[Quasi performing in St. Paul, MN, April 15, 2010. Photos courtesy of Adam Bubolz. See his Flickr stream here.]
Drummer Janet Weiss’ kit was about the only piece of equipment that Quasi brought to the Bowery Ballroom show that didn’t malfunction. First to go was Joanna Bolme’s bass amp, which she replaced with a loaner from NYC openers Blair. She continued to have problems with her bass, the bass amp, and the mix all night. Guitarist/”Rocksichordist”/vocalist Sam Coomes’ guitar pedals, and the aforementioned Rocksichord (looks like a piano, sounds like a piano crossed with a guitar) didn’t fully cooperate either. Luckily, the members of Quasi are accustomed to being flexible, and (in Coomes and Weiss’ case), they have played together for over 15 years, so they made what other bands would easily have made a stage-walkoff, hissy-fit disaster of an evening into a classic rock n’ roll show. Despite their evident frustration with their gear, Coomes thrashed about the stage like a kid 20 years his junior, at points standing atop Weiss’ kick drum, and crashing/throwing himself into the aforementioned Rocksichord (hilariously labeled “Fragile Musical Instrument” on its back) several times. I did consider, for a moment, that some of that abuse might not have been helpful to the gear malfunction issues. Weiss, now retired from Sleater-Kinney, but still on the roster (along with Bolme) for Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, took the gig like the seasoned professional she is, joking with members of a fired-up crowd as well as playing her ass off through a 17-song set that covered new material from the Pitchfork-approved American Gong as well as older classics like “You Fucked Yourself” and a magnificent rendition of “Sea Shanty”. The American Gong material oozed stylistic diversity, with the band equally at home with the countrified twang of “Rockabilly Party”, the ballad “Laissez les bons temps rouler” (”Let the Good Times Roll”) and the straight-up rocker that opened the show, “Repulsion”. Perhaps my favorite of the new songs was the 8+ minute “Bye Bye Blackbird” that closed out the main set, which (free of gear issues) showed off Quasi at their best, playing off of each other perfectly.
“You’re not like other cities. You’re very different, you’re very unique, and we appreciate it. You had some very unique heckling, and we liked it,” Weiss said, smiling, underscoring what a strange night it had been. Sometimes you learn more about a band when they’re really in the weeds. The members of Quasi showed why their fans love them (and why so many other bands hire them) – they gave us a great rock show, circumstances be damned.
I recorded this set from the left side of the soundboard cage, with the DPA 4021 mics positioned at eye level with the sound engineers in the cage. The result is a recording of excellent clarity, balance and definition. Enjoy!
This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 and to Stream at Archive.org [HERE].
Quasi
2010-04-22
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA
An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com
Equipment: DPA 4021>Naiant littlebox>Sony PCM-M10
Position: Clamp to left of SBD cage, extended right toward SBD cage, mics pointed at stacks
Mastering: 24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, tracking, +2dB boost 10kHz+ range, downsample)>FLAC Level 8
01 Intro
02 Repulsion>
03 Nothing From Nothing
04 tuning/banter
05 Rockabilly Party
06 You Fucked Yourself
07 Sea Shanty
08 Little White Horse
09 tuning/banter/false starts
10 Master & Dog>
11 Death Culture Blues
12 banter
13 Everything and Nothing at All
14 Birds
15 Laissez les bons temps rouler
16 false start/banter
17 intro jam
18 The Rhino
19 Good Time Rock & Roll
20 Bye Bye Blackbird
21 encore break/banter
22 Bad, Bad Leroy Brown jam
23 It’s Raining
24 banter
25 Heaven and Hell
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Quasi, visit their website, and purchase American Gong and their other excellent releases directly from Kill Rock Stars here.
Recent Comments