[photo by nyctaper]
I can’t imagine that Robert Christgau gets out to many shows these days. But last Saturday at Cake Shop, there he was at Wussy‘s first NYC show in almost two years. I suppose its a bit of a novelty that one of the current favorite bands of a legendary music critic is a relatively obscure self-described “midwestern drone” outfit. But Christgau has it right. As the current band of Chuck Cleaver, the leader of 90s underground legends The Ass Ponys, Wussy is a solid guitar-bass-drums quartet with an excellent mix of male and female vocals and tremendous songcraft. For this tour, the band brought along another former Ass Ponys guitarist John Erhardt to play pedal steel. The Cake Shop show was perhaps a tad short because they were the third band in a four band bill (with a late show to follow), but Wussy worked through a mix of older and newer numbers, including songs from their recent release Strawberry. The band did not hold back for the set’s closer, a raging version of “Rigor Mortis” that concluded with a noisy guitar-drenched episode that left the packed crowd asking for more. We’re streaming that song below. Wussy will play several SXSW shows and we’re hoping to catch them, before they play more midwest shows, and then there is an anticipated Summer tour (with more East Coast dates).
I recorded this set in the same manner as the recent Old Monk recording, with the DPA 4021s on a mount on the low ceiling above the stage and the DPA 4061 omnis mounted in front of the PA. The sound quality is excellent except for a crackling (blown amp) sound which persists for several songs in the middle of the set. With that caveat, enjoy!
Stream “Rigor Mortis”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/W1604Wussy2211/11.%20Rigor%20Mortis.mp3]
Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)
Download the Complete show in FLAC [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.
Wussy
2012-03-03
Cake Shop
New York, NY USA
Digital Master
Upfront Four Channel Audience Recording
DPA 4021s + DPA 4061s > 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
2012-03-06
Setlist:
[Total Time 39:14]
01 Waiting Room
02 Pulverized
03 Grand Champion Steer
04 [banter – Wings]
05 Maglite
06 [banter]
07 Happiness Bleeds
08 Pizza King
09 Muscle Cars
10 Airborne
11 Rigor Mortis
If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Wussy, visit their website, and purchase their official releases including Strawberry directly from the Music section of their website [HERE]
Thanks for this great recording. Wussy is at the top of their game right now, love seeing them live.
Thanks again,
Dave