[photos by PSquared Photography]
I couldn’t make the Friday night Superchunk show, as I was attending The Suburbs at Mercury (recording very soon). But fortunately, intrepid correspondent neild was there for the capture. Neil reports:
“First things first: Not to contradict our fearless leader, but Superchunk didn’t technically go on hiatus after 2001’s Here’s to Shutting Up. There were occasional shows and EPs here and there, whenever Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance could take time away from their main gig running Merge Records. But the band’s masterful 2010 CD Majesty Shredding still deserves to be ranked with the most impressive comeback albums of all time, featuring instant classics like “Digging For Something” and “Learned to Surf” that melded the band’s guitar crunch with McCaughan’s pop hookery more deftly than ever before. And this year’s I Hate Music (spoiler alert: they don’t actually) is more of the same – or rather, another step forward in the same direction, stretching the band’s boundaries while still staying true to its strengths in rocking out.
This show was the first of two nights at the Bowery Ballroom (the second is available here), and the sold-out crowd was not disappointed: From the opening clap-along bars of “This Summer” (a throwaway single release from last year that might just be their catchiest tune ever), the band was in fine form, with McCaughan bouncing around the stage for almost the entire hour and a half of music. (As my spouse, a Superchunk first-timer, remarked with understatement, “Mac sure has a lot of energy.”) With Ballance sidelined by ear problems, drummer Jon Wurster’s Bob Mould band mate Jason Narducy subbed in as a replacement, and was an excellent fit both on bass and on backing vocals. The setlist featured a spate of songs from I Hate Music, plus a selection from the band’s catalog that managed to be almost entirely different from the next night’s set; “Skip Steps 1 and 3,” “Hyper Enough,” “Rope Light,” and “Driveway to Driveway” (streaming below) were among the highlights here that didn’t reappear on Saturday.
I recorded this from the Bowery’s left balcony, which made for reduced crowd noise and a nice direct sound from the left speaker stack. It was recorded with two sets of mics, Core Sound Binaurals and Church Audio CA-14 cardioids, which were later mixed to provide optimum depth and presence.
Do not sell this under any circumstances, buy all of Superchunk’s records if you don’t have them already (did you get their 2008 EP Leaves In The Gutter? you probably believed that “hiatus” thing and missed it, didn’t you?), and by all means, do yourself a favor and go see them live when they come to your town.
(Special thanks to nitcomb for the setlist.)
Stream “Driveway to Driveway”:
Download the Complete Show [MP3] or [MP3] (off site) / [FLAC] or [FLAC] (off site)
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.
Superchunk
Bowery Ballroom, NYC
September 27, 2013
Source 1: AUD > CoreSound Binaurals > MM-EBM-1 battery box (with bass roll-off) > Line In > iRiver H320 (Rockboxed) > AIFF
Source 2: AUD > Church Audio CA-14 Cardioids > Line In > iRiver H320 (Rockboxed) > AIFF
Mixing: AIFF > Sound Studio > FLAC > XAct (for SBE and tags) > FLAC
Recorded and mastered by neil d
Extremely light dynamic compression in Sound Studio
01 intro
02 This Summer
03 FOH
04 Me and You and Jackie Mittoo
05 Learned to Surf
06 Skip Steps 1 and 3
07 Staying Home
08 Void
09 Out Of The Sun
10 Kicked In
11 Nu Bruises
12 Low F
13 Animated Airplanes Over Germany
14 Rope Light
15 Digging For Something
16 Slack Motherfucker
17 encore break
18 Tiny Bombs
19 What Do I
20 Brand New Love (Sebadoh)
21 Hyper Enough
22 encore break 2
23 Driveway To Driveway
24 The First Part
If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Superchunk, visit their website, and purchase I Hate Music directly from Merge Records [HERE].
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