[photo credit]

The Fiery Furnaces performed their 8th and final NYC-area concert of 2007 on Saturday in Williamsburg. This was the 5th time nyctaper has seen and recorded the Furnaces this year — and this performance was the most consistently excellent of all. The band seemed to be having quite a bit of fun, and Eleanor was energetic, confident, and strong of voice. A fine detailed review can be found at the Fluxblog (here).

Fiery Furnaces will be touring in January and February with Super Furry Animals for a handful of dates. There are also as-yet-unofficial local dates in January with the Furnaces as headliners (January 17 at Maxwell’s has been confirmed).

This concert was recorded from the best location in this venue. Quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Fiery Furnaces
2007-12-08
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 30 Feet from PA

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
2007-12-09

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:19:35]
01 The Philadelphia Grand Jury
02 Navy Nurse
03 My Egyptian Grammar
04 Evergreen
05 Duplexes of the Dead
06 More Automatic Husband
07 Ex-Guru
08 Black-hearted Boy
09 Bitter Tea
10 Right by Conquest
11 The Garfield El
12 A Candymaker’s Knife in My Handbag
13 Forty-Eight Twenty-Three Twenty-Second Street
14 Seven Silver Curses
15 Slavin’ Away
16 Don’t Dance Her Down
17 Single Again/Smelling Cigarettes/Single Again
18 Don’t Dance Her Down
19 Japanese Slippers
20 Widow City
21 Restorative Beer
22 Clear Signal From Cairo
23 [encore break]
24 Tropical Ice-Land
25 Police Sweater Blood Vow
26 Bright Blue Tie
27 Waiting to Know You
28 Blueberry Boat

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Fiery Furnaces and visit their website

[photo credit]

MGMT has been selected to open concerts by two of my favorite bands in the last 2 months. Unfortunately, I missed their set opening for of Montreal at Roseland, but last night experienced this excellent new band at the Music Hall complimenting Fiery Furnaces. MGMT write smart psychedelic pop songs, with obvious older influences (Syd Barrett, Bowie), and some interesting contemporary comparisons (Flaming Lips, of Montreal). Their 45-minute set was well received by a sold-out crowd, and featured exclusively tracks from an upcoming release.

The MGMT debut album Oracular Spectacular is due for release on CD on January 22, 2008. Its currently available for purchase at I-Tunes. Fortunately, hard copies of the CD were available at the merch table last night (for only six dollars!). My Old Kentucky Blog had a nice feature on MGMT a couple of weeks ago (here), where you can also sample a few of the tracks from the album.

This concert was recorded from the ideal location, and the sound quality is excellent.
Fiery Furnaces were also recorded and will be posted soon.

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE] or [HERE].

MGMT
2007-12-08
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 30 Feet from PA

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
2007-12-09

Setlist:
[Total Time 42:15]
01 The Handshake
02 Time to Pretend
03 Weekend Wars
04 Future Reflections
05 4th Dimensional Transition
06 Pieces of What
07 Electric Feel
08 Of Moons, Birds and Monsters
09 The Youth

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT MGMT and visit their MySpace page.

[photo credit]

Yo La Tengo‘s annual 8 Nights of Hanukkah concert series at Maxwell’s has been a joyous success once again this year. Thursday night was the third show, and featured an opening set by the legendary original dBs. But not to be outdone by their early-career mentors, Yo La Tengo performed an absolutely stunning set — Ira in particular was in rare form, shredding nearly every number with precision and intensity. The unique setlist contained a diverse spectrum of cover songs, which included an rare Dylan treat, Sun Ra, and Neil Diamond. The guests included three of the dBs, and also Jim James from My Morning Jacket.

All of these 8 shows are benefits for a particular charity each night. Thursday night was a benefit for Day One, an organization dedicated to the prevention of domestic violence among youth. If you download this recording, please donate (click here to donate) to this important program.

Once again we left Maxwell’s with the firm belief that this is perhaps the most fan-friendly venue in the entire Metropolitan area. The sound quality in the venue was superb, aided in large part by the talents of YLT’s soundboard technician. The concert experience was not impeded by aggressive security, venue politics, or seen-and-be-seen concert-goers. Of the 70 concerts that nyctaper has attended in 2007, this was the best time we’ve had.

The recording experience was also a pleasure. There were two tapers this night, and both of us were treated royally by the sound techs. I was able to attach my DPA microphones to a stand located inside of the soundboard booth, in the ideal location in this venue. The results are quite excellent. Enjoy!

Many thanks to many people: YLT, Maxwell’s, YLT’s sound crew, Chris, Neil, and Bob for the drinks and kind words about the site.

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Yo La Tengo
2007-12-06
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from Inside the Soundboard Booth
Dead Center, approximately 30 feet from the PA

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level adjustment, edit close clapping, slight EQ) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-12-07

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:44:27]
01 Nuclear War
02 Five Cornered Drone
03 The Race Is On Again
04 Autumn Sweater
05 The Weakest Part
06 Mr. Tough
07 No Water
08 I Wanna Be Your Lover
09 Cast A Shadow
10 Don’t Have To Be So Sad
11 Tom Courtenay
12 Styles of the Times
13 Watch Out For Me, Ronnie
14 I Heard You Looking
15 [encore break]
16 Heart Full of Soul
17 The Question
18 Solitary Man
19 Secret Agent Man
20 Hard Luck Woman

If you download this recording PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo. Visit their excellent website.

[photo credit]

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are going on a two-year hiatus when their current tour ends this week. In their last show in NYC Wednesday night in Brooklyn, Ted and company ripped through two hours of a high-energy career retrospective. The 2007 release Living With The Living is one of the best albums of the year, but it did not dominate the setlist. Rather, Ted and the Pharmacists drew from all the releases, and included several covers including a dead-on solo version of Graham Parker and The Rumour’s “Passion is No Ordinary World”.

I recorded from the perfect location, and was unimpeded by any significant crowd disruptions (there were several upfront). nyctaper is quite pleased with the quality of this recording. Enjoy!

This recording is now available to download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
2007-12-05
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 30 Feet from PA

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
2007-12-06

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:49:24]
01 [reggae jam]
02 The Sons of Cain
03 Me and Mia
04 Army Bound
05 The Angel’s Share
06 Old Souls Know
07 Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone
08 I’m a Ghost
09 Annunciation Day
10 Born On Christmas Day
11 Bomb.Repeat.Bomb
12 [banter]
13 Counting Down The Hours
14 Little Dawn
15 Colleen
16 [banter]
17 A Bottle Of Buckie
18 [banter]
19 Parallel Or Together?
20 Who Do You Love?
21 The Unwanted Things
22 C.I.A.
23 [banter]
24 Loyal To My Sorrowful Country
25 [encore break]
26 Rave On (Buddy Holly)
27 Passion is No Ordinary Word (Graham Parker)
28 Timorous Me
29 Biomusicology
30 Rappaport’s Testament: I Never Gave Up (Chumbawamba)

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Ted Leo and visit his website.

[photo credit]

2007 has been an excellent year for Richard Hawley. His outstanding new release Lady’s Bridge has appeared on nearly every Best of 2007 list, and last night he began a triumphant return to the US with a sold-out concert at Bowery Ballroom. Hawley worked through a tight set of primarily Lady’s Bridge and Coles Corner material with confidence, and he entertained with quite humorous between-song banter. The closing number, “The Ocean”, reached a remarkable crescendo and featured some outstanding Hawley lead guitar work. The US tour continues through December with dates in Philadelphia, Toronto, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco, with a British tour planned for February of 2008.

This recording was made from the ideal location at this venue, in the center of the floor. While there is a minor amount of chatter from the sold-out crowd, the results are superb.

Hawley’s management responded to a pre-show email request to record. While permission was not granted, the response said “its your choice if you bring it [a recorder] or not”, which indicated a resigned ambivalence to the idea of a fan recording. nyctaper posts this recording in the spirit of fostering a positive relationship between Hawley and his fans, and also with the intent of exposing this amazing talent to readers of this site who may not be familiar with his work. As our disclaimer states, any recording will be removed immediately at the request of an artist. We hope that Richard Hawley will allow this recording to remain at nyctaper when the good intentions and positive mission of this site are understood.

Direct Download of the complete show in FLAC [here] and MP3 [here].

Richard Hawley
2007-12-01
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 20 Feet from PA

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
2007-12-01

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:27:22]
01 [introduction]
02 Valentine
03 Roll River Roll
04 Just Like the Rain
05 Dark Road
06 Coles Corner
07 Tonight The Streets Are Ours
08 Lady’s Bridge
09 Hotel Room
10 Serious
11 Darlin’ Wait For Me
12 Our Darkness
13 The Sea Calls
14 Born Under A Bad Sign
15 Something Is…!
16 I’m Looking For Someone To Find Me
17 [encore break]
18 Tonight
19 The Ocean

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Richard Hawley and visit his website.