[photo by thekittykat]

NYCTaper readers who have followed this site since the beginning may recall the difficulties that I had two and half years ago at a Sonic Youth concert in Brooklyn, my subsequent ill-conceived rant, the blow up that followed, and finally my apology. The end result was that I learned a very valuable lesson about misdirected blame. As I was very recently again mistreated by LiveNation security (Yo La Tengo at Roseland), its clear to me that some things will never change. Ultimately, I feel the site has been enriched by my vow to disregard the distractions and difficulties of the peripheral issues like concert security and venue politics, and to focus all the positive energy on the artists and their music.

This year for their brief NYC “tour”, Sonic Youth chose to book the shows with the excellent Bowery Presents. The end result was better venues, a better “vibe” at the shows, and ultimately a significantly superior concert experience for the fans. If Terminal 5 was the “big” show, the two nights at Music Hall were clearly the “intimate” shows. As it had been more that ten years since we had seen Sonic Youth at a venue of this small size (three nights at Irving Plaza in 1998), when we entered Music Hall on Tuesday night there was a feeling of walking back in time. The set consisted primarily of material from the latest album The Eternal, as the band performed again eleven of the album’s thirteen tracks. The highlights of the new material included Thurston’s relaxed and melodic seven minute “Anti-Orgasm” and the lengthy set-closing “Massage the History” which featured excellent vocal work from Kim. The acknowledgement of the band’s great history were contained in the two sets of encores and included two classic EVOL tracks and a wild “Silver Rocket” closer.

We recorded this set from the perfect location in this venue, the front left corner of the soundboard booth. As the concert was mixed to perfection by Sonic Youth soundman Aaron Mullen, this capture is perhaps one of the best recordings we have ever offered on this site. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Sonic Youth
2009-11-24
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Soundboard Booth

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz 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
2009-11-25

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:33:42]
01 Sacred Trickster
02 No Way
03 Calming the Snake
04 Hey Joni
05 Malibu Gas Station
06 Anti-Orgasm
07 Poison Arrow
08 Walkin Blue
09 Catholic Block
10 Antenna
11 Leaky Lifeboat
12 Massage the History
13 [encore break]
14 Tom Violence
15 Schizophrenia
16 What We Know
17 [second encore break]
18 Shadow of a Doubt
19 Silver Rocket

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Sonic Youth, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the Store at their website [here].

[photo courtesy of Ryan Muir]

Two nights after seeing the Feelies perform one of the early 80’s legendary albums start to finish, we saw Pixies perform one of the late 80’s greatest albums in similar fashion. While the Pixies have been accused in some circles of coasting on reputation, it was clear from our upfront position at Monday night’s packed show that the band had a ton of fun performing Doolittle in its entirety. Opening the set with a four “b-sides”, as Kim narrated, the band then worked its way through the album the old-fashioned way — side one and side two. While the performance was quite faithful to the record, the live version is more animated and fast-paced. Indeed, the set proper ended in less than hour. Pixies returned however for two sets of encores, including more b-sides and finished the night with two of their best known “non-Doolittle” songs.

This show is available as a “DOOLITTLE LIVE” recording through the Pixies website [HERE].

There is an alternative audience recording available HERE for those who have already purchased the “Doolittle Live” recording from the Pixies

Pixies
2009-11-23
Hammerstein Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:23:13]
01 [introduction]
02 Dancing The Manta Ray
03 Weird At My School
04 Bailey’s Walk
05 Manta Ray
06 Debaser
07 Tame
08 Wave of Mutilation
09 I Bleed
10 Here Comes Your Man
11 Dead
12 Monkey Gone to Heaven
13 Mr. Grieves
14 Crackity Jones
15 La La Love You
16 No. 13 Baby
17 There Goes My Gun
18 Hey
19 Silver
20 Gouge Away
21 [encore break]
22 Slow Wave of Mutilation
23 Into the White
24 [second encore break]
25 Isla De Encanta
26 Nimrod’s Son
27 Where is My Mind
28 Gigantic

PLEASE SUPPORT Pixies, visit their website, and purchase the Minotaur box set directly from AINR website [here] or follow the Stuff link at I Love Pixies [here].

[photo courtesy of Emily Norton]

As the band and venue perhaps most interrelated in rock music annals, the Feelies returned to Maxwell’s last night to perform a complete start to finish set of the album for which they are best known — 1980’s seminal Crazy Rhythms. The night brought out the old fans, and few local luminaries — we spotted Glenn Morrow, owner of Bar/None Records, the label that reissued Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth this Fall. Before proceeding through the album the Feelies performed an intense twelve-song first set which featured expert musicianship and quite a bit of animated play from Glenn Mercer. Opening with a letter-perfect VU’s “Sunday Morning”, the set was notable for some new songs, including “Bluer Skies” which debuted at the Whitney this Summer and “Time is Right” which debuted at Maxwell’s last Summer. Following the Crazy Rhythms set, the band returned for five encores including a rare “Last Roundup” and another run through the REM classic “Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)”.

I recorded this set from the perfect location in this venue and utilized the four microphone rig. The sound quality in the venue, mixed by long-time Feelies FOH Andy, was quite excellent and the four microphones captured a recording of incredible depth. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

The Feelies
2009-11-21
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Front and Center of Soundboard

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz 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
2009-11-22

Setlist:
Set 1:
[Total Time 45:44]
01 Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground)
02 Undertow
03 Bluer Skies
04 Nobody Knows
05 High Road
06 Invitation
07 On the Roof
08 Let’s Go
09 For Now
10 Deep Fascination
11 Higher Ground
12 Time is Right

Set 2:
[Total Time 58:42]
01 The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness
02 Fa Ce-La
03 Loveless Love
04 Forces at Work
05 Original Love
06 Everybody’s Got Something To Hide (Except Me and My Monkey) (Beatles)
07 Moscow Nights
08 Raised Eyebrows
09 Crazy Rhythms
10 [encore break]
11 Away
12 The Last Roundup
13 Doin’ It Again
14 [second encore break]
15 Carnival of Sorts (R.E.M.)
16 I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms (Modern Lovers)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Feelies, visit their MySpace page, and purchase the reissues of Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth directly from the Bar None website [HERE].

[photo courtesy of l_c_m_tt_]

Acidjack reports:
“The cliche about Sonic Youth as New York’s modern rock “elder statesmen” is hard to avoid. Almost no band remains vital for 30 years – not only continuing to perform music (which many do), but making new music, and new good music. These days a pretty good buzz band can consider themselves lucky if somebody cares 9 months later. But Sonic Youth have defied all logic. They may be the only band that can, in a year in which they appeared on the show “Gossip Girl” and played venues around the country that were as big or bigger than Terminal 5, retain their unquestionable status as the kings of underground cool.

In the end Sonic Youth’s continued dominance is no mystery at all. The music, quite simply, is just that good, and this show drove that home again and again, as the band played almost the entirety of this year’s The Eternal (11 out of the 13 songs) plus several big numbers from their 80s albums (though oddly, almost none of the next-most-recent albums or their 1990s material).

This was my debut outing with my new DPA 4021 microphones, and it was a pretty stressful day thanks to my recorder dying the day before, and Terminal 5 being a usual Saturday “amateur night” environment of drunk people and people who didn’t seem to care much about the band. Thanks to Dan for the loaner deck and Johnny for blocking for me. And of course, to Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. and their management for putting on a top-notch performance and allowing us to record. Enjoy!”

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Sonic Youth
2009-11-21
Terminal 5
New York, NY USA

An ACIDJACK master recording

Recorded and produced by acidjack
Hosted at nyctaper.com

Equipment: DPA 4021>Marantz PMD660 (Oade Concert Mod) (16/44.1)
Position: 12′ up, on stand, right side of SBD cage, DIN
Mastering: WAV>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify channels)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Intro
02 No Way
03 Sacred Trickster
04 Calming the Snake
05 Stereo Sanctity
06 Anti-Orgasm
07 Walkin Blue
08 Shadow of A Doubt
09 Antenna
10 crowd
11 Malibu Gas Station
12 crowd
13 Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)
14 Poison Arrow
15 crowd
16 Silver Rocket
17 crowd
18 Massage the History
19 crowd
20 The Sprawl
21 Cross the Breeze
22 encore break
23 What We Know
24 White Cross

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Sonic Youth, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the Store at their website [here].

[photo courtesy of Free Music Archive]

Acidjack reports:
“David Pajo, who performs in various configurations as Aerial M and Papa M, is the kind of artist who inspires fervor among fans not for the relentless bombast of his music, or his stage presence, or probably even his indie cred (although one has to point out that David’s having been a founding member of Slint, is pretty damn huge). Rather, he is that unique kind of artist who, by playing restrained, complex instrumental guitar music, proves that “rock” can inspire and enthrall without screaming its head off. The songs in this melancholy set occasionally build to crescendos, sure, but the release is subtle when compared to the euphoric wad-blowing of other excellent instrumental bands like Explosions in the Sky. Over these five songs, David and his two co-guitarists gave us exactly the type of performance one needs on a cold autumn evening. As the music lolls along – especially some of the circa-1999 classics, you can’t help but be reminded that, this time of year, in the mist of loss, there are the stirrings, still, of life.”

Acidjack recorded this set from in front of the soundboard booth and the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Many thanks to David and Drag City Records for permission to record this show.

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Papa M
2009-11-18
Knitting Factory
Brooklyn, NY USA

An ACIDJACK master recording

Equipment: AKG ck93 (Busman Active Mod)>CA 9100>R-09HR (24/48)
Position: FOB, on stand, DIN, 11′
Mastering: WAV>Audacity (set fades, downsample, tracking, amplify each channel)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 roadrunner
02 crowd
03 plastic energy man
04 drunken spree
05 crowd
06 i am not lonely with cricket
07 arundel

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Papa M/David Pajo, visit his website, and purchase his official releases from the Store at his website [here].