “banter” tracks), but his comments were all on point. The Mountain Goats have achieved a level of stature that’s been earned in years of tours and albums, and it seems like the band has reached that point where it can enjoy and revel in its well-deserved respect. And while Dragons dominated the setlist early-on, the band did still deliver the types of old rare nuggets that still satisfy the grizzled veterans of tMG shows. Indeed rare songs like “Jaipur” (played less than 10 times in the last 10 years), “Spilling Toward Alpha” (3 times in the last decade) , and “The Coroner’s Gambit” (played two times before 2019) are the types of setlist surprises that make us keep coming year after year. But ultimately this night was about the new album, the strength of which makes us believe that the Mountain Goats will continue to be the gift that keeps giving.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards raised high inside the soundboard booth and mixed with a board feed mixed expertly as always by longtime tMG FOH Brandon. The result is another superb recording of this band from this venue. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show at Archive.org [HERE]

Stream the Complete Show:

Mountain Goats
2019-04-30
Brooklyn Steel
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer: Brandon Eggleston] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:38:40]
01 [Vivaldi introduction]
02 Done Bleeding
03 Younger
04 [Coroner’s intro]
05 The Coroner’s Gambit
06 Jaipur
07 In League With Dragons
08 Sax Rohmer 1
09 [banter – old song partisans]
10 Spilling Toward Alpha
11 [banter – seeds]
12 Going to Port Washington
13 [banter – play what you want]
14 Maybe Sprout Wings
15 [banter – not going to die]
16 Waylon Jennings Live
17 [banter – country album]
18 Clemency for the Wizard King
19 [banter – pitchfork review]
20 Cotton
21 [banter – inner ear monitors]
22 Cadaver Sniffing Dog
23 [banter – Ozzy]
24 Passaic 1975
25 Lion’s Teeth
26 Sicilian Crest
27 [encore break]
28 Have to Explode
29 Possum by Night
30 See America Right
31 Game Shows Touch Our Lives
32 [banter – the long encore]
33 No Children
34 The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
35 Spent Gladiator 2

SUPPORT the Mountain Goats: Website | Twitter | Buy In League With Dragons | Tour Dates

the Mountain Goats: November 10, 2017 White Eagle Hall, Jersey City NJ

December 4, 2017

By nyctaper

[photos by Greg Cristman]

I’ve never been to a Mountain Goats concert quite like this one. Generally speaking, the fans of the Mountain Goats are universally involved in the show. Sure, they shout out obscure requests but the people at these unique shows are there for the artist, for the music, and for the experience. There’s normally almost no chatter at a Mountain Goats show that’s unrelated to the music. Just listen to the recording we just recently posted from Brooklyn Steel, a large venue with a very large crowd and not a peep during the quiet moments. That Brooklyn crowd was at that show for all the right reasons, and the band seemed to feel it.

At White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, the front half of the crowd was the usual engaged Mountain Goats fans, but the back half of the sold out venue were almost defiantly yapping over the music. It was troubling and odd and I think it knocked the band off a kilter a couple of times. John specifically called out “hey talking guys, I’m trying to play guitar here”. I don’t have any explanation for this crowd that isn’t going to read as arrogant, so I’ll just attribute it to a Friday night, a sold out venue, and too-efficient bartenders.

Sadly, this is the reality for many events these days — the chatterers don’t really care. But this was a really solid show that I’m simply going to have to get over the crowd issues. For devotees to The Sunset Tree, however, this show is a must-listen. Along with regulars “This Year” and “Up The Wolves”, we were treated to infrequently performed versions of “You Or Your Memory” and “Broom People”. The balance of the setlist offered a slate of the new songs (from Goths) performed regularly on this tour and a couple of more surprises — “I’ve Got The Sex” and the return of “Beautiful Gas Mask” to the rotation. There are only three more dates on this tour — so get out and see the band, but please don’t talk over the music!

I recorded this set with the fortunate use of Brandon’s excellent board feed mixed with some of the room mics mounted inside the board area centered in the balcony. Other than the crowd din recognizable during quiet moments, this recording is quite good. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

Mountain Goats
2017-11-10
White Eagle Hall
Jersey City NJ

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:43:39]
01 [Vivaldi introduction]
02 The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement
03 Cotton
04 In the Craters on the Moon
05 Beautiful Gas Mask
06 [banter – Debbie snorts coke]
07 Unicorn Tolerance
08 Rain in Soho
09 Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds
10 Night Light
11 Moon Over Goldsboro
12 I’ve Got The Sex
13 Snow Crush Killing Song
14 [banter – Fenders]
15 Paid in Cocaine
16 Shelved
17 Birth Of Serpents
18 Broom People
19 Harlem Roulette
20 Against Pollution
21 Spent Gladiator 2
22 [encore break]
23 The Diaz Brothers
24 Up the Wolves
25 This Year
26 [second encore break]
27 See America Right
28 You Or Your Memory
29 The Young Thousands

SUPPORT the Mountain Goats: Website | Twitter | Buy Official Releases | Tour Dates

the Mountain Goats: November 12, 2017 Brooklyn Steel

November 14, 2017

By nyctaper

[photo by Megan Etzel]

All the stars aligned for this Sunday night return to NYC for the Mountain Goats. On tour in support of their newest release, the excellent Goths (Merge Records) album, the band played their first local shows in over a year and a half. Those legendary 2015 and 2016 City Winery shows saw the Mountain Goats in an intimate setting, but at Brooklyn Steel this weekend the large room afforded the band the opportunity to stretch out. As they took the stage to the dramatic Vivaldi concerto, the Mountain Goats were greeted warmly by the packed room. This was a night when the fans played a truly complimentary role to the music — hushed during the quiet moments and raucous when required, but attentive throughout. There was no idle chatter and virtually none of the persistent shouted requests that sometimes annoy at Mountain Goats shows. Ultimately, the audience was rewarded with a lengthy show featuring stellar performances, a few rare nuggets, and two shout-outs to the crowd from John Darnielle later in the evening.

Goths is essentially a tribute to that early 80s British scene which included Siouxsie, Nick Cave, Peter Murphy/Bauhaus, and Andrew Eldritch/Sisters of Mercy. As with any subject of a Mountain Goats album, the songs are both tributes and explications of the melancholy and loneliness of the lifestyle. “Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds” finds the singer leaving the goth life in Germany and returning with little or no fanfare to the upper Midlands town where the band began. For this particular show “Eldritch” was preceded by the debut of a cover of the Sisters Of Mercy’s 1989 single “Lucretia My Reflection”, performed to perfection in large part because the band’s stage assistant had enough foresight to print and laminate the lyrics in advance. It was that kind of night, as seemingly everything the band did turned out right. John’s three-song solo set featured an infrequent appearance of “Autoclave”, and an exceedingly rare unreleased “Poltergeist”, before the band returned for a powerful second half of the show. The show’s finale was a return of “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton”, a fun song that I haven’t seen in a few years and which always gets the crowd involved. Sunday night’s show at Brooklyn Steel represented all of the reasons why we keep coming back to see this band, and probably always will.

I recorded this set with the Neumann hypers mounted high inside the soundboard cage and mixed with the a feed provided by the Mountain Goats longtime FOH Brandon Eggleston. Both the room and the feed provided superbly balanced sound, so that this recording is truly a remarkable capture. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

Mountain Goats
2017-11-12
Brooklyn Steel
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer: Brandon Eggleston] + Neumann KM-150s > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:39:36]
01 [Vivaldi introduction]
02 The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement
03 Cotton
04 In the Craters on the Moon
05 Until I Am Whole
06 [banter – Bat Cave]
07 Rain in Soho
08 Lucretia My Reflection [Sisters Of Mercy]
09 Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds
10 [tuning]
11 Autoclave
12 Moon Over Goldsboro
13 Poltergeist
14 Snow Crush Killing Song
15 [banter – Fenders]
16 Paid in Cocaine
17 [banter – Shelved intro]
18 Shelved
19 The Young Thousands
20 Harlem Roulette
21 Against Pollution
22 [encore break]
23 Southwestern Territory
24 Up the Wolves
25 This Year
26 [second encore break]
27 Spent Gladiator 2
28 The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton

SUPPORT the Mountain Goats: Website | Twitter | Buy Official Releases | Tour Dates

the Mountain Goats: April 19, 2016 City Winery

April 24, 2016

By nyctaper

[photos by Andrew Lowden]

Over the course of three shows at City Winery, John Darnielle gave his Mountain Goats bandmates a subtle but meaningful tribute that you would have missed if you were not paying close attention. For the first song of each of the three John “solo” segments in each show, a different band member was featured in a duo with the band’s protagonist. On Sunday, Matt Douglas played sax on “Foreign Object”, on Monday Peter Hughes played bass on “Jenny”, and for this Tuesday night finale of the residency, Jon Wurster joined John for a cover of Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark” — a song Darnielle revealed that Wurster had never played before this performance.

These are some of the little things that bring the fans back to see the Mountain Goats time and again. There were many fans who attended each of the three nights at City Winery and perhaps other East coast shows. What brings them back night after night isn’t just the promise of different and sometimes rare songs at any given show, or the often hilarious banter, or the chance to hear their favorite songs — the most compelling aspect of the Mountain Goats experience is the feeling of belonging. There is a strong sense of unity within the band, between the fans, and between the fans and band. The music offers a sense that no matter how difficult things are for you, there are people out there who know what you’ve endured and can tell you from experience that you’re going to be alright.

The final night of this special set of shows became the “celebratory” performance in large part because this particular crowd was quite rambunctious. And John rewarded the energy with a couple of first-time covers and a few songs that had yet to appear on this tour. In particular “Cobscook Bay” and “Nine Black Poppies” were familiar but welcome additions to the tour itinerary, both not having appeared on a setlist since last year. For a final night of the tour and likely the last NYC Mountain Goats show until 2017, this show was exactly what we’d hoped to experience.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the previous night and the sound quality is equally superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show in FLAC and MP3 from Archive.org [HERE]

Stream the Complete Show (minus banter tracks):

Mountain Goats
2016-04-19
City Winery
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:42:44]
01 Get Lonely
02 Foreign Object
03 Woke Up New
04 Until I Am Whole
05 Cry for Judas
06 [banter – gimmick intro]
07 Werewolf Gimmick
08 Rainbow in the Dark [Dio]
09 [banter – thanks]
10 Superman [Goldfinger]
11 Nine Black Poppies
12 Cobscook Bay
13 Lakeside View Apartments Suite
14 Southwestern Territory
15 Love Love Love
16 Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan
17 Damn These Vampires
18 [banter – game show intro]
19 Game Shows Touch Our Lives
20 The Young Thousands
21 Liza Forever Minnelli
22 [encore break]
23 See America Right
24 Up the Wolves
25 Home on the Range
26 No Children
27 Spent Gladiator 2
28 [second encore break]
29 This Year

SUPPORT the Mountain Goats: Website | Twitter | Buy Official Releases | Tour Dates

the Mountain Goats: April 18, 2016 City Winery

April 21, 2016

By nyctaper

[photos by Andrew Lowden]

We saw all three of the Mountain Goats performances this week at City Winery. And while this is not the first time we’ve experienced three straight tMG shows (Bowery in 2011 was 3 in a row), this set of shows was so emotionally rewarding. As we’ve pointed out already this month, the tour that concluded in NYC was inspired by a show we recorded at this very venue one year ago. Each of the nights took on a different personality and on night two, the song choices geared in a subtle way towards the positive and inspiring — perhaps motivated by the birthday of band member Matt Douglas (check out the slowest happy birthday song ever). Monday night included the only NYC performances of “Dennis Brown” and “Never Quite Free”, and the only appearances all tour of the New York-based duo of “Going to Port Washington” and “Going to Queens”. And there was reason to be positive. This tour was entirely successful on its merits, the band is playing at its peak, and City Winery seems to be the perfect fit for the current incarnation of the Mountain Goats. Indeed, this tour also contained a stop in Chicago for two shows at that branch of the venue. The balance of the set consisted of primarily songs we’ve seen on this tour which have included inspired 2016 versions of “Woke Up New” and “Damn These Vampires”, which continued to shine on this night. We expect to post the third and final night in the next few days, so stay tuned.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards clamped to a pole 20 feet from the stage and mixed with a perfect soundboard feed provided by the band’s longtime FOH Brandon Eggleston. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show in FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE]

Stream the Complete Show:

Mountain Goats
2016-04-18
City Winery
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:34:54]
01 Song for Dennis Brown
02 Woke Up New
03 Until I Am Whole
04 [banter – stay on tour]
05 Werewolf Gimmick
06 New Monster Avenue
07 Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan
08 [banter – say yes]
09 Jenny
10 Going to Port Washington
11 Going to Queens
12 [banter – day pants]
13 Black Pear Tree
14 [Happy Birthday Matt Douglas]
15 Lakeside View Apartments Suite
16 Deuteronomy 2:10
17 Get Lonely
18 Alpha Rats Nest
19 Damn These Vampires
20 Oceanographer’s Choice
21 The Young Thousands
22 Liza Forever Minnelli
23 [encore break]
24 Never Quite Free
25 This Year
26 Spent Gladiator 2
27 [second encore break]
28 The Diaz Brothers
29 No Children

SUPPORT the Mountain Goats: Website | Twitter | Buy Official Releases | Tour Dates

The Mountain Goats: April 17, 2016 City Winery

April 18, 2016

By acidjack

[photo courtesy of music_defined‘s instagram page]

As noted in our review of the New Haven show, the concept of this Mountain Goats tour grew up around the band’s City Winery gigs of last year, of which we recorded both. That the band found inspiration in this particular room isn’t surprising; while some younger fans may not be used to seeing bands in more sedate environments, this venue must be an absolute dream for any performer who plays a wide dynamic range of music and whose fans hang on every word. The Mountain Goats took the stage at one of last year’s shows not with the type of upbeat number you’d need to launch a typical club gig, but with the gorgeous “Get Lonely,” which set the tone for an evening of wide-ranging sounds and deep catalog dives. Yes, the pro-wrestling-themed Beat the Champ made a few appearances, including a stripped-down take on “Foreign Object” and an inspired “Werewolf Gimmick,” and an encore of “Southwestern Territory,” but the deep dives were the real meat of the evening. John Darnielle reached all the way back to 1993 for “Water Song II,” followed by “Horseradish Road,” from 2000’s Coroner’s Gambit, played so rarely of late that Darnielle skipped a verse. Not that a rough spot here or there matters; only the hardest heart wouldn’t have wept at the night’s fragile, emotional peak, from “Steal Smoked Fish,” followed by “Black Pear Tree,” to “Lakeside View Apartments Suite” to “Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace,” the night’s most musically dense number, and a note of hope.

Among many gifts, Darnielle’s ability to swing from spinning metaphors about wrestling to such deep emotional fare, and back to lighter-hearted territory like “Damn These Vampires.” Despite the seriousness of the material, Darnielle’s freewheeling, conversational style with his audience makes the show itself intimate and light; especially in this seated, dinner situation, it feels like being part of a very large living room show. And, as we’ve noted before, Jon Wurster’s drums, Peter Hughes’ bass and multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas give Darnielle a backdrop that adds discipline and welcome twists to both new and old songs.

Darnielle closed with one of the band’s most poignant recent numbers, “Spent Gladiator 2.” As with “No Children,” the closer of the 4/12/15 City Winery show, Darnielle performed most of the song in the audience, circling through the crowd, singing the lyrics without amplification. That refrain, to stay alive, just stay alive, felt like both the universal plea that it is and a personal one to each of us. If you were lucky enough to be sitting there, having taken in this exceptional hour and a half, you knew life was worth living.

I recorded this set with a feed of engineer Brandon Eggleston’s live mix, together with Schoeps MK41V microphones mounted on a post forward of the board. The sound quality, as with all of our City Winery recordings of this band, is exceptional. Enjoy!

Download the complete show from its page on the Live Music Archive: [MP3] | [FLAC]

The Mountain Goats
2016-04-17
City Winery
New York, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Brandon Eggleston) + Schoeps MK41V (FOB, ROC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix
down, adjust levels, light compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC (
level 8 )

Tracks [Total TIme: 1:32:53]
01 Woke Up New
02 Until I Am Whole
03 Maize Stalk Drinking Blood
04 [banter1]
05 Werewolf Gimmick
06 Get Lonely
07 [banter2]
08 Foreign Object
09 [banter3]
10 Water Song II
11 Horseradish Road
12 Steal Smoked Fish
13 Black Pear Tree
14 Lakeside View Apartments Suite
15 Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace
16 Wild Sage
17 Damn These Vampires
18 Game Shows Touch Our Lives
19 See America Right
20 The Young Thousands
21 Liza Forever Minnelli
22 [encore break]
23 Southwestern Territory
24 Up the Wolves
25 [banter4]
26 No Children
27 [banter5]
28 Spent Gladiator 2

SUPPORT the Mountain Goats: Website | Twitter | Buy Official Releases | Tour Dates

the Mountain Goats: April 2, 2016 College Street Music Hall, New Haven CT

April 5, 2016

By nyctaper

[photo by @octagoneyes]

The Mountain Goats‘ current tour is called the “Brine Crypt Exodus” and it was inspired by a very special night last April when the band played a show at City Winery with a pared-down stage show. While not quite “unplugged”, the set stripped down the Mountain Goats to the basics and the result was an incredible inspired set that we were very fortunate to have captured.

The second night of the tour reached New Haven Connecticut on Saturday night in a fairly large theater in the center of town. The College Street Music Hall sits about a half block from the south border of the campus of Yale University and its in the “theater district” — indeed the location was not even a rock venue until May of 2015. The result of the recent upgrade of the facility is that the hall is outfitted with a customized state of the art sound system and prime seating configurations that compliment the acoustics and classic charm of the vintage theater. We agree with the person on our twitter feed that College Street is one of the best locations in the tri-state area to experience a concert.

With that backdrop and with the opening night of the tour (Woodstock) under their belts, the Mountain Goats began this show inspired and fully in sync with each other. The band is currently a quartet and each member shined throughout this night. The addition of multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas permits the band to add keys, horns or an extra guitar to fortify the sound. Jon Wurster on drums and Peter Hughes on bass are simply one of the best rhythm sections around these days. Since this tour is technically not in support of any new release, the Mountain Goats also felt unfettered when it came to song selection. As a result, the setlist was culled from the deep recesses of the back catalog and we saw songs we’d never experienced before in our two dozen Mountain Goats shows.

The Mountain Goats will return to NYC later this month for three shows at the City Winery, where they played to great success last year. The shows are all sold-out but if by chance a ticket falls your way, don’t miss these nights.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted inside of the soundboard area and blended that capture with a soundboard feed mixed expertly by long-time touring FOH Brandon Eggleston. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show in FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE]

Stream the Complete Show:

Mountain Goats
2016-04-02
College Street Music Hall
New Haven CT

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [engineer Brandon Eggleston] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3/tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:31:32]
01 Woke Up New
02 Until I Am Whole
03 Maize Stalk Drinking Blood
04 Damn These Vampires
05 See America Right
06 Sometimes I Still Feel the Bruise [Trembling Blue Stars]
07 Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan
08 [banter – sketches]
09 You’re in Maya
10 [banter – whatever you want]
11 From TG and Y
12 [banter – TRAP laws]
13 Wizard Level
14 Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace
15 [banter – Holiday Inn Express]
16 Get Lonely
17 New Monster Avenue
18 [banter – wonder buddy]
19 First Few Desperate Hours
20 Oceanographer’s Choice
21 The Young Thousands
22 [encore break]
23 No Children
24 Up the Wolves
25 This Year
26 [second encore break]
27 Spent Gladiator 2

SUPPORT the Mountain Goats: Website | Twitter | Buy Official Releases | Tour Dates

the Mountain Goats: April 12, 2015 City Winery – Flac/MP3/Streaming

April 16, 2015

By nyctaper

[screen cap from capnkoons video here]

There are times when the people who book shows make the perfect pairing of a band and a venue and this weekend the Mountain Goats and City Winery were a marriage made in heaven. We caught both nights with two different NYCTaper contributors but we both were in complete agreement that these were outstanding shows in large part because of where they took place. City Winery prides itself on being a “listening room” — a place where people who come to see an artist perform respect the music. There is literally a pre-show message to refrain from talking during the music. For Mountain Goats fans however, the warning may not be actually necessary. They may sing along with the lyrics (all known by heart) and call out the most obscure requests in between songs, but when the band is playing, the listening is happening. And City Winery is both large enough to satisfy the two-night ticket demand for this band, and small enough to maintain a nice level of intimacy.

The Mountain Goats are currently on tour in support of Beat the Champ, which is ostensibly John Darnielle’s tribute to the early days of professional wrestling of the 1970s and early 80s. But as with the Mountain Goats music, there’s much going on beneath the surface of these songs. The basic routines that made wrestling attractive to suburban kids of the time — identifiable heroes and villains, fluid loyalties, physical comedy, and deception — are all themes that Darnielle is comfortable covering in Mountain Goats material as symbols of wider human truths. For example, the protagonist in “The Legend of Chavo Guerrero” (streaming below) becomes the “good guy” foil to Darnielle’s abusive stepfather and “Southwestern Territory” becomes a parable for the musician’s life on the road. In a lengthy show at City Winery, these and other Champ songs fit well within a career spanning setlist that offered a “gimmick” of its own. The band had played a pared-down “basement” set for the City Winery’s video series this week and enjoyed the experience so much that the actual stage plot on this night featured a small drum kit and Peter Hughes fretless bass — an “unplugged” set-up if you will. There were also some change-ups, as usual set-closer “This Year” appeared very early in the set, and “No Children” featured a complete-song vocal performance by the crowd while Darnielle led the chorus while standing on a table in the audience. Other highlights of this terrifically entertaining set included personal favorite “Up The Wolves” (also streaming below), “Foreign Object” with the outstanding horn work from new band member Matt Douglas, and a goofy acoustic cover of the Grateful Dead’s “St. Stephen” — and of course a significant amount of John’s usual humorous banter. While the Mountain Goats will not be back in NYC until next year — the current tour runs through June and then its off to Europe in the Fall — we expect that when they do the NYC shows will again be at City Winery. At least we hope they are, since this was one of my favorite tMG shows of the many I have seen.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards clamped to the same beam that acidjack used for the previous night’s show and mixed with a superb soundboard feed by longtime Mountain Goats FOH Brandon Eggleston. The sound quality is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Up The Wolves”:

Stream “The Legend of Chavo Guerrero”

Mountain Goats
2015-04-12
City Winery
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer: Brandon Eggleston] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, EQ, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:45:07]
01 [wrestling intro]
02 Get Lonely
03 [banter – basement]
04 Werewolf Gimmick
05 This Year
06 Animal Mask
07 Slow West Vultures
08 [banter – weapon]
09 Foreign Object
10 Luna
11 Deuteronomy 2:10
12 Shot in the Dark [Ozzy Osbourne]
13 [banter – audible]
14 Steal Smoked Fish
15 St. Stephen [Grateful Dead cover]
16 Cotton
17 The Ballad of Bull Ramos
18 Cry for Judas
19 Pigs That Ran Straightaway Into the Water, Triumph Of
20 Love Love Love
21 Choked Out
22 Up the Wolves
23 The Legend of Chavo Guerrero
24 [encore break]
25 The Diaz Brothers
26 [banter – fiefdoms]
27 Southwestern Territory
28 No Children
29 [second encore break]
30 Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, PLEASE SUPPORT The Mountain Goats, visit their website, and purchase Beat the Champ from the Merge Records website [HERE].

The Mountain Goats: April 11, 2015 City Winery – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 12, 2015

By acidjack

John Darnielle possesses the writer’s gift of universality. From his very specific songs come truths that touch the hearts of listeners who have never lived his life. You may never have felt the humiliation of being a burned out tweaker, sweating it out in a dingy hotel room, but you understand what it means to feel you’re at rock bottom. You know what it is to be dumb and wild and free. You know what it is to desperately, desperately, survive a year that hasn’t gone the way you hoped. In John’s quirky new songs about wrestling from Beat the Champ there are classic themes about underdogs and alienation, themes that you don’t need to wear a mask to understand. The Mountain Goats built their fervent fan base not on the strength of riffs but on words. Listening to Darnielle’s stories, feeling the emotions he projects, his heart becomes your heart; his trials, yours.

The Mountain Goats played NYC shows on this tour both at Webster Hall and two nights at City Winery, in lieu of a single large show at Terminal 5 or a similar venue. For that, we can be grateful, as City Winery — where as John said, he could actually see the back of the venue from the stage — vibed perfectly with what he wanted. For this tour, the regular trio of Darnielle, Jon Wurster and Peter Hughes is joined by the NC-based journeyman and Swiss army knife of a musician Matt Douglas, who has now appeared on this site with three different bands, if you count his solo show. The addition of Douglas on sax, guitar, horns and keys adds welcome texture and complexity to the full-band numbers, and takes some pressure off of Darnielle, whose massive catalog is always a challenge on tour. The intimate room amplified the songs’ emotional heft; it was a joy to see the rather well-heeled crowd of (probably) former nerds, geeks and rejects sing along to one of Darnielle’s most approachable verses:

people were mean to you
but i always thought you were cool
clicking down the concrete hallways
in your spiked heels
back in high school

That’s Darnielle’s magic, distilled: A song about a single person that many of us could see in ourselves, even if what made us different had nothing to do with spiked heels. If proof were ever needed of the value of being yourself, Darnielle and his slow-burning but runaway success would be the best of it. That he has created an entire community of people who feel the same way is his gift to all of us. Happiness isn’t conformity, or cowing to others’ idea of who you ought to be. It’s doing every stupid thing that makes you feel alive, and the joy you feel at coming out on the other side, still breathing. Long live The Mountain Goats.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones in a position forward of the board, along with a stereo feed of The Mountain Goats’ engineer Brandon Eggleston’s excellent house mix. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [FLAC] | [MP3]

Stream the entire set:

The Mountain Goats
2015-04-11
City Winery
New York, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41 (FOB, ROC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: Brandon Eggleston)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, adjust levels, fades, downsample)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter, imaging)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:33:56]
01 [intro]
02 Get Lonely
03 The Ballad of Bull Ramos
04 Love Love Love
05 [banter1]
06 Palmcorder Yajna
07 Animal Mask
08 [banter2]
09 Luna
10 Deuteronomy 2:10
11 [banter3]
12 Beyond the Mysterious Beyond
13 Raja Vocative
14 Woke Up New
15 Steal Smoked Fish
16 Never Quite Free
17 Song for Dennis Brown
18 Stabbed to Death Outside of San Juan
19 Foreign Object
20 This Year
21 The Legend of Chavo Guerrero
22 [encore break]
23 You Were Cool
24 Southwestern Territory
25 Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1
26 [encore break 2]/piano jam
27 No Children

Band:
John Darnielle – Vocals, guitar, keys
Matt Douglas – saxophone, guitar, keys, horns
Peter Hughes – Bass
Jon Wurster – Drums

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT The Mountain Goats, visit their website, and buy their records from their online store.

Mountain Goats: June 5, 2013 Maxwells – Flac/MP3/Streaming

June 13, 2013

By nyctaper

[photo by Peggy Nelling]

The current Mountain Goats tour is a bit of a throwback of sorts. After tours as a trio with drummer Jon Wurster and tours where the band added new players such as horns, a second guitarist, and various special guests, this month the Mountain Goats is a John Darnielle and Peter Hughes duo. The stripped down stage show gives the band a chance to take some chances. Last week at Maxwell’s, this included some older and rare numbers, including the twelve year old never-heard-before track from the Alpha series, “Alpha Chum Gatherer” (streaming below), and some out of the blue covers (“Ripple” streaming below). This tour is also playing to much smaller rooms than Mountain Goats tend to play these days, and the chance to experience the band in an intimate setting like Maxwell’s was a treat. This tour continues through the month of June in the Midwest and South.

I recorded this set in our usual manner at this venue. The band’s outstanding FOH Brandon Eggleston is responsible for the superb mix of this particular show and the prime quality of this recording is a tribute to his talents. Enjoy!

Stream “Alpha Chum Gatherer”:

Stream “Ripple” (Grateful Dead cover):

This Recording is now available to Download in FLAC and MP3 and to Stream at Archive.org [HERE].

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Mountain Goats
2013-06-05
Maxwells
Hoboken NJ

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann TLM-102s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper 2013-06-10

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:41:00]
01 [music intro]
02 Pure Gold
03 [banter – red tape]
04 Linda Blair Was Born Innocent
05 The Diaz Brothers
06 Love Love Love
07 [banter – Peter and John]
08 Heretic Pride
09 [banter – setlist]
10 Nine Black Poppies
11 [banter – sitting down]
12 Dutch Orchestra Blues
13 Tallahassee
14 [banter – Paul Stanley]
15 Wild Sage
16 [banter – crystal healer]
17 Samuel 15:23
18 The Recognition Scene
19 Song for Mark and Joel
20 Cobscook Bay
21 [banter – business models]
22 Alpha Chum Gatherer
23 [banter – color my cheeks]
24 Alpha Rats Nest
25 Woke Up New
26 [banter – audibles]
27 The Fall Of The Star High School Running Back
28 [banter – capo]
29 No Children
30 [encore break]
31 Alpha Omega
32 International Small Arms Traffic Blues
33 Ripple [Grateful Dead]
34 See America Right
35 California Song

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT the Mountain Goats, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the Mountain Goats Store [HERE].

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the Mountain Goats: April 12, 2015 City Winery – Flac/MP3/Streaming

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Mountain Goats: June 5, 2013 Maxwells – Flac/MP3/Streaming

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