[photo by nyctaper]
The night after Akron/Family played as a fifteen-piece ensemble at Le Poisson Rouge, they returned to their roots and played a “secret show” at tiny Monster Island Basement — the center of Brooklyn’s DIY scene. The band was once again a three-piece, but similar to the LPR show (also recorded, coming soon quality not sufficient for posting), the songs were stretched out sometimes beyond recognition. “River”, which was a compact seven-minute package at their last NYC show (Music Hall in March), added a neat guitar jam and went beyond twelve minutes. The highlight of the show was clearly the tribal-beat-infused crowd-participation monster of a “Ed Is A Portal” that lasted a full twenty-two sweaty minutes. But it was more than the numeric length of the songs. Akron/Family were relaxed and were playing in front of friends — this show was more of a party than a concert and the band’s performance reflected that energy.
I recorded this set with the Neumann microphones mounted to a pole about ten feet from the stage, and mixed with a feed from the soundboard. The basic sound system and basement setting does limit the sonic quality, but overall this is an outstanding recording which captures the energy of the room. Enjoy!
Stream Entire Show:
This Recording is now available to Download in FLAC and MP3 and to Stream at Archive.org [HERE].
Akron/Family
2010-07-01
Monster Island Basement
Brooklyn, NY USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 16bit 44.1kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-07-05
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:16:20]
01 Meek Warrior
02 River / Jam
03 So It Goes
04 [banter]
05 Another Sky
06 [new song – Seth]
07 [banter]
08 Lake Song / New Ceremonial Music For Moms
09 Ed Is A Portal
10 Silly Bear
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Akron/Family, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from Dead Oceans Records [HERE].
great recording! this has solidified my desire for akron/family and built to spill to tour together. would be a SICK combo.
Please make the LPR show available. I realize it may not have come out as good as you hoped, but it was a pretty unique set that I’m sure many would like to hear again.
I have worked on producing the LPR recording, but despite my best efforts, it is simply not “post-able”. There is virtually no clarity and the mix is all off. It would not be a fair representation of the band and its guests that night, and would not reflect well upon this site.
Sometimes our best efforts are frustrated and I although I wish it could be otherwise, sometimes recordings are not fit to post publicly. this is sadly the case with the LPR recording.