[photos by Ash Craiig]
This year is the tenth anniversary of AJJ’s (then known as Andrew Jackson Jihad) second release, their breakout album People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World. In celebration, the band’s founders Sean Bonnette and Ben Gallaty are touring as a duo and opening the shows by playing the album straight through. The second half of the show is a selection of material from this post-People period of their career. The tour reached Bowery Ballroom last week for an inspired and intimate show that permitted AJJ’s rabid fans an up close and personal experience of this duo show.
Sean and Ben were up for the challenge, as the acoustic guitar and stand-up bass/cello filled the room while Sean’s fervent vocals delivered the personal material with the commitment that made the album such an important step in the evolution of the anti-folk movement ten years ago. The sold out Bowery crowd sang along with every word and you can hear them clearly on the recording — not as hindrance but as a true part of the performance. AJJ also talked and joked with the crowd about a variety of experiences and random thoughts, so that it almost felt, as Ben quipped, like a session of “AJJ Storytellers”. There were a few positive wrinkles in the setlist for this show including a fan request honored for the Todd Snider cover “Just Like Old Times” that contained a very special introduction for us. AJJ also called a few audibles, the most notable being what appears to be the first tour appearance of “Small Red Boy”, the emotional center of the band’s most recent album The Bible 2. We are not sure when AJJ will return to NYC — likely on the cycle of a new album tour — but we’ll of course be there. The current tour continues throughout November and into December, all dates here. The band will also return East for what I believe is a full band show at the Front Bottoms Champagne Jam in Asbury Park NJ in December.
I recorded this set with the Schoeps mounted in our standard place at the front of the balcony and mixed with a perfect feed from house FOH Danielle. The mix captures both the clear sound of the feed and the audience participation of the room mics for a superbly balanced recording. We’re really happy with this one. Enjoy!
Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]
Stream the Complete Show:
AJJ
2017-11-07
Bowery Ballroom
New York NY
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix
Soundboard [Engineer: Danielle] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:19:36]
01 [introduction]
02 Rejoice
03 Brave as a Noun
04 Survival Song
05 Bad Bad Things
06 No More Tears
07 Bells and Whistles
08 Randy’s House
09 [banter – Apple Kore]
10 A Song Dedicated to the Memory of Stormy the Rabbit
11 People II The Reckoning
12 [banter – Creepy]
13 Personal Space Invader
14 People
15 American Body Rentals
16 Jesus Saves
17 American Tune
18 Fuckboi
19 Fucc The Devil
20 [banter – shoutout]
21 Just Like Old Times [Todd Snider]
22 All The Dead Kids
23 Unicron
24 Coffin Dance
25 [banter – yelling]
26 Growing Up
27 Sense and Sensibility
28 Small Red Boy
29 Linda Ronstadt
30 Little Prince
31 [banter – philharmonic]
32 Big Bird
33 [encore break]
34 American Body Rentals (again)
SUPPORT AJJ: Website | Facebook | Purchase The Bible 2 from SideOneDummy Records [HERE].
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