[photo by David Andrako]
Its hard to be objective when a band personally dedicates a song to you by name from the stage of Bowery Ballroom, but The War On Drugs show at Bowery was beyond the need for personal puffery. At an hour and forty minutes, and including in the setlist virtually everything the band has recorded, this War On Drugs set was epic. While David Hartley’s bass guitar has always been the backbone of the live band and his work on this night was superb, its hard to fathom the extent of the confidence and maturity that has Adam Granduciel now exhibits. Throughout the show, Adam’s delivery of each song was intense. While the band has reached a level of proficiency that often follows groups that tour extensively, the recent success seems to have propelled their energy to the next level. Opening with the double whammy of “Arms Like Boulders” and “Baby Missiles”, the momentum never let up. Slave Ambient was universally acknowledged as one of the best albums of 2011, and its prominence in the song selection was no surprise. But it was the development of the songs in the live setting that impressed — “Your Love / Animator / Come To the City” is now a twenty-plus minute segue, while “Best Night” (streaming below) is now charged up enough to be the next song that WOD plays on television. The show would not be complete without an inventive cover, and on this night it was from the Scottish indie troubadours The Waterboys, the classic “A Pagan Place” (also streaming below). The War On Drugs will be active on the Festival circuit this Spring and Summer, dates are here.
I recorded this set from our standard balcony location with the Sennheiser 8040s mixed with an outstanding board feed and the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!
Stream “Best Night”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/W1008WOD2101/09.%20Best%20Night.mp3]
Stream “A Pagan Place” (Waterboys cover):
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/W1008WOD2101/15.%20A%20Pagan%20Place%20%5bWaterboys%5d.mp3]
This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].
War On Drugs
2012-04-08
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Sennheiser 8040 Cardioids > 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 2012-04-11
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:39:35]
01 [introduction]
02 Arms Like Boulders
03 Baby Missiles
04 [banter – quit smoking]
05 Comin’ Through
06 Your Love Is Calling My Name
07 The Animator
08 Come To The City
09 Best Night
10 [banter – Doug Keith]
11 Brothers
12 Taking the Farm
13 I Was There
14 [banter – Mike Scott]
15 A Pagan Place [Waterboys]
16 The History of Plastic
17 [encore break]
18 Black Water Falls
19 [banter – brisket]
20 Buenos Aires Beach
21 Its Your Destiny
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The War On Drugs, visit their website, and purchase their new album Slave Ambient from Secretly Canadian Records [HERE].
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