Jason Isbell - Northcote Social Club, 17 April 2014

This is a pretty good recording of Jason Isbell's second night at the Northcote Social Club. I wasn't necessarilly expecting him to mix things up too much, but he played a few things that didn't make it into the setlist on the first night.

This recording is pretty good, if a little low at times, particularly when he's talking. I've tried to boost it as much as I could, but there comes a point where it adds so much static it sounds worse than leaving it. I should emphasise that this doesn't mean its a bad recording, and some people won't even notice it.

Streetlights
Stockholm
Flying Over Water
Danko/Manuel
Tour of Duty
Go it Alone
Dress Blues
Heart on a String
Decoration Day
Different Days
Songs That She Sang in the Shower
Cover Me Up
Relatively Easy
Live Oak
Alabama Pines
Travelling Alone
Codeine
Elephant
Outfit
Can't You Hear Me Knocking
Super 8

https://mega.co.nz/#F!0RVW1TAS!RAyQQmac5px2oWviZR0ang

The War on Drugs - Northcote Social Club, 28 December 2013

SHUT UP! How hard is it to go to a show and watch it? Rather than talk about random crap through it ruining it for everyone else. And why would you think that's a good idea? If you want to go out and have a few drinks and talk to a friend, that's great, but why waste money on going to see a band that you're going to treat as extremely loud background music?

I haven't put this one up because there was a stupid girl and her stupid friend talking stupidly loudly right next to me. I'm pretty sure you're allowed to taser people who talk at concerts right? Anyway, this was an exciting show because it was the first time they had played songs from the new album live. On one hand a new album is a little bit sad because it means they drop a bunch of great songs off their regular set, but the new material sounded really good (the only song I didn't like straightaway has grown on me with a few more listens). Lastly, as the new album hasn't been released yet I've had to guess what the new songs are simply based on the released tracklist, so it's possible I'm wrong about some.

Under the Pressure
Baby Missiles
I Was There
Red Eyes
Brothers
Best Night
Eyes to the Wind
Burning
The Animator
Come to the City
Comin' Through
Arms Like Boulders
Suffering

Your Love Is Calling My Name

https://mega.co.nz/#F!ZNMwgISb!9znVDu70m-O9eB0T6VcXNg

Matthew E. White - 3 June 2013, Northcote Social Club

The middle of the year tends to be a pretty quiet time of the year for shows. I hadn't planned on going to this one except that I ended up with a free ticket. Even so, I was sorely tempted to skip this show - it was a rainy Monday night, it takes me a fair while to get to Northcote, and I didn't even know that much about this guy. I was also a little put off by an interview I'd read with him that mentioned he initially came to fame through his free jazz work. In the end a large part of the reason I went was that I haven't been to many shows lately; if it'd been a few months later I probably wouldn't have bothered.

The show started pretty well - attendees were greeted at the door with a free booklet with some nice artwork, a message from Matthew E White, his record company, and lyrics to all his songs (including unreleased material). It was a nice touch, particularly from a small artist who probably doesn't have a lot of cash to splash round. Of course, a nice booklet doesn't make a great show; what made this a great show was the fact this guy can sing the hell out of a bunch of songs that sound naggingly like lots of really really great music, but not so much that you can say he's simply copying someone. It didn't hurt that he comes across as a genuinely nice guy, and made a connection with the audience with his real excitement about having finally made it to a city with a suburb named Richmond (he's from Richmond, Virginia). Plus there's the great back story behind it all - the record Big Inner was only produced as a showcase for the record label/studio he'd set up with some friends, but the record become a phenomen and was picked up for broader release (garnering numerous five star reviews and record of the year plaudits). The Guardian's review of the Sydney show closed with "Those of us who were there will chalk it up as one of those birth-of-a-legend moments, and those who weren't … well, they'll be pretending they were before too long", that's a pretty good summation of Melbourne's experience too.

Will You Love Me
One of These Days
Steady Pace
Are You Ready for the Country
Big Love
Human Style
Sail Away
If You Need Me
Gone Away
Brazos

https://mega.co.nz/#F!oR8T1LjQ!H8SQ7m8XLUps1dhUA0tiJw

Two Gallants - 9 February 2013, Northcote Social Club

Another old one, I've already posted the Deer Tick portion of the show, so here's Two Gallants set. These guys have a few good songs, and some well chosen covers (although one song sounds like an absolute rip off of Ten Cent Pistol). It was good to see them adding a bit of variety with a couple of piano tracks, but I'm still not certain about these guys - their set was pretty good, but nothing really made me think wow, I need to get one of their albums. On the other hand, I wouldn't be shocked to see them produce an absolutely stellar album at some stage.

Sound quality is pretty good. There's always a bit of chatter at the Northcote Social Club, but it never overwhelms the music.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2de0wwkzmsc32

Deer Tick - 9 February 2013, Northcote Social Club

Another old one. This was a double header with Two Gallants, who I'll put up soon. This show is a bit mixed. On one hand they're a really good band, but on the other the singer's voice was pretty shot. Overall, they're a band whose songs don't sound too bad with ragged busted up vocals, but still, it would've been nice if he hadn't had vocal problems (having said that, there is only one or two songs where its really noticeable, the rest of the time they sound great). Regardless, there probably aren't too many recordings of these guys, and the sound quality here is really nice, so hopefully a few people will enjoy this.

The Bump
Easy
Make Believe
Born Zero
Baltimore Blues No. 1
Main St
Walkin' Out the Door
Twenty Miles
Clownin' Around
Now It's Your Turn
Passing Through [Leonard Cohen Cover]
12 Bar Blues [NRBQ Cover]
Christ Jesus
Smith Hill
Down in a Hole [Alice in Chains cover] (snippet)
Art Isn't Real (Sin City)
These Old Shoes
Mange/Let's All Go to the Bar

http://www.mediafire.com/?i0bsbgnbc9izt

War on Drugs - 13 November 2012, Northcote Social Club

I’ve already raved about the greatness that is the War on Drugs, so I won’t repeat that (actually that’s a promise I can’t keep - . But I did mention that the only letdown at their Harvest set was the fact the crowd wasn’t that into it. That wasn’t a problem at the Northcote Social Club – the band had sold out the venue (I’ve never seen it so full) and the crowd were strangely intense and focussed. The band repaid this with a set drawing from both their albums, and finishing up with a 12 minute version of A Needle in Your Eye #16 (sometimes drawing out songs like this can just result in a boring meandering, but the band are pretty adept at hypnotic jamming when the mood takes them). Some people might have been disappointed by the fact there wasn’t an encore, but the two songs listed for the encore ended up being played in the main set, and really, the band probably couldn’t have done much to top the way they ended their set anyway.

There’s a little bit of distortion in the recording, but not much (the band were really really loud). Likewise, there’s a tiny bit of talking through bits of it, but not much. This was an amazing show; I’m hoping they make a return trip next year.

Brothers

Your Love is Calling My Name

The Animator

Come to the City

Comin’ Through

Best Night

Taking the Farm

I Was There

Baby Missiles

Black Water Falls

Buenos Aires Beach

Arms Like Boulders

A Needle in Your Eye #16 

http://www.mediafire.com/?e4obajqbca08m

Shihad (as the Electric Generals) - 24 July 2012

I realised in the lead up to this show that, despite Shihad being quite big when I was growing up, I'd only ever seen them once. It was a good show though - on the General Electric tour, at a point where it seemed the band were on the brink of big things. Of course with hindsight that looks like the band's apex and they're now playing the 2.30 slot at Splendour. There must be a sense in which that hurts, but the band seem pretty comfortable in their skin and happy with their role as one of a small handful of big bands in the very small New Zealand pond.

But I digress.  This show was a 'secret' warm up for their Splendour gig. Jon Toogood made a few jokes about the fact that the Electric Generals was a very poor choice of secret band name. The band whipped through about an hour of greatest hits (they've just released a greatest hits album so they've got more excuse than most). The highlights were to be expected - My Mind's Sedate, The General Electric, Pacifier, and Home Again. The only lowlight (and fuck is it bad) is Sleepeater. It sounds like all the worst things their attempt to make it big in the US was about - songs self consciously designed based on marketing appeal rather than quality. That approach failed and this song is awful.

Most shows by NZ bands feature lots of expats turning up to talk all the way through the show about how they saw the band at a much larger venue in NZ. This show is better than most but still features a bit of talking.

Empty Shell
My Mind's Sedate
The General Electric
Lead or Follow
Pacifier
Run
Factory
Wait and See
Home Again
Comfort Me
Sleepeater

Derail
You Again

http://www.mediafire.com/?prx31f2jcngp4

Jason Isbell - 2 March 2012, Northcote Social Club

I’ve already said a bit about Jason Isbell when posting his set opening for Ryan Adams, so I won’t add a lot here.  Suffice to say that having heard a full set and an opening one I’m now a fan.

I think its fair to say that a few people at this show were hoping for a surprise Ryan Adams appearance (it didn’t happen), and got quite excited when he mentioned that he would be bringing a friend out after the next song.  In the end the friend was Amanda Shires who played violin for the remainder of the set.

The set itself mixed Drive-By Truckers songs, with material from throughout his career.  Tossing in a couple of covers, and giving Amanda Shires a chance to play a song added up to a long and very satisfying show.

The sound for this is pretty good.  Northcote Social Club is a small venue (which I like) but it does tend to mean people feel free to talk a lot.  This becomes more noticeable as the first set goes on, but for whatever reason the crowd seemed to thin out a bit for the second set, and the talking abated somewhat.

Go It Alone
Tour of Duty
Streetlights
Save it for Sunday
Never Gonna Change
Rebels [Tom Petty cover]
Goddamn Lonely Love
Cigarettes & Wine
The Magician
Decoration Day

We've Met
Outfit
Grown
The Blue
Play a Train Song [Todd Snider cover]
Daisy Mae
In a Razor Town
Alabama Pines
Swimmer [Amanda Shires]
Codeine
TVA

Dress Blues

Set 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?4siu437np8n7i

Set 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?gf1x1uokc5ksv