09/13/2008 Langhorn Slim with The Builders and The Butchers

This was a fun night of music, and a great way to lead into my 36 Birthday. The night started with The Builders and the Butchers, a five piece out of Portland, OR. They played with a lot of energy and reminded me of a tighter Felice Brothers. The lead singer played acoustic guitar and various tambourine type instruments; there was another acoustic player that also played banjo; a bass player that looked like Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) from Spinal Tap; one percussionist that played a pair of toms with what looked like tambourines attached; and another percussionist that played two bass drums (one laying on the floor that he just pounded), piano, trumpet, harmonium (I think that is what it's called), and mandolin. Obviously they had a lot going on up on the stage, it was like being at a hootenanny and I rather enjoyed the unique percussion section. Interestingly I found that some of their songs had a flamenco-mariachi band flare. There were some obvious fans in the audience that danced and sang each word throughout the set, and the band fed off the energy of the crowd. They ended the show by playing a song unplugged in the middle of the crowd. The passed out various percussion instruments to the crowd and it ended up like a campfire sing-a-long. My recording of this song is crap but I kept it as a record of what happened that night. I would highly recommend seeing these guys if you get a chance.

The B&B set the bar high for Langhorne Slim, but the crowd was primed and ready for the band hit the stage. While The B&B brought a frantic energy to the stage, Langhorne Slim brought more of a swagger. By the by, the show was listed as a Lanhorne Slim show, but I think this would actually be a Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles show since it was a full band. The band consisted of Sean Scolnick (Langhorne Slim) on acoustic and lead vocals, Paul Defiglia on upright bass, and Malachi DeLorenzo on drums. The stage was set up with the drums and bass pushed to the back and right of the stage, giving Sean plenty of room to move about with the music. I would compare the show to perhaps a Johnathan Richman or Chuck Prophet show. It rolled through songs about women and love, and like these artist it is the lead singer that moves the show along and sets the pace. It was interesting to me to see the crowd going wild and dancing like crazy to music that did not match pace of the frantic dancing. However, at least they were having a good time and letting the band know they appreciated the show. I have two highlights of the show, and both were a result of audience interaction. The first was during what I think is honey pie the lyric asks if you like Macy's or JC Penny's, and then a guy yells "I like Target", and Sean sings "Targets Nice Too". Classic off the cuff banter in the middle of a song. The second was during the song about dancing with women when a couple of older (compared to the drunk 20 somethings that were at the show) came up on stage and started dancing unbeknownest to Sean. When he turned around it gave him a jolt and he said it scared the hell out of him. Fun times. Sadly this incident also led to the most pathetic moment of the night as well. One of the drunk 20 somethings came up on stage with the other two dancing ladies, not a problem right, wrong. It turns out that the drunk 20 something felt that because she was on stage and got to talk with Sean, they were establishing some kind or rapport. After the song it took her forever to get off stage, then she came back on stage after the next song to share a shot Sean, and stayed on stage for way to long, even after they started the next song. Finally Sean had to tell her that she needed to disappear for a while. Quite the nice way to say get your ass off the stage and let me work. It's a sad thing when people refuse to respect the sanctity of the stage. All in all it was a great night of music and I got a couple of pretty good recordings from the night. I will post setlists when I finish mixing the shows and get them posted on my site. Tonight I am off the Back Yard Tire Fire, Ha Ha Tonka, and the Avett Brothers. Here's to hoping for another night of great music and great recordings.

07/30/08 Cracker at 9th Street Summerfest

This was my first Cracker show, and I have to say it was great. Cracker, and front man David Lowry, is one of those band that you can sometimes forget how great their songs are until you browse through your MP3s and realize just how many songs you actually own by this great song writer. For those of you who don’t know, and if you don’t know please get out of the box and experience the world a little bit, David Lowry was the front man for one of the best indie bands of the 80’s Camper Van Beethoven. In the 90’s he formed Cracker and put out string of great albums starting in the mid-90’s. I don’t know what the hits for the band might include beyond Teen Angst because I don’t really listen to the radio anymore, but there are some amazing classics in this bands repertoire. This show was a part of the 9th Street Summerfest put on by the Blue Note here in Columbia, MO. Performing on the night was Cracker, Dirtfoot, and The Hipnecks, all for free. This was a great eclectic night of American music. Cracker hit the stage with the least number of people, just four, David Lowery on acoustic, "Black" Sal Maida on Bass, Frank Funaro on Drums, and of course Johnny Hickman on lead guitar. The great thing about Summerfest shows is the atmosphere of being on a street surrounded by old buildings while it gets progressively darker through out the show. By the end of the night you get the added light show of the stop lights that change during the set. Cracker played a great set and high lights of the show for me included Euro-trash Girl, Movie Star, 100 Flower Power Maximum, and Camper’s Take The Skin Heads Bowling. Songs of note include a cover of Bob Dylan’s Man In Me and Happy Birthday to Me for the Bassist. A great show for any fan of the band.
Come on over to my site to download the show.

Cracker
7/30/2008
9th Street Summerfest
Columbia, MO
Multichannel SBD+AUD
Set List:
1) Intro
2) One Fine Day
3) Gimme One More Chance
4) The Riverside
5) Teen Angst
6) 100 Flower Power Maximum
7) Mr. Wrong
8) How Can I Live Without You?
9) Euro-Trash Girl
10) Man In Me (Bob Dylan)
11) Waitin’ For You Girl
12) Everybody Gets One For Free
13) Movie Star
14) Low
15) Take The Skin Heads Bowling
16) Sweet Thistle Pie
17) Get Off This
18) Happy Birthday To Me
19) St. Cajetan

Scott H. Biram and Possessed By Paul James live Ready to Download

Hey All-I have finished mixing the shows, and now have them ready to download on my site: http://lovinlivemusic.googlepages.com/home . I have not worked out the set list for these two acts, but will post them on the site as soon as I work them out.

Bob Log III 07/15/2008 Set list

Well I have worked out the set list for the Bob Log III 07/15/2008 show I recorded. Here is the set list. Just go to my site: http://lovinlivemusic.googlepages.com/home to download the show in SHN or MP3 format.

Bob Log III
07/15/2008
Mojo's
Columbia, MO
Multichannel SBD+AUD
1) Six Stringer kicker
2) God Damn That Sounds Good
3) Mr. Sis Boom Bah
4) Bubble Strut
5) Shinkansen Teh
6) Boob Scotch
7) I Want Your Shit On My Leg
8) Look At That

07/15/2008 Bob Log III, Scott H Biram, & Possessed By Paul James

This was a Bluebilly Hillgrass Production featuring threesome of "one-man" bands. The night started with Possessed by Paul James. Possessed By Paul James is the Konrad Wert, A rather high spirited man and the cleanest act of the night. His style of music worked well with Scott H. Biram and Bob Log III, but his lyrics were in stark contrast to the debauchery that followed his set. Normally his music consists of Konrad playing either guitar, banjo, or fiddle while stomping the beat out on a guitar case. However, tonight the banjo broke a string, so we only got the guitar and fiddle songs. His songs centered around love, loss, and the church. He featured snippets of hymnals and redemption. He was an unassuming and modest man and really a pleasure to meet. I really hope he comes back soon.
After Konrad it was time for the dirty old man to take the stage. Scott H. Biram is a dirty dirty country blues man. He packed the stage with amps, sang into 4 mics and stomped the beat out on a peddle that was attached to I have no idea what. I will say that the "drum" part was so commanding that it actually moved my mics around on stage. (I am not sure how the mic feed for this set will sound). He was offensively hilarious all through the set, fans of Mojo Nixon would be happy with the between set banter. Early in the set he did 3 shots of whiskey right in a row, and he really got his groove on as the shots took affect. The between song banter was great, and he played some great slide guitar. The set was loud, the crowd interaction inspired, and the music interesting. If you like your Blues and Country dirty, this is the man for you. He ended the set by striking a note on his guitar and then messing with it using the many peddles that he had up on stage. It was an interesting affect. I did get confronted by Scott after the set because I recorded the show. I forgot to introduce myself when I got to Mojo's, and he was not happy with me because he thought I hadn't asked to record. After I told him I was the guy who e-mailed him for permission to record a couple of days ago all was cool. I am happy that he remember the e-mail, cause that could have ended in a situation.
After Scott brought evil to the house, Bob Log III brought the crazy. There are not words to adequately describe a Bob Log show. To start of with Bob wears a leather jumpsuit on stage with a line of mirrors on the sleeves and legs. He wears a motorcycle helmet with a phone mic attached, so his lyrics are distorted. He plays guitar, a drum with one foot, and a cymbal/tambourine with the other foot. His mic and guitar are wireless so he can move around while playing if he feels the urge. He started playing the guitar to start the show outside of Mojo's and then walked in the back door and proceeded to rip the roof off the place. His music is crunchy, and the vocal are hard to understand at best. So, really you are heading to the show for the feel of the music and the show that is Bob Log, not the content of the lyrics. His between song banter was immodest to say the least, and kept me laughing for the rest of the night. Bob has two big gimmicks during his set. The first is the Boob shot, where he gets a member of the audience to put their boob in a shot of whiskey and then he drinks from the glass. He also dips his boob in a shot of whiskey and passes it around the audience. I wonder how many of the many guys in the audience were there hoping to catch a peek at a boob? The other major one is he plays a song with a girl on each knee. Since the song is I want your shit on my leg, it's a pretty fun moment.
The night ended with me walking out while Konrad Wert was spinning Scott H Biram around on his shoulders. All and all it was a great night of drunken music

06/26/2008 Colourmusic Set List

Well I have finished mixing down the Colourmusic set they played at Mojo's. Here are the details of the show and the link to get to my site to download the recording.

SBD+AUD multichannel Matrix recording
Set List:
1) Intro
2) Put In A Little Gas
3) You Can Call Me By My Name
4) The Gospel Song
5) Circles
6) ?
7) ?
8) Yes
9) ?

The highlight of the show for me was tracks 3-5. Pop greatness. Just come on over to my site (LovingLiveMusic)

06/26/2008 Colourmusic, Witch's Hat, Gentleman Auction House

This was an interesting night of music featuring Colourmusic out of Oklahoma, the Local band Witch's Hat, and the late addition of Gentleman Auction House out of St. Louis. I planned to see the show based on the myspace tracks for Colourmusic, but thought the pairing of Witch's Hat with Colourmusic was a bit odd based on the Colourmusic tracks I had heard. I went to the show expecting Colourmusic to be a gentle pop band, but the first note of the first song proved that impression to be 100% wrong. I will get to that later though.
So the night started out with Gentleman Auction House, and I was very suprised by this band. First of all, I don't think I have think I have seen the stage at Mojo's stuffed with as many people before. They had two drummers, two keyboard, a bassist, an acoustic guitar guy, and a lead guitarist. However, the acoustic guy also played xylophone and did something else, the guy keyboardist also played guitar and trumpet, and the girl keyboardist also played flute. Needless to say they have a lot going on up there on stage, and the music had a very nice complexity to it while somehow having the feel of an old tent revival band. I found the music to be very entertaining and original. It had the Jam band feel based on instrumentation, without the extended instrumental noodling. If you have a chance to check this band out I would highly recommend going to the show. I would also like to note that the female keyboardist played the keys about as brutal and angry as I have ever seen the instrument played.
Next up was the ever entertaining Witch's Hat. This is my second Witch's Hat show, and it was a similar experience from the last one. Great music, entertaining stage show, and lyrics that I have a hard time getting crazy about. Don't get me wrong, the lyrics are clever and well written, I just don't get into fantasy based songs about battles and Knights etc. The highlight for the night for me was their song Lazer. For this song the lead singer uses a Bullhorn instead of the microphone (which really makes it hard to get a good live recording of the song by the way), and during the song he will jump off stage and runs through the audience while singing. He did this last time, and I still find it entertaining. I would say that everyone needs to experience a Witch's Hat show at least once in their lives, but the band is playing their last show on August 8 at Mojo's here in Columbia, MO, so I doubt most people will be able to experience greatness that is the Hat. My only downer for the night was that they didn't play Glodyany 1972, I love that Vampire song. I will say that the guys at Colourmusic loved the show, and actually begged them from the stage not to break up and come to Stillwater to play a show with them in September.
After Witch's Hat, it was Colourmusic's turn to take the stage. The band all wore matching white Clockwork orange outfits and all the instruments and amps were white. That was my first indication that perhaps they had a little more of a stage persona for the show, and that the pairing with Witch's Hat made a little more sense. They opened the show with Put In A Little Gas, and my first impression of the band was shattered. This song assaulted the ear with a tumultuous sonic blast, with the lead singer shouting his lyrics above the cacophony with a thrust of the fist to emphasize his point. This band has been described as a combination of The Flaming Lips and The Polyphonic Spree, and I would have to agree. Like these bands, they put on a show live, and Colourmusic can play the fun me low pop songs, but they have a hard complex edge to most of the music that borders on noise will not lend them to extensive radio play. However, if you are a fan of this style of music, you will love Colourmusic. They put a great show full of complex sonic combinations that ebbs and flows from quite melody to earsplitting assaults. I hope these guys hit Columbia again, because I will be there.

I got good recordings of all of these bands, and I will post set lists and links to download the show after I finish mastering them all.