As regular readers are aware, Glasslands is one of my favorite music venues in NYC. Last night, one of the “family bands”, Awesome Color, hosted a CD Release party for their new album on Ecstatic Peace Records Electric Aborigines. Awesome Color’s sophomore release follows the band’s evolution from buzz-saw garage guitar rave-ups to psychedelic crunch noise. The premiere track “Eyes of Light” begins with a burst of guitar feedback and drum cacophony that quickly develops into a focused and intense song exhibiting positive influences of guitar luminaries from Husker Du to Black Mountain.
The live Awesome Color experience is quite another story. Last night, the “party” aspect of the show was taken literally, as the band hosted quite a number of friend and fan participation numbers — the vocal microphone passed around like a peace pipe. The one-hour set featured some straight-forward performances of tracks from the new album, and several older numbers with “guests”. However, despite the craziness, Awesome Color kept their musical performances and show together — all delivered with a good natured smile.
We were lucky to have chatted with band leader Derek on several prior visits to Glasslands, and when this CD Release Party was announced, he was kind enough to offer us guest list and early access to record the show. We solved the past problem of the placement of microphone stand picking up too much crowd and bar noise. Prior to the crowd arrival, we mounted the Neumann’s to the balcony railing with the microphones literally pointed face-level at the PA stacks from about 15 feet away. Again we mixed the board feed with the audience capture for a “matrix” recording, which reflects the positive aspects of both. The only “flaw” in this recording is some peak volume bursts during some of the “guest” vocals. Overall this is an accurate representation of this frolicking show. Enjoy!
Tall Firs were also recorded and will be featured in the coming days.
Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)
Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].
Awesome Color
2008-05-02
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard/Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Front of Board Neumann KM-150s > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Many thanks Derek for permission and access.
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2008-05-03
Setlist:
[total time 1:03:42]
01 Flying
02 Already Down
03 Eyes of Light
04
05 Slaughterhouse
06 Hat Energy
07 Ridin’
08 Burning
09 It’s Your Time
10 Free Man
11 Shoegazer
12 Grown
13 The Moon
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Awesome Color, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their new release Electric Aborigines directly from the Ecstatic Peace website.
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