Dave Alvin & The Guilty Ones
1/21/15
SLO Brewing Company
San Luis Obispo, CA
Matrix: Soundboard + Neumann KM-140s >35ft XLRs >Beyer MV-100 >Mackie 1202-VLZ PRO Mixer >XLR >Tascam DR-100mkII (24/48)
Microphones Hung From Front Ceiling Post, 8ft High (ORTF) WAV >Audacity (Track Splits, Minor Edits And Down Sample / Dither To 16/44.1) FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.35, FLAC Tags Via xACT 2.53
(Recorded, Transferred, FLAC, Tags, & Front-Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr)
Kip Stork – FOH Sound
- All By Myself
- I Feel So Good
- Key To The Highway
- You’ve Changed
- How You Want It Done?
- Southern Flood Blues
- Border Radio
- Johnny Ace Is Dead
- The Stuff They Call Money
- Truckin’ Little Woman
- Ashgrove
- Trouble Bound
- What’s Up With Your Brother
- Dry River
- One Bad Stud
Encore:
- Marie Marie
- Band Intros / So Long Baby Goodbye*
Dave Alvin – Guitar, Vocals
Phil Alvin – Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Chris G Miller – Guitar
Brad Fordham – Bass
Lisa Pankratz – Drums
*Instrumental
Taper Notes-
This was the first matrix recording I attempted to make at SLO Brew. Thanks to Bill Gaines for the loan of the Mackie mixer and the 35 ft XLR cables. Thankfully I was able to monitor the mix correctly because of the mixer’s decent headphone amp along with my closed Beyer 770 headphones. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to set the balance between the soundboard and audience sources correctly. (I didn’t have the option of using a multitrack recorder.) I wanted the Neumanns to add just enough audience noise and stage fill to blend nicely with the board to give a nice ‘live’ sound. I think it sounds pretty decent, though there is a glitch or two in the first song that I think happened when Kip was adjusting the house mix.
I had heard that Dave Alvin was really accessible and friendly. I thought it was funny that when I asked him about recording, he said, ‘Sure, as long as we don’t suck.’ I said, ‘Hey, you guys are great. You Never suck.’ He and Phil were sitting in one of the side booths stringing their guitars.
I knew that Dave Alvin’s guitar would be really loud on stage, so I asked Kip if he could turn it up a bit in my mix. This worked out really well for Mother Hips in November.
I was happy with the matrix, though it is a lot more work than just plugging into the board. You can really notice it when the performer says something on stage and the audience reacts to it, like when Dave said ..’ a menthol ciga……’ and someone in the audience cried out ‘cigarette!’ It really gives you the sense of being there.
My friend Dave, who has been to mammoth amounts of shows since the early 70s, has been seeing Dave Alvin for years. When we talked with the band in the alley, when Dave was getting his LP signed, he mentioned the Blasters at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara in the early 80s. (That show was a disaster. The crowds trashed the place and the band did little to stop it.) Dave Alvin cringed and said, ‘yeah, we were responsible for bringing rock music to a halt there for many years’.
My friend Dave said that he was on stage that night, and I asked him if he was shooting. (He used to be a photographer for some of the clubs, like the Spirit in SLO.) Dave said no, and Dave Alvin laughed and said it was a good thing, because the photos could have been used against them in court!.
We went to Taco Bell after the show and after we ordered, Dave turned to me and said, ‘Look who is in line.’ Yep. It was Dave and Phil Alvin. We talked with them a bit more and when they left, Dave told me about the only other time that he has ever seen the performers at a restaurant after the show. He said it was the night of the Blondie / Kinks show at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in July of 1978.
SLO Brew is a nice intimate club and is a great place to see and record a show such as this.
Do NOT Convert To MP3.
Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉