[photo by Jeff Lagasca]
The show on Saturday night at 285 Kent was headlined by another one of this site’s favorite bands and one that we’ve followed for all of our five years. We first saw Crystal Stilts back in 2008, and over the last few years our recordings of them have been featured on the site six previous times from a large variety of venues. After a bit of a hiatus, the band returned in 2011 with a superb new album In Love with Oblivion (Slumberland) and a new EP Radiant Door (Sacred Bones Records), both of which cemented their position as one of best post-punk garage bands around. The style remains consistent — Brad Hargett’s heavily reverbed vocals backed by the sixties influenced guitar work of founder JB Townsend and the adventurous keyboards of Kyle Forester. Their show at 285 Kent is one of the strongest we’ve seen them play to date. The set was not simply the new album, but a full slate of Stilts material, a brand new song and a well-conceived Gun Club cover. The band ended the set with a spacey and stretched-out version of “Prometheus” before returning for well-deserved encore. We are streaming “Shake the Shackles”, a 2010 single that also appears on Oblivion. Crystal Stilts will perform again locally, this time next door to 285 at Glasslands on June 17 for the Sacred Bones Records Northside Festival showcase.
Additionally, for this post we are offering a bonus download of the Crystal Stilts live in Washington DC, a show recorded in April by friend of the site Kubacheck at the Rock N’ Roll Hotel. The show features a setlist quite different from the 285 set with some deep cuts along with more of the new album.
I recorded the 285 set in the same manner as the Woods set and the sound quality is excellent. The Washington show was recorded by Kubacheck with MBHO microphones and a board feed and was mixed by acidjack. The placement of the microphones resulted in a large dose of crowd chatter which has been alleviated by mixing the board feed at a greater percentage. The sound quality of that set is also excellent. Enjoy!
Stream “Shake the Shackles” from 285 Kent:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/C1207CrystalStilts2220/06.%20Shake%20the%20Shackles.mp3]
Direct download of complete shows in MP3 files:
285 Kent (HERE)
Washington DC (HERE)
Download the Complete shows in FLAC:
285 Kent [HERE]
Washington DC [HERE]
Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.
Crystal Stilts
2012-05-05
285 Kent
Brooklyn, NY USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Sennheiser MKH-8040s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (level adjustments, set fades, downsample) > CDWave 1.95 > (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and Tagging via Foobar)
Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2012-05-08
Setlist:
[Total Time 50:16]
01 Dark Eyes
02 Crystal Stilts
03 Flying Into the Sun
04 [new song]
05 Verdant Gaze
06 Shake the Shackles
07 [banter]
08 Love Is a Wave
09 New Fun
10 For The Love of Ivy
11 Prometheus At Large
12 [encore break]
13 Converging in the Quiet
*******************
Crystal Stilts
2012-04-14
Rock N’ Roll Hotel
Washington, DC USA
Exclusive download hosted at NYCTaper.com
Recorded by kubacheck
Produced by acidjack and nyctaper
MBHO 603a (cardiod, FOB, 8 ft)>Sound Devices MP2>Roland R05 + Soundboard>Edirol R09 >>> 2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audacity (align, time adjust, set fades, amplify and balance, downsample to 16/44.1)>FLAC ( level 8 )
Tracks
01 Shattered Shine
02 Still As The Night
03 The Dazzled
04 Invisible City
05 [new song]
06 Shake The Shackles
07 Half A Moon
08 Converging in the Quiet
09 Dark Eyes
10 Love Is A Wave
11 [encore break]
12 Sugarbaby
13 Prometheus at Large
If you download these recordings from nyctaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Crystal Stilts, visit their website and purchase In Love With Oblivion from Slumberland Records [HERE] and the Radiant Door EP from Sacred Bones Records [HERE].
More awesomeness – will it be rounded off with Mmoss?