nyctaper Recordings

[photo credit]

Friday night was the opening show of Gov’t Mule’s annual New Year’s run at the Beacon — and it was a barn-burner. Warren and company ripped through the usual Mule standards, and added a few inspired covers including Bob Marley, Van Morrison, Beatles, and Buffalo Springfield. The crowd was in a celebratory mood, and good will flowed all around. We were treated royally by security, fellow fans, and ultimately the band.

This recording was made from Row G, about 20 feet directly in front of the right PA stacks. The sound is crystal clear, and has a surprisingly deep soundstage, given our uncentered locale. We are extremely pleased with this recording. Enjoy!

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Govt Mule
2007-12-28
Beacon Theatre
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording

Recorded Front of Board
Right Side, Row G Seat 20
20 Feet in Front of Right PA Speakers

DPA 4021s (7 ft Stand) > Apogee Mini-Me > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (set fades, balance levels, dither, downsample) > CDWave > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-12-29

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:14:57]
01 Brighter Days
02 32-20 Blues
03 No Need To Suffer
04 Have Mercy On The Criminal
05 Lively Up Yourself
06 Beautifully Broken*
07 Slackjaw Jezebel
08 He Ain’t Give You None
09 For What Its Worth

Set 2
[Total Time 1:29:08]
01 Child Of The Earth
02 Painted Silver Light
03 She Said, She Said
04 Tomorrow Never Knows
05 Streamline Woman
06 Drums
07 Unring The Bell
08 Bad Little Doggie
09 How Many More Years**
10 [encore break]
11 Long Distance Call
12 30 Days in the Hole

*With “When Doves Cry” verses
**With “Wang Dang Doodle” verses

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Gov’t Mule and visit their website. At their site you can purchase soundboard recordings of their concerts via Mule Tracks.

At a recent Pierce Turner gig, I ran into my old friend Fred Parcells from Black ’47. Fred has compiled an extraordinary history of Irish music (including an enormous Black ’47 archive) at his site (here).

There was a time back in the early 90’s when I saw Black ’47 once or twice every week at the old Paddy’s Reilly’s on Second Avenue and 28th Street (the new Reilly’s is on 29th). The combination of free-flowing Guinness, Irish politics, and rollicking Irish music created a captivating and exuberant experience. Black ’47 still plays regularly now at Connolly’s, and still performs about 100 gigs a year (tour info here).

This soundboard recording captures a typically excellent Saturday night at Paddy Reilly’s, when Black ’47 ruled the roost and played tirelessly. The outstanding soundboard mix was done by Johnny Murphy, Black ’47’s soundman at the time. All the instruments are well-balanced, and the sound is bright, clean and energetic. Enjoy!

Download Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Black ’47
1996-12-28
Paddy Reilly’s Music Bar
New York, New York USA

Master Digital Soundboard Recording
Soundboard > Sony D-7 DAT

DAT Master > Panasonic SV-3800 > digital coaxial > Audigy 2 ZS Platinum > Soundforge > 16 bit 44.1 wav > CD Wave (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7,align sector boundaries) > flac

[total time: 1:47:03]
Tracklist:
01 Big Fellah
02 Oh Maureen
03 Fire of Freedom
04 Green Suede Shoes
05 Danny Boy
06 Reels
07 Walk All the Days
08 Livin’ in America
09 Funky Céilí
10 40 Shades of Blue
11 Czechoslovakia
12 Rockin’ the Bronx
13 Who Killed Bobby Fuller?
14 Losin’ It
15 Maria’s Wedding
Encores
16 Gloria
17 I Fought the Law

If you download this recording PLEASE SUPPORT Black ’47 and visit their website.

This month Sigur Ros released Heima — the DVD of their 2006 tour of Iceland. This film captured the band’s return to their homeland after a worldwide tour in support of Takk, their brilliant 2006 release. This past October, nyctaper was fortunate to experience the limited acoustic/film screening sets in NYC. The recording is still available for download at nyctaper.com (here).

Early in the Takk tour, nyctaper recorded the Sigur Ros set at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. This was a breathtaking experience, as the music and its setting were perfectly matched, and the band performed flawlessly accompanied by a rare appearance of a complete brass section.

nyctaper recorded with small stealth microphones from a decent seat in the 200’s. This is a fine recording, with only some accompanying chatter between songs. Enjoy!

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Sigur Ros
2006-02-09
The Theatre at Madison Square Garden
New York, NY USA

Master Audience Recording
Section 204 Row H, Seat 13,
approximately 75 feet directly in front of left PA speaker

Core Sound Cardiods > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > .wav > Soundforge* > CDWave (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

recorded and edited by
nyctaper
2006-02-10

Tracklist:
01 Takk/Glósóli
02 Ný Batterí
03 Saeglopur
04 Gong
05 Andvari
06 Hoppípolla
07 Meo Blódnasir
08 Sé Lest
09 Olsen Olsen
10 Viõrar Vel Til Loftárasa
11 Svo Hljótt
12 Heysátan
Encores:
13 Starálfur
14 Hafssól
15 Untitled #8 (Popplagið)

CD Artwork is in the FLAC folder.

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Sigur Ros and visit their website

[photo credit]

This week has been an anniversary of sorts for Neil Young and I. It was 30 years ago — Christmas of 1977 — when I became a Neil Young fan for life. I received the three-l.p. vinyl Decade as a gift, and wore holes through the grooves playing it so often. When Neil toured the following year with a batch of new songs that would later become Rust Never Sleeps, I was at the Nassau Coliseum show:

Neil Young has been a constant through those entire 30 years, through my passing fads of fanship in punk, post-punk, anti-folk, jamband, et. al. When Neil suffered a serious aneurysm in 2005, it looked as if the career of rock’s most diverse and yet consistently excellent performer would either be curtailed or come to an end. Fortunately, the post-aneurysm Neil was as productive as ever, producing Prairie Wind, appearing in Jonathan Demme’s Heart of Gold, and producing an new album (Living With War) and a full tour with old friends CSNY (a recording of the Jones Beach CSNY 2006 concert is in the nyctaper archives).

The current tour, which ended its US leg on Wednesday night at the United Palace Theatre, has been a complete triumph in support of another superb Neil release Chrome Dreams II. Neil has performed the standard Acoustic/Electric set split, with the appearance of some rare chestnuts mixed in with consistent classics, and new numbers. Wednesday’s show featured the tour’s star revival “Out on the Weekend” as the first set closer. Other highlights included “Journey Through the Past”, “Winterlong”, “Cowgirl in the Sand”, and completely shredded 26-minute “No Hidden Path” as the second set closer.

Some readers may have followed my efforts to attend one of these concerts, which ultimately came to a happy ending when I found a cancellation ticket on ticketmaster on the morning of the 19th. My seat was in Row N, slightly left of center, about 10 rows behind the Soundboard and under the overhang. This is not an optimal recording position, and the problems were exacerbated by the low volume of the PA during the acoustic set and a couple of clowns in the audience around me. The final disaster was my batteries running out during the last few notes of No Hidden Path. After a significant amount of post-production (removing idiotic yelling is excruciatingly difficult), and the very generous offer of the balance of the concert from an alternate recorder thanks to “zuma11”, nyctaper is finally pleased to present a really excellent version of this concert. Enjoy!

This recording is no longer available at nyctaper. If you look around the web, you’ll likely find a copy.

Neil Young
2007-12-19
United Palace Theatre
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Row N
Left Center, 10 Rows Behind Soundboard

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level boosts, close clapping and crowd noise edits, slight eq, crossfade patch material) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Premiere Download offered at
https://www.nyctaper.com
nyctaper@nyctaper.com

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-12-22

Setlist:
Acoustic Set
[total time 1:04:36]
01 From Hank to Hendrix
02 Ambulance Blues
03 Sad Movies
04 A Man Needs a Maid
05 No One Seems To Know
06 Harvest
07 Try
08 Journey Through the Past
09 Mellow My Mind
10 Love Art Blues
11 Cowgirl In the Sand
12 Out On the Weekend

Electric Set
[total time 1:29:01]
01 Mr. Soul
02 Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
03 Dirty Old Man
04 Spirit Road
05 Bad Fog of Loneliness
06 Winterlong
07 Oh, Lonesome Me
08 The Believer
09 No Hidden Path**
Encores
10 [encore break]**
11 Cinnamon Girl**
12 Cortez the Killer**
13 The Sultan**
[**patch material — thanks zuma 11]

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Neil Young and visit his website.

The 1997 and 1998 Fleadh Festivals on Randall’s Island were the greatest live musical experiences of my life. I volunteered to work on the crew for Pierce Turner, and as a result was able to witness a plethora of great music from stage-side, including Patti Smith, Wilco (twice), Van Morrison, X, Shane McGowan, Suzanne Vega, Black ’47, John Prine, Steve Earle, Billy Bragg, Freedy Johnston, and a host of others.

I recorded several of the acts with a small set of core-sound microphones and a portable DAT. Of these recordings, this Richard Thompson is the best sounding and greatest performance. Thompson performed a solo acoustic set of numbers typical from this era, including his classics “Beeswing” and “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” with subtle power and poignancy.

This recording is no longer available at nyctaper. If you look around the web, you’ll likely find a copy.

Richard Thompson
1997-06-15
Fleadh Festival
Randall’s Island
New York, NY USA

Audience Master Recording
Recorded 20 feet in front of left PA speaker

Core Sound Cardiods > Sony D-7 DAT
DAT Master > Panasonic SV-3800 > digital coaxial > Audigy 2 ZS
Platinum > Soundforge > 16 bit 44.1 wav > CD Wave (tracking) >
Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
https://www.nyctaper.com
nyctaper@nyctaper.com
2005-12-12

(Total Time 49:42)
Setlist:
01 Turning of the Tide
02 The Ghost of You Walks
03 I Feel So Good
04 Galway to Graceland
05 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
06 Lottery Land
07 Razor Dance
08 Beeswing
09 Hamlet
10 Wall of Death
11 Dimming of the Day
12 Keep That Wheel A-Turning

Information:
txt file

Verification:
md5 file

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT this outstanding artist and visit his website.

[photo credit]

The Fiery Furnaces performed their 8th and final NYC-area concert of 2007 on Saturday in Williamsburg. This was the 5th time nyctaper has seen and recorded the Furnaces this year — and this performance was the most consistently excellent of all. The band seemed to be having quite a bit of fun, and Eleanor was energetic, confident, and strong of voice. A fine detailed review can be found at the Fluxblog (here).

Fiery Furnaces will be touring in January and February with Super Furry Animals for a handful of dates. There are also as-yet-unofficial local dates in January with the Furnaces as headliners (January 17 at Maxwell’s has been confirmed).

This concert was recorded from the best location in this venue. Quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Fiery Furnaces
2007-12-08
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 30 Feet from PA

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level boost, slight eq) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-12-09

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:19:35]
01 The Philadelphia Grand Jury
02 Navy Nurse
03 My Egyptian Grammar
04 Evergreen
05 Duplexes of the Dead
06 More Automatic Husband
07 Ex-Guru
08 Black-hearted Boy
09 Bitter Tea
10 Right by Conquest
11 The Garfield El
12 A Candymaker’s Knife in My Handbag
13 Forty-Eight Twenty-Three Twenty-Second Street
14 Seven Silver Curses
15 Slavin’ Away
16 Don’t Dance Her Down
17 Single Again/Smelling Cigarettes/Single Again
18 Don’t Dance Her Down
19 Japanese Slippers
20 Widow City
21 Restorative Beer
22 Clear Signal From Cairo
23 [encore break]
24 Tropical Ice-Land
25 Police Sweater Blood Vow
26 Bright Blue Tie
27 Waiting to Know You
28 Blueberry Boat

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Fiery Furnaces and visit their website

[photo credit]

MGMT has been selected to open concerts by two of my favorite bands in the last 2 months. Unfortunately, I missed their set opening for of Montreal at Roseland, but last night experienced this excellent new band at the Music Hall complimenting Fiery Furnaces. MGMT write smart psychedelic pop songs, with obvious older influences (Syd Barrett, Bowie), and some interesting contemporary comparisons (Flaming Lips, of Montreal). Their 45-minute set was well received by a sold-out crowd, and featured exclusively tracks from an upcoming release.

The MGMT debut album Oracular Spectacular is due for release on CD on January 22, 2008. Its currently available for purchase at I-Tunes. Fortunately, hard copies of the CD were available at the merch table last night (for only six dollars!). My Old Kentucky Blog had a nice feature on MGMT a couple of weeks ago (here), where you can also sample a few of the tracks from the album.

This concert was recorded from the ideal location, and the sound quality is excellent.
Fiery Furnaces were also recorded and will be posted soon.

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE] or [HERE].

MGMT
2007-12-08
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 30 Feet from PA

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level boost, slight eq) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-12-09

Setlist:
[Total Time 42:15]
01 The Handshake
02 Time to Pretend
03 Weekend Wars
04 Future Reflections
05 4th Dimensional Transition
06 Pieces of What
07 Electric Feel
08 Of Moons, Birds and Monsters
09 The Youth

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT MGMT and visit their MySpace page.

[photo credit]

Yo La Tengo‘s annual 8 Nights of Hanukkah concert series at Maxwell’s has been a joyous success once again this year. Thursday night was the third show, and featured an opening set by the legendary original dBs. But not to be outdone by their early-career mentors, Yo La Tengo performed an absolutely stunning set — Ira in particular was in rare form, shredding nearly every number with precision and intensity. The unique setlist contained a diverse spectrum of cover songs, which included an rare Dylan treat, Sun Ra, and Neil Diamond. The guests included three of the dBs, and also Jim James from My Morning Jacket.

All of these 8 shows are benefits for a particular charity each night. Thursday night was a benefit for Day One, an organization dedicated to the prevention of domestic violence among youth. If you download this recording, please donate (click here to donate) to this important program.

Once again we left Maxwell’s with the firm belief that this is perhaps the most fan-friendly venue in the entire Metropolitan area. The sound quality in the venue was superb, aided in large part by the talents of YLT’s soundboard technician. The concert experience was not impeded by aggressive security, venue politics, or seen-and-be-seen concert-goers. Of the 70 concerts that nyctaper has attended in 2007, this was the best time we’ve had.

The recording experience was also a pleasure. There were two tapers this night, and both of us were treated royally by the sound techs. I was able to attach my DPA microphones to a stand located inside of the soundboard booth, in the ideal location in this venue. The results are quite excellent. Enjoy!

Many thanks to many people: YLT, Maxwell’s, YLT’s sound crew, Chris, Neil, and Bob for the drinks and kind words about the site.

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Yo La Tengo
2007-12-06
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from Inside the Soundboard Booth
Dead Center, approximately 30 feet from the PA

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level adjustment, edit close clapping, slight EQ) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-12-07

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:44:27]
01 Nuclear War
02 Five Cornered Drone
03 The Race Is On Again
04 Autumn Sweater
05 The Weakest Part
06 Mr. Tough
07 No Water
08 I Wanna Be Your Lover
09 Cast A Shadow
10 Don’t Have To Be So Sad
11 Tom Courtenay
12 Styles of the Times
13 Watch Out For Me, Ronnie
14 I Heard You Looking
15 [encore break]
16 Heart Full of Soul
17 The Question
18 Solitary Man
19 Secret Agent Man
20 Hard Luck Woman

If you download this recording PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo. Visit their excellent website.

[photo credit]

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are going on a two-year hiatus when their current tour ends this week. In their last show in NYC Wednesday night in Brooklyn, Ted and company ripped through two hours of a high-energy career retrospective. The 2007 release Living With The Living is one of the best albums of the year, but it did not dominate the setlist. Rather, Ted and the Pharmacists drew from all the releases, and included several covers including a dead-on solo version of Graham Parker and The Rumour’s “Passion is No Ordinary World”.

I recorded from the perfect location, and was unimpeded by any significant crowd disruptions (there were several upfront). nyctaper is quite pleased with the quality of this recording. Enjoy!

This recording is now available to download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
2007-12-05
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 30 Feet from PA

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level boost, slight eq) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-12-06

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:49:24]
01 [reggae jam]
02 The Sons of Cain
03 Me and Mia
04 Army Bound
05 The Angel’s Share
06 Old Souls Know
07 Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone
08 I’m a Ghost
09 Annunciation Day
10 Born On Christmas Day
11 Bomb.Repeat.Bomb
12 [banter]
13 Counting Down The Hours
14 Little Dawn
15 Colleen
16 [banter]
17 A Bottle Of Buckie
18 [banter]
19 Parallel Or Together?
20 Who Do You Love?
21 The Unwanted Things
22 C.I.A.
23 [banter]
24 Loyal To My Sorrowful Country
25 [encore break]
26 Rave On (Buddy Holly)
27 Passion is No Ordinary Word (Graham Parker)
28 Timorous Me
29 Biomusicology
30 Rappaport’s Testament: I Never Gave Up (Chumbawamba)

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Ted Leo and visit his website.

[photo credit]

2007 has been an excellent year for Richard Hawley. His outstanding new release Lady’s Bridge has appeared on nearly every Best of 2007 list, and last night he began a triumphant return to the US with a sold-out concert at Bowery Ballroom. Hawley worked through a tight set of primarily Lady’s Bridge and Coles Corner material with confidence, and he entertained with quite humorous between-song banter. The closing number, “The Ocean”, reached a remarkable crescendo and featured some outstanding Hawley lead guitar work. The US tour continues through December with dates in Philadelphia, Toronto, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco, with a British tour planned for February of 2008.

This recording was made from the ideal location at this venue, in the center of the floor. While there is a minor amount of chatter from the sold-out crowd, the results are superb.

Hawley’s management responded to a pre-show email request to record. While permission was not granted, the response said “its your choice if you bring it [a recorder] or not”, which indicated a resigned ambivalence to the idea of a fan recording. nyctaper posts this recording in the spirit of fostering a positive relationship between Hawley and his fans, and also with the intent of exposing this amazing talent to readers of this site who may not be familiar with his work. As our disclaimer states, any recording will be removed immediately at the request of an artist. We hope that Richard Hawley will allow this recording to remain at nyctaper when the good intentions and positive mission of this site are understood.

Direct Download of the complete show in FLAC [here] and MP3 [here].

Richard Hawley
2007-12-01
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 20 Feet from PA

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level boost, slight eq) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-12-01

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:27:22]
01 [introduction]
02 Valentine
03 Roll River Roll
04 Just Like the Rain
05 Dark Road
06 Coles Corner
07 Tonight The Streets Are Ours
08 Lady’s Bridge
09 Hotel Room
10 Serious
11 Darlin’ Wait For Me
12 Our Darkness
13 The Sea Calls
14 Born Under A Bad Sign
15 Something Is…!
16 I’m Looking For Someone To Find Me
17 [encore break]
18 Tonight
19 The Ocean

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Richard Hawley and visit his website.