Live is where we live...

A Certain Ratio - Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves 2009/05/31

2009-06-03T00:17:00.002+01:00

A Certain Ratio
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves
Oporto, Portugal
May 31, 2009 (Sunday)

Setlist:

God Is An Astronaut - Cinema Passos Manuel 2009/05/23

2009-06-02T23:53:00.006+01:00

God Is An Astronaut
Cinema Passos Manuel
Oporto, Portugal
May 23, 2009 (Satursday)

Support Slot: The Allstar Project

Setlist:

01- intro / White Noise
02- Shadows
03- All Is Violent, All Is Bright
04- Tempus Horizon
05- From Dust To The Beyond
06- Fragile
07- Echoes
08- Radau
09- A Moment Of Stillness
10- Zodiac
11- Far From Refuge
12- Snowfall
13- Suicide By Star
14- Route 666 / encore
15- A Deafening Distance
16- Fire Flies And Empty Skies / encore 2
17- The End Of The Beginning
18- Boomsong / end

TRT: 01h:32m:08s

Notes: I admit I only went to this show for their live reputation, as I don't consider myself a big GIAA fan, but this show raised the roof. The sound was excellent, I was in a prime spot for recording, and this is probably one of my best tapes ever after some bass taming. If adding a bit of reverb wasn't out of bounds for me in the live recording mastering domain, this could almost pass as an official release. The band was really into the crowd, and I bet this was a very special night for them. They even played an extra new or unreleased jam/song which one the Kinsella Bros. named as "Boomsong", which wasn't on the official setlist. If you don't really think the world of GIAA in the studio, seeing them live is an obligatory step towards liking them (unless you're Björk). For the fans, I can't recommend enough that you get this, for a few different reasons.

setlist: here

download: 16bit

links: Official Myspace // Last.fm

Mogwai - Aula Magna 2009/02/05

2009-02-08T04:00:00.005Z

Mogwai
Aula Magna
Lisbon, Portugal
February 5, 2009 (Thursday)
Support Slot: Errors

Setlist:
01- I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
02- Ithica 27ø9
03- I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School
04- Summer
05- Scotland's Shame
06- Hunted By A Freak
07- Mogwai Fear Satan
08- Thank You Space Expert
09- Helicon 1
10- Friend Of The Night
11- Like Herod
12- Batcat / encore
13- The Precipice
14- 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong

TRT: 01h:44m:07s

Notes: First of all, I've loved Mogwai for a long time. They are one of my favorite bands and a paradigm of post-rock (whether they like it or not). It may sound weird or harsh to say this, but if there ever was a show that was a thousand times better than I expected, this has to be it. Not because they lack a live reputation, but I never really got into their latest album, "The Hawk is Hawling", and to be honest, didn't listen to it entirely more than once (maybe!). That said, after only sleeping a couple of hours the prior night, and the same old dull train trip to Lisbon, I had a major case of cold feet a few minutes before the Errors took on stage. Great band, great set, I liked their latest album way better than Mogwai's. It would have been a great morale boost, if I didn't find my preamp cable halfway out of my new recorder at the end of the set, instantly making me realize that the whole tape went to shit. Oh well... I was there for Mogwai, or at least that's what I kept telling myself to mitigate my "tape failure" blues. Mogwai started with "Jim Morrison", a not very impressive track live or in the studio, I'm afraid. They would have to try much harder if they wanted to impress this cranky taper. After a great segue of songs (even the new ones sounded great live), "Summer" and "Scotland's Shame" were two of the many highlights of the set. I was pumped from then on. They did Mogwai Fear Satan, arguably my favorite of their whole repertoire. Other highlights include: "Thank You Space Expert", "Helicon 1" and "Herod"/"Batcat" (they should have done both as the encore instead of the actual one). The sound was pretty good, no gross incompetence by the soundman, and it isn't a particularly good hall in the acoustics department. A little too much snare at the beginning, but the guitars were awesomely clear, and lord knows how you do such a great job in the post-rock genre behind the console. I've spent a whole day working on this recording. I can't even begin to tell you how muddy the master sounded compared to this. It's hard to find good Mogwai live tapes, but I feel this one will join that group. All in all, a stunning show, one for the books. Great live renditions of the new songs, proving once again that Mogwai is a band built for live. And I promise to give "The Hawk" another chance or two...

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - Cinema Passos Manuel 2008/11/01

2008-11-29T23:15:00.006Z

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band
Cinema Passos Manuel
Oporto, Portugal
November 1, 2008

Setlist:
01- intro / tuning up
02- 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
03- 1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound
04- God Bless Our Dead Marines
05- Black Waters Blowed / Engine Broken Down Blues
06- Microphones in the Trees
07- I Built Myself a Metal Bird, I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds

TRT: 01h:48m:30s

Notes: This show was mesmerizing, really one of the best I've ever seen. Also, probably one of the best recordings I've made this year, so if you like ASMZ and choose to download this, I think you're in for a treat. The room looked like a big cold cube (it was a Cinema originally), but the sound was great and the raw recording on it's own would have made a great listen. I did use a multiband compressor to enhance the loudness of the recording and balance it a bit (it's always a pain in the neck to master a recording with a double bass), and some parametric EQ to fine tune the frequency balance. Great in-between song banter as always, and respectful crowd (gotta love seated shows). Big thanks to the band for stopping by Oporto, and Efrim for being a sport and interrupting his post-show cigarette to deal with us pesky fans. This is an LMA release, so enjoy your MP3. That's right.. I allow you to.

Download: LMA
Links: Official Website

Sigur Rós - Alexandra Palace 2008/11/20 & 2008/11/21

2008-11-23T12:02:00.005Z

Sigur Rós
Alexandra Palace
London, England
November 21, 2008 (Friday)
Support Slot: For A Minor Reflection

Setlist:
01- Svefn-g-englar
02- Glósóli
03- Ný Batterí
04- Fljótavik
05- Við Spilum Endalaust
06- Hoppípolla
07- Með Blóðnasir
08- Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
09- E-bow
10- Sæglópur
11- Festival
12- Hafsól
13- Gobbledigook / Encore
14- All Alright
15- Popplagið

Sigur Rós
Alexandra Palace
London, England
November 20, 2008 (Thursday)
Support Slot: For A Minor Reflection

Setlist:
01- Svefn-g-englar
02- Ný Batterí
03- Fljótavik
04- Við Spilum Endalaust
05- Hoppípolla
06- Með Blóðnasir
07- Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
08- E-bow
09- Sæglópur
10- Festival
11- Hafsól
12- Gobbledigook / Encore
13- All Alright
14- Popplagið

Sigur Rós - Campo Pequeno 2008/11/11

2008-11-14T01:35:00.016Z

Sigur Rós
Campo Pequeno
Lisbon, Portugal
November 11, 2008 (Tuesday)
Support Slot: For A Minor Reflection

Setlist:
01- Svefn-g-englar
02- Ný Batterí
03- Fljótavik
04- Við Spilum Endalaust
05- Hoppípolla
06- Með Blóðnasir
07- Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
08- E-bow
09- Sæglópur
10- Festival
11- Hafsól
12- Gobbledigook / Encore
13- All Alright
14- Glósóli
15- Popplagið

TRT: 01h:51m:44s

Notes: This would be on paper the live music event of the year for me, even before setting foot in the Campo Pequeno on this chilly November night. But due to the sub-par quality of their latest album (The Eleven Hoppipolla's), and the consummated long announced drop of my beloved Amiina girls from their live line-up, I was turned off quite a bit. I planned a trip to Milan in the summer just to get a chance to see a full-throttle Sigur Rós concert for the last time in a while, but my plans were foiled by conflicting schedules. As a result, I went to this show expecting nothing but disappointment, and carried by a nostalgic feeling of the band's golden AB/( ) years. Gladly, the band started to venture during the US tour into playing songs like E-bow (possibly my all time favorite SR song), and Festival (the only song on ...við spilum endalaust that's actually worth a bunch of spins), so there was plenty of reasons to give the band a shot to prove me wrong. Ticket bought since early August, and looking forward all summer to 11/11.

Svefn-g-englar opens the main set, like it did during the most of the tour, and I was immediately floored. I thought the Glósóli's golden shadow-play intro during the Takk tour was impossible to beat, but Svefn proved to be up to the challenge. A surreally beautiful moment, that dissociates Sigur Rós from any other "breathing band" on the planet. It also underlines my bias towards the band's post-rock years, as opposed to the pop driven songs they've been producing in their most recent works. Such a waste.

Ný Batteri gets the second spot on the main slot, a song I couldn't enjoy because of the gigantic beer seller douchebag, who was asking to every single person he passed if he wanted beer. Someone in the crowd asks him to STFU, something I did through gestures, and soon enough, we had a stupid, loud, argument during the mellow part of NB. If it wasn't for the microphone wires attached to me, I think I would have lost it and dropped the guy right there. I didn't give much for the show up until that point, so what the hell... let's sleep in jail tonight. Luckily I didn't went that way, and the best was still to come. Ný Batteri rocked the last time I saw it, this time I can't remember any it because I my blood was boiling. I refuse to listen to it in the recording too.

Fljótavik, can't remember it, was still pissed. But, it doesn't suck on the recording. I also noticed the crowd completely missed the end of the song and didn't applaud it. Rather that than the opposite.

Við Spilum Endalaust, I can't remember much of it either. Bonus suck-points for being a song I loathe.

Hoppípolla is a song I never really liked, but listened to over and over live with Amiina and Horny Brasstards backing the song. Rendered as a four-piece, it doesn't deliver the goods. The hit-single catching crowd loves it, and promptly draws their cellphones to record this otherwise forgettable moment of the show. Same for Með Blóðnasir, now with a crowd chanting invitation by Jonsi who looks nearly as uncomfortable as I do, by pulling such a pop-like move on the crowd. I hate to be that "they were better when they started" guy, but that's something I would never, ever, dream of Sigur Rós doing in a concert in 2002. Inni Mér Syngur Vitleysingur fails to shine, and ends the first part of the show, which I will dub for practical reasons, as the "lame" one. Not because it was terrible, but because what followed next, was one of the best hours of live music I've ever witnessed.

Part two begins with E-bow, and that was the song I was looking forward the most to hear this night. ( ) is my favorite SR album, and E-bow happens to be my favorite song on it. I was out of my body during the whole song, and I rely on my recording to collect the sheer awesomeness of the moment. I was once again distracted by a collapsing lady in the crowd, which caused some stress on my end, but I wouldn't let a possible demise of a complete stranger distract me from this beauty. Just kidding (kind of)... I tried to make the most out of the moment, and had the moral alibi of being too dumb to be a medical student present on my mind, so just let someone out of the huge mass of people around her, who is more qualified than me, deal with her. She turned out to be ok, and came back to the game a few minutes later just in time for Sæglópur, which sounds a lot more aggressive without strings, and I'm not complaining. Jonsi just bows the crap out of it, and we have a new live classic. This one actually grew, instead of suffering from string-loss syndrome.

Festival is the only song on MSIEVSE I really-really like. Terrific crescendo based song, a trait which predominates on early SR, yet with a "pop" flavour in it that doesn't do any harm at all. This is the new Gong.

Hafsól... Hafsól!!!

Gobbledigook was fun as hell. I don't like it on album, nor live, but I was all smiles when FAMR and SR started pounding on those drums and playing that ridiculously out of tempo guitar. I will enjoy it for as long as my visual memory is fresh, and I will try to keep the confetti pieces I caught on my gear bag forever in an attempt to keep it that way.

I have so many things I'd like to say about All Alright. This shtick sounds a awful lot like Jennifer Lopez singing an original US single in Spanish, in an attempt to boost album sales abroad. And if you get past this, the song itself isn't particularly shiny (I would kill to have Smáskifa in it's place). Low point of the show and Sigur Rós career, bar none.

Glósóli is one of the best Sigur Rós songs of all time. I was very disappointed by the band's decision of dropping it from the set for this last leg of the tour. I thought I was not getting to have the pleasure of hearing it again in Lisbon, as Ný Batteri immediately followed Svefn (Glósóli usually follows Svefn, and precedes NB), but all of the sudden you start hearing Jonsi's modulated chants on the P.A. and you just go nuts. If you checked my Winamp stats, you'd know that a Glósóli live recording tops the most played chart. I'll leave you with that.

The ironically called Popplagið ends the show, a status it earned since the time the band first pitched it live, even before ( ) was released. I'm a hardcore fan of it, and it confirms what I suspected from previously hearing a few recordings from this tour: it misses the strings a lot, probably the most out of any songs played during this show. It's still rocks, and I wouldn't accept any other ending for a SR show. The band leaves the stage and has to come back twice to thank "their favorite country to play" in. For a moment I thought we were going to get a Viðrar second encore (it happened once!). Glósóli was the only surprise of the evening... Damn you guys for not going 200%!

And so I was wrong, Sigur Rós still wins at music, and I left the bullring with my faith completely restored, and yearning for my next Sigur Rós show, whether as the four-piece core or as the hair raising orchestral machine. The latter does give the band more room to play a wider range of their catalogue (i.e. Ágætis Byrjun), which is great. But I have no business complaining after such a performance. Bravo, you magnificent bastards.

Caspian - Porto-Rio 2008/10/06

2008-10-08T00:03:00.011+01:00

Caspian
Porto-Rio
Oporto, Portugal
October 6, 2008(Monday)
Support Slot: The All Star Project

Setlist:
01- Lacerva
02- Ghosts Of The Garden City
03- Some Are White Light
04- Moksha
05- Quovis
06- Further Up
07- Further In
08- Brombie / Break
09- Asa
10- Sycamore

TRT: 01h:07m:08s

James - WOMAD Festival 1985/07/21

2008-09-21T04:05:00.008+01:00

James
WOMAD Festival
Carlyon Bay, England
July 21, 1985

Setlist:
01- Ya Ho
02- Chain Mail
03- If Things Were Perfect
04- Johnny Yen
05- Withdrawn
06- Medieval
07- Not There
08- Skullduggery
09- Are You Ready?
10- Leaking
11- Thrash (a.k.a. Wonderful)
12- Uprising
13- Summer Song
14- Scarecrow / Encore
15- Folklore / Outro

TRT: 00h:54m:10s

Notes: I was scavenging on the dark corners of my old IDE HD, looking for stuff to archive to DVD and stumbled into this. As you can tell from the date, I had nothing to do with the recording of this tape. I've downloaded this off Dime one or two years ago. While a very exciting seed (James earliest complete soundboard in circulation), the tape's high noise floor, which was at -30dBFS, made it impossible for me to enjoy it. Good news is, the soundboard mix is awesome. WOMAD Festival was an outdoor event (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), so a completely balanced mixing of all the instruments was needed for the P.A., resulting in a terrific, well EQ'ed mix of every element on stage. The tape fidelity didn't go past 11kHz, so I just filtered everthing off upwards on the frequency spectrum with a 3rd order LPF, which was just plain noise. The denoising process was not very hard, as this is a pure soundboard recording and had plenty of "dead tape" to get the noise profile. The first couple of songs strangely had a higher noise floor, so I just denoised more radically on those tracks. Another thing I worked on was the volume unbalance on the recording. There was a tape flip in the middle of the recording, and the 2nd part was louder than the first (and more saturated, might I add), and I adjusted the volume in a way it looks uniform throughout. Last steps were peak limiting, some compression and normalize to -0.3dBFS. You'll agree this is a much more comfortable listening after my remaster. This is of course a nth generation tape, and I can only imagine how great the master tape must sound. If you have access to the master tape or something that is just a few generations off it, please get in contact with me. Same thing applies to good old James rarities you'd like to see reworked and improved (wink). I very rarely remaster anything that is not mine, but this is a worthy exception. There's not much to add to the original seeder notes on how special this recording is. This is one amazing document of the band's Factory years, which includes a brilliant never released track (Trash a.k.a. Wonderful), the best in my collection by far. Personally I love 80's James, and I'm nuts for some of the songs played on this very set (too bad Stutter and Hymn weren't in it). They are indeed a very different band today for the best and the worst, but it's good to look back to the good old days of the band. And to think it only took a few hours to get this done... Pre/post sample is provided in the comment section. All credit goes to the original seeder (I forgot his Dime ID and the original info file wasn't tagged!).

-----------------------------------

Notes from original seeder: At this point in time James were on Manchester's Factory Records. Their last issue for the label, Fac 138 Village Fire, was released 3 months after this show. An epic performance here, much more interesting and dynamic than the later more commercially successful James IMHO. Good recording, possibly a SBD, but is several generations off the master. The exact lineage is unknown. My tape was received in a trade or is a copy of a tape recieved in a trade. Has spent the best part of 20 years sitting in a box unplayed. If you have an upgrade feel free to seed away.

Download: Dime

James - Largo 1º de Maio 2008/09/04

2008-09-05T02:02:00.007+01:00

James
Largo 1º de Maio
Águeda, Portugal
September 4, 2008 (Thursday)

Setlist:
01- Born of Frustration
02- Oh My Heart
03- Ring The Bells
04- Waterfall
05- P.S.
06- Say Something
07- She's A Star
08- English Beefcake
09- I Wanna Go Home
10- Out To Get You
11- Upside
12- Whiteboy
13- Sit Down
14- Tomorrow
15- Sometimes
16- Laid / Encore
17- Hey Ma
18- Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
19- Come Home

TRT: 01h:41m:04s

Notes: Now that's what I'm talking about! P.S., English Beefcake and a much more inspired performance from the lads compared to the somewhat disappointing Crato show. Still insisting in the festival setting, James played for nearly 100 minutes in another not very prestigious local festival, dedicated to the promotion of regional food and crafts. The only good explanation for these two recent shows is that they served as a warm-up for the upcoming US tour, starting in Boston on the 14th. There's no other way to say that James (a band that sell-out europe's largest indoor arena last year, and this year) played in a festival which literally translates as "Piggy Party", and make it sound cool. You can say James picked a setlist for this year, and it's hands down effective for casual and die-hards alike, even throwing in a few interesting songs for the former type of audience. P.S. made my jaw drop. I don't know how long it's been since the band played it, but that's a classic underrated James tune, the kind I keep saying they should play more regularly and should have a higher prevalence on the setlist. Not bad at all. English Beefcake is one off James most underrated piece of work amongst critics and fans alike... Pleased to Meet You isn't exactly the figurehead of James's sound, if you will, but it's one of my favorite albums of all time. Go figure. If it depended on me, they would play PTMY like Lou Reed plays Berlin on his most recent tour. Tim expresses his relief the crowd responded well to the song, stating he was "so glad you knew that one". And even if we didn't, what's wrong with that?! We already have 4 of your Best Of's, why the hell do we need to hear it every night while you're on stage? I wouldn't mind if the band reconsidered upon the setlist philosophy they've choosen for this year. When you have hundreds of songs, and roughly 90% of them are worth a shot live, you shouldn't say something like that after playing one that is less known. The rest of the show consists on a classic 2008 setlist, but charged with an intensity that blows away Crato, Oporto and Coimbra put together. This was the best James show I've ever seen, probably surpassing the crazy Braga show. Come Home ends the show with a stage invasion, something that the band only allows to happen in special occasions. Flawless victory! We need Coliseum (or indoor) shows for the Autumn tour, yada yada yada... Very nice recording all around. I'm not going to describe it thoroughly like I did for the Coimbra torrent, but what I did to this was pretty much the same thing. Sounds like it too (P.A.'s looked the same). A big "thank you" to Vitor and his crew for donating me Saul's setlist. PTMY.

Setlist: here
Download: Dime (16bit)
Links: Official Website

James - Campo 1º de Maio 2008/08/30

2008-08-31T12:20:00.018+01:00

James
Campo 1º de Maio
Crato, Portugal
August 30, 2008 (Sunday)

Setlist:
01- Born of Frustration (95% not recorded)
02- Oh My Heart
03- Ring The Bells
04- Waterfall
05- Bubbles
06- Say Something
07- She's A Star
08- I Wanna Go Home
09- Out To Get You
10- Upside
11- Whiteboy
12- Sit Down
13- Tomorrow
14- Sometimes / Encore
15- Top Of The World
16- Hey Ma
17- Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
18- Laid

TRT: 01h:29m:19s

Notes: Show #4 of the year, and I admit this setlist is getting rather boring, but they seem to think a couple of non-singles on the setlist are enough to satisfy the elite fans as myself, and to keep us following them around in festivals of dubitable reputation. Not really, I was expecting some interesting changes on the set on the eve of their first American tour in 11 years. Besides Top Of The World, which was the highlight of the show, and it even wasn't meant to be played according to the band's setlist, there was NADA. This was not what we were promised last year when James got back together (i.e. diversified and unconservative setlists). I understand they have a album to promote (as they should), but that doesn't mean they should neglect the pearls in their back catalogue, which they vowed to revisit. Don't get me wrong, this would be a great show for the Average Joe, and for me, if I hadn't seen it 4 times... in 3 months!! [Rant ends here]. On the technical end, this is an excellent recording, marred only by some sheer stupidity by yours truly. Problems with my external Li-Ion battery meant I had to bench the MT, my main recorder. I use the iRiver as my MP3 player, and I usually got it filled with my crap 'til the KBs. The band takes on stage, and I'm still debating which one of my awesome bands complete discography will I delete just for this evening to make sure I got space for the whole show, as I forgot to do that on the 2 hours I've spent playing with my thumbs while watching football. Ok, I've only missed the opening bars of the song, no problem. Push record, try to enjoy the show. But... I forgot I had to press the record button twice on the iRiver in order to start recording, and I only noticed that it wasn't rolling a few seconds before the end of BoF. Ta-dah. It breaks my heart that I've missed the song almost entirely because of my training-is-for-suckas attitude. But it is what it is... A great sounding tape of yet another James 2008 show (roughly 94,7% of it, actually).

James - Praça da Canção 2008/05/10

2008-08-12T02:02:00.008+01:00

James
Praça da Canção
Coimbra, Portugal
May 10, 2008 (Saturday)
Headlining: Queima das Fitas 2008

Setlist:
00- Intro (lol Saul)
01- Born of Frustration
02- Come Home
03- Oh My Heart
04- Whiteboy
05- Ring The Bells
06- She's A Star
07- Bubbles
08- I Wanna Go Home
09- Out To Get You
10- Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
11- Hey Ma
12- Upside
13- Sound
14- Sometimes
15- Laid / Encore
16- Sit Down

TRT: 01h:30m:02s

Notes: This show will always be remembered as the first time I saw the Seven-seven live, now that Andy became a full-time member of the band. Musically speaking, I'd rather have "The Oxaal" instead of "The Diagram", but Diagram's interaction with the crowd makes a lot of difference. Coimbra was not the greatest James show I saw, especially after seeing the Braga show on the next day, which I consider one of the greatest live music events I've ever witnessed. Lots of new songs, and the first time I'd heard Hey Ma was in my car on the way to the show, so I wasn't very acquainted with them. Bubbles was undoubtedly the strongest of this group, and a future classic James track, whereas Upside is my strongest James pet peeve. Terrible choice to include that on the album instead of the fabulous Not So Strong. The band seemed somewhat distant and underwhelmed throughout the whole concert, probably marred by Tim's leg injury which forced him to remain sit for the most of the show on a futuristic chair designed by our own Larry Gott. Despite his condition, Tim couldn't remain still for long, and quickly found a very risky way to dance hopping up and down on his chair. It still was a great show, Coimbra is as close as James are going to get to my hometown, and I'm only complaining because I get to contrast with the Braga show (I don't need to see more than 5 James shows to know that was one of their best ever). The recording is great for an outdoor effort. The tape was a little bassy as it was, and Jim's bass had some crazy EQ that made some notes sound *awfully* loud, something I addressed with my own EQ. The crowd was unusually quiet, except for some lady which was clapping along at everything. I used limiters and a multiband compressor to raise the loudness levels of the recording. This is my best James tape so far, and the one I picked for torrent release. Watchout for James upcoming US tour. Dates available at http://www.wearejames.com/

Setlist: here
Download: Dime (16bit)
Links: Official Website

Cat Power - Coliseu dos Recreios 2008/05/26

2008-08-11T01:58:00.018+01:00

Cat Power (w/ Dirty Delta Blues Band)
Coliseu dos Recreios
Lisbon, Portugal
May 26, 2008 (Monday)
Support Slot: Appaloosa

Setlist:
01- Don't Explain (fades-in)
02- Woman Left Lonely
03- Silver Stallion
04- New York, New York
05- Lost Someone
06- Dreams
07- Lord Help the Poor and Needy
08- Song To Bobby
09- The Dark End Of The Street
10- She's Got You
11- Metal Heart
12- Making Believe
13- Aretha, Sing One For Me
14- Ramblin' (Wo)man
15- Blue
16- Where Is My Love
17- The Moon
18- The Greatest
19- Lived in Bars
20- Tracks of My Tears
21- "Band Introductions" / Could We
22- Satisfaction
23- Black Angels (Angelitos Negros)
24- I've Been Loving You For Too Long (To Stop Now)

TRT: 01h:48m:20s

Notes: Chan Marshall is one of my favorite female performers of all time, but I was a little on the fence on going to the show for financial reasons. I'm glad I did, despite the heavy rain and the tickle on my throat. This woman has to be seen on a stage to fully comprehend her artistic name. I love the self-absorbed Diva vibe she sends, and the "hilarious-embarassing-cringing-hilarious" outro of dancing, hopping and bowing that lasted for 15 minutes, made up for one of the cutest things I've ever witnessed. The rest of the show didn't have many of her infamous Diva antics, she was very shy actually, and her performance was way more focused and sober than I had ever dreamed of. The band setup was pretty tight too, it reminded me of the Patti Smith concert I'd attended 8 months before. I'm very pleased with this recording. The cymbals were a little tinny on the recording, and some bass notes were way to prominent, so I corrected both these issues with some soft EQ'ing. I also boosted the mid range area to obtain a little more warmth and loudness maximization methods were used, such as compression, multiband compression and peak-limiting. I accidentally pressed the pause button on the MT during the pre-show music for level checking, and i've only noticed it a minute or so into the first song's instrumental intro, but Chan hadn't even entered the stage at that point so you don't miss more than a couple of minutes. I needed to start a new file at the end of Black Angels, but thankfully everything was done quick enough to not miss any action. I crossfaded both files and you can barely notice the transition. As for the crowd: A+. No mass hysteria, no rhythmic clapping, no whistling nonsense. Seating shows rule.

Download: Dime (16bit)
Links: Official Website // Myspace

Appaloosa - Coliseu dos Recreios 2008/05/26

2008-08-08T01:15:00.002+01:00

Appaloosa
Coliseu dos Recreios
Lisbon, Portugal
May 26, 2008 (Wednesday)
Supporting: Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues Band

Setlist:
01-
02- Intimate
03- Sinister
04- Fantasy
05-
06-
07-
08-
09-
10- The Day (We Fell In Love)

TRT: 00h:34m:09s

Notes: This was one of my all time favorite unknown openers. I didn't even know there was going to be a opener prior to see a computer rig on stage, and apparently nor did anyone at the show (at some point in the recording you can someone asking me who was playing, and just gave her the mandatory taper shoulder shrug). Appaloosa is a French-English electronic duo composed by the "very leggy" Anne Laure, and laptop musician Max Krefeld, respectively. If you like electro, you can't afford to miss this. I don't think they have any official releases that you can buy at this time, but I couldn't resist to buy the demo CD they've been selling on tour from the merchandise stall, and it's equally impressive. I didn't apply any EQ on the recording, per se. I just used a multiband compressor to balance high and low frequencies, and a HPF on sub-bass frequencies to spare your subwoofer. I applied a peak-limiter at -9dBFS to take greater advantage of the dynamic range (there was very few information over this value, mainly the bassy beat in Sinister, so you won't notice the compression). I will seed Cat Power sometime in the future... I'll work on it in my laptop, when I go on vacation next week. Help with the rest of the set would be immensely appreciated.

Download: Dime (16bit)
Links: Myspace

Caribou - Santiago Alquimista 2008/03/12

2008-07-26T02:37:00.013+01:00

Caribou
Santiago Alquimista
Lisbon, Portugal
March 12, 2008 (Wednesday)

Setlist:
01- Sundialing
02- Brahminy Kite
03- Melody Day
04- Skunks
05- After Hours
06- Crayon
07- The Barn
08- She's The One
09- Bees
10- Twins
11- Eli
12- Hello Hammerheads
13- A Final Warning

TRT: 01h:18m:53s

Notes: Ugh, I can't remember much from this show, because my visual memory resembles the one of a goldfish. All I can remember is a very psychedelic ambience, with trippy projections of colorful geometric patterns and a very quiet/clueless audience. I barely had listened to this, but today I rediscovered the raw recording in the depths of my hard-drive, and it was the first time I've really heard this recording, which sounds very good. Maybe it was because I was tired or alone, but I didn't find to show to be very vibrant. I went to the show mainly in hope to see the Fuck Buttons, but I found out at the venue that this particular show of the tour (the last one) didn't have an opening band. But now, I'm in awe. There's nothing better than listening to a forgotten "old" master and actually finding it more interesting than the show itself. I'm hooked on Caribou now, something that certainly wouldn't happen if I didn't tape him. This is a psychedelic/ambient rock project from canadian musical mastermind, Daniel Snaith, whom performs live accompanied by two live-only band members (Brad Weber and Ryan Smith). I confess I didn't know much about it except for what I've heard on Myspace, but now I fully realize it was worth the gamble. The sound was very well done, maybe a bit too low on the vocals, but everything else sounds very clear. I did some multiband compressing and a pretty basic EQ'ing to find the missing "sparkle" of this recording. I had some 9V battery issues during the last song, something that is impossible to deal with restoration, so I just did some patching of the affected L channel with the R channel. These are 5 second portions at max, and it's barely worth mentioning when describing the overall quality of this tape. Fitting on a single CD, I find this show worthy of a spot in my car door, and that's saying something.

Links: Myspace // Official Website

Rufus Wainwright (Solo) - Casa das Artes de V.N. Famalicão 2008/06/28

2008-07-25T14:56:00.005+01:00

Rufus Wainwright (Special Solo Show)
Casa das Artes de V.N. Famalicão
Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal
June 28, 2008 (Saturday)

Setlist:
01- Grey Gardens
02- The Maker Makes
03- Beauty Mark
04- Nobody's Off The Hook
05- Sansoucci
06- Beautiful Child
07- I'm Not Ready To Love
08- Going To A Town
09- Who Are You, New York? *
10- A Woman's Face With Nature's Own Hand Painted (Spoken)
11- A Woman's Face With Nature's Own Hand Painted $
12- California
13- Greek Song
14- Little Sister
15- Zebulon
16- Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk / Encore 1
17- The Art Teacher
18- Leaving for Paris No. 2
19- Hallelujah / Encore 2
20- Foolish Love
21- La Complainte de la Butte

TRT: 01h:38m:38s

* new song
$ new song - 20th sonnet, by William Shakespeare / world premiere

Notes: This is the first of Rufus's two night run in Vila Nova de Famalicão. These were billed as "special solo shows" and having seen Rufus with his band before, where he plays for nearly three hours, this was something completely different. Some nice surprises on the setlist, including two new songs. The first one is "Who are you, New York?", which Rufus rightfully complains it's very difficult to play. It sounds very melancholic, and it sure is a very complex piano piece. The second is the 20th sonnet by William Shakespeare, which Rufus adapted into a song, envisioning a theatre project he's been working on, and this was the first time he ever performed it. This show features a lot of Rufus banter, which are so characteristic of a Rufus solo show. You could tell Rufus was trying to explore the rivalry between Portugal and Spain. This was the eve of the final of the european football/soccer championship, so there are some spanish references throughout the show (Famalicão is pretty close to Galiza, and there were surely some spanish fans in the midst of the crowd). I wasn't able to attend night two, as ticket prices were pretty high and I had no guarantee he would fool around with the setlist enough to justify the investment. To top that, I didn't really have a place to stay for the night. This was my first time visiting V.N.Famalicão, and as any Portuguese northern city, it's very beautiful. The venue was really nice looking too, and has been attracting quite a few renowned artists recently. As for the recording, this was a tough one to work on. I didn't really like the house EQ'ing, Rufus's voice was a bit too bright, and proceeded to add some lower vocal range presence with EQ. I should have set the preamp levels to the max, as in between crowd cheering is *way* higher than the music program, so this involved quite an effort on dynamic processing, including something I would call "multipass hard limiting" to prevent compression artifacts on the recording. The crowd was very polite during the songs, and that's all it matters. Incidentally, this is the first Rufus recording of 2008 to be put in circulation, as far as I'm concerned (and quite a nice one, I might add).

Download: Dime (16bit)
Links: Official Website

Midnight Juggernauts - Festival Oeiras Alive! '08 2008/07/12

2008-07-24T00:53:00.011+01:00

Midnight Juggernauts
Festival Oeiras Alive! '08
Algés, Portugal
July 12, 2008 (Thursday)
*Day 3*

Setlist:
01- So Many Frequencies
02- 45 And Rising
03- Shadows
04- Ending Of An Era
05- Twenty Thousand Leagues
06- Tombstone
07- Road to Recovery
08- Into The Galaxy (cockblocked)
09- Into The Galaxy

TRT: 00h:49m:27s

Notes: This was a pretty fun show. They immediatly caused an impression with the first few songs, and by the end of the show, it was almost Woodstock '99 when they got the cut out by the soundman. Yeah, guess the new trend is to cut off the artists in the middle of a song, when they exceed their scheduled performance time, in an act of epic douchebaggery. They did it twice on this festival. Would it be too much to let them finish the goddamn song?! Let's see you do that to Bob Dylan. Way to push your luck, Portugal. The irony is, the crowd called for them for so long, the organization had to let the band go on stage just finish that single song. With the break time, they could have played at least three more songs. Blitzkrieg was on the setlist, but was dropped due to time constraint issues. This was for me the revelation of the whole festival, leaving the few hundreds watching asking for more. That bass is definitely Peter Hook-ish. The recording isn't super, but it sounds like it did at the tent and I never saw anything taped of MJ around. Loudness maximization and bass/treble balancing shenanigans were done to this recording. All in all, a very enjoyable listen.

Download: Dime (16bit)
Links: Myspace // Official Website

Nine Inch Nails - Coliseu dos Recreios 2007/02/10

2008-07-23T17:03:00.027+01:00

Nine Inch Nails
Coliseu dos Recreios
Lisbon, Portugal
February 10, 2007 (Saturday)
Support Slot: The PoPo

Setlist:
01- Intro / Pilgrimage
02- Mr. Self Destruct
03- Last
04- Terrible Lie
05- March of Pigs
06- Something I Can Never Have
07- The Line Begins To Blur
08- Closer
09- Burn
10- Wish
11- Help Me I'm In Hell
12- Eraser
13- La Mer
14- Into The Void
15- No, You Don't
16- Only
17- You Know What You Are
18- Hurt
19- The Hand That Feeds
20- Head Like a Hole

TRT: 01h:25m:49s

Notes: So, I recently found out that this master recording of mine was being hosted on http://www.ninlive.com/. Being in it's original FLAC glory, I think it deserves a post here. This was the first show of NIN's "Performance 2007" tour, when all the Year Zero viral marketing craze began. A pen drive of containing an MP3 of "My Violent Heart", a track of the forthcoming album "YZ" was left abandoned during this show, on a bathroom stall for fans to pickup. Within weeks, a full blown, revolutionary marketing campaign, which included an extensive apocalyptic ARG, was being closely followed by thousands of NIN fans. It all started here. The show was, *pause*, good. Not as great as I imagined, from listening to dozens of With Teeth performances. In fact, this is considered to be one of NIN's weakest tours ever. I remember expecting a boatload of new songs, but as you can see from the setlist, no YZ songs were played this night. The 13 year-old "Last" made it's live debut on this show, which generated a bit of message board interest. As the tour progressed, a few new songs were played, so Lisbon was basically NIN's rehearsals room for the tour. Three dates booked in Lisbon (a bit overkill, since only this night sold-out), with an acceptable amount of tiny setlist revolutions, marked NIN's debut in Portugal, after several years of waiting. I wish I had heard "Somewhat Damaged" or "Love is Not Enough" as an opener, but they were left for the other Lisbon nights. Looking back, would I go see the whole Lisbon run if I had a place to stay? Hell yes. A decent NIN show is a great show by any other band's standards, and the summer saw a dramatic improvement on this tour with a flippin' sweet light show, and the best tracks of YZ being regularly played. The opening band was dreadful, I'm still wondering what Trent saw in them that I didn't see. The recording isn't very balanced. I can hear some potential I didn't explore by the time I started to circulate it. This will maybe be a subject of remaster next year. I can suggest a homebrew EQ'ing, by lowering the first band on your Winamp's EQ (should be around 60Hz-ish) to about 1/3, this will allow the recording to "breathe" a little more. For now, enjoy this near raw recording. Be sure to catch Lisbon's third night here, recorded by a fellow portuguese taper. And take some time to explore http://www.ninlive.com/ for way better NIN shows, at least performance wise. You can pre-order the limited physical edition of NIN's new album, The Slip, at Amazon.co.uk.

Links: Official Website

James - Festival Marés Vivas '08 2008/07/19

2008-07-20T06:32:00.032+01:00

James
Festival Marés Vivas '08
Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
July 19, 2008 (Saturday)

Setlist:
01- Born Of Frustration
02- Oh My Heart
03- Ring The Bells
04- Waterfall
05- Say Something
06- She's A Star
07- I Wanna Go Home
08- Out To Get You
09- Lose Control
10- Upside
11- Whiteboy
12- Sit Down
13- Sound
14- Tomorrow
15- Hey Ma
16- Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
17- Sometimes
18- Laid

TRT: 01h:39m:09s

Notes: This was the 4th time seeing James in less than a year. "Opening" for them were the "Riders on The Storm", a Doors revival act with two of it's original members, and it was simply the lowest point of my entire life. If I was sad that day, I would have thrown myself to the river at the right of the stage. Still on a festival setting, which I loathe (taping outdoors sucks), this was James's longest set I saw until now. I decided to take the AT's based on my experience of Braga, which was close to a battlefield. It seemed to work, even though it's my belief that the AT's can't cut it on a mid-large festival show, due to the amount of sub-bass units used in these events, which leads to distortion with these particular mics. Since the festival wasn't all that big, I went with it, and the tape came out really good. I cannot begin to tell the amount of crowd noise I would have gotten if I had used the DPA's, but the AT's saved the day. This isn't my best recording by any means, but it's difficult to do better outdoors and within such a harsh environment. Another funny note on this recording, is that I accidentaly shift+del'ed it before I realized I hadn't made a backup of it on my hard-drive. But after three desperate hours of failed attempts on recovering it (using multiple software that usually works in these cases), I've managed to do the trick with some 1337 skills. Kudos for me! Back to the show, I admit I was getting bored halfway into the set, but Lose Control came as a well welcomed surprise, albeit acoustic, it sounded really fresh (how awesome would a full band version be?!). Sound was special (but aren't they all?) with an instrumental improv section after the song's supposed climax, almost bringing the 2001 winter tour version back to life. It didn't reach such heights, but that's something the boys will be working on according to Tim. Laid ends the show with a stage invasion of epic proportions. A song I usually snub at during a James show ends up being the justified highlight of this set. A beautiful, pure James moment, bringing the awesome 2007 Gold Mother back to mind (why did they stop playing all that non-single goodness?!). An encore was supposed to take place at the end of Tomorrow, but Jim and others decided to stay on stage, dismissing the faux-encore (they should do that every show). All in all, a great night. They may have had a bunch of stoned buffoons as an opening act (and I'm not talking about Macy Gray), and they weren't as good as in the Braga show overall, but James delivered once again an event. I can't imagine getting tired of this Seven-seven line-up. Positive note on Andy's dress for the evening! James will take a 3 week tour on North America soon, check the dates at http://www.wearejames.com/.

The National - Jardins do Centro Cultural Vila Flor 2008/07/18

2008-07-20T06:22:00.007+01:00

The National (w/ Special Guests)
Jardins do Centro Cultural Vila Flor
Guimarães, Portugal
July 18, 2008 (Friday)

Setlist:
01- Start a War
02- Brainy
03- Secret Meeting
04- Baby, We'll Be Fine
05- Slow Show
06- Squalor Victoria
07- Racing Like A Pro
08- Abel
09- The Geese of Beverly Road
10- Ada
11- All The Wine
12- Murder Me Rachael
13- Daughters of the SoHo Riots
14- Apartment Story
15- Green Gloves
16- Mistaken for Strangers
17- Fake Empire / Encore
18- Lucky You
19- About Today
20- Mr. November

TRT: 01h:38m:51s

Notes: soon

Atlas Sound - Lux Frágil 2008/05/28

2008-07-17T15:45:00.012+01:00

Atlas Sound
Lux Frágil
Lisbon, Portugal
May 28, 2008 (Wednesday)
Supporting: Animal Collective

Setlist:
01- ?
02- ?
03- ?
04- ?
05- ?
06- ?
07- ?

TRT: 00h:37m:43s

Notes: Upon request, and since the raw recording is sooo good (I didn't use the EQ, a first since I have my DPA's), i've spent a few minutes working on this recording and mastering it. I had no idea what Atlas Sound was before I googled it after coming home from the show. I was outside Lux an hour or so before the show, and I saw a weird looking guy looking for the venue entrance and taking pictures of it. I thought to myself "Hey, he looks just like that Deerhunter guy.". Turns out he was (lol). Atlas sound is a New Weird America solo project by the Bradford Cox, frontman of Deerhunter. Amazing music here. I was substantially impressed. The recording is similar in quality to the Animal Collective show you can get on Dime or the Live Music Archive. Crappy AC unit still present *sigh*. I have no clue on the setlist... Maybe you can help?

Links: Atlas Sound & Deerhunter blog

Download: Dime (16bit) // Funeral Pudding (16bit / MP3@256kbs)

foto: Artur Silva

Sigur Rós - Pavilhão Atlântico 2006/07/16

2008-07-17T04:32:00.014+01:00

Sigur Rós (w/ Amiina)
Pavilhão Atlântico
Lisbon, Portugal
July 16, 2006 (Sunday)
Support Slot: Amiina

*2nd Anniversary Remaster*

Setlist:
01- Takk...
02- Glósóli
03- Ný Batterí
04- Sæglópur
05- Gong
06- Andvari
07- Hoppípolla
08- Með Blóðnasir
09- Sé Lest
10- Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása
11- Olsen Olsen
12- Svo Hljótt
13- Heysátan / Encore
14- Popplagið / Avalon
15- "Jonsi Birgisson speaks about the end of tour"

TRT: 01h:47m:41s

Notes: I've decided to make a remaster of this recording on it's second anniversary, as I felt the original version I've seeded a couple of years back didn't quite reach it's full potential. My aim was to produce a well balanced recording, with great loudness levels, something it didn't have on the 2006 seeded. Being a big hall, the Pavilhão Atlântico is bound to affect the quality of the upper decade frequencies. The recording clearly reflects that when you try to do your generic "treble-up" EQ'ing, but on the other hand, it has a great detail on the low and mid band, something I've manipulated the least possible. EQ'ing was mostly dedicated to enhance harmonic information, within the quality limitations of the mid-high frequency band. I've used four different monitor references for mastering this recording and I honestly feel this version delivers it's full potential. Not too boomy, not too tinny, just a punchy bass drum that kicks you in the groin and pore piercing brass section. The result is, IMO, a fantastic audio document of the Takk tour, definitely a must have. This is also the last show of the Takk world tour, before the band ensued on a legendary Icelandic tour, well documented on the breathtaking Heima DVD. This one is really worth to have around when you're in the mood for some Takk tour goodness. Other changes include re-tracking (Ný Batterí was mistracked), mitigation or complete removal of rubs on the mics (n00b reflex) using a steep HPF on low-end, clap killing and loudness manipulation resorting to conservative amplification and limiting where necessary. A Amiina set remaster will follow in a near future.

Teaser: here
Download: Dime
Links: Official Website

The National - Festival Oeiras Alive! '08 2008/07/10

2008-07-14T04:30:00.010+01:00

The National (w/ Special Guests)
Festival Oeiras Alive! '08
Algés, Portugal
July 10, 2008 (Thursday)
*Day 1*

Setlist:
01- Start a War
02- Brainy
03- Secret Meeting
04- Baby, We'll Be Fine
05- Slow Show
06- Mistaken for Strangers
07- Abel
08- Squalor Victoria
09- Racing Like A Pro
10- Apartment Story
11- Ada
12- Fake Empire
13- Mr. November

TRT: 00h:58m:38s

Notes: laterrrr. No, I didn't tape RATM

Animal Collective - Lux Frágil 2008/05/28

2008-07-05T21:02:00.011+01:00

Animal Collective
Lux Frágil
Lisbon, Portugal
May 28, 2008 (Wednesday)
Support Slot: Atlas Sound

Setlist:
01- The Dancer
02- Daily Routine
03- House (Material Things)
04- Lion In A Coma (new song)
05- Peacebone
06- Fireworks > Essplode > Fireworks
07- Walk Alone With You
08- Leaf House
09- Chocolate Girl
10- Comfy In Nautica
11- Brother Sport / Encore
12- Who Could Win A Rabbit?
13- Grass

TRT: 01h:36m:39s

Notes: Animal Collective at Lux, my first time seeing them. First of all, what a ridiculous excuse for a venue they played in. A dark, claustrophobic, bassy cave, with air conditioner from hell to detract you from enjoying the show, making you wish you were outside instead (and it was pouring that night). I had the AC unit right above my head, so this recording has an unusually high noise floor, easily masked by the *painfully loud* P.A. levels during the songs, courtesy of the sound tech for the evening, which I will refer to as "The Butcher". I forgot my earplugs for the evening, leaving me with a buzz in my ears for a couple of days after the show. The recording itself is awesome. This is a perfect example of the potential a audience recording has, if the crowd can STFU throughout the whole show. Everybody seemed to hate the show... to a portuguese crowd, it's all about "artist interaction", "abrigados", and portuguese flag-waving, while music is a simple accessory. I've enjoyed it, even though I was starting to get very uncomfortable at the end, thanks to "The Butcher". They also played one brand new song, adding bonus "awesome points" to the recording (track #4). Thanks to "guyanakoolai" at Dime for giving me the working title. Great stereo image, very nice sound quality, and a quiet crowd. I'm damn proud of this recording, considering the atrocious room where they played. I was clueless on most of the setlist, so I'd like to thank "thierryhenry" at ts.com, for helping filling in the gaps. "In Lux, the air conditioner doesn't blow... It sucks".

Download: Dime (16bit) // LMA (16bit)
Links: Myspace // Official Website

foto: Artur Silva

James - Alameda do Estadio Municipal de Braga 2008/05/11

2008-05-11T12:13:00.022+01:00

James
Alameda do Estádio Municipal de Braga
Braga, Portugal
May 11th, 2008 (Sunday)
Support Slot: Linda Martini

Setlist:
01- Sit Down
02- Come Home
03- Oh My Heart
04- Whiteboy
05- Ring The Bells
06- She's A Star
07- Bubbles
08- Upside
09- Sound
10- Out To Get You
11- I Wanna Go Home
12- Hey Ma
13- Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
14- Sometimes
15- Laid / Encore
16- Tomorrow

TRT: 01h:30m:10s

Setlist: here

Notes: Last show of James's two night run in Portugal during May 2008. You'd think that with so few setlist changes, I'd be slightly disappointed. This was by far the best of both, and quite possibly my favorite concert of any band to date. I don't know what, but something was in the air in Braga that evening. Even the roadies were smilling and teasing the crowd before the show. The band took on stage shortly after the schedulled hour for the start of the show, Tim still injured and in need of his white futuristic looking bench for most of the night. The set opened with Sit Down, a song they vowed not to play this tour, but for some reason they felt the need to do it for the Iberian Peninsula shows, even if it didn't initially figure on Coimbra's setlist. This time, it was on the setlist, and it was well delivered. I couldn't care less if they play it or not, but they don't really need to do it, amirite? The crowd loved it, without much of a shock jumping up and down during the whole thing. On with Come Home, a song I feel it would be better with Mark's distinctive synth riff, insted of Andy's trumpet. Nonetheless, it's one of my favorite James songs and I'm glad they are consistently playing it again. Oh My Heart is once again the first of the new ones. This is one of my favorite songs from Hey Ma, and it's twice the song live than it is in the studio version. It's a great Pop song, and a good choice for a single with it's catchy guitar riff and chorus. One of the highlights of the show for me. Whiteboy follows, a song I hated when it came out, but i'm starting to get in to it. Gotta love the nonsense lyrics á la Bone and Andy's trumpet. Ring The Bells and She's a Star mark the return to the familiar 90's anthems, giving the crowd the chance for a massive singalong again. She's a Star is introduced as a song for "the people who hide their light" by Tim. Guess it's more than the futile generic hit I made of it for all these years. Bubbles and Upside are, for me, the polar songs of Hey Ma. The former is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written by James, pure ear-candy and quite possibly one of the songs that will stick for the ages, the latter just plain sucks. Way to ruin the musical high that Bubbles provides with the uninspired and annoying excuse of a song that Upside is. I didn't like it in it's embrionary stage last year, and I much less like it now. It makes me mad that it made the album instead of Not So Strong. Andy still manages to save a bit of it. Oh well.. Sound follows. Sound is just staggeringly awesome live, with Jim driving it from start to finish. Granted that Andy plays a major role on all Seven songs, but Sound is all about the bass. They could play 16 Sounds like this per show, and i would be in 7th heaven. A much missed song from last year's setlists and i hope they keep it on them for a while. Out to Get You is another hit with the crowd, drawing a major singalong from them. It was the best live rendition i've ever heard of it really. I Wanna Go Home is one of Hey Ma's finest, and Saul takes it up a notch with his frenetic drumming during the song's climax. Hey Ma is another song that deserves to be a single... One of the catchiest tunes produced by James over the last ten-something years, despite the grim subject of it's lyrics. I could definitely see it as a hit. Getting Away With It is arguably James's most well known tune for people in their twenty's, which was the leading demographic present in the crowd, and was once again sends the crowd into rapture. I just wish it wasn't the only PTMY song, represented on the band's setlists. PTMY is one of the band's greatest albums and should not be remembered only in form of it's single. Saul speaks some more portuguese after the song, something he thrives on showing us that he masters, mentioning how special that night is being for them and explaining to the Braga crowd why Tim was sitting down most of the show. Sometimes was unique, to say the least, with an extended improvised section I've only heard on the Wembley 2001 show. Another highlight of the set and the perfect testimony that this show was indeed special and, dare I say, one of James's most special ever. Laid closes the main set like it started, with the crowd vigorously jumping up and down and singing the chorus in unison. The band returns for the last song, Tomorrow. I wouldn't pick it as a concert closer, but it worked marvelously that night. And so they left, overwhelmed by the warmth of a spectacular crowd, even for Portugal's standards, and with Saul's announcing they would be back in July. The whole thing lasted close to 90 minutes, though I know by the ear-to-ear smiles in the band's faces that they would go on forever, if allowed by the festival organization and if Tim wasn't in pain... I'm exhilerated that I saw one of my favorite band's of all time in it's live apotheosis. Too short, too special. It would be unfair to measure the Braga show by it's lenght, but we seriously need some Coliseum shows for this fall or winter. If there was a time to reconquer the US, this is it. All they need is to have a bit more ambition than playing in small-time student festivals, such as those i've seen them playing on during this weekend. Watchout James World (UK, Portugal, Greece *wink*), it's 1991 again. The recording turned out great also. The P.A. and the concert setting was considerably weaker than in Coimbra, which kind of reflects on how both recordings sound (Coimbra being better). I needed to put the mics in my collar due to the rain during Bubbles, hence the bassier sound during the rest of the show, but I carried on with it. This one is for Andre.

Portishead - Coliseu do Porto 2008/03/26 Megaupload links

2008-04-14T22:18:00.006+01:00

By huge popular demand, here's my first megaupload release

Portishead - Coliseu do Porto, Porto, Portugal 2008/03/26

16bit: part1 / part2

This is a FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) release, which means it's on uncompressed 16bit audio (CD-Audio quality), which is superior in fidelity than MP3, whichever bitrate it may have. I would like to ask that I would like to see this show circulate in this format only, in order to mantain it's quality over time. I realize someone will disregard this and spread it around in shitty MP3 just to make a couple of friends on some message board. FLAC is as easy to work with as MP3 and I've done all the work for you uploading these huge files on a reliable and quick free internet server, so there's no excuse to upload this somewhere else converted to a lossy format. If i don't see this being spread around as MP3, I might continue with this free-to-all method of distribution... As for the recording, it's pretty good, check the samples on the post below for general sound quality. It would be much better if the crowd wasn't in mass hysteria, but that's well beyond my control. I re-worked some close crowd noise using EQ'ing and band-stop filters, exclusively for this megaupload release to make it more bearable on some critical parts. Enjoy the show.

P.S.: Please don't send any FLAC related questions to my email.. Go to the FLAC website, download and install FLACfrontend, decode the files to wav, burn to CD-Audio. Otherwise, get winamp and play the FLAC files on your computer. It's as easy as it looks, give it a try.

Live is where we live...

A Certain Ratio - Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves 2009/05/31

God Is An Astronaut - Cinema Passos Manuel 2009/05/23

Mogwai - Aula Magna 2009/02/05

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - Cinema Passos Manuel 2008/11/01

Sigur Rós - Alexandra Palace 2008/11/20 & 2008/11/21

Sigur Rós - Campo Pequeno 2008/11/11

Caspian - Porto-Rio 2008/10/06

James - WOMAD Festival 1985/07/21

James - Largo 1º de Maio 2008/09/04

James - Campo 1º de Maio 2008/08/30

James - Praça da Canção 2008/05/10

Cat Power - Coliseu dos Recreios 2008/05/26

Appaloosa - Coliseu dos Recreios 2008/05/26

Caribou - Santiago Alquimista 2008/03/12

Rufus Wainwright (Solo) - Casa das Artes de V.N. Famalicão 2008/06/28

Midnight Juggernauts - Festival Oeiras Alive! '08 2008/07/12

Nine Inch Nails - Coliseu dos Recreios 2007/02/10

James - Festival Marés Vivas '08 2008/07/19

The National - Jardins do Centro Cultural Vila Flor 2008/07/18

Atlas Sound - Lux Frágil 2008/05/28

Sigur Rós - Pavilhão Atlântico 2006/07/16

The National - Festival Oeiras Alive! '08 2008/07/10

Animal Collective - Lux Frágil 2008/05/28

James - Alameda do Estadio Municipal de Braga 2008/05/11

Portishead - Coliseu do Porto 2008/03/26 *Megaupload links*

Portishead - Coliseu do Porto 2008/03/26 Megaupload links