The dB's - Los Angeles 2024 (aud master)

  

Zebulon Cafe

Los Angeles, CA 

Nov. 17, 2024

  

audience master (sound quality: VG+ to Ex-)

           SAMPLE: (I Thought) You Wanted to Know

01 crowd/tuning

02 The Fight

03 Cycles Per Second

04 chat

05 Big Brown Eyes

06 Before We Were Born 

07 That Time Is Gone

08 She's Not Worried

09 Living a Lie

10 Ask For Jill

11 chat

12 Lonely Is (As Lonely Does)

13 Happenstance

14 Love Is for Lovers

15 From a Window to a Screen

16 I'm In Love

17 Neverland

18 chat

19 Dynamite

20 Amplifier (with band intros)

21 Black and White

22 encore break

23 We Were Happy There

24 chat

At the Zebulon Cafe, during this here show.

25 My Little Red Book*

26 In Spain

27 (I Thought) You Wanted to Know

   

    *Bacharach/David song, sung by Will

The dB's:

Peter Holsapple - vocals & guitar 

Chris Stamey - vocals & guitar

Gene Holder - bass

Will Rigby - drums

    

Wes Lachot - keyboards

ROB SEZ: I tried to catch our heroes on their brief tour in 2024, and again in early 2025, but it was not to be. The only show I could possibly attend was cancelled due to illness, and later it was rescheduled to a date that didn't work for me. But virtual reality is still a version of reality, so I was very pleased that Man of Stealth taped this gig at the end of The dB's 2024 jaunt. The ostensible purpose of the mini tour was to promote the first-ever U.S. vinyl release of Stands for Decibels, in all its remastered glory. A remastered / reissued Repercussion followed soon thereafter. Additional thanks go to Dennis Orr, who mastered this recording, which sounds very good indeed. Blog reader FRS shot this video of "Amplifier" during this gig—nice!

*It's a amazing and remarkable to see the 4-piece dB's lineup still playing live music together 45 years after they started out — as Carolina-transplanted starving artists, trying to make it in NYC.*

FLAC (hi-res 24-48)

MP3@320

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey - Philadelphia, PA 2024 (sbd-stage matrix)

The Loft at City Winery

Philadelphia, PA

March 17, 2024

sbd-stage matrix recording (sound quality: Excellent)

CD 1

1.  intro

2.  She Was the One

3.  Geometry

4.  Big Brown Eyes

5.  Here Without You

6.  From a Window to a Screen

7.  Molly Says

8.  After All This Time/

Lost Without You 

9.  Swanhilda

10  Early In the Morning

11. Close Your Eyes

12. Picture Sleeve

CD 2

1.  The Child In You

2.  The Lord of the Manor

3.  She's Not Worried

4.  Today Could Be the Day

5.  Nothing Is Wrong

6.  Black & White

7.  I Want to Break Your Heart

8.  Angel

9.  <encore applause, tuning>

10.  Lonely Is as Lonely Does

11.  Something Came Over Me

12.  Here and Now

ROB SEZ: We're getting back to the origins of the blog with this post. Lilpanda is the one to thank for this very impressive recording. He snagged a direct feed from the soundboard and added an ambient recording using onstage microphones, mixed to create a superb audio artifact. If you leave a comment (GIGANTIC hint) please thank the great Lilpanda.

FLAC (hi-res 24-96 files) 

MP3@320

HOLSAPPLE-STAMEY FANS! Don't forget to snag Peter's new album The Face of 68, out now on vinyl, CD and digital release. Chris's next album Anything Is Possible is due out in July on Label 51 Recordings. The first single is the Beach Boys-esque "I'd Be Lost Without You." You can hear the title track HERE, and "Dont Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)" is HERE. 

         

      

Peter Holsapple - 1989-01-20 - 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA (sbd)

40 Watt Club
Athens, GA
Jan. 20, 1989

soundboard recording (digital transfer from analog copy of the master reel)

PH solo show, with help from Peter Buck & Ilene Markell

01 This Is Where I Belong (The Kinks cover) 

02 Storm Warning

03 Taken

04 If Only ("new song," written in Athens) 

05 Soul Kiss 

06 You Don't Miss Your Water (Wm. Bell cover)* 

07 Lonely Is (As Lonely Does) *

08 Next to Last Waltz *

09 Second Time Around *

10 Changed the Locks (Lucinda Wms. cover) * +

11 Judy * +

12 Drip Drop (Dion cover) * +

13 Do Right Woman, Do Right Man (Aretha Franklin cover) * + 

14 Neverland (brief jump edit) * +

15 Sexual Healing (Marvin Gaye cover) *

16 Darby Hall

17 She Got Soul

Musicians:

 

Peter Holsapple - guitar, vocals

* Ilene Markell, bass
+ Peter Buck, guitar

NOTES:

My source for this recording is Pat the Wiz, the legendary sound tech whose superb recordings are revered in and around Athens, GA. This recording has been digitally transferred from Pat's first-generation analog copy of the master reel. This version is as close to perfect as you can get, absent a transfer from Pat's master. THANK YOU KINDLY, PAT! When I received the source files, I applied tracking, fading, and one pass of eq.

FLAC

 

MP3@320

GO BUY PETER'S NEW SOLO ALBUM THE FACE OF 68 on Label 51 Recordings, out now. CD and high-quality digital download available at Bandcamp. Look around for vinyl copies from Record Store Day 2025.

STAY TUNED. There's more where this came from...

The dB's - Maxwell's Dec. 1986 (aud - new source!)

Maxwell’s 
Hoboken, N.J.
Dec. 7, 1986

audience recording (sound quality: VG++; transferred from McKenzie master tape)

  

HOLIDAY GREETINGS to Tom at The McKenzie Tapes for his generous sharing of this recording’s digital master for our listening pleasure. It's early Christmas, on the 36th anniversary of this show!

A great, sweaty club show deserves a photo like this one 

ROB SEZ: I posted this excellent show many years ago, using a different source tape. That was pretty darn good, but this new source (transferred from the master, courtesy of the fabulous McKenzie Tapes collection) brings a new dimension of clarity and punch to the proceedings. In this case, "the proceedings" are a thoroughly enjoyable live show at Maxwell's, where The dB's were adopted as hometown heroes (Gene Holder had moved there and the band played Maxwell's frequently). Here, Gene is in very fine form, peeling off tasty lead licks right and left. If the term "adoring crowd" ever applies, it's certainly fitting in this case. You can hear that Peter is jazzed on account of the band's recent signing to IRS Records (though not yet announced publicly — thus the opening cover tune). Rarities include the non-album song "Darby Hall," Will singing his own "The Room's Still Spinning" (Georgia from Yo La Tengo takes over drums so Will can be up front), and a seasonally appropriate "Feliz Navidad" for the final encore. Why not take a few seconds to leave a comment here, thanking Tom at McKenzie Tapes for his generosity? 

00 stage entrance, greeting

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 band-audience banter

12 Darby Hall

13 Change With the Changing Times

14 Any Old Thing

15 Amplifier

16 Love Is for Lovers

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

18 A Spy In the House of Love

19 See No Evil (Television cover)

20 Feliz Navidad

The dB’s:

Jeff Beninato – bass, vocals

Will Rigby – drums, vocals

Gene Holder – lead guitar

Peter Holsapple – vocals, guitar

*Georgia Hubley (Yo La Tengo) - drums on #17

FLAC

  

MP3@320

  

The dB's - KCRW Live Session 1987 (new source!)

SNAP with Deirdre O'Donoghue
KCRW, Santa Monica, CA
Dec. 3, 1987

35th Anniversary Lossless Repost

KCRW soundboard master

Straight outta KCRW's vaults: the tapes!

via 2022 webstream capture (quality: Ex-)

01 intro
02 Today Could Be the Day
03 chat
04 Change With the Changing Times 
05 more chat
06 Molly Says
07 some chit-chat
08 Working for Somebody Else
09 talk & band member intros
10 This Is Where I Belong

Peter, singing emphatically, with Eric nearby.

     (Kinks cover)
11 some comments
12 White Train
13 droll anecdotes
14 Amplifier
15 yammering & tuning
16 Home for the Holidays
17 banter
18 O Holy Night (trad.)
19 banter, more
20 Bonneville
21 inane banter
22 Spitting In the Wind 
23 prevarications
24 She Got Soul
25 aimless ruminations
26 New Gun In Town
27 random thoughts & false starts
28 Neverland
29 final chat & DJ sign-off

The dB's:
Peter Holsapple - guitar, vocals
Will Rigby - drums, backing vocals
Jeff Beninato - bass, vocals
Eric Peterson - guitar

ROB SEZ: Thanks to alert blog reader Eugene, I found recently-posted streams of vintage live sessions from the amazing "SNAP" radio show on KCRW in Santa Monica. What made "SNAP" so great? The musicians and their performances, of course. Just as significant was the one-of-a-kind Deirdre O'Donoghue, the host of SNAP. Deirdre (R.I.P.) not only had an easy-on-the-ears voice, she was also a music enthusiast like none other, which you can hear in this hugely-enjoyable live session. Although I shared this set many years ago, that recording was sourced from a very good FM capture. This one, by contrast, was recently transferred from the station's master tape. It's webstream capture, yes, but the sound quality is amazing for a 35 year-old (!) recording. Since the session took place between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the band plays the dB's classic "Home for the Holidays" and Peter attempts "O Holy Night" — despite not being able to remember all the words! There's a bunch more of these live sessions, featuring many artists featured on this blog, at KCRW's brand new archival SNAP site. Happy holidays, everybody.

FLAC lossless capture of lossy source

MP3@320

  

The dB's - New Year's Eve 1986, Raleigh, NC

*bumped for 2021 — 35th anniversary!*

The Brewery

Raleigh, NC

Dec. 31, 1986 into the wee hours of Jan. 1, 1987

   
audience recording (sound quality VG+; a well-balanced, solid-sounding recording).

  

Gene models the kind of hat all well-dressed  
New Year’s Eve revelers should wear
(a sideways Like This LP jacket!)

01 Any Old Thing

02 She Got Soul

03 Auld Lang Syne -- Never Say When

04 Rains Around Here

05 Lonely Is as Lonely Does

06 Not Cool

07 Never Before and Never Again

08 A Better Place

09 Today Could Be the Day

10 White Train

11 I Lie (end cut, fades out)

12 New Gun In Town

13 Change With the Changing Times

14 Amplifier

15 Love Is for Lovers

16 Witchi-Tai-To (Jim Pepper cover; Will sings lead)*

17 A Spy In the House of Love

18 Why Don't We Do It In the Road?
    

*16 is a traditional Native American peyote chant set to music (leave it to Will to find something that cool & include it in a dB’s show...)

TT: 78:25

ROB SEZ: A fired-up dB’s play a rowdy New Year’s Eve show — a perfect way to ring in any New Year. During the show, Peter announces (for the first time in public?) that I.R.S. Records has signed The dB’s and that a new album will be recorded and released in 1987. BIG THANKS to TG for recording the show and RIDICULOUS THANKS to dB’s Fan for the share.

FLAC
  
MP3@320

 
These photos were taken at a show in Boston at The Rat in the mid-1980s. But it probably looked a lot like this on New Year's Eve in 1986 at The Brewery in Raleigh.
  
  

The dB's:
Peter Holsapple: guitar, vocals

Gene Holder: lead guitar

Will Rigby: drums, backing vocals
Jeff Beninato: bass, backing vocals
   

The dB's - Hoboken, N.J. 2007 (sbd)

Yo La Tengo Hanukkah Show 
Maxwell's
Hoboken, N.J.
Dec. 6, 2007

  

soundboard-audience matrix recording (quality: Ex-)

The dB's — invited by Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo
... and they sing "Hanukkah Time"! 

01 intro

02 We Were Happy There 

03 Soul Kiss

04 You Got It Wrong

05 The Fight

06 Ash

07 Home for the Holidays

08 Love Is for Lovers

09 Hanukkah Time

10 Big Brown Eyes

11 World to Cry

12 Excitement

13 Dynamite

14 Amplifier

15 (I Thought) You Wanted 

     to Know

16 Cycles Per Second

17 Neverland

ROB SEZ: I do love these surprise soundboard recordings that drop unexpectedly into my lap! HUGE THANKS to YLTfan for recording and to neil d for mixing and mastering this one, which sounds fantastic. Speaking of surprises, check out the super deep cut "Ash" from Ride the Wild Tom-Tom, which might not have been played live prior to this gig. This is the only known live soundboard recording of the band from 2007. 

Here's Ira Kaplan's dB's rave from his 2007 Hanukkah diary:  I’ve said it before, and I said it onstage last night, and I’m saying it again: Without the dB’s, it’s unlikely there would be Yo La Tengo. I’ll save the many reasons for the Director’s Cut of this diary, but suffice to say that sharing a stage with them on Thursday night was exciting and emotional beyond reason. Back to the classic quartet for the first time since their comeback shows, they opened with “We Were Happy There” from Repercussion. What followed was incredible. Some of the hits, of course — “Amplifier,” “Neverland,” “Love Is for Lovers,” “Dynamite,” “Big Brown Eyes” . . . who am I kidding, all their songs are hits in my book. And a selection of oddities — “Soul Kiss”! “You Got It Wrong”! “Christmas Time” revised to “Hanukkah Time”! “Excitement”! — that had me choked up from start to finish. They’ll be at Southpaw tonight, and so would I if I weren’t otherwise occupied. 

REPERCUSSION: Explore the connections between The dB's and Yo La Tengo HERE.

FLAC

MP3@320

  

The dB's - CMJ Music Awards 1984 (sbd)

Studio 54
New York, N.Y.
Nov. 9, 1984

soundboard recording (quality: VG+, video source) 

The dB's - newly-posted pro-shot video from 1984

01 Neverland (fades in)

02 Love Is for Lovers

03 She Got Soul

04 Amplifier

05 Big Brown Eyes

06 White Train

07 Suspicious Minds

08 New Gun In Town

09 Black & White

The dB’s:

Peter Holsapple - vocals, rhythm guitar, mandolin 

Gene Holder - lead guitar

Will Rigby - drums, vocals

Rick Wagner - bass, vocals

WATCH THE COMPLETE SET HERE.

ROB SEZ: Ya never know when something featuring our heroes might turn up. I don't know anything about the person who posted this, but here's my guess: he was doing some pandemic cleaning, found this, and recently decided to post it. I don't know of any other pro-shot video footage in circulation that features a full set by The dB's. Consider this a very rare treat. HUGE THANKS to seeamanaboutahorse for sharing. The audio rip turned out pretty well, I think, after a bit of post-production work. Comments are welcome (hint)!

FLAC lossless capture, lossy source

MP3@320

Continental Drifters - Two N.J. Soundboards 1999 + 2001

*featuring Peter Holsapple, of course*

Maxwell's
Hoboken, N.J.
Dec. 6, 1999

soundboard recording (sound quality: Ex-) ACOUSTIC SHOW

01 house music
02 A Song for You (Gram Parsons)

cover art included in the download (date is in error)

03 Christopher Columbus 

     Transcontinental Highway

04 You're Gonna Need Somebody

05 Wipeout
06 Snow
07 Na Na
08 Meet Me In the Middle
09 Some of Shelly's Blues (Nesmith)
10 To Sir, with Love 

     (Don Black, Mark London)
11 Never Ending Song of Love 

     (Delaney Bramlett)
12 Anything
13 Matty Groves (trad.)
14 I'm a Dreamer (Sandy Denny)
15 Bang Bang (My Baby Shot 

     Me Down) (Sonny Bono)
16 Mixed Messages
17 Falling' Apart at the Dreams
18 'composite sketch'
19 Bus Stop (G. Gouldman)
20 Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb)
21 Darlin Darlin
22 Meet On the Ledge

     (Richard Thompson)
23 'Kate worship'
24 Honeybees (Kate Jacobs, Charlie 

     Shaw, James MacMillan)

Peter devoted many years of his life to the Drifters

25 Shallow
26 You're from Indiana
27 Don't Do What I Did 
28 Heart, Home
29 Farmer’s Daughter (M. Love, 

     B. Wilson)

30 Umppah!

31 Watermark
32 Tell Me When Its Over (S. Wynn)
33 Tuesday (S. Wynn)
34 Now I Ride Alone (S. Wynn)
35 Carolyn (S. Wynn)
36 Kerosene Man (S. Wynn)
37 I Want to Learn to Waltz with You
38 'tolerate the diva'
39 Way of the World
40 Drifters
41 Tighter, Tighter (Alive 'n' Kickin')

ROB SEZ: Oh, man! It was early Christmas for me when these two shows appeared in mid-December. And they're studies in musical contrasts: the '99 acoustic show at Maxwell's is a sprawling, no-holds-barred, guest-packed, glorious juggernaut; while the '01 electric show is tight & focused. Both of them are marvels of sound quality, from master soundboard tapes. HUGE THANKS to the Anonymous taper, to Ted M. for supplying the tapes, to Joe N. for digitizing & editing, and to photoleon for sharing. Please post a comment to thank the band and the ROIO heroes who brought these recordings to you. Read this great interview with Peter and other Drifters reminiscing about the band.

    

Where it went down in New Brunswick, N.J.

The Court Tavern, 

New Brunswick, N.J.

July 8, 2001

   

soundboard recording (sound quality: Ex-)

01 stage greeting, tuning

02 Someday

03 Christopher Columbus 

     Transcontinental Highway

04 Live on Love

05 Christopher Columbus 

     Transcontinental Highway (reprise) 

06 Snow

07 Mixed Messages

08 Don't Do What I Did

09 Cousin

10 Meet Me In the Middle

11 'contact high'

12 Long Journey Home

13 Tomorrow's Gonna Be

14 Watermark

15 I Want to See the Bright Lights

     Tonight (R. & L. Thompson)

16 Too Little, Too Late

17 Peaceful Waking

18 Na Na

19 Way of the World

20 Who We Are, Where We Live 

21 encore break

22 Dedicated to the One I Love

     (Lowman Pauling, Ralph Bass)

Continental Drifters:
Peter Holsapple; guitar, accordion, vocals
Vicki Peterson; guitars, vocals
Robert Maché; guitars, mandolin, vocals
Russ Broussard; drums
Mark Walton; bass, acoustic guitar, vocals 
Susan Cowsill; guitars, vocals
Dan McGough; organ, piano

FLAC

  

MP3@320

            

Peter Holsapple - New York, N.Y. 1985

NEW RECORDING SOURCE

 

PH solo show
Gerde’s Folk City 

New York, N.Y.

June 26, 1985

audience recording (sound quality VG+; from first-generation tape source; there’s some audience chatter, but it's not excessive)

PH in motion, Austin, TX 1984

photo by Stephanie Chernikowski

2020 UPDATE: New Gene Poole source for this that's an upgrade, to my ears. I only had time to post the FLAC version, so the MP3 version here is still from the original source. HUGE THANKS to elegymart for sharing the GP version, and to HJ for taping and dB’s Fan for sharing the older one. Highlights here are too numerous to mention. But Peter sounds pumped to be playing this historic venue and offers up several new tunes (some of which were later re-written, while others were never released), as well as plenty of choice covers. Sadly, Folk City closed in 1987.

   

01 Sexual Healing 
     (Marvin Gaye cover)

Peter was here — June 26, 1985

02 Something New

03 Caught In the Blues

04 She Was the One

05 Tail of a Star (Will Rigby cover)

06 Storm Warning

07 Diamond

08 Molly Says

09 Keep Up With You*

10 Darby Hall*

11 Never Before and Never Again

12 On the Battlefront

13 You Don’t Miss Your Water
     (Wm. Bell cover)

14 Close to the Hand

15 Elvis, What Happened?

16 Games People Play 
     (Joe South cover)

17 Long Black Veil (trad.)

18 Moving In Your Sleep

TT: 60 mins., 56 secs.
   

FLAC  (Gene Poole audio source - NEW)
  
MP3@320

Peter Holsapple – guitar, vocals (plus folky, folksy commentary)

*Syd Straw – guest vocalist for 9 + 10