Bruce Springsteen - 24 March 2013, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne

About two or three songs into this show I remember thinking that it was the greatest show I’ve ever seen. Having had a chance to think about it some more I’d refine that a bit – this is hardly an intimate show – but for any band aiming for a high-energy, rollicking, exhilarating show, this should be the template for what it takes.

Unfortunately for me, pretty much everything that should be said about these shows has been – Bruce’s ridiculous energy (for anyone of any age), the crowd engagement, the depth of his catalogue, the quality of the band. My only regret is that I only managed to make two shows on this tour (although the reason for that is that I’m seeing some other great band – more of that soon).

The recording quality here is really good. There were only a couple of quiet bits (in particular when a young kid was brought up to sing a bit of Waitin’ on a Sunny Day), I’ve tried to reduce static as much as possible, but what’s there is the cost of not having distortion in the rest of the show. Lastly, these shows will be the next ones I make available in MP3 and WAV. I’m hoping to get all the WAV links (including Neil Young) up this weekend).

Out in the Street

Promised Land

Something in the Night

Wrecking Ball

Death to My Hometown

Hungry Heart

Spirit in the Night

High Hopes

The River

Seeds

Johnny 99

Prove it All Night

Pay Me My Money Down

Darlington County

Shackled and Drawn

Waitin’ on a Sunny Day

The Rising

The Ghost of Tom Joad

Badlands

Land of Hope and Dreams

Born in the USA

Born to Run

Dancing in the Dark

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

MP3 Download

WAV Download

Cat Power - 7 March 2013, The Forum

I'm not sure if my experience is representative, but both times I've seen Cat Power it's been an awkward performance, not bad, just awkward. This time kicked off with the lights coming down and Bob Dylan's Shelter from the Storm blaring out. After five minutes the song finished, and still no band. A few minutes later the band came out and stood round. Eventually they started to play and a minute or two after that Chan Marshall appeared. It was an odd start.

The first couple of songs didn't help matters either - Sea of Love is an odd choice for early in the set, and this version of The Greatest doesn't compare favourably with the original. Fortunately, her new album Sun is great, and the show hit its stride once she played the first track off that album (it might also be that she is more excited about playing the new material). A few awkward mumbled comments to the audience were met with bemusement, but didn't stop the crowd enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, all the momentum was lost when she left the stage after Nothin' But Time. The band started playing the intro to I Don't Blame You. And kept at it for the next 11 minutes while everyone waited for Marshall's return. Eventually she made it back, saying she had felt dizzy. It would be unfair to criticise her for feeling unwell (and it didn't effect her performance), but it was a break that klled all the energy that had been built up.

Mick Turner from Dirty Three made an appearance for Metal Heart and a nice fusing of the Velvet Underground's Oh! Sweet Nuthin' and Rowland S. Howard's Shivers. The show ended with Peace and Love, and Ruin, which worked well as an end to the set. Chan Marshall seems to have joined the growing group of artists who don't bother with an encore (personally I'm a fan of them), but this show could really have benefited from one. She did come out a few minutes after leaving the stage to indicate the venue wouldn't let her play an encore, although it's hard to tell if this was an excuse or not (Okkervil River ran into the same problem though - shows at the Forum hardly end late, so it's annoying if band are prevented from playing for another 5 or 10 minutes).

I've had a few problems with distortion of late, so I've reduced the input when recording, this works well most of the time (the only problem is during the louder bits of Angelitos Negros), but means there can be a bit of static during quiet sections. I've done my best to remove the static, so hopefully this approach will deliver some good quality recordings. This time I think it worked well.

Sea of Love
The Greatest
Cherokee
Silent Machine
Manhattan
Human Being
King Rides By
Angelitos Negros
Always on My Own
3, 6, 9
Nothin' But Time
I Don't Blame You
Metal Heart (with Mick Turner)
Oh! Sweet Nuthin'/Shivers (with Mick Turner)
Do Ya
Peace and Love
Ruin

http://www.mediafire.com/?3ht641i6n408g

Neil Young - 21 March 2013, Vector Arena, Auckland

For a year and a half I've been labeling every recording I make with Melbourne, with the intention that I would, at some stage, do some recording in other locations. That's finally happened, and I was lucky that its a show a few people will want to hear. The reason for that is the appearance of Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze, last played in 1990. Not exactly an overlooked gem, but exciting for hardcore fans nonetheless.

The last time I saw Neil Young was in Sydney in 2009. It was bad. International acts don't seem to realise that Australians and New Zealanders assume that if you give them seats its because you want them to sit. We're odd like that. But Neil was fairly incensed that people remained seated. This time round he made the sensible decision of having a standing floor and for whatever reason the performance (and his apparent enjoyment) was great. Of course there are always lots of people that claim to be hardcore fans, but are shocked that a show featuring Crazy Horse is loud and doesn't feature much off his more acoustic albums. For people who aren't idiots this was a great show. I was particularly excited to hear Dangerbird (and pleased that Neil is mixing up his setlists a bit, rather than playing the same thing every night).

The sound here is pretty good. At times the vocals are a bit distant, but that was the fault of the venue sound, rather than the recording (those who only want to hear Surfer Joe will be pleased to know it doesn't have this problem). I turned the input down really low, given how loud this was, but that added a bit of static during the acoustic portion. It isn't too bad though, and I suspect lots of people won't even notice.

Lastly, I know that some people have a strong preference for getting these things in WAV format. That requires a bit of extra effort on my part, and dramatically increases the total size of the files (I'll be using FLAC to reduce the size, but they're still big). In the past I've only ever put things up in MP3, but from now on I'm planning on putting up some shows in both formats. This will be the first of those shows.

Love and Only Love

Powderfinger
Born in Ontario

Walk Like a Giant

Hole in the Sky

Heart of Gold

Twisted Road

Singer Without a Song

Ramada Inn

Fuckin’ Up

Cinnamon Girl

Surfer Joe

Mr Soul

Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)

Dangerbird

Sedan Delivery

Roll Another Number (For the Road)

MP3 Download

WAV Download

Okkervil River - NPR 2007

Another one from the US's National Public Radio. This isn't the best Okkervil River performance (Will Sheff comments that most of the band are sick, and his voice isn't always good). On the other hand Okkervil River is a great band, and this is from the tour for (in my opinion) their best album: The Stage Names.

A King and a Queen
It Ends with a Fall
No Key, No Plan
The Latest Toughs
A Girl in Port
Song of Our So-Called Friend
Plus Ones
A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene
Unless It's Kicks
Black
Our Life is Not a Movie, Or Maybe
For Real
John Allyn Smith Sails

A Stone
Okkervil River Song
Westfall [for the definitive live version of this check out their Overboard & Down EP, which also includes a bunch of other great tracks]

http://www.mediafire.com/?te5j28e28ecke

Paul Kelly & Neil Finn - 4 March 2013, The Palais

This was the second show of the tour I attended and it was definitely worthwhile. For a start, I think the show works much better in a theatre (parts of it were clearly designed specifically for that, such as the start where the lights are off and they come out and play the first song with lanterns (doesn't work well in the day)). They also played for half an hour longer than at A Day on the Green, and had a better crowd.

The show itself is really great. They play a lot of songs, and mix it up - a particular highlight are the songs written by the other that they sing themselves (Into Temptation for Kelly and You Can Put Your Shoes Under My Bed for Finn), but they also contribute to various parts of each others songs for the whole night. This also has the benefit of (at least for me) forcing you to listen more intently to songs you're very familiar with. For instance, I realised just what a great song Into Temptation is. With back catalogues like these guys have there will always be songs that don't get played, but it'd be unfair to complain when they play for 2 and a half hours.

Soundwise, the crowd is very respectful, but I ended up seated right in front of the speaker stack, which meant things were louder than expected and I get a bit of distortion in the recording. It's mainly noticeable during the loud songs and towards the end of the show when the volumes are turned up. Having said that, it doesn't ruin the recording, and until the audio from their Sydney webcast is available this is (to the best of my knowledge) the best quality recording of one of their shows available (update: apparently one of the other Palais shows is available on dimeadozen. I haven't listened to it, so can't comment on the quality).

Don't Stand So Close to the Window
Four Seasons in One Day
Before Too Long
She Will Have Her Way
For the Ages
Not the Girl You Think You Are
Sinner
Careless
Leaps and Bounds
Won't Give In
Only Talking Sense
From St Kilda to King's Cross
Into Temptation
You Can Put Your Shoes Under My Bed
Start Today Again
Private Universe
One Step Ahead
Dumb Things
Deeper Water
I Got You
How to Make Gravy
Distant Sun

Winter Coat
Fall At Your Feet
To Her Door
Don't Dream It's Over

Love is the Law
Message to My Girl
Words of Love 

http://www.mediafire.com/?m5a6vcavla5jo 

Neil Young - New Orleans, 28 October 2012

Meant to put this up a while ago but I didn't get round to it. For those making it to the Neil Young shows here is a taster of what to expect. He seems to be playing a few rarities in the encore this tour, but there are still plenty of classics, plus material from his first decent original album since 2000 (some would say longer).

Love and Only Love
Powderfinger
Born in Ontario
Walk Like a Giant
Needle and the Damage Done
Twisted Road
Ramada Inn
Cinnamon Girl
Fuckin' Up
Psychedelic Pill
Mr Soul
Hey Hey My My

Like a Hurricane

http://www.mediafire.com/?6qi1ko6tkbmhd

Paul Kelly & Neil Finn - A Day on the Green, 2 March 2013

As promised a few shows coming up. The sound for this one isn't perfect as I ended seating close to the speaker stack, plus there was a lot of talking. Despite that, this series of shows has been pretty outstanding and I'm not aware of any other recordings floating around. I've got one of the Palais shows to put up soon. If you went to this show get it, but if you just want the best quality recording of any show, wait for the Palais show, which is longer and better audio quality (although not perfect).

Don’t Stand So Close to the Window

Four Seasons in One Day

Before Too Long

She Will Have Her Way

Message to My Girl

Careless

Leaps and Bounds

Won’t Give In

New Found Year

Into Temptation

You Can Put Your Shoes Under My Bed

From St. Kilda to King’s Cross

Private Universe

One Step Ahead

Dumb Things

Deeper Water

I Got You

Better Be Home Soon

How to Make Gravy

Distant Sun

Love is the Law

Fall At Your Feet

To Her Door

Don’t Dream It’s Over

Words of Love

 http://www.mediafire.com/?4wrk6c153hccy

Neil Young Ticket

The reason I haven't posted much lately is I've had a bit of a family emergency. I'll be resuming posting next weeks, but in the meantime I'll be forced to be out of Melbourne for the Neil Young concert at Rod Laver Arena on Friday. That means I have one A reserve standing ticket to get rid of. It cost me nearly $170. If you're interested email me an offer (I'm thinking about half price, but yes "I can't afford anything but I'd like it" is an offer). Make sure to include an address, as I'll put it in the mail on Tuesday morning (I'll overnight it so it should be with you on Wednesday).

Really gutted I'm missing this, but hopefully someone else can go and have a fun night.