9/16/06: The Delancey - Thanks to everyone involved!!!

[SamNo.2]

THE SLIP - 9/16/06: The Delancey - New York, NY

On the eve of IKE, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with making this party – my 29th birthday - truly a night to remember. (Sorry for not posting on the reviews thread, but I wanted to make sure the entire community knows how grateful I am to the people who helped make this happen). I understand Cleantone’s outstanding recording is beginning to circulate, and I encourage those of you who haven’t heard it to seek it out – it’s pretty awesome. (C, I noticed that the link you posted no longer works – where can people get a copy?)

Many thanks to The Slip, John Frattalone, Matt Rubio, Seth Rappaport, Dana at the Delancey, and especially Nick Fitanidies, aka Phrazz, who deserves special mention for spending hours helping to organize this event and deal with the not-minor logistical details. Thanks also to Torrey Marshall and Jon Bahr for their help, and to Cleantone for producing one of the best-sounding recordings I’ve ever heard of this band, (and I’ve heard a lot.) I also especially want to thank everyone who made the effort to come to the party – we had people arrive from as far away as the West Coast.

The logistical details were fairly major – (the band was playing across town earlier that night) - but everyone pulled together to ensure that this event went off without a single major hitch. It was like butter, baby.

As for the show itself, I’ll leave the reviews to others, and just make a few quick notes.

- Sat. the 16th was my actual birthday

- I think a lot of us made a real effort to push the band and challenge them. Note someone who shall remain nameless yelling, “It’s time to f*ck sh*t up!” directly before the first set begins. Throughout the album, you can here people yelling, “Go Boys!” and egging them on, etc…I think the lesson is that this is a band that really appreciates an engaged and challenging crowd – and will respond in kind.

- The intro and outro music was awesome and sounded like Slip album B-sides, potentially from IKE. Anyone know anything about this?

- Airplane/Primitive, which I heard for the first time, hit me like a ton of bricks. Needless to say, the opening line seems most appropriate for a birthday party!

- Cleantone – the second song played was The Original Blue Air, which like on IKE, directly precedes Paper Birds. My guess is that they will almost always appear together – they did at Tonic as well.

- A/P, OBA, Paper Birds, CoD is a pretty serious way to begin a show.

- Diesel – interestingly enough, the PB performed here is SLIGHTLY FASTER than the one on the album, and MUCH FASTER than the version they played at Tonic last week. But in terms of actual number of measures, this version was longer than the album version – including Andrew’s buildup to the climax of the song - and the breakdown before the end of the song. Like you, I like this tune a little more uptempo and longer.

- During PB someone goes “That’s hot!” A girl can be then heard asking, “What is?” A third person, whose identity shall remain anonymous here, then replies, “We are!”

- Children of December begins with a Tears For Fears, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” tease. Also listen for Brad cracking up several times; including right after Marc’s fill, after the line, “June is for the bass!”

- Brad dedicated There’s a Lie to my brother Andy, as well as the whole show. It was a very special moment for us. The song is about brothers, I think.

- Sorry and Ashland were personal requests. Sounds like Andy (Barr) was messing around with his electronic drums during Sorry. Serious business.

- “Zionesque” was WAY too short, but it became clear that the second set was going to be structured around Poor Boy.

- It’s a Long Way to the Top….appeared to be completely spontaneous, and the crowd went ballistic.

- If One of Us…..was an absolute knockout.

- It you listen closely, you can hear people yelling out for the Jameson that was being passed about. “Yo, pass that ‘Jame-some’ ovah heah!” Classic.

- The funniest think about the Meowskers, uh, “event,” was that after the climactic “It’s a birthday party!!!” Torrey Marshall can be heard saying, “You can trust him, he’s an actor!” Classic.

- There’s not much to say about “Modern Love.” It’s one of those moments that will go down in Slip history. (Though, do listen for a crowd of girls near the front cracking up at the “makes me horny” line.) Anytime you can get the whole room singing you know its special. Kudos to Cleantone for his superb recording – there’s really nothing like watching trying to record a show on all of this high-tech equipment while simultaneously getting his groove on….fierce!

- For me, Modern Love was a perfect end to a perfect night. But it wasn’t really the end. In fact, in some ways it was the beginning. Which is why the best line of the night is the girl who yells “Here we go!” at the last chord. The night was just beginning, as were the rest of our lives.

Cheers,
Sam
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Set 1: Airplane/Primitive, Paper Birds, Children of December*, Sorry, There's A Lie, Ashland, Soft Machine, Cowboy Up tease
Set 2: "Zionesque"> Poorboy> It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll)#, If One of Us Should Fall
Encore: Modern Love^
Notes: Private Birthday Party for Sam Gustin
performance dedicated to Andy Gustin

* with Tears For Fears teases
# AC/DC cover
^ David Bowie cover performed acoustic by Brad and the audience

Neumann KM184> Lunatec V3> DA-P1> DAT (mics duct taped to light trusses split on stacks) recorded, mixed, and mastered by Clinton Vadnais
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[Cleantone]

Cleantone – the second song played was The Original Blue Air, which like on IKE, directly precedes Paper Birds. My guess is that they will almost always appear together – they did at Tonic as well.

Yeah, I used to split the intro when they were first playing it. The two tunes that have the fun titles on the new record are always intros to those tunes. I suppose we could make the effort to note them seperatly but I think it would be easier to continue to track and name them as Paper Birds and Soft Machine. Not that it actually matters. Both of those tracks are a part of the song that follows them.

As for the link. I posted some MP3's. There is one FLAC copy out and about too. The MP3 link was temporary. It could be reuploaded if someone wanted to take the inititive. I just got a bandwidth warning today at work though.

Thanks again for a great bash. It was a blast!

[SamNo.2]

Yeah, I agree. I do think it's cool that the band gave the two intros unique names - though in practice these songs will most likely remain as just that, intros, as you point out.

Something I left out:

- Brad broke a string one minute into the show. At one point you can here someone, who shall remain nameless, yell, "Yo, restring that b*itch!" Kudos to Rubio for his professionalism in taking care of it.

[mjm]

Yeah, I agree. I do think it's cool that the band gave the two intros unique names - though in practice these songs will most likely remain as just that, intros, as you point out.

My guess is that they tracked them that way on the album to make main parts of those songs a little more radio/single friendly without having to shorten the track.