From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V10 #199 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Thursday, November 10 2005 Volume 10 : Number 199 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: first four bootlegs [Brian K Tanaka ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 12:53:16 -0800 From: Brian K Tanaka Subject: Re: first four bootlegs On Mon, Nov 07, 2005 at 11:19:26AM -0500, wojizzle forizzle boldly wrote: > kenny's not on the list, but i am curious: what is the general consensus > on the bootlegs? are people happy with them? disappointed? why so? > > i'm happy with them though i sitll prefer listening to audience recordings > to listening to the soundboard boots. partly because i am crazy like that > but mostly because i like to feel as if i'm there in the audience hearing > the show as it happens. color me kooky but that's the way it is. I've been listening to the first four official boots quite a bit, and my reaction to them has been quite positive. Thoughts: 1. Song Variety Some of you are familiar with my show mantra: "There is no setlist." It's supposed to function as a sorta koan to knock my expectations aside, leaving me as open to every moment of the music, no matter what song she does or doesn't play. It works pretty well. For me anyway. So, as you can guess, I generally don't fret about song variety. When I'm listening to recordings after the fact though, I tend to be less strict about it (I'll skip songs, for instance), but I still approach the music with some of that spirit intact. About these official boots specifically: I think the variety is fine. One thing that jumped out at me was the multiple appearances of Cool On Your Island, mostly because it was mentioned as an example here on this list. I don't mind that it's on more than one of the discs because the nature of the sound quality makes the song so feel so intimate. Sound quality... I guess this as good a time as any to segue... 2. Sound Quality The reason the Cools are special to me on these recordings is the sound presentation fits the song so perfectly. As we all know, Cool is a tender little thing, and the atmosphere of the song is full of intimately-conveyed yet thwarted longing. Because the sound is so crystal clear, and because the vocals are pushed so far forward letting you hear every little nuance of every note and every breath, it feels as though she's sitting next to you, playing softly, and it works brilliantly with the mood and spirit of the song. Try the Royce Hall rendition on for size. Yow. Makes every male heterosexual Tori fan (yeah! all ten of us!) wanna write apologies to ex-girlfriends. ;-) Which brings me to another point: the vocal/instrument balance. I was a little nervous about the vocals being too loud, but it all worked out, I think. The balance is distinctly different than the way it reaches one's ears in the audience at a show, but it feels surprisingly good on these recordings. (I sense Richard's about to disagree!) Plus, if one or the other is going to be too prominent, I'd rather it be the vocals than the instruments. I feared the official boots would be too sterile. But that fear proved unfounded as well. In general, I prefer audience recordings to soundboard recordings because I like having the flavor of the live experience, and a live recording that's too "clean" drives me batty. I can't, for instance, watch the Welcome to Sunny Florida DVD. Batty! Please oh please gimme DEPTH OF FIELD!!! But, these official boots don't suffer from the sterility problem as much as I thought they might. Not a lot of depth of field, but it still feels pretty good, and at least there's some audience presence. (Though that varies from boot to boot. Compare, for instance, Manchester to LA.) Tangentially: Don't all professional live recordings involve a mix of both the soundboard *and* strategically placed mics? And, in that case, do all sterility problems come down to the mix? 3. Fun Surprises and Highlights Aside from being a wonderful gift in general, there are specific highlights for me on these official boots. The Manchester Suede leaps to mind, for instance. Go listen to it now! And what a boon for us to have a crisp recording of the Royce Hall Beekeeper. That Beekeeper blew me away that night, and afterward I thought, "Maybe it was just that I was in the right space to hear it and it wasn't as insane as I thought. But then I heard it on the official boot, and I thought, "No. It's insane. No two ways about it." [Quick aside about the Beekeeper: If that song hasn't put you through what it puts you through yet, just wait. The song itself is sorta like the Beekeeper *in* the song itself: It's passing you by, but dont' be confused; one day it'll be coming for you.] Both on these official boots and in-person at the shows, I found some of my favorites were surprisingly amazing songs in the Bar sections. This, by the way, supports the no-expectations guideline. For example, the I Ran and Suzanne combo on the Denver recording is wonderful. Likewise, the Eyes Without A Face (not on the official boots) was tremendous. I was never much of a fan of that song, but Torified it was amazing. Weirdly the covers I didn't know or would never have voted for were the ones I enjoyed the most, and the ones that look on paper like earth-shaking events were a bit disappointing. (When the Levee Breaks being a notable exception!) 5. General Impressions I'm happy these official recordings are coming out. I listen to them frequently. I'd love to have the whole tour and um every show of every previous tour. Please. Please? Ah... Didn't think so. Thanks anyway! I don't think these replace high quality audience recordings, but they have their place and I'm all for 'em. - - Brian Tanaka ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V10 #199 **************************************