My eighth and final Phish show of 2022 was the night where I entered the arena with the least expectations. The previous night (posted here) had been such an outstanding performance, that I felt like this show was basically a “bonus”. But man, did Phish disagree. 12/30/22 is currently at the top of the yearly statistics as the highest rated show, and for good reason. This show smoked from the opening notes of crowd favorite opener “Down With Disease”, and continued throughout the first set including a tight “Reba”. But the highlights of this show for me weren’t the “hits”, but rather the two songs that opened the first forty minutes of the second set. “No Man’s > Golden Age” were so well jammed and veered off into such interesting territory that I lost track of what tune what actually being played. But it didn’t matter. This was Phish 4.0 at its best, and like all three of the New Year’s week shows I attended, I felt lucky to be there to see it.
I recorded this set as I had the 12/29 set, with the Neumann hypers from an advantageous position in the first row of the taper’s section, and the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!
Setlist: Set 1 [Total Time 1:26:41] 01 Down with Disease 02 The Moma Dance 03 Pebbles and Marbles 04 Theme From the Bottom 05 Reba 06 The Howling 07 Foam 08 Run Like an Antelope
Set 2 [Total Time 1:27:53] 09 No Men In No Man’s Land 10 Golden Age 11 Sand 12 If I Could 13 I Always Wanted It This Way 14 [encore break] 15 Chalk Dust Torture
Of the eight Phish shows I attended and recorded this year, the second night of this week’s New Year’s run was my favorite. The first night (coming soon) was very solid and raised expectations that these four shows could be ragers, and this second night confirmed that. From the opening 22-minute “Fluffhead”, Phish were locked in and delivering the jams. There are at least four highlight segments in this show where the band just let go, stepped out, and peaked. Phish 4.0 is renowned for choosing the unexpected songs to stretch out and on this night it was an exceptional “Ruby Waves” where the band allowed the music to create the moment. This recording is one that I’m going to come back to often, and it is nights like this that keep me coming back.
I recorded this set with the Neumann hyper cards from a head-high stand in front of the lighting booth. The advantageous position and mic choice combine for a really bright and clear recording and we repeated this combo the following night based on the superb results. Enjoy!
Setlist: Set 1 [Total Time 1:16:12] 01 Fluffhead 02 Your Pet Cat 03 Bathtub Gin 04 hey stranger 05 Tube 06 Slave to the Traffic Light 07 Blaze On
Set 2 [Total Time 1:49:37] 08 David Bowie 09 Everything’s Right 10 You Enjoy Myself 11 Ruby Waves 12 Lonely Trip 13 Back on the Train 14 Character Zero 15 [encore break] 16 Guyute 17 Possum
With the onset tonight of the four-night Phish New Year’s run at Madison Square Garden (I will be attending the first three nights). I was reminded of the last time I saw three consecutive Phish shows, during the tour last July. The first of these three July experiences began in the beautiful Bethel Woods venue, on the site of the original Woodstock.
This was the second night of a two-show stand in Bethel, and while reports of the first night were so-so, this show started out with some nice energy that built up throughout the first set, capped by a nicely executed “Divided Sky” and a set-ending relaxed and well jammed “Ghost”. But it was the second set Caspian/Crosseyed “sandwich” where this show really leapt into the stratosphere. We enjoyed the entire second set as the band was locked into some juicy jams. The extended encore segment was great for the smiles, and ended this super show in true Phish fashion — with a nice Hendrix/Woodstock tribute.
I recorded this show with the outdoor-friendly large diaphragm Neumann mics from the first row of the taper’s section and the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!
Setlist: Set 1 [Total Time 1:14:56] 01 Evening Song 02 Turtle in the Clouds 03 Vultures 04 My Sweet One 05 Undermind 06 Fast Enough for You 07 Divided Sky 08 Suzy Greenberg 09 Ghost
Set 2 [Total Time 1:33:35] 10 Prince Caspian 11 Crosseyed and Painless 12 Miss You 13 Set Your Soul Free 14 Crosseyed Reprise 15 Prince Caspian Reprise 16 Twist 17 Carini 18 [encore break] 19 The Horse 20 Silent in the Morning 21 Fuck Your Face 22 Buffalo Bill 23 Fire
Our live experiences with the Fiery Furnaces date back to the earliest days of this website. It would be fair to say that this band was in part responsible for the growth of the site circa 2007-2008, as we recorded them all around the area, from multiple times at Maxwell’s, Mercury, Bowery, and Music Hall, to singular shows at Sound Fix Records on Bedford (RIP), Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, LPR, Southpaw (RIP), East River Park Bandshell (RIP), and Hiro Ballroom (RIP). We recorded them so often that we ended up getting credited as an “engineer” for the Fiery Furnaces live album Remember, which used some of our recordings. The attraction was natural for we live music fans — the band never played any of their shows or songs the same way twice, they consistently invited superb musicians to join them on tours, and the music was always challenging and cerebral. We couldn’t get enough of them.
But in 2011, the band’s core siblings Eleanor and Matt Friedberger decided to take a hiatus. I expected a few years of time away, a solo album or two and then a return. I didn’t expect the break to take a decade, but in 2020 the reunion was finally announced and well, you know what happened then.
Last November at Brooklyn Steel, the wait was over. Fiery Furnaces were back for a “hometown” show at long last. To be honest, I didn’t really know what entirely to expect. The two stalwarts of the band from last decade (Jason Loewenstein and Bob D’Amico) were not joining in the reunion, and of the new band members, we only were familiar with the most excellent Emily Lee (Shearwater, and others). But what I did expect was a new take on classic material, and likely the new single from 2020 (“Down At The So And So And Somewhere”). And in that respect, this show was entirely what I had hoped to see. The setlist contained a healthy dose from all of the band’s releases, of course segued with unexpected twists and turns — but always anchored by Eleanor’s meticulously delivered tongue-twisters and turns of phrase. Matt’s keyboard rack was liberally employed throughout and jibed perfectly with Emily electric piano — check out the interplay in a tasty “Benton Harbor Blues”, and the rocking “Ex-Guru”. The entire ninety-minute set worked like that, with no lulls, plenty of highlights, and no dip in energy throughout. It was great to have Fiery Furnaces back, even if for just one night. We hope it isn’t another decade before they return.
I recorded this set with the Neumann hypers set up at the Soundboard and mixed with a board feed. We are extremely happy with the results, and are pleased to offer this high quality download. Enjoy!
Setlist: [Total Time 1:22:52] 01 Leaky Tunnel 02 Single Again 03 Two Fat Feet 04 I’m Going Away 05 Benton Harbor Blues 06 [checklist] 07 My Dog Was Lost but Now He’s Found 08 The Garfield El 09 Chief Inspector Blancheflower 10 I’m in No Mood 11 Don’t Dance Her Down 12 The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry 13 Down At The So And So And Somewhere 14 Duplexes of the Dead 15 Automatic Husband 16 Ex-Guru 17 Quay Cur 18 Tropical Ice-Land 19 [encore break] 20 Here Comes the Summer 21 My Egyptian Grammar 22 Chris Michaels
The fit seems natural — a band called Taper’s Choice and our website devoted to recording and sharing live concerts. It also helps that these folks have long been friends of the site and featured many times on our pages in their other configurations. When we caught TC’s NYC debut in April at the Sultan Room, I was unable to attend and Eric expertly captured an extraordinarily full set of heat. On this night TC opened for another site long-time friend Animal Collective (recording coming soon), so we caught an abbreviated Choice set.
As the threat of a Summer storm rolled in, the band’s set time was also moved up, but all was still well in the world as TC took the stage in the gorgeous daylight air with a like-minded crowd ready for a special night. We’ve always loved Dave Harrington’s guitar playing and in this quartet he has the room to breathe and to shine and on this night he did just that. But this band is about four masterful musicians playing off each other and realizing the magic of improvisation. And in that regard, this brief but powerful set was a clear success.
I recorded this set with the Neumann hypers directly in front of the soundboard tent and the sound in the venue was fabulous, which translates perfectly to this recording. Enjoy!
Download the Complete Show from Archive.org [HERE]
Stream the Complete Show:
Taper’s Choice 2022-08-30 Central Park Summerstage New York NY
Digital Master Recording Recorded at Front of Soundboard Tent
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 41:48] 01 Running From the Rain 02 Darkness on the Edge of Midtown 03 Lilac Palace 04 Doner Wrap
Taper’s Choice is: Dave Harrington, Alex Bleeker, Chris Tomson, Zach Tenorio-Miller
Our last experience with Billy Strings earlier this year was so overwhelmingly positive that it seemed fairly obvious that we would be back. Fortunately, the opportunity came sooner than later. Thanks to a generous follower on twitter, we were able to secure a ticket to this very sold-out show featuring Billy Strings playing on the South Street Seaport rooftop this past Wednesday.
While the buzz after this event was the appearance of Phish’s Trey Anastasio for the last half of the second set, my personal experience was more focused on the continual growth of Billy Strings as a performer. We have always been entranced by the sheer virtuosity of Strings’ guitar playing and the wizardry of the band as a whole, and we were able to confirm those expectations at the Cap in February. But this performance at Pier 17 raised the bar even higher. Joined by fiddler extraordinaire Alex Hargreaves (who later in the tour apparently agreed to become a permanent band member), the quintet performed a flawless first set of Strings material and choice covers.
With the backdrop of the NYC skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge, the juxtaposition of the city center with bluegrass music seemed to motivate both the band and the song choices. The cover of John Hartford’s 1976 classic “In Tall Buildings” was most poignant, although several numbers drew upon the rural/urban dichotomy for inspiration. When the set closed with Strings’ apparent hard-life autobiographical and compositionally brilliant “Turmoil & Tinfoil” this night had already delivered exactly what we had come to see. But there was clearly more to come.
The band started the second set with Hargreaves shining throughout an instrumental run through the traditional “Sally Goodin”. Ultimately the set evolved into the show’s highlight – a furious nearly 20-minute “Meet Me at the Creek”, that managed to remain vital and driving for its entire improvisational five-member instrumental segment. As had been rumored in crowd whispers all night, the appearance of Trey Anastasio was not entirely surprising, but quite welcome. It certainly motivated Billy. The five-song mini-set with the star guest featured a couple of Phish numbers, but it was the three bluegrass covers where the massive amount of talent on stage truly excelled. At the end, this show instantly catapulted into a “best of year” category and we continue to be amazed at the level of excellence achieved by this band. See you at Nassau in November!
I recorded this set in an ad hoc roped-off taper’s section next to the soundboard with the outdoors-friendly Neumann large diaphragm mics. While the wind ultimately cooperated and rarely can be heard during this recording, the crowd yapping is a problem during quiet moments. Fortunately, the venue’s sound quality and the superb mix by uber-talented FOH Andy Lytle provided us with the ingredients for an excellent capture, and I’m still quite pleased with this recording. Enjoy!
Download the Complete Show from Archive.org [HERE]
Stream the Complete Show:
Billy Strings 2022-06-29 Pier 17 New York NY
Digital Master Recording Recorded at Soundboard Cage
Neumann TLM-102s > 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: Set 1 [Total Time 1:08:26] 01 Red Daisy 02 End of the Rainbow [Frank Wakefield] 03 Running The Route 04 Hellbender 05 Dust In a Baggie 06 Dealing Despair 07 [banter] 08 Watch It Fall 09 In Tall Buildings [John Hartford] 10 Home 11 Fearless [Pink Floyd] 12 [banter – rooftop] 13 Turmoil and Tinfoil
Set 2 [Total Time 1:20:15] 14 Sally Goodin 15 Must Be Seven 16 Meet Me at the Creek 17 16-16 [David Grisman] 18 Close By [Bill Monroe] 19 Back on the Train 20 Love and Regret 21 I’m Blue I’m Lonesome [Bill Monroe] 22 All Fall Down [John Hartford] 23 My Love Comes Rolling Down [Watson Family] 24 Gotta Jibboo
When the Phish New Year’s run at Madison Square Garden was postponed, it was quite a large disappointment and a great inconvenience for tens of thousands of fans. The rescheduled dates corresponding to “4/20” was cute, sure, but the real gift was the ability to experience this special holiday week in April. For us, that meant we’d be attending and recording the first two nights, and frankly I couldn’t have been happier.
The Wednesday night show was recorded and we’ll post it later this week, but honesty this Thursday night show was so far superior that it earned the right to jump the line. This was, not hyperbolically speaking, a top five Phish experience for me personally.
The night began with a “Suzy” dedicated to the song’s main character who attended her first Phish show on this night. And what a version — energetic and fun, it propelled this first set to a nice momentum, with “Wolfman’s” and “Ghost” as the highlights. But the very best was yet to come.
Any show that packs Chalkdust, Tweezer, 2001, Maze, Hood, and Zero into a single set is naturally going to be a winner, but it was more than that. This was just top notch playing, crisp and inspired. The band locked into a glorious melodic jam that lasted for the final nine minutes of Tweezer and was such a peak that I hoped they’d never transition to another track. The Phish scholars can correct me, but I believe that this was just a spontaneous first-time creation by the band on the fly and represented for me the beautiful possibilities of any Phish performance. At this point, less than halfway through the set, the balance of the night was just gravy. And the band kept piling it on, as one highlight followed the next. I was certain that Hood was the set closer and would have been more than satisfied, but Phish was not letting up on this night and crashed into a crazy “Character Zero” that celebrated the magic of this special evening.
I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards from inside of the Taper’s Section, elevated behind the soundboard. The mix was dialed in for this show, and I’m really pleased with this recording. Enjoy!
Setlist: Set 1 [Total Time 1:11:28] 01 Suzy Greenberg 02 46 Days 03 Plasma 04 The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday 05 Avenu Malkenu 06 The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday 07 Wolfman’s Brother 08 Esther 09 Ghost
Set 2 [Total Time 1:40:44] 10 Chalk Dust Torture 11 Tweezer 12 Also Sprach Zarathustra 13 Maze 14 About to Run 15 The Mango Song 16 Harry Hood 17 Character Zero 18 Tweezer Jam 19 Character Zero Reprise 20 [encore break] 21 A Life Beyond The Dream 22 Tweezer Reprise
In his brief 29 years, Billy Strings has lived a life worthy of a full-length feature film. The unhinged and dangerous nature of his childhood has been well-documented in the media, and in his songs (“Turmoil & Tinfoil”), which gives rise to the meme of his salvation through music. Whether his musical gifts were inherited, earned, or through random fortune, what is abundantly clear at this point is that Billy Strings is one of the most profoundly talented performers alive today.
I attended this Strings show (my first) at the Capitol Theatre having watched quite a few of his performances online, and fully expected that the show would be an enjoyable run through some authentic bluegrass and choice rock covers performed by a crack band. What I didn’t expect was to be so thoroughly enthralled with the tremendous energy coming from the stage and mirrored back by the crowd. This was a joyous event from the very start and the positivity never ebbed. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show quite like this one.
Musically, the quartet are all world-class masters of their instruments. Strings is of course the focus, but he never failed to let his band shine. Even in those moments when Billy dove into the pedal board and went full-on rock star, the intricate interplay between the quartet was palpable. And the ability to improvise was focused and never drifted without purpose — witness the fifteen-minute run through “Dust in a Baggie” which ebbs and flows and hits on a variety of moods, but never once loses the throughline.
I tweeted earlier this week a hot take about Jerry Garcia’s influence on the history of bluegrass music, and it was not a coincidence that Billy Strings mu-tron effect jam during “Heartbeat of America” got me thinking. The Grateful Dead influence during this show was obvious. The covers of “Me and My Uncle”, “Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie” and “Rosa Lee McFall” were all homages to their original authors, filtered through a Dead-centric musicology. Yes, it is fantastic that perhaps more people will discover the legendary Elizabeth Cotton because of Billy Strings, but the hovering specter of Jerry Garcia was omnipresent, nevermind the “ESP Shows” connection explicitly advertised for this run of shows.
The second set’s main improvisational vehicle was the Robert Hunter penned “Thunder” that stretched over twenty minutes, but again never strayed off script. Throughout the night though, the bluegrass homages were many — whether it be the Dillards, Bill Monroe, Tony Rice, or the Stanley Brothers, Billy Strings clearly knows from whence his inspired talents flow, and he was entirely willing to acknowledge his idols. But ultimately, a Strings concert is not a cover show. This night featured a superb talent at the top of his game and creating a career-defining bit of perfection to a tuned-in and dedicated fan base. It doesn’t get any better than this.
I recorded this set with the Neumann hypercards from the tapers’ section adjacent to the soundboard. Like any sold-out general admission show, there is crowd chatter, but these Strings fans were attentive and enjoying the music so that the crowd din is not distracting. Overall, I’m extremely pleased with this recording and hope you are too. Enjoy!
Download the Complete Show in MP3 or FLAC at Archive.org [HERE]
Stream the Complete Show from the Archive:
Billy Strings 2022-02-04 Capitol Theatre Port Chester NY
Digital Master Recording Tapers Section at Soundboard
Setlist: Set 1 [Total Time 1:16:40] 01 Know It All 02 How Mountain Girls Can Love [Stanley Brothers] 03 Tipper [Tony Rice] 04 Run Down [Jeff Austin] 05 There Is a Time [Dillards] 06 Dust in a Baggie 07 Dealing Despair 08 Living Like an Animal 09 Me and My Uncle 10 Heartbeat of America 11 John Deere Tractor [Larry Sparks] 12 On the Line
Set 2 [Total Time 1:26:04] 13 ESP Experiment 14 Free Born Man [Keith Allison] 15 Thunder 16 My Love Comes Rolling Down [Watson Family] 17 Ernest T Grass* [Dillards] 18 Air Mail Special 19 Show Me the Door 20 Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie [Elizabeth Cotton] 21 Rosa Lee McFall [Charlie Monroe] 22 Turmoil and Tinfoil 23 [encore break] 24 Roll On Buddy Roll On [Bill Monroe]
In what is perhaps the most NYCTaper-friendly tour announcement ever, last week it was revealed that Ryley Walker and Tonstartssbandht will co-headline a six-date Northeast tour in March that will arrive in New York at Bowery Ballroom on St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve already purchased the Bowery tickets, but we’ve had some serious discussions about doing multiple dates on this tour, with the mostly likely being the Portland Maine and Providence Rhode Island dates on the weekend after the Thursday night in New York. We shall see, but suffice to say its an exciting tour that should not be missed by us, or by anyone serious about good music.
But the Bowery will not be the first post-pandemic show in New York for our old friends Andy and Edwin White. In late October, they toured for Petunia, the band’s first proper album in three years and played a sold-out show at our own Market Hotel. I can not properly express how thoroughly renewing it was for us to see one of our favorite bands and favorite people play live again. Nevermind that the crowd also included a bunch of old friends, this night was just magic from start to finish. The band’s set concentrated primarily on the new album material, and flowed as their sets always do, in remarkable continuity. The energy was peak throughout and hit a crescendo during the set-closing “Sorcerer“, ending a wonderful night in truly excellent fashion. We expect more of these peaks on the tour in March.
I recorded this set with the installed Neumann hypercards blended with an excellent board feed mixed by Osaro. We are very pleased with the sound quality of this capture. Enjoy!
Setlist: [Total Time 1:01:57] 01 Falloff 02 Opening 03 What Has Happened 04 Hey Bad > 05 Breathe – Susie – Last Train Home 06 All of My Children 07 Magic Pig 08 Smilehenge 09 Sorcerer
A few weeks back Elkhorn released The Golden Lag on Blue Hole Recordings, a two-sided cassette of two medium length instrumental tracks consistent with what we’ve come to expect from this ultra-talented guitar duo. This motivated me to finally finish the edit on the recording of this amazing day in the park from August.
Due mostly to the indefatigable efforts of Aaron Stein, the NYC Freaks Day Out pop-up concerts have created magical experiences for the tuned in. Nestled in a corner of Valentino Park in Red Hook, the artists playing these events are presented in a most natural atmosphere and with fans on blankets or beach chairs, and the feel of the event is like a family reunion of the most knowledgeable music fans NYC has to offer. On this beautiful day in August, it all came together for Elkhorn and the Freaks and all was right with the world for a few hours.
In our previous experiences with Elkhorn, the band has played as a guitar duo featuring Jesse Sheppard on a 12-string acoustic guitar and Drew Gardner on primarily electric guitar. The intricate interplay between Jesse’s melodic lines and Drew’s crunchy strat is both mesmerizing and compelling. On this particular day, the band added Ian McColm on drums, a sought-after talent who has appeared elsewhere on these pages. The first set was familiar to fans with the guitar interplay supplemented by Ian’s tasty fills. A thirty minute piece of pure bliss, it was one of those time-stands-still kind of sets that you never want to end.
But it was the second set that threw us for a bit of a loop. Jesse strapped on an electric bass and proceeded to riff on a funky groove and Drew worked the wah wah to perfection. The thirty minute set weaved in and out of a few different themes but ultimately proved that this band has an infinite number of genres to explore in its future and we’ll be happy to capture them all.
I recorded this set with the outdoor-friendly large diaphragm Neumann microphones set up directly center in front of the band, and the sound quality is stunning. Sure there are a few dog barks and children, but that’s exactly the atmosphere of this terrific day and we are so happy with this recording. Enjoy!
nyctaper.com is a live music blog that offers a new paradigm of music distribution on the web. The recordings are offered for free on this site as are the music posts, reviews and links to artist sites. All recordings are posted with artist permission or artists with an existing pro-taping policy.
All recordings and original content posted on this site are @nyctaper.com as live recordings pursuant to 17 U.S.C. Section 106, et. seq. Redistribution of nyctaper recordings without consent of nyctaper.com is strictly prohibited.
nyctaper.com hereby waives all copyright claims to any and all recordings posted on this site to THE PERFORMERS ONLY. If any artist posted on this site requests that recordings be removed, those recordings will be removed forthwith.
Recent Comments