The Thanksgiving Day holiday had arrived, the family driving up to grandma's house while I worked in the basement, inking and hand pressing block prints for this years Christmas card and newsletter. The boredom of standing in one place for seven or eight hours, broken only by listening to the radio and later the television. After printing, my dinner was a foot long turkey sandwich made by Subway. At that point I was so happy having finished the printing, for at least that day. The process was repeated on Saturday with one more weekend being needed to make more prints before I can say I'm truly done. Friday was spent in the office, one of the few people to show up. I biked down to Jack Jensen's just to say hello, learning that he was selling a few different and very interesting works of art from the early 1990's, stashed away in his studio.
Considering it was a midweek evening, I only chose to listen to one show the night before Thanksgiving Day. Coldplay, an incomplete soundboard recording of their live show at the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England on June 25, 2005. I was looking to listen to something slower paced than the normal high energy shows I've been listening to.
Scholars they are not
We glorify their rudness
National disgrace
Fast years have gone by
The vessel has been broken
Crys, his time has come
The disembodied voice
A sound of childhood friendship
And the phone goes silent
Download it and another live performance by them here:
http://www.fileserve.com/file/kayPNbz/Coldp.2005-10-30.Copenhaen.by.T.U.B.E.rar
Friday night began with an early performance by the Pretenders, their performance at the Heatwave Festival in Mosport, Ontario on August 8, 1980.
Canada's legendary 1980 Heatwave Festival was the brainchild of concert promoter John Brower, who was based in Toronto. Brower established his reputation a decade prior, as the man behind the 1969 Rock and Roll Revival concert at Varsity Stadium (AKA "Live Peace In Toronto," which featured John Lennon's debut live performance outside The Beatles) and the three-day Woodstock-esque Strawberry Fields Festival held at Ontario's Mosport Park the following summer. For Canadians, as well as thousands of Americans and Europeans who traveled to this event, Brower's Heatwave Festival would become one of Canada's most memorable musical events.
This 1980 Heatwave Festival performance literally captures The Pretenders at that breakthrough moment, just as their debut album began climbing the North American charts and their first American single, the soulful and sensual "Brass In Pocket" had become a bona fide hit. That same week, the New York Times began coverage on the band in anticipation of The Pretenders' upcoming Central Park performance (also available here in The Concert Vault) a week after the Heatwave Festival.
Performing in the afternoon between Rockpile and the B-52's, The Pretenders performed during the major influx of the 15,000 ticketless radio listeners descending on Mosport Park. With a take-no-prisoners approach, they kick things off with a lacerating "Precious," signaling to the audience that this is a band with plenty of attitude and swagger. This pummeling opener is followed by the taunting and playful "The Adultress," a full year prior to its release. Destined for the lead off spot on The Pretenders' second album the following August, this features one of Hynde's most immortal couplets of "I'm the adultress I didn't want to be" with "But I'm convenient and I make good tea." These two challenging openers are next counterbalanced by the sweet vibrato purr of "Kid," displaying the two extremes of Hynde's songwriting.
Read it all here:
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/the-pretenders/concerts/heatwave-festival-august-23-1980.html
Find it here (note the need for a password):
http://bootlegtunzworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/pretenders-heatwave-festival-1980.html
Nirvana blasted their music late into the night, performing in the East Ballroom in the Husky Union Building at the University of Washington in Seattle WA on January 6, 1990. An excellent soundboard recording. Kurt and Krist were banned for life from all University of Washington venues for destroying so much gear at this show.
Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?8aod51vlazpqu#undefined
Saturday night began slow with Vampire Weekend, live at the French television show De La Semanine. An excellent recording of course, if you don't mind the talking at the beginning and end of the show.
Download it here:
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=3a744a7
Late Saturday night was spent with Echo and the Bunnymen, listening to their last release
Do It Clean. There were a few things about it that sounded familiar because of a few comments made by Ian and coming from the audience. The woman calling out for "Steve-o" about whom Ian commented on the recording was the one who thought I was Larry (yeah, she and I met the previous year). The guy always calling out for
Broke My Neck stood next to me that night. I did not realize it but it turned out to be the December 11, 2010 show at the Olympia theater in Liverpool, a show I also recorded. There was a lot they edited out to make this clean version of the show. Listening to it made me wish I were going to Liverpool in a couple weeks to see them on their home turf again.
But it here:
http://www.bunnymen.com/Test/?p=952
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