Big Star - Portland, OR 2002

Dante’s

Portland, OR

Dec. 28, 2002

11th Anniversary of this show
Happy Birthday LX Chilton (R.I.P.)

audience recording (sound quality VG; good sound for a club show; audience is enthused but respectful, so no crowd noise issues; there’s very slight distortion on occasion, but it’s not a big deal)

Big Star onstage in 2009, a year before Alex's death
C. Batka / NYTimes photo

HOLIDAY GOOD CHEER & SPECIAL THANKS to The Fool for generously sharing this show with me, and thanks to the taper and whoever was the first to share…

01 In the Street

02 Don't Lie to Me

03 When My Baby's Beside Me

04 I Am the Cosmos

05 Way Out West

06 Till the End of the Day (Kinks cover)

07 The Ballad of El Goodo

Big Star's latest: Nothing Can Hurt Me
an archival release, on Omnivore Records;
all tracks previously unreleased; GO BUY IT!

08 Back of a Car

09 Daisy Glaze

10 Thirteen

11 Baby Strange (T. Rex cover)

12 For You

13 Feel

14 September Gurls

15 Thank You Friends

16 Happy Birthday Alex Chilton

17 Slut

18 Patti Girl

19 Hot Thing

20 Big Black Car

21 Jesus Christ

MP3@320

Big  Star:

Jon Auer - guitar, vocals

LX Chilton - lead vocals, guitar

Jody Stephens - drums, vocals

Ken Stringfellow - bass, vocals

Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ - Dec. 1986

The dB’s

Maxwell’s

Hoboken, NJ

December 7, 1986

audience recording (sound quality VG to VG+; transfer from first-generation tape)

HOLIDAY GREETINGS to the taper and to dB’s Fan for his generosity

A good, sweaty club show deserves a good, sweaty photo...

  

01 Everybody's Happy Nowadays (Buzzcocks cover)
02 She Got Soul 
03 Living a Lie 

04 Lonely Is as Lonely Does

05 Never Say When

06 Today Could Be the Day 

07 New Gun In Town 

08 I Lie

09 Never Before and Never Again

10 White Train 

11 Darby Hall 

12 Change With the Changing Times

13 Any Old Thing

14 Amplifier 

15 Love Is for Lovers 

16 The Room's Still Spinning (Will Rigby song)

17 A Spy In the House of Love

18 See No Evil (Television cover) 

19 Feliz Navidad

MP3@320

The dB’s:

Jeff Beninato – bass, vocals

Will Rigby – drums, vocals

Gene Holder – lead guitar

Peter Holsapple – vocals, guitar
   

Peter & Chris - 'Mavericks Live' souvenir

Chris Stamey & Peter Holsapple
'Mavericks Live'
The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY
December 6, 2013

audience recording (sound quality VG+; video sourced & sounding pretty spiffy)

BIG THANKS to Jim F and Cynicor for sharing

Chris and Peter live at World Cafe Upstairs in Philly.
photos by the fab Chris Sikich

ROB SEZ: Here's a little something to commemorate the two recent, special shows at which Peter and Chris performed their classic duo album, Mavericks, in its entirety. The first was in Philadelphia on Dec. 5, and the second was this show the next evening in Brooklyn, NY. Thankfully, a couple of fans were there to record some of the songs, so we get to enjoy a bit of virtual reality.
   
SAMPLE: "Lonely Is as Lonely Does (Bell House 2013)"    


01 Geometry

02 Lovers Rock

03 I Want to Break Your Heart
       (partial)

04 She Was the One

05 Hollywood Waltz (partial)

06 The Child In You

07 Lonely Is As Lonely Does

08 Christmas Time

Tracks 1-5, thanks to Jim F.

Tracks 6-8, thanks to Cynicor

 
MUSICIANS:
Peter Holsapple - guitar, vocals, recorder
Chris Stamey - guitar, vocals
Paul Moschella - drums, percussion
Jeremy Chatzky - electric bass
David Schramm - electric 6-string, electric 12-string and lap steel guitars
Charles Cleaver - organ, piano and accordion, percussion
Jane Scarpantoni - 'cello
Lydia Kavanagh - vocals, percussion 

MP3@320

Read reviews of the Philly show HERE (full setlist included) and HERE. You can read a preview story with quotes from Peter HERE.
 

Mavericks was reissued in 2008 with 6 bonus tracks

BUY IT! (reissue not available as a download)

 

Big Star doco = boffo!

Yeah, OK -- the title for this post is pretty goofy.

But I did want to express my enthusiasm for the engrossing, entertaining, and just all-around excellent documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me. It's been in limited theatrical release and on the film festival circuit for a year or so. But now it's available everywhere via streaming, digital download, standard DVD and Blu-Ray.


As a reader of this blog, chances are you've already heard about the film. But if you haven't seen it yet, take a look at the trailer and additional clip found here, then do the right thing.
 

 
Soon, I'll post my review of the documentary. Members of The dB's, Mitch Easter and other leading lights of this blog are featured throughout the film. Don't wait, though...

GO WATCH, BUY & ENJOY IT NOW!

 

STREAM / RENT IT:

iTunes

Amazon

YouTube (Google)

DOWNLOAD IT:

iTunes

Amazon

YouTube

BUY THE DVD:

standard DVD

Blu-Ray

Don't forget the soundtrack, which is filled with alt. mixes, demos, etc.

Big Star - New York City 1995

Tramp’s

Lynne Porterfield design

New York, NY

November 8, 1995

audience recording (sound quality range VG- to VG; transfer from master tape)

ROB SEZ: This is Big  Star’s first NYC show in 22 years. Enjoy this one for the energized performance and crowd enthusiasm rather than for the sound quality (which isn’t great, but isn’t too bad, either).

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to the taper and uploader!

01 In the Street

02 Patti Girl*

03 Don't Lie to Me

04 When My Baby's Beside Me

05 Way Out West

06 Till the End of the Day (Kinks cover)

07 banter

08 The Ballad of El Goodo

09 Back of a Car

10 Big Black Car (cuts in)

11 My Baby Just Cares For Me**

12 Feel

13 September Gurls

14 Daisy Glaze

15 For You

16 Baby Strange (T. Rex cover)

17 Thank You Friends

18 band intros, more banter

19 Slut (Todd Rundgren cover)

20 encore applause, tuning

21 Kansas City

22 Pennsylvania 6-5000

*Dick Campbell tune; Gary & The Hornets cover (LX and Teenage Fanclub released a studio recording of this song on a 45-inch single in 1995)

**Walter Donaldson & Gus Kahn tune

Big  Star:

LX Chilton – lead vocals, guitar

Jody Stephens – drums, vocals

Ken Stringfellow – bass, vocals

Jon Auer - guitar, vocals

MP3@320

   

 Outside Tramp's

NYC in 1996

Ken & Jody (above); LX (at left)

Grab this before someone turns it 

into a commercial release!!

  

Here's the second commercial solo release 

since the death of LX Chilton in 2010:

Alex  Chilton: Electricity By Candlelight / NYC 2-13-97

(it used to be a boot!)

Rain Parade - Madison, WI 1984 & London 1985

Bunky’s

Madison, WI

Nov. 8, 1984

NOTE: 2 separate shows, 2 separate downloads

If you like these and ask nicely, I might post some more later…

audience recording (sound quality VG; a club show, so of course you can hear audience chatter, but not ruinously so)

Rain  Parade: contemplating what they've done to your mind...

SPECIAL THANKS to gomonkeygo at The New Disease, where I first snagged these...

 

01 You Are My Friend

02 One and a Half Hours Ago

03 Prisoners
04 On the Way Down 

05 Kaleidoscope 

06 Blue

07 Don't Feel Bad

08 Sad Eyes Kill

09 No Easy Way Down 

10 This Can't Be Today

11 Broken Horse

12 Crashing Dream 

13 Ain't That Nothin’ (Television cover)

MP3@320

Riverside Studios

Hammersmith

London, UK

May 19, 1985

soundboard recording (quality Ex--; quite nice sound)

01 You Are My Friend

02 This Can't Be Today

03 Blue

04 Prisoners

05 Broken Horse

06 Kaleidoscope

07 Saturday's Asylum

08 Don't Feel Bad

09 What She's Done to Your Mind

10 No Easy Way Down

11 Night Shade

12 When You Dance (Neil Young cover)

MP3@320

Rain  Parade:

Will Glenn - keyboards
Mark Marcum – drums

Matt Piucci - guitar, vocals
Steven Roback - bass, vocals
John Thoman – guitar, vocals

Learn more about the music of Rain  Parade at Wikipedia or AllMusic … and read this great, extensive interview with Matt Piucci and other leaders of the “Paisley Underground”

   

Joe Jackson Band - Live at The Beeb 1980

Live at The Beeb

Dec. 1979 & Oct. 1980

• first set:     Portsmouth, UK, Dec. 14, 1979

• second set: Hammersmith Palais, London, Oct. 27, 1980

BBC broadcasts (sound quality Ex--) The first set kinda spoils you for the second. Tracks 1-8 have the better sound, but both performances are great.

The Joe  Jackson Band formed in the late 1970s, recorded 3 albums, toured a lot, and broke up. In 2002, they reunited and recorded a new album, released in 2003. Not bad!

ROB SEZ: If you poke around the blog a bit, you'll see I have a fondness for alt-pop from the UK (classic & classy stuff only, of course!). So here's another one I like a lot, at least Joe's early days.

01 Look Sharp

02 Friday

03 Geraldine and John

04 Kinda Kute

05 The Harder They Come (Jimmy Cliff cover)

06 Pretty Boys

Joe Jackson: reading it in the Sunday Papers...

07 Don't Wanna Be Like That

08 I'm the Man

   
09 Intro

10 I'm the Man

11 Biology

12 Beat Crazy

13 Look Sharp

14 Crime Don't Pay

15 Pretty Boys

16 On Your Radio

17 Friday

18 Is She Really Going Out With Him?

19 Don't Wanna Be Like That

20 Got the Time

#1-8 = Guildhall, Portsmouth, UK Dec. 14, 1979
#9-20 = Hammersmith Palais, London, Oct. 27, 1980
TT: 1 hour, 21 mins.

MP3@320

Joe  Jackson Band:

Joe  Jackson – vocals, keyboard

Graham Maby – bass, vocals

Gary Sanford – guitar, vocals

Dave Houghton – drums, vocals

Want more shows like this? Have a look here, here, here and here.

Learn more about the music of Joe  Jackson at his official site or this great fan site