Young Fresh Fellows- Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR, May 25, 2024

 

Oh my, how time flies! Where has the summer gone?? I had a busy summer, at least I think I did, but believe it or not I haven't attended or seen any concerts since my last post. And what the heck is going on with all the concert and tour cancellations so far in 2024? At the top of my head, I can think of several high profile and popular acts that have cancelled or postponed for a variety of reasons. The Black Keys, Jennifer Lopez and Lauryn Hill and the Fugees cancelled tours before they even began mainly due to lack of ticket interest and local shows from Neil Young (illness), Paula Abdul (injury), Heart (illness/cancer) and Michael Franti & Spearhead (low ticket sales) were also cancelled. My son and his girlfriend spent a good chunk of time (and money!) in August travelling around Europe. Italy, Czechia, Germany and Austria. Can you guess what concert they planned (bought tickets over a year ago!!) to see in Vienna? Of all the cities in the world that Taylor Swift planned to play, would-be terrorists targeted Vienna and yeah it was cancelled. So travelling halfway around the world is NOT a guarantee the show will go on and it's only money, time and dashed hopes, right? At least, the whole trip wasn't a complete waste, they experienced a lot of cool things, though it was the hottest summer in history, especially where they travelled. As a consolation, they saw Coldplay in Munich, definitely not in my top anything list for my concert priorities, but at least it was a spectacle.

 

 

To be honest, the only band I was tempted to travel to see since May, was the Young Fresh Fellows who embarked on a mini-tour in support of the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest. They toured from West to East, with stops in Seattle, Portland, Madison, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York and North Adams for the Wilco Solid Sound Festival. I see they didn't cancel any shows due to illness, egos or poor ticket sales, though it appeared to be raining during their set at Solid Sound. Would love have seen the band live and I will regret I didn't do anything about it, but at least a lot of decent quality videos found their way on YouTube. Speaking of YouTube, there were a couple of incomplete videos of the show in Portland that if watched back to back they make up a complete concert. Since I can only really watch concert videos only so many times, I decided to take the audio from the videos (to watch, see links below) from sKiP sToNe (the main set) and Bob Rousseau (encore), pieced them together, split the tracks and it made a complete live audio recording. The sound quality is good enough and the differences between the two recordings isn't a factor, so it's a very enjoyable recording.

Enjoy!

 

Videos:

Young Fresh Fellows live at Mississippi Studios May 25, 2024 (main set) (sToNe)

Young Fresh Fellows with Peter Buck - Mississippi Studios Portland 5.25.24 (encore) (Rousseau)

 

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use

Please share!

 

 

YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS
Mississippi Studios
Portland, OR
May 25, 2024

01. Two Guitars, Bass and Drums
02. November
03. When the Girls Get Here
04. Barky's Spiritual Store
05. Motorbroke
06. Young Mod's Last Ride
07. Searchin' U.S.A.
08. Becky Doll
09. Gear Summer
10. Carrothead
11. Taco Wagon
12. Picture Book (The Kinks cover)
13. Rock 'n' Roll Pest Control
14. All Messed Up
15. Think Better of Me
16. Power Mowers Theme
17. Empty Set Takes a Vacation
18. You Call That Lonely?
19. Big House
20. This Little Mystery
21. Down by the Pharmacy
22. Teenage Dogs in Trouble
23. That Letter
24. Young Fresh Fellows Theme
25. Telephone Tree
26. I Got My Mojo Working (And I Thought You'd Like to Know)
27. My Friend Ringo

Encore:
28. When Things Was Cheap (NRBQ cover) (with Peter Buck)
29. I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite (Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart cover) (with Peter Buck)
30. I Want to Die in a Woman's Prison  (with Peter Buck) ((dedicated to Gary Norris))
31. Hillbilly Drummer Girl
32. Strychnine

 

YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS- 2024-05-25 Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR FLAC. rar

 

Nick Lowe- Live At The Burton Cummings Theatre, Winnipeg, MB. June 15, 2024

Better late than never!

Nick Lowe is a performer I had on my "must-see live" before I die list for a long while and had almost gave up hope thinking my only opportunity to see him might include a long car ride or flight to another city. Imagine my surprise when it was announced he would partake on a short tour of Canada with fellow song-smith, Ron Sexsmith. It's funny because I over-heard a guy seated a row behind me telling someone he drove in for the concert from Minneapolis and he had see Lowe many time previously, ha imagine that, Winnipeg has something worth visiting for! 

 

Anyways, both sets were solo acoustic, which meant it wasn't going to be a rowdy earplugs show or standing throughout. Ron Sexsmith played a solid set with songs from his long (though not nearly as long as Nick!) and respectable career and it's interesting how many songs he's had covered by other artists, Emmylou Harris, Feist, and Nick Lowe to just name a few he played. I've seen Sexsmith before and though he isn't the most exciting performer, he is sincere and he writes some pretty nice songs. Nick was his usual charming self, an interesting and funny storyteller and a pure joy to listen to. I have joined the ranks of the "easy listening" crowd with their polite applause, cushy seats and opportunity for a night out, I felt right at home with an audience where I'm not the oldest in the room. Lowe's set was fairly quiet (you can hear a pin drop during songs), but things started to get more upbeat when Nick brought Ron onto the stage to join him for the latter section of the show for the last five songs. The highlights for me, were the older "hits", Cruel To Be Kind, I Knew The Bride and the show closer, What's So Funny 'Bout (Peace, Love and Understanding) with Ron playing some surprisingly tasty leads on guitar. A thoroughly low-key concert, I'm glad I bought a ticket for. Since I'm been trying to live on a low budget (except my stupidly expensive Jets tickets!), I'm more selective on concerts I can afford or want to pay for. I feel kind bad I missed the Violent Femmes last month, but my rationale for buying Nick Lowe over VFs is because I haven't seen him (I saw the VFs once) and tickets were reasonably priced. Interesting to note, I actually bought a first row in the middle (balcony) seat the day after tickets went on sale. There were lots of empty seats in the first balcony, only the first three rows were filled and some scattered in the lower-priced upper section. Clearly, this wasn't a top draw as there was a 25% off sale in the weeks leading up to the show.

 

The opportunity to tape (record) the show was too good to pass up. Getting through security was a breeze, as there was no airport style-metal detectors, bag checks, wanding or pat-downs, as it was anticipated to be tame crowd. My seats were perfect, unobstructed view and no one in front of me to block the sound. Extra bonus was that the couple to the left of me didn't return after the intermission, so I was able to get some extra armrest action and no worries about them talking. Talking was to the minimum, so it was ideal. I always worry that security would get excited with audio recorders, but seriously, so many people pull out their phones constantly taking photos and recording videos. In fact three seats over from me someone recorded almost the whole show on their phone. There was a ledge in front of us, but they still had to lean it and hold it sturdy for over an hour. That's more work than I'd be committed to. Good for them, hope the video turned out good. The sound quality is pretty decent, my only regret was I should have set the volume levels higher, as it was a quiet show, so of course the audience applause is so much louder than the music. I considered boosting the volume with Audacity, but I didn't want the crowd to clip too loudly or use compression which might have altered the sound. The first song is too quiet, but I increased the levels for the rest of the recording and sounds nice. I didn't record Ron's opening set because of a post from one of his earlier shows that got removed by the request of someone from his camp (if you want to hear that show, PM me), so I don't need the potential hassle. Anyways, enough technical jargon...listen to the concert!

Enjoy!

 

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use.

Please share!

 

NICK LOWE
Burton Cummings Theatre
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
June 15, 2024
AUD Master

Sony ECM-DS70P mic> Tascam DR-07> SD card > 16 bit Wav>
Direct Wave MP3 splitter> FLAC

01. Stoplight Roses
02. 12 Step Program
03. Long Limbed Girl
04. Lately I've Let Things Slide
05. I Live On A Battlefield
06. Rome Wasn't Built In A Day
07. Lay It On Me Baby
08. Heartbreaker (Bee Gees cover)
09. Somebody Cares For Me
10. Love Starvation
11. The Beast In Me
12. Trombone
13. Indian Queens
14. Without Love
15. Where's My Everything? *
16. Cruel To Be Kind *
17. I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock 'n' Roll) *

Encore
18. My Baby's Gone (Louvin Brothers cover) *
19. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding *

* With Ron Sexsmith

 

NICK LOWE- 2024-06-15 Burton Cummings Theatre, Winnipeg, MB FLAC Master. rar

 

Weezer Plays The Blue Album- The Lodge Room, LA, CA, March 15, 2024

 

 

Yet another "classic" album is getting the anniversary tour treatment with Weezer celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut album, the self-titled, the "Blue Album". The band is embarking on a huge arena tour with the Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr., starting in September and running until mid-October ending in L.A. The band will play the album in it's entirety followed by favorite's from the band's long successful career. Sounds like an epic event, so if you live select cities in the US or two cities in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver), tickets are on sale (maybe, might be sold out already?). 

 

As a warmup for the tour, Weezer played their first pre-tour show in March in front of a small (500) enthusiastic crowd at the Lodge Room in LA. The idea for this tour kick-off show was to recreate the first ever Weezer show 32 years ago, at Raji's in Hollywood. They opened (actually they played the closing set after most of the fans left after Keanu's band's set) for Dogstar (Keanu Reeves band), it was also Dogstar's first show. Interestingly, Weezer played only 2 songs that would appear on Blue. Thirty two years later to the date, Weezer once again played with Dogstar with a short set of only the Blue Album in it's entirety. Not the same venue, but at least it was an intimate smaller room. Would have been amazing to have been there! Below is Weezer's set from the show, recorded from the crowd and the sound is outstanding and an excellent document of the concert.

Enjoy!

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use.

Please share!

Note: The music FLAC files are 24-bit, so it's larger (better quality?) than usual. To respect the taper/original poster, I left the files as they were originally offered. It's playable, but if you want to burn to disc they might need to be converted to 16-bit. There are many good file conversion apps/software online, but in a pinch I can convert it for you on request.

WEEZER
Lodge Room
Los Angeles, CA, USA
March 15, 2024
 

-- Source --
DPA 4081 > MMA-A > 24bit/48kHz

-- Processing --
iZotope RX (editing/mastering) > CD Wave (tracking) > Trader's Little Helper (encoding)

-- Setlist --
01 - intro
02 - My Name Is Jonas
03 - No One Else
04 - The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
05 - Buddy Holly
06 - Undone — The Sweater Song
07 - Surf Wax America
08 - In the Garage
09 - Say It Ain't So
10 - Holiday
11 - Only in Dreams
12 - outro (Mykel & Carli)

-- Notes --
Performing the blue album. Dominic Fike joins on guitar and vocals during Say It Ain't So. Dogstar opened.

Length: 47m00s

 

WEEZER- 2024-03-15 Lodge Room, LA FLAC24. rar

 

Trans-Canada Highwaymen- Club Regent Event Centre, Winnipeg, MB, March 22, 2024

 

 

I still have it, my actual copy!

One of the first record albums I bought (with my own money) was in elementary school and for whatever reason they were selling K-Tel records. I can't remember if there were other choices, but I bought, Sounds Spectacular, a compilation with "20 original hits" and "20 original stars", including hits such as Kung-Fu Fighting, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, Crocodile Rock and I Got The Music In Me, along with 16 other songs jam packed on one LP. The sound quality of all K-Tel records had the quality of a super low-bit mp3 and a visual inspection of the grooves on the vinyl has you wondering, how the hell can they squeeze so many tracks on here? Anyways, for many kids my age at the time, it was the gateway to hearing a variety of different artists all at once. Yes, the sound sucked, but what did I know at the time. 

 

When I first heard the album by the Trans-Canada Highwaymen, Explosive Hits Volume 1, I had an instant flashback to that K-Tel album. I guess that was the point, to a certain demographic (and Canadians), the band included, we shared that feeling of familiarity. Explosive Hits Vol.1 is basically a covers record, except for the origin story theme song, with recognizable songs from well-known Canadian bands, circa late 60's to the mid 70's. The "super group" consists of front-men from some truly great Canadian bands from the 90's to present. There's Steven Page, originally from the Barenaked Ladies, now solo, Chris Murphy, singer-songwriter, bass player from Sloan who primarily is the drummer in TCH, Craig Northey from the Odds and Moe Berg from the Pursuit of Happiness. I haven't had much desire to go to live concerts lately, but when I heard they were coming to play in Winnipeg, I made a priority to get tickets during the presale and was fortunate to get some prime seats.

Since the pandemic, I've only attended a handful of concerts, both indoors and outdoors, and I've taken a hiatus from recording shows, except for a Cheap Trick show last summer. The Trans-Canada Highwaymen concert is the first indoor concert I've recorded in almost exactly 4 years (Wilco in 2000), and I must admit I was hesitate. Since I've last attended a concert, "enhanced" security at larger venues is now the norm with airport-style metal detecting technology and wanding, so I'm not sure exactly what can or can't be detected, so dealing with the extra security is another challenge. Anyways, I made it through unscathed and accomplished a good sounding recording. The concert venue within a casino is actually pretty nice. The sound quality is amazing, the sight lines were really good (they even had video screens scattered around the room), the seats are comfy and the crowd was well behaved. Recently, when I've gone to shows I've felt like the oldest person in the crowd, but here the average age of the crowd must have been over 50, as there were many, many white-haired fans a lot older than me. I guess, there's a reason the concert was held in a casino. Overall, the show was great and the banter from the band was highly enjoyable and funny, mainly Chris Murphy and Steven Page. Here are some other highlights and notes:

• Along with the many cover songs from the album, each member of the band took their turn with songs from their own bands. It felt like a greatest hits showcase and it really was a smart format. As much I wish I had previously seen the Odds and Pursuit of Happiness live, I heard the songs I wanted to hear from each group, Someone Who's Cool, She's So Young and I'm An Adult Now, are some of my favourite songs by a Canadian band, ever.
• As mentioned during the show, it was Moe Berg's birthday, so a unrehearsed, impromptu version of Birthday by the Beatles was an added bonus.
• The retro look of their album, Explosive Hits Vol. 1 is no doubt a tribute to K-Tel records, as acknowledged by the band. K-Tel of course, proudly (or shamelessly) rose up from Winnipeg.
  
• You can't overstate the talent on stage. Each member took their turn on the drums and the trading of instruments showcases their versatility and amazing musicianship. Chris Murphy is the bass player in Sloan, but it quite competent at drums (I've also seen him play drums with Tuns). Along with the other members of Sloan, he can sing and can write some pretty great songs. I've underestimated Steven Page, he truly is a excellent entertainer and incredible singer and the fact he can play guitar, keyboards and drums amazes me. I've never been a fan of the BNL's, but Page is a talent beyond that band.
  
• As far as the recording, it turned out great. It has to be one of my best sounding recordings! I was situated about 14 rows back, dead centre, there was no one sitting directly in front of me and the sound at the venue was amazing. The levels are adjusted a couple of times and there's a bit of chatter between songs, but nothing that takes away from the experience. Hmmm, I predict I might have to attend more casino shows? Well, the next night was Reveen...

Enjoy!

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use.

Please share!

 

 

 

TRANS-CANADA HIGHWAYMEN
Club Regent Event Centre
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
March 22, 2024
AUD Master

Sony ECM-DS70P mic> Tascam DR-07> SD card > 16 bit Wav>
Direct Wave MP3 splitter> FLAC

01. Intro (Kevin McDonald)
02. It's All Been Done
03. Someone Who's Cool
04. Hard To Laugh
05. Lovin' You Ain't Easy
06. Theme From Trans-Canada Highwaymen
07. Birthday
08. It Falls Apart
09. Jane
10. Pretty Lady
11. Underwhelmed
12. Tonight Is A Wonderful Time To Fall In Love
13. Undun
14. She's So Young
15. The Other Man
16. The Old Apartment
17. Make You Mad
18. Brian Wilson
Encore
19. Rock Me Gently
20. The Rest Of My Life
21. I'm An Adult Now

Band:
Steven Page
Chris Murphy
Craig Northey
Moe Berg

 

TRANS-CANADA HIGHWAYMEN- 2024-03-22, Club Regent, Winnipeg, MB FLAC Master. rar