[thanks Greg for photo]

Its been almost two years since we last saw Regina Spektor live, at Hammerstein Ballroom in 2007. We had a ticket to the McCarren Pool show last summer, but torrential rains kept us away. It was with that level of excitement that we entered the new Beacon Theatre to hear the first-ever live performances of much of Regina’s new CD, Far, due for release next week. As anticipated, the new material is more mature and elaborate — she played with a string section and drums — but still very much maintains the charming attraction of older Regina material. Of the new songs, the pre-released single “Laughing With” shined the brightest. The second half of the set was dedicated to many of Regina’s older and more familiar material — but also included three chestnuts, the infrequently played “Consequence of Sounds”, the b-side “Riot Gear”, and a new song preliminarily called “The Holocaust Deniers”. The latter song sounds like a straightforward rebuke of the title characters “who accuse the dying of lying”.

We recorded this set from a nearly perfect location, a direct line about 30 feet in front of the huge PA stacks on the left side. Our best mobile rig captured a recording of stunning clarity, with two caveats — the volume of the obviously excited crowd had to be reduced significantly in post-production, and during the quiet moments there is an apparent hum/buzz in the left channel which I believe was caused by the air-conditioning duct directly above my head. Under the circumstances, we nevertheless feel this is an excellent capture. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Direct download of FLAC files [HERE]

Regina Spektor
2009-06-17
Beacon Theatre
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Row K, Far Left
30 Feet directly in Front of Left PA Stacks

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
2009-06-18

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:29:24]
01 Folding Chair
02 Lucky Penny
03 Time Is All Around
04 Eet
05 The Calculation
06 Machine
07 One More Time with Feeling
08 On the Radio
09 Blue Lips
10 Riot Gear
11 Laughing With
12 Bobbing for Apples
13 That Time
14 Apres Moi
15 Human of the Year
16 Poor Little Rich Boy
17 The Holocaust Deniers
18 Consequence of Sounds
19 Man of a Thousand Faces
20 [encore break]
21 Samson
22 Us
23 Fidelity

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Regina Spektor, visit her website, visit her MySpace page, and purchase/pre-order her new release Far directly from her website [HERE].

We’ll admit to being a little worried about the Meat Puppets when we last saw them — an energetic but sloppy performance at Terminal 5 in September. We feared that the sharp and inspired comeback of a band that had been given up for dead a decade earlier had the potential to become derailed again. Thankfully, our fears were not realized. Shortly after their Fall dates, the Meat Puppets returned to the studio and delivered Sewn Together, their most inspired album in fifteen years. They are currently on tour and reviews of the shows have been universally positive.

At Mercury Lounge on Thursday night, the Meat Puppets delivered an outstanding ninety-minute set of old and new material. The highlights included again an extended “Up On the Sun”, a well-played “Rotten Shame” from the new CD, and the raging three-song finale of “Lake of Fire”, “Lost” and “Backwater”.

Acidjack recorded this show from upfront at the Merc with a fine set of cardioid microphones and the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the MP3 and FLAC files and stream the entire show on the Live Music Archive [HERE]

Meat Puppets
2009-06-11
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

FOB Digital Master Recording

SP-CMC-8 (AT U-853 Cardiods w/ low sensitivity mod and adapter) > SPSB-8 > Edirol R-09-HR > 24bit 48kHz wav > Audacity (set fades, level boost, downsample) > CD Wave (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by Acidjack
Some post work by nyctaper
2009-06-15

Setlist
[Total Time 1:28:06]
01 Sewn Together
02 Touchdown King
03 Blanket of Weeds
04 The Monkey And The Snake
05 Comin’ Down
06 Oh, Me
07 Plateau
08 I’m A Mindless Idiot
09 Up On The Sun
10 Rotten Shame
11 Station
12 I’m Not You
13 Look At The Rain
14 Smoke
15 Lake of Fire
16 Lost
17 Backwater
18 [feedback/crowd]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Meat Puppets, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their new release Sewn Together directly from their page [HERE].

[photo courtesy of Tinnitus Photography]

Radio City Music Hall was the perfect venue for the Decemberists to present The Hazards of Love in its entirety. On Wednesday night, the band took to the big stage with an impressive backdrop and excellent mood lighting. The Hazards of Love narrates a fantasy story of forest-dwellers that seemed appropriate for the venue’s proximity to Broadway. As the Decemberists performed the album straight through as a suite, the strength of the music and the performance were as breathtaking as the setting. The guest performers Shara Worden and Becky Stark, outstanding artists in their own right, were strong complimentary figures who did not outshine the star of the evening — singer, guitarist and composer Colin Meloy.

We recorded from an outstanding location in this venue with our best mobile rig. We sat three rows directly in front of the soundboard in the dead center of the room. The sound for this cavernous venue was quite excellent, but we were unluckily seated next to three guys who felt compelled to scream like little girls on a regular basis. While they do not ruin the recording, their persistent idiocy is nevertheless apparent on many occasions during the recording. With that caveat, enjoy what is an excellent capture of a superb concert!

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

The Decemberists
2009-06-10
Radio City Music Hall
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from 3 Rows in Front of Soundboard
Dead Center Row E

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
2009-06-13

Setlist:
Set 1: The Hazards of Love
[Total Time 56:42]
01 Prelude
02 The Hazards of Love 1
03 A Bower Scene
04 Won’t Want for Love
05 The Hazards of Love 2
06 Isn’t It a Lovely Night?
07 The Wanting Comes in Waves
08 An Interlude
09 The Rake’s Song
10 The Abduction of Margaret
11 The Queen’s Rebuke
12 The Crossing
13 Annan Water
14 Margaret in Captivity
15 The Hazards of Love 3
16 The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
17 The Hazards of Love 4

Set 2
[Total Time 53:35]
01 //The Crane Wife 3
02 July, July!
03 Billy Liar
04 Sleepless
05 The Bachelor and the Bride
06 Dracula’s Daughter
07 O Valencia!
08 The Chimbley Sweep
09 Crazy on You (Heart)
10 [encore break]
11 Begin the Begin (REM)
12 Sons and Daughters

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