[photo by Joakim Bengtsson]
Early in October, we posted the Luna show from the first night of Rough Trade, which was part of a brief four-night tour from a month ago. All four nights of the tour were recorded, and this is the first show of the run at The Birchmere in Alexandria Virginia. I didn’t attend, but fortunately both Kubacheck and his friends from Sweden (Joakim and Ulrika) were there. It was Kuba with the recording and Joakim with an amazing tour diary that was just posted this week at the excellent fan site A Head Full Of Wishes.
Here is some of Joakim’s story of this show:
“They play Fire In Cairo. We’ve never seen them play it before, just heard the recordings, it’s nice to hear it for real. The Cure is band me and Ulrika has strong feelings for. Without Pictures of You and Lovesong we probably wouldn’t have been together. It was about 16 years ago, in a Stockholm suburb apartment, they where playing Disintegration at a party, and we danced, slowly, the night came to an end. She lent me Bewitched and Penthouse, it was nice. I met someone else, but a couple of years later we danced again. The same songs. Music has that affect on you.
“Please get off the stage”, a speaker voice is saying after the show. We get the set list anyway. We step back out to the bar area and we meet Mike’s friends, Kathleen and Paul. Kathleen had made a t-shirt, with a print saying “I only dance to New Order”. It’s pure genius. I wish we could have spent much more time together.
Everyone was overwhelmed by the show. Talking about how good it was. And the band looked very, very happy when they were outside in the lobby talking to all the fans. I saw Dean standing in the crowd of people and he looked at me, did a sign with his hands, keeping that satisfied smile on his face. He’s not always that comfortable after the shows, but this time he looked really relaxed. We talked with Sean for a while and Mike and Kathleen and Paul.
Sadly we had to leave, the place was closing. We called a taxi and went outside and waited in the parking lot. Someone yelled Ulrika’s name and it was Lee, he was driving his own car, we waved back and shouted “hello, see you tomorrow”. He is nice to us, they all are.”
There’s a lot more about this show and its all great, read the full diary entry [HERE].
Kuba recorded this set with his trusty MBHO rig and the sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!
Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]
Stream the Complete Show:
Luna
2016-09-29
The Birchmere
Alexandria VA
Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Front of Board
MBHO 603a – KA-500 > Naiant Tinybox > Roland R-05 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (level adjustments, EQ, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)
Recorded by Kubacheck
Produced by nyctaper
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:23:43]
01 Chinatown
02 California
03 Pup Tent
04 Lovedust
05 Malibu Love Nest
06 Sideshow by the Seashore
07 Rhythm King
08 Bewitched
09 [banter – Sean Eden Quotes]
10 Tracy I Love You
11 Tiger Lily
12 Friendly Advice
13 Lost in Space
14 23 Minutes in Brussels
15 [encore break]
16 Fire In Cairo [The Cure]
17 Indian Summer
18 [off the stage]
SUPPORT Luna: Website | Bandcamp | Long Players Box Set from Captured Tracks [HERE].
it was a great night!!
Hey there! Just wanted to note that the very last track, “Indian Summer”, is a classic song originally by Beat Happening from their Jamboree album.
From the wikipedia page for Jamboree:
“Indian Summer” is perhaps the group’s best-known song, as it was famously covered by Dream pop group Luna, whose lead singer, Dean Wareham, joked in The Shield Around the K: The Story of K Records, a documentary film on the history of Calvin’s K Records, that the song was “indie’s ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’– everybody’s done it.”
Just thought I’d pass that along. Keep up the excellent work!!
Feel free to ignore my previous comment! I looked back through the Luna tags, and that was noted in an earlier show! I guess it’s common knowledge among Luna fans??
Me?? A couple of decades at a college radio station makes one note these things!! Hell, I saw “Fire In Cairo” and got excited before I even saw the note about The Cure!! (I was a teenage Robert Smith)
My best to you!! ;-)