In the spirit of the primary season, the Fiery Furnaces are accepting ballots from the fans attending their Winter tour. The songs with the most votes are performed in order at the end of the standard set. At Maxwell’s last night, the ballots were cast and the fans were the winners, as we were treated to rare numbers not performed in years. When I spoke to Matt after the show, he said that he and Eleanor had gone back and re-learned all of the old numbers in anticipation of any request.
So we braved the horrendous weather to see our favorite band at our favorite venue and we were not disappointed. Although it was the first night of the tour, the Furnaces were in fine form and worked flawlessly through a rearranged setlist before counting the ballots. Despite the surprise winners (Eleanor: “I told Matt, no one is going to request that”), the request numbers were performed in their entirety. We even got to hear Matt sing for the first time in a couple of years.
The recording offered here is another first for this site. We mixed our DPA microphones (positioned in the ideal location) with a feed from the soundboard in a “matrix” mix through the Edirol UA-5 which permits four channels of input. We believe that in the past our small club recordings of the Furnaces were perhaps too drum heavy, and the board feed permitted us to correctly mix the vocals and keyboards with the rhythm section. This is the best possible recording of this band, and we are extremely pleased with the results. Many thanks to Matt for his continued permission to record and his support of this site, and of course to Maxwell’s and its talented sound crew. Enjoy!
Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].
Fiery Furnaces
2008-01-17
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard/Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Front of Board DPA 4021 > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 16bit 44.1kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, slight level boost, no EQ) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-01-18
Setlist:
[total time 1:12:02]
Democ-rock Set:
01 Navy Nurse
02 Japanese Slippers
03 The Garfield El
04 A Candymaker’s Knife in My Handbag
05 Forty-Eight Twenty-Three Twenty-Second Street
06 Seven Silver Curses
07 Slavin’ Away
08 Duplexes of the Dead
09 Automatic Husband
10 Ex-Guru
11 Blueberry Boat
12 Right By Conquest
13 Mandolin and Maracas
14 Waiting to Know You
15 Philadelphia Grand Jury
16 Clear Signal From Cairo
Roll the Dice Set:
17 Two Fat Feet
18 Chief Inspector Blancheflower
19 Benton Harbor Blues
20 Paw Paw Tree
21 Asthma Attack
If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Fiery Furnaces visit their website, and purchase their official releases including their brilliant new album Widow City.
The Fiery Furnaces Winter Tour continues:
1/18 South Burlington, VT / Higher Ground / All Ages / $12
1/19 Portland, ME / Space Gallery / 18+ / $12
1/21 Rochester, NY / The Bug Jar / 18+ / $12
1/22 Buffalo, NY / The Tralf / All Ages / $12
1/23 State College, PA / Lulu’s / All Ages / $12
1/24 Columbus, OH / The Basement / All Ages / $12
1/25 Baltimore, MD / Ottobar / All Ages / $12
1/26 Charlottesville, VA / Satellite Ballroom / All Ages / $15
1/27 Washington, DC / 9:30 Club / All Ages / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
1/29 Carrboro, NC / Cat’s Cradle / All Ages / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
1/30 Atlanta, GA / Variety Playhouse / All Ages / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
1/31 New Orleans, LA / The Republic / 18+ / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
FEBRUARY
2/1 Dallas, TX / Granada Theater / All Ages / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
2/2 Houston, TX / The Proletariat / All Ages / $12
2/4 Memphis, TN / Hi-Tone Cafe / 18+ / $10
2/5 Oxford, MS / Proud Larry’s / 18+ / $10
2/6 Nashville, TN / Exit/In / 18+ / $14
2/7 Birmingham, AL / Bottletree / 18+
2/8 Asheville, NC / Grey Eagle Tavern / $13
2/9 Knoxville, TN / Pilot Light / 18+
excellent show and introduction to the live band for me, but there was a “flaw” as Blueberry Boat sort of ended in an unplanned (I suspect) way. Not a problem however.
Its funny, but that’s the exact same way they ended it in Williamsburg.
Sorry you’ve been having a rough time lately, but there’s an Avey Tare and Kria Brekkan show tomorrow, Sunday. I hope you can go :O
http://www.last.fm/event/473884
I am actually planning to go to that and record, but we’ll see how it goes. It could be crazy crowded, we’ll see.
Nice recording of a really great show. I’ve got several of their albums, but hadn’t had a chance to hear them live yet. Thanks!
I loved them before I saw them play live, and now it’s much more than love!
There’s a really nice set of photos from this show on flickr, here:
http://flickr.com/photos/hailmaryny/sets/72157603760816593/
Thanks! This was an excellent effort, I really like how it turned out. I hope there’s more matrix stuff to come in the future.
Capturing a matrix is sort of like the alignment of the planets. You need a friendly band, a sound guy who is ok with it, and a nice venue. Fortunately I got all three for this show, but its a rarity. Oh yeah, and it also has to make sense logistically — the mic stand being close enough to the board to make it work.
I finally had time to listen to the recording. The sound is amazing – as always. Thank you so much!! :D
Great recording! Thanks for letting me grab it…unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to motivate me to tape the Baltimore show.
thanks so much for making this available. I’m hitting your tipjar – hope others do the same as it is richly deserved…
I’ve got a rather extensive collection of the Fiery Furnaces live recordings, but this is definitely the best one. Perfect sound, a band firing on all pistons, great vocals from Eleanor, a very solid setlist, and some rarely heard songs in a live context (especially recently) : what more can one ask for ? Thank you so very much
Great, great recording. I really like their current RMC medley arrangements, and how ace is it that they did Mandolin and Maracas? I kind of wanted to hear this when I went to see them in Birmingham in the UK.
Not realised it until listening to the live arangements, but does anyone else think the Duplexes of the Dead bassline is remarkably similar to Ray-O-Vac by the Royal Trux?
Have you ever recorded a band called Arizona? I happened across their music and they actually got me on to the Furnaces in the first place – they’re NYC based.
All the best to you.