Posts Tagged ‘ Highline Ballroom ’

Kung Fu: February 21, 2013 Highline Ballroom – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

March 1, 2013
By


kungfu2013-02-21-2

New Haven-based funkmeisters Kung Fu co-headlined a mammoth show last week at the Highline Ballroom with up-and-coming jam band heroes Dopapod, with a set that proved the classic can be made new again. With both feet planted firmly in 70s funk-jazz fusion, Kung Fu’s high-energy, virtuosic set made us wonder how this music ever went out of style in the first place. Though still new on the scene as a band (their debut CD came out in 2011, the same year the band formed), the members of Kung Fu have a well-pedigreed history in jam circles with acts like The Breakfast, RAQ, Deep Banana Blackout and Jazz is Dead. As such, Kung Fu has already scored some high-profile opening act and festival gigs, including an appearance at this year’s Mountain Jam.  Their modernized version of jazz funk has an eye toward today’s dance-friendly audiences; indeed, the glowstick twirlers seemed to dig this set without pining for Dopapod’s upcoming EDM flourishes. Kung Fu should have staying power in the scene for a long time.

I recorded this set with Schoeps microphones in a mid-side configuration from the center of the balcony. After a good bit of editing – much more than usual – I am finally happy with the sound of this, but still note that the crowd on the balcony can heard at points, along with the general level of audience noise in the room. With that caveat, enjoy!

This NYCTaper recording is being hosted on the Live Music Archive.  You can stream the entire show by clicking the song titles below.

To download, MP3s are [HERE], FLACs are [HERE] and FLACs via BitTorrent (faster) are [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 the original source, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

kungfu2013-02-21-1

Kung Fu
2013-02-21
Highline Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41+MK8 (balcony, DFC, M-S)>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ side)>Voxengo MSED (decode)>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (adjust levels)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter for “tube”)>Audacity 3.0 (set fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Thanks to Dave Pecoraro for the setlist

Tracks [Total Time 1:55:14]
01 The Hammer
02 Steppin’ In It
03 Chakrabarty Overdrive
04 Bopcorn
05 God Made Me Funky
06 Barometric Weather
07 Standing On the Verge of Getting It On
08 Do The Right Thing
09 S’All Good
10 Gung Ho
11 Hollywood Kisses
12 Bringin’ Up the Rear

Personnel:
Todd Stoops – keyboards
Rob Somerville – saxaphone
Tim Palmieri – guitar
Adrian Tramontano – drums
Chris DeAngelis – bass

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Kung Fu, visit their website, and purchase their debut record from Amazon or your favorite retailer.

Greensky Bluegrass: July 13, 2012 Highline Ballroom – Flac and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

July 16, 2012
By


[photo by froboy]

Bluegrass is a musical genre that unfortunately gets short shrift at nyctaper. And it shouldn’t be that way. One of my favorite concerts of all time was a memorable collaboration between Steve Earle and the Del McCoury band at Town Hall in 1998, and I can also say that I saw the legendary Bill Monroe in concert at Damrosch Park in 1990. So in an effort to rectify that shortcoming, on Friday I made it to Highline Ballroom for a bluegrass double bill including one of the foremost “newgrass” bands Greensky Bluegrass, and local up and comers The Union Street Preservation Society (recording coming soon). Greensky is a quintet that’s been around for a dozen years and has accumulated a strong national following. On Friday night, they brought the goods — a two-set two-plus hour show that consisted of a healthy dose of original material, some traditional bluegrass numbers, and a series of eclectic rock covers all performed with stunning proficiency and with an authentic reperatory feel. We’re streaming “I’m Working on a Building”, an old negro spiritual made most famous by The Carter Family but also performed often by the aforementioned Mr. Monroe. Of the covers (Prince, Springsteen), the Talking Heads cover that was featured as the penultimate song of the night is also streaming below. At the end of the evening it was clear that if Greensky is the mantle carrier for the current generation of blue/newgrass music, then the genre is in very good hands indeed.

I recorded this set with the Neumann microphones set up directly in front of the soundboard and mixed with an excellent board feed. The mics picked up quite a bit of chatter during the first set, which relies more on the board feed, while the second set is heavier towards the mics. The sound quality on both is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “I’m Working on a Building”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/G1307GreenskyBluegrass1202/16.%20I%27m%20Workin%20on%20a%20Building%20%5bCarter%20Family%5d.mp3]

Stream “Road To Nowhere” [Talking Heads]:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/G1307GreenskyBluegrass1202/23.%20Road%20to%20Nowhere%20%5bTalking%20Heads%5d.mp3]

This recording is now available for download in FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Greensky Bluegrass
2012-07-13
Highline Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper 2012-07-15

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:04:17]
01 Kerosene
02 I Second That Emotion [Miracles]
03 [banter – feel good juice]
04 Worried About The Weather
05 Hit Parade of Love
06 [banter – dance battle]
07 Break Mountain Breakdown
08 Atlantic City [Springsteen]
09 [banter – Hartford intro]
10 Steam Powered Aereo Plane [John Hartford]
11 Bottle Dry
12 When Doves Cry [Prince]

Set 2
[Total Time 1:13:44]
13 Bring Out Your Dead
14 Train Junkie
15 Been This Way Before
16 I’m Workin on a Building [Carter Family]
17 Highline Breakdown
18 [banter – Highline]
19 Old Barns
20 Take Me Back
21 Jesus on the Mainline
22 Don’t Lie
23 Road to Nowhere [Talking Heads]
24 Doesn’t Make Sense
25 [encore break]*
26 Down The Road
27 You Ain’t Going Nowhere [Dylan]
*encores unamplified

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Greensky Bluegrass, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the Store at their website [HERE].

Cracker: January 14, 2012 Highline Ballroom – Flac and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

January 18, 2012
By


[screen cap from this youtube video]

As we noted in the Camper Van Beethoven post, there will be another East coast “Camp Out” this year. The main event for the multi-day show at the 40 Watt Club in Athens Georgia (March 1 to March 3) is the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of Cracker’s debut album. On Saturday night at Highline Ballroom, Cracker headlined the show and played an energetic 75 minute set. Although this show was not exactly a preview of the Camp Out celebration, five songs from Cracker were performed, including the album’s opening track “Teen Angst” in the encore slot, which we’re also streaming below.

I recorded this set in the same manner at the Camper set and the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Stream “Teen Angst”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/C0109Camper9002/17.%20Teen%20Angst.mp3]

This recording is now available for download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [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.

Cracker
2012-01-14
Highline Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, set fades, downsample) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and Tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2012-01-16

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:13:27]
01 Seven Days
02 Don’t Fuck Me Up (With Peace and Love)
03 100 Flower Power Maximum
04 Big Dipper
05 [banter – San Jose]
06 I See The Light
07 Mr. Wrong
08 Been Around The World
09 Gimme One More Chance
10 Wedding Day
11 Lonesome Johnny Blues
12 Turn On Tune In Drop Out
13 Happy Birthday To Me
14 Eurotrash Girl
15 Low
16 [encore break]
17 Teen Angst

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Cracker, visit their website, and purchase their official releases directly from the Store at their website [here] or from the 429 Records website [here].

Camper Van Beethoven: January 14, 2012 Highline Ballroom – Flac and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

January 17, 2012
By


[screen cap from this youtube video]

Camper Van Beethoven has an extensive catalog dating back almost thirty years to their early 80s formation, which permits the band to play divergent setlists on any given night. But CVB has not released a new album since 2004’s brilliant New Roman Times. So it was a bit of a surprise to hear that Camper has three new fully formed songs that have been played on each night of the current tour, including Saturday night at Highline Ballroom. Of the three, the most impressive was “Too High For The Love-In”, a very Camper-like irreverent and catchy song that we’re streaming below. The balance of the set consisted of a variety of classics culled democratically from each of their albums. The set ended in high form with an energetic take on “Pictures of Matchstick Men” that we are also streaming below. The current tour ended last night in Boston, but Camper Van Beethoven returns to the East coast for another “Camp-Out” Fest, this time at the 40 Watt Club in Athens GA from March 1 through March 3.

I recorded this set with the Neumann microphones set up at the front right corner of the soundboard and mixed with an outstanding stereo board feed. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

The Cracker set was also recorded and will be posted in the coming days.

Stream “Too High For The Love-In”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/C0109Camper9002/15.%20Too%20High%20For%20The%20Love-In.mp3]

Stream “Pictures of Matchstick Men”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/C0109Camper9002/18.%20Pictures%20of%20Matchstick%20Men.mp3]

This recording is now available for direct download in FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [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.

Camper Van Beethoven
2012-01-14
Highline Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, set fades, downsample) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and Tagging via Foobar)

Recorded by nyctaper and Johnny FCB
Produced by nyctaper
2012-01-15

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:06:03]
01 All Her Favorite Fruit
02 Sweethearts
03 Tania
04 Summer Days
05 O Death
06 Eye of Fatima Part 1
07 Eye of Fatima Part 2
08 You’ve Got to Roll
09 Sad Lovers Waltz
10 Tina
11 Ambiguity Song
12 Take the Skinheads Bowling
13 Balalaika Gap
14 The Poppies of Balmorhea
15 Too High For The Love-In
16 [banter – rock operas]
17 Seven Languages
18 Pictures of Matchstick Men

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Camper Van Beethoven, visit their website, and purchase their official releases directly from the store at their website [HERE].

Cracker: January 14, 2011 Highline Ballroom – Flac and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

February 13, 2011
By


[photo by Lynn Kestenbaum of the excellent lynnguppy blog]

This recording is submitted by our newest nyctaper staff recorder, mrsaureus, who we hope will become a regular contributor!

Please refer to the Camper Van Beethoven post below for mrsaureus’ very entertaining review of this show.

Stream “Sick of Goodbyes”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/C0109Camper9002/07-Sick%20of%20Goodbyes.mp3]

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Cracker
Highline Ballroom, NYC
January 14, 2011

Lineage: Recorded and minimally produced by mrsaureus, standing center floor five feet back from the stage, Core-Sound High End Binaurals to Sony PCM-M10 (48 kHZ, 24 bit), WavePad Sound Editor to chop and FLAC only. Some crowd noise but sounds nice.

Cracker set:
01-Low
02-Movie Star
03-Get Off This
04-Kerosene Hat
05-Take Me Down to the Infirmary
06-Nostalgia
07-Sick of Goodbyes
08-Sweet Potato
09-I Want Everything
10-Lonesome Johnny Blues
11-Let’s Go For a Ride
12-Loser
13-Meth Lab – Eurotrash Girls
14-I Ride My Bike
15-Interstellar Overdrive
16-I Sold the Arabs the Moon (aborted)
17-Friends

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Cracker, visit their website, and purchase their official releases directly from the Store at their website [here] or from the 429 Records website [here].

Camper Van Beethoven: January 14, 2011 Highline Ballroom – Flac and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

February 13, 2011
By


[photo by Lynn Kestenbaum of the excellent lynnguppy blog]

This recording is the first submitted by our newest nyctaper staff recorder, “mrsaureus”, who we hope will become a regular contributor!

by mrsaureus
“Like an old testament prophet, or a Morman elder, or (all right, what do I know about it?) like that guy on Big Love, our favorite openly practicing musical polygamist David Lowery brought both of his bands to NYC for back to back performances at the Highline Ballroom on January 14. I’ve been reading the Keith Richards book, which has me all in a lather for rock and roll tell-all, so I couldn’t help but wonder what the dynamic on the bus is. One big happy family? Hmm. Maybe, but the mind is inevitably drawn to the sordid. Is it Cracker in the front, wearing their greater commercial success like a warm parka, loud and cheerful game of 20 questions, Camper Van Beethoven in the back, sullen and pissy, answering in monosyllables? Or is it CVB the first and truest love, despite Cracker’s headline position on the bill, serenely confident of favor, irritatingly aloof in the face of drunken, bitter Cracker histrionics? I guess we’ll have to wait for the Immergluck book to find out. In the meantime, I marvel at what an absolute delight this pair of shows proved to be. I liked so many things about them I hardly know where to begin. I should say that I was a fan back in the nineties but I’d completely lost touch with this music: all I knew is that I used to like it. As often as not, things you used to love come back to embarrass you (just give me a second to queue up this episode of Lost in Space on Hulu . . . OK, I’m back now), and so I was gratified and relieved to find that in this case my taste was vindicated by strong performances of a jaw droppingly rich musical smorgasbord. It’s a brilliant format, playing consecutively as CVB and Cracker, and it gives the concert goer some real insights into the different approaches taken by these two successful projects. I found myself about to use the word “evolution” back there, but that isn’t it: CVB didn’t evolve into Cracker anymore than the Beatles evolved into Wings. Two bands. Some similarities. Some differences. Both draw on a rich California compost heap of musical influences (the Dead, Bakersfield, Cali ska) and have a sound founded on solid musicianship and terrific guitar work. I was struck by how really well both Greg Lisher and Johnny Hickman played. CVB is fermented longer and a little bit tangier and is in some ways more interesting musically, where Cracker is more buffed up alpha pop, steroids sure, but hits the home runs fair enough. Both bands sounded absolutely fresh: no taint of the nostalgia act here despite playing sets consisting almost wholly of albums recorded 20 years ago.

So, yeah, this show was constructed around the “play the whole album” gimmick, which is becoming increasingly common, and about which I have a certain shallow ambivalence. Upside, you know you’ll hear songs you like. Downside, it panders to a lack of faith in the fanbase. It’s the same impulse that’s turning Broadway into a recycling center for popular middlebrow movies. It seeks to assure the public that even if they are disappointed, at least they won’t be surprised. A concert can be a revelation. A live show allows a band to play their songs reworked in interesting ways, to add intros and codas and fool with the mix of instruments and the tempo, to play covers and obscure tracks. They can petulantly refuse to play their big hit, or play it so flaccidly it’s like a big contemptuous finger to the audience (this I don’t like), or going the other way they can play their big hit twice: once early and once again at the end. I’ve seen all that and every time it makes me glad I didn’t just stay home and listen to the album. Or they can just play the album, which in general teaches me less. Gosh, I’m whining and I don’t like it, and it strikes me that in this case at least, I’m being a bit of a bad sport. Having to listen to Key Lime Pie and Kerosene Hat, both in my top ten list of all time favorites, is really nothing to complain about.

Final interesting tidbit. All the CVB musicians come back onstage to stage to join Cracker for an incendiary, orgasmic “Interstellar Overdrive”, except that Cracker bass player heads backstage. Then it hit me: I’ve never seen a band with two bass players. I actually had never thought about it before, but there it is. Every single other instrument is often doubled or tripled. CVB used four guitars on some songs and southern rock bands have two or three of everything except . . . bass guitar. So it’s my assumption that there must be a reason that two bass guitars simply undoes a rhythm section. There would be no reason in the world not to have everybody in the (OK, the evidence points to it) big happy CVB/Cracker family onstage at the end, no reason to send poor Sal off to a lonely backstage exile with nothing but scads of coked up matchstick model groupies to keep him company (whoa, I think that’s the Keef book talking), except that having two bass players is musical suicide. I’d like to hear peoples thoughts about this.”

Recorded and minimally produced by mrsaureus, standing center floor five feet back from the stage, Core-Sound High End Binaurals to Sony PCM-M10 (48 kHZ, 24 bit), WavePad Sound Editor to chop and FLAC only. Some crowd noise but sounds nice.

The Cracker recording will posted shortly in a separate post, with reference to the same review.

Stream “All Her Favorite Fruit / Interlude”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/C0109Camper9002/09-All%20Her%20Favorite%20Fruit-Interlude.mp3]

This Recording is now available to Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Camper Van Beethoven
Highline Ballroom, NYC
January 14, 2011

CVB set:
01-Key Lime Pie Opening Theme
02-Jack Ruby
03-Sweethearts
04-When I Win the Lottery
05-Laundromat
06-Borderline
07-The Light from a Cake
08-June
09-All Her Favorite Fruit – Interlude
10-Flowers
11-The Humid Press of Days
12-Pictures of Matchstick Men
13-Come on Darkness
14-Eye of Fatima 1 & 2
15-Take the Skinheads Bowling

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Camper Van Beethoven, visit their website, and purchase their official releases directly from the store at their website [HERE].

Diamondsnake: June 17, 2010 Highline Ballroom – FLAC / MP3 Downloads + Streaming Sample

June 30, 2010
By


[Photos by Johnny]

I first heard about Diamondsnake literally the day before this gig and had my interest piqued due to the inclusion in the lineup of Tomato, the drummer/lead singer from Sound of Urchin, and Moby, well-known for his electronic music.  Rounding out the band is Phil Costello, of Satanicide and Valley Lodge fame, and Dave Hill, also from Valley Lodge.  Even after perusing their website, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect: despite what you’ll hear alluded to during the concert, this was their debut and the first time they had performed in front of a live audience as a group.  With tongue planted firmly in cheek, they will invariably draw comparisons to Spinal Tap and Tenacious D.  The difference being that the members of Diamondsnake can play really well.  And by play really well, I mean play their asses off.  Phil, on lead vocals, was at times channeling Bon Scott and Bruce Dickinson and hitting notes that could shatter glass; he also strapped on a guitar or bass for a few songs.  Tomato spent the show trying to beat his drum kit into a smoldering pile of debris and nearly succeeded.  Dave, alternating between bass and guitar, played the stealth role, amazing the fans with his bass lines and 6-string chops when you least expected it.  And Moby… shredding on the lead guitar: who knew?  Topping it off are very well constructed songs; they just sound great.  Wearing their influences on their collective sleeve, I heard bits of ’70’s hard rock and metal (AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin), ’80’s hair metal/glam (Motley Crue, Poison, Cinderella) and hints of the Bad Brains/Melvins punk-metal crunch.  Add their salacious and sexy dancing girls, the Snake Charmers, into the mix and you had a good, old fashioned rock spectacle.  Not being familiar with their material didn’t matter as the crowd had no problem getting into it.  If you want biting social commentary and topics ripped from the headlines in your music, well, you’re mostly out of luck here.  But if you want to rock out and have fun, then you’re in the right place.  I strongly recommend you check out “D-Snake” if you’re in the mood for a great, loud time.

Our location in the venue was at a corner of the balcony which gave us a commanding view of the house and a direct line of sight to the P.A.  Other than the enthusiastic hollering of some attendees – which testifies to the vibe of the show – the quality and clarity of this recording is very good.  A big thank you to the staff at Highline Ballroom and especially to Diamondsnake for giving us the greenlight to record this awesome concert.  Hope you like what you hear as much as we did.  Enjoy!

Stream “Rock and Raw”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/D0167Diamondsnake0012/dsnake2010-06-17t04.mp3]

Direct download of the complete show in MP3 [HERE]
Direct download of the complete show in FLAC [HERE]

If either of the links are no longer working, email nyctaper with a request for the download location of the files.

Diamondsnake
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Highline Ballroom
New York, NY, USA

Source: AUD > DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (WAV @ 24-bit/48kHz)
Lineage: R-44 > USB > PC > Adobe Audition (adjust levels, downsample, dither, tracking) > WAV (16-bit/44.1kHz) > Trader’s Little Helper (check/fix SBE’s, FLAC conversion) > FLAC ( level 8 )
Recorded and produced by: Johnny Fried Chicken Boy

SETLIST:
[Total time 1:12:20]
01. [intro]
02. We Wanna Love You
03. Switch Hitter
04. Rock and Raw
05. Lady of the Mornin’
06. Woman, Yeah
07. [banter]
08. What the World Needs Now is Rock
09. Wrong Woman to Love
10. [banter / band photo]
11. Lost
12. Yeah
13. [encore break]
14. D-Snake Riot
15. [banter]
16. Storm the Fucking Kastle
17. I Want Roll

If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Diamondsnake, visit their website, visit their MySpace and Facebook pages, and purchase their official releases and merchandise when available.

SUPPORT NYCTaper




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