Bridge School Benefit – Mountain View, CA (11/06/93)

Bridge School Benefit
11/6/93
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Mountain View, CA

Nakamichi CM-300’s w/CP-1s >Sony WM-D6C Cassette Master >CDR,
(Recorded/Transferred By OldNeumanntapr) SEC 204, Row S, Seat #11
Cass Master (XLIIS) Transferred: Sony TC-D5M >HHb CDR 800 PRO Via Analog i/o,
CD Masters > Audacity (Minor Edits) >FLAC (Level 8) + Tags Via xACT 2.53
Audacity, FLAC, Tags, + Front-Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr

Disc I:
–Neil Young–

  1. Sugar Mountain
  2. Mother Earth

–Melissa Etheridge–
Come To My Window (Not Recorded)

  1. You Can Sleep While I Drive
  2. Bring Me Some Water
  3. Piece Of My Heart

–Warren Zevon–

  1. The Lakes Of Pontchartrain
  2. Searching For A Heart
  3. Splendid Isolation (w/ Neil Young)
  4. Tenderness On The Block
  5. Frank & Jesse James -tape flip—
  6. //Werewolves of London.

–Heart–
NOT RECORDED

Disc II:
–Sammy Hagar & Eddie Van Halen–

  1. This Is Love
  2. Love Comes Walkin’ In
  3. Right Now
  4. Best Of Both Worlds

–Bonnie Raitt–

  1. The Road’s My Middle Name
  2. Nobody’s Girl
  3. Angel from Montgomery
  4. Down In Mississippi (JB Lenoir cover)
  5. Kokomo Blues:
    Write Me A Few Of Your Lines
  6. Thing Called Love
  7. Love Has No Pride (w/Graham Nash)

Disc III:
–Neil Young–

  1. Stranger In Paradise
  2. After The Goldrush
  3. I’ll Always Be A Part Of You (Train Of Love)

–Simon & Garfunkel–

  1. The Boxer
  2. America
  3. Homeward Bound
  4. Mrs Robinson
  5. Scarborough Fair
  6. Feeling Groovy
  7. Bridge Over Troubled Waters
  8. Sound Of Silence (Eddie Van Halen guitar solo)
  9. Rockin’ in the Free World

OldNeumanntapr Notes:
This was the third Bridge show in a row that I recorded. This year we had reserved seats in SEC 204. It was nice having a place to sit but I think recording off the repeaters gave a better sound to the recording (Unless you were blessed to have SEC 100 series seats.) I love hearing Neil acoustic, and especially with other guest musicians. This was the only time I’d ever seen Warren Zevon, or Melissa Etheridge. I don’t remember why I elected not to record Heart. Maybe I was trying to conserve tape? I don’t know. I don’t personally care for the band Van Halen, but it was nice to see Eddie playing acoustic. I like Sammy’s acoustic playing a lot. I had first heard him play acoustic on a recording of the ’89 Bridge show. Those tapes were the catalyst that made me want to see and record a Bridge show for myself. I love recording Bonnie Raitt, and have enjoyed her music ever since I recorded her opening for the Dead on NYE in ’89, but Simon and Garfunkel was the reason I was there that night. My ex wife Nikki and I had listened to a LOT of Simon and Garfunkel albums when we were first married in 1984. That set was like a dream come true, because I never thought I would get to see them reunite.

Do NOT Convert To MP3.
Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉

The Honorable Woman (2014)

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I love a tightly written, heavily plotted series that digs deep into murky waters. The Honorable Woman is just that with a story about Palestinian/Israeli relationships that is just as complicated as the real thing.

Maggie Gyllenhaal stars and she’s just as good as ever. I don’t remember the details but my review is making me want to give it another watch.

Line of Duty: Series Two

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I randomly started watching Line of Duty again the other day. It remains an incredibly solid bit of crime television. It isn’t quite up to Prestige TV (whatever that means) standards, but it is a really good procedural.

I don’t remember watching Series Two back in the day, but I guess I did as I wrote a review. Not sure where in its many seasons I actually did stop watching. Keeley Hawes is in Series Two so I definitely got to get through my rewatch of Series One so I can catch her in action again. I loved her in Ashes to Ashes.

My review can be read here.

Alfred Hitchcock’s America by Murray Pomerance

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Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors. His movies are immensely entertaining, and utterly rewatchable, but also incredibly crafted and full of deep themes and meaning.

His best films were made in America (though there are still plenty of good ones made during his British period) and this book digs deep into how America influenced the great director and how he influenced American culture.

As much as I love movies I don’t actually read a lot of books about them. I do read a lot of articles online, but my library is definitely lacking in good books about cinema.

I read and reviewed this one for Cinema Sentries. Judging by the shortness of my review I don’t think I really loved it, or at least I didn’t have much to say about it. Books like this are hard to review because they are well-researched and informative, but also quite dull. Anyway, my review is here.

Bruce Springsteen – Stockholm, Sweden (06/15/92)

Bruce Springsteen
Stockholm Globe Arena
Stockholm, Sweden
June 15, 1992


(Two Of Us Master Series Volume 229)
Recorder 3

Recording: Shure Mic > Sony WM-D6C
Patch Recording: Sony 929LT Mic > Sony D3

Transfer: Master tapes > Nakamichi DR-01 (azimuth adjusted) > USB Sound Devices > Audacity > iZotope RX / ozone 9 (mastered) > xACT 2.50 > FLAC

01 Better Days (uncirculated Recorder 4)
02 Star Spangled Banner Intro (uncirculated Recorder 4)
01 Born In The USA (first 4:44 patched with uncirculated Recorder 4)
02 Local Hero
03 Lucky Town
04 Darkness On The Edge Of Town
05 If I Should Fall Behind
06 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)
07 The Big Muddy
08 Living Proof
09 My Hometown
10 Leap Of Faith
11 Man’s Job
12 Roll Of The Dice
13 Gloria’s Eyes
14 Cover Me
15 Brilliant Disguise with Patti Scialfa
16 With Every Wish
17 Souls Of The Departed
18 Real World
19 Light Of Day
20 Human Touch with Patti Scialfa
21 Glory Days
22 Working On The Highway
23 Bobby Jean
24 Hungry Heart
25 My Beautiful Reward

Known Faults:
-Better Days: Recorder 4
-Star Spangled Banner: Recorder 4
-Born In The USA: first 4:44 patched with Recorder 4
-Cover Me: last 3 seconds patched with Recorder 4
-Brilliant Disguise: first 14 seconds patched with Recorder 4
-Glory Days: 25 seconds patched with Recorder 4

Between 1983 and 2002 there were not any tapers more active than the “Two Of Us”. For the better part of two decades they taped over 250 artists with an array being taped multiple times.

If you collect Springsteen then you are already familiar with some of their work, “fmcleanboots” has posted a half dozen or so of their “Tunnel Of Love” tour shows but has decided to pass the baton.

What you don’t know is their passion was not just for Springsteen but for music and that passion runs deep. It is astonishing how many artists they taped.

They followed tours taping club shows, theater shows, arena shows, big artists, mid-level artists and local artists.

If they were following a tour and the tour had an off night they’d see who else was playing that night to tape. Always focused on enjoyment of the show as the priority,
tickets were for the most part acquired outside of the venue as they worked to obtain the best possible seats, continually trading up until the correct seats were acquired.

The results of this were the captures are uniformly excellent but on occasion the start of the show was sacrificed as a trade-off for the seats.

The heavy lifting was done by the Sony WM-D6C and an external Shure Mic before moving to DAT for the last couple of years. None of their masters have ever been circulated and
have been safely stored for the past three to four decades in a climate controlled environment. Tapes transferred so far are in pristine condition.

Though we may do some mini releases of a series of shows in order for one portion of a tour for the most part shows will not be released in order, there are just too many of them.

This will be a very exciting series and we hope along the way we upgrade existing circulating audio and offer up shows that do not have any circulating audio, enjoy the ride, this is definitely not a dark ride.

Batman: Assault on Arkham

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It is funny to me now, but when I watched and reviewed this movie I had no idea what the Suicide Squad was, nor hardly any of the characters who made up the Squad (including Deadshot and Killer Frost). Now of course the Suicide Squad has had a couple of major live-action movies made about them and are a household name. But then they were just comic book characters.

The movie is pretty good. DC had done a great job making all sorts of animated feature films, many of which are better than the live-action ones they’ve put on the big screen.

You can read my full review here.

The Friday Night Horror Movie: The Devil Rides Out (1968)

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I am 100% a fan of Hammer Horror. I love the production designs, the sets and costumes, and the way their films looked. I love their stable of great British actors including Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. I’ve watched something like 28 of the 70 or so films the studio made in the horror genre. So again I say I am a fan.

But I have to admit, that while I love a great many things about these films, I often find them rather dull. The films look gorgeous, and there is often a wonderful amount of sex and violence for a 1960s production, but the plots often have this staidness to them. There is a lot of boring talking and exposition that takes place that just causes me to nod off.

The Devil Rides Out (or The Devil’s Bride if you prefer) kept me completely enthralled from start to finish. It is quite wonderful throughout.

Christopher Lee stars as Nicholas, Duc de Richleau (who was apparently a recurring character in a popular series of novels from 1933 to 1970) a nobleman with a sturdy education and who is well-versed in the occult.

When his friend Rex Van Ryn (Leon Greene) returns home from a long voyage they decide to stop at their mutual friend Simon Aron’s (Patrick Mower) house. There they are met by a strange group of people Simon calls his Astronomy Club, but whom Richleau quickly deduces is a satanic cult.

They manage to rescue him from the house but almost immediately lose him again. They rescue him a second time, this time from a Satanic Orgy/Baptismal ceremony where a goat-headed Satan has been summoned. They also rescue Tanith Carlisle (Niké Arrighi) who was also supposed to be Satanically baptized that night.

Simon and Tanith are both somewhat under the spell of the head Satanist Mocata (Charles Gray). He can sometimes mind-control them into doing things for him (and sometimes he can’t depending on the needs of the script).

It is all a bit silly, but it won me over by the power of the performances (especially Christopher Lee who is always great, but especially wonderful here). Unlike a lot of Hammer films which tend to lean into their silliness, The Devil Rides Out is completely serious in its presentation and it is all the better for it.

There is a scene in the back half of the film in which Richleau creates a circle of protection that he and his cohorts must stand in to resist the power of Mocata. It begins with most of his friends being skeptical. It is a bit silly to think a chalk circle with some Latin written in it will protect them from anything. But then there is a loud knocking on the door and the sound of Simon yelling to be let in. Then a giant spider attacks, followed by Death riding a horse. The effects are cheap and goofy, but somehow effective. By the end, everyone is terrified, including me.

It is a scene that shouldn’t work. In the hands of less competent people, it wouldn’t work. And yet it is one of my favorite scenes in all of Hammer Horror. The entire film is like that. It shouldn’t be as good as it is, but somehow it is all pulled off magnificently.

Chiller: The Complete Television Series

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The thing about being an amateur reviewer is that you gotta take the good with the bad. Since I don’t really get paid, I do get to choose what I review, but I’m always taking chances. Sometimes they pay out and I find something amazing, sometimes they don’t and I’m stuck watching (and then talking about) something awful.

Chiller was apparently awful. I don’t remember anything about it, actually, but you can read my thoughts here.

Blues Traveler – Ventura, CA (05/23/92)

Blues Traveler
May 23rd, 1992
Ventura Theatre
Ventura, CA

Master:
Aiwa CM-30 Stereo Cardioid >Sony WM-D6C >Cass(m)
Front Row, Left; Balcony

Conversion:
Sony TC-D5M >HHb CDR 800 PRO Standalone >CD

Extraction:
CD >xACT 1.69 (cdparanoia) >AIFF >xACT 1.69 >FLAC
by Dave Mallick

Recorded, Transferred, FLAC Tags, & Front-Cover Artwork By Oldneumanntapr

Disc 1 [77:35.51]

  1. Intro                         [03:07.48]
  2. M//ulling It Over             [07:10.70]
  3. Optimistic Thought            [04:00.49]
  4. Out Of My Hands >             [04:12.31]
  5. Should I Stay Or Should I Go? [08:52.59]
  6. All In The Groove             [07:05.34]
  7. Ivory Tusk/                   [06:53.16]
  8. American Way                  [06:36.14]
  9. Trina Magna                   [08:15.40]
  10. Gotta Get Mean >              [04:24.42]
  11. Gloria >                      [14:52.59]
  12. Gotta Get Mean/               [02:03.39]

Disc 2 [65:48.43]

  1. 100 Years                     [06:11.11]
  2. Manhattan Bridge              [07:13.31]
  3. Sweet Pain                    [10:46.30]
  4. Sweet Talking Hip//pie        [19:49.26]
  5. Dropping Some NYC >           [02:46.07]
  6. As We Wonder                  [04:50.34]
  7. NY Prophesie                  [07:06.14]
  8. But Anyway (encore)          [07:05.40]

Notes:

  • Brief skip forward in d1t02. Tape flip at 18:00 of d2t04.
  • Single slashes denote tape flips or stoppages where no music
      is missing.

OldNeumanntapr Notes-
This was the first time that I had seen Blues Traveler. I didn’t know that they allowed recording. I guess I should have asked for a board patch but instead I ran up to the balcony to get a front row spot. The Nakamichi CM-300s probably would have sounded better but for some reason I chose to go with the little Aiwa stereo mic. It was a pretty good show and I still have the t-shirt! The recording is OK but would have sounded better with the CM-300s. I added it to etree because I noticed that this date wasn’t listed at all in the master list. Thanks to Dave Mallick for the help with the set list.