What can you really say about a show that any reasonably person would have said would never happen? Simply seeing this band would have been enough, but, despite all the positive reviews, my expectations were pretty low, given the standard set by other reunion tours and the fact that Mangum has only recently returned to playing regularly in public. Fortunately the band was amazing and Jeff Mangum's voice doesn't seem to have been affected by time or his period away from the spotlight.
The first night's crowd wasn't as respectful as I'd expected - the person talking through Oh Comely only stopped when she saw the look of violence on my face. That talking and occassional lame or bizarre shouts from the crowd make it into the recording, but they generally don't undermine it too much.
The second night was probably slightly better than the first. Obviously there isn't much room for setlist variation, but they mixed up the order and threw in April 8th. The sound quality of the recording is a bit of an improvement over night one. I doubt anyone will notice, but the lights come on at the end of the set and only went off for the second encore as people were filing out, so the fade in is very short and the acoustics are slightly different as I'd moved to a different spot.
If anyone is interested, I recorded both Superchunk sets as well (up next week), but not M Ward.
15 November 2013
16 November 2013
