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

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

The dB's - Rahar's, Northampton, MA 1980 (aud)

LOSSLESS REPOST

The dB's

Rahar’s

Northampton, MA

1980 (month & date unknown; might be spring)

audience recording (sound quality VG+; transfer from copy of
master tape). There’s a bit of distortion and the sound guy got a little silly with the reverb at times, but otherwise a quite enjoyable early show, with surprisingly little crowd chatter.
    

Very likely one of the band’s first live shows in New England.

   

Highlights: Gene rocks the house with his killer fuzz-tone bass! This show also features the only known recording of a mega-rare Chris composition called “My Sire Wristwatch”. According to Chris, “Sire Records gave out promo wristwatches to promote some punk rock band, and it seemed like some kind of commentary at the time (1978?) about how the scene was changing.” OK now, everybody sing along: "My Sire wristwatch, my Sire wristwatch / Thanks a lot."
    

This is the site of the now-defunct Rahar’s Inn.

Whatever else you might say, at least it’s got character… 

 

BIG HUGE THANKS to the taper and dB’s Fan for the generous
share

01 (I Thought) You Wanted to Know

02 Spitting In the Wind

03 Black and White

04 I Feel Good (Today)

05 Judy

06 Dynamite

07 Soul Kiss

08 pH Factor

09 If and When

10 Can't Take Her Away from Me

11 Bad Reputation

12 My Sire Wristwatch - mega rare song composed by Chris

13 Big Brown Eyes

14 You Got It Wrong

15 The Summer Sun

16 Cycles Per Second

17 Tearjerkin'

18 Death Garage

The dB’s:

Gene Holder – bass

Will Rigby – drums

Chris Stamey – guitar & vocals

Peter Holsapple – guitar, keyboard & vocals

WAV lossless files (from the raw, unedited transfer)

MP3@320

           

The dB's - Ritz, New York, N.Y. 1987 - NEW FIND!

The Ritz (119 East 11th St.) 
New York, N.Y.
Oct. 2, 1987
    
audience recording (sound quality: VG+; Gene Poole master recording source)
    
01  intro

The dB's - 1987 touring lineup
Eddie Muñoz (rear left) played 2 shows with The dB's
and Harold Kelt (rear right) continued into 1987
Below: 1987 in-store appearance with Michael J.

02  Today Could Be the Day
03  Never Say When
04  Change With the Changing Times 
05  Working for Somebody Else
06  Lonely Is (As Lonely Does) 
07  She Got Soul
08  A Spy In the House of Love 
09  I Lie
10  Think Too Hard
11  Living a Lie 
12  White Train
13  Sharon
14  Suspicious Minds

TT: 51:03 mins. 
   
The dB's:
Peter Holsapple – lead vocals, guitar
Jeff Beninato – bass, backing vocals
Harold Kelt – keyboards, guitar
Will Rigby - drums, backing vocals
   
ROB SEZ: This one's got great energy, and the sound quality makes a big jump for the better by the end of track 2. I don't have much more to say about this one, except "BIG THANKS" to Gene Poole and elegymart for their generosity. (Check out elegymart's notes for this recording, below.) People like Gene & elegymart are the unsung heroes for those of us who love this music. Why not leave a comment now to say "Thanks"?
    
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MP3@320
   

THE GENE POOLE COLLECTION VOL. 126

This time we take you to a late Friday night show at the Ritz for a set from the dB's. The Go-Betweens and Dash Rip Rock were also on the bill. Tickets were $13.50.

The show finds the band near the end of their first run, before they disbanded in early 1988. This Toyota minivan tour started in September, and after performing a few more dates around this time, they would take over the opening slot from 10,000 Maniacs on R.E.M.'s fall U.S. tour for pretty much the remainder of the year. Peter would later put in a four-year stint as a full-fledged R.E.M. sideman. Also don't ever forget the factoid that they were all label mates with Holly Robinson from "21 Jump Street" back then.

For this set, the dB's as a freshly minted signing from I.R.S. (rescued from the deadweight status of Bearsville) are primarily pushing their latest label release "The Sound of Music," which had been kicking around for about two months at this point, although it had temporarily gone out of print while the label was busily focused on keeping up with the demand to continuing pressing R.E.M.'s excessively popular "Document." Other than "Living a Lie" off Repercussion and the standard closing Elvis cover, the rest of the set are selections from Like This and The Sound of Music. We've got Harold Kelt here on keyboards and additional guitar, doing double duty to take the place of Eddie Muñoz who didn't quite work out after the band's attempt to replace Gene Holder, who had amicably parted to worked with the Wygals full-time. By the end of the tour and before December rolled around, Peter and Will decided Harold's brief gig with the dB's should be consigned to history as well. 

This is a short set probably due to the time of the show, with three bands on a 11PM start time. If Gene taped the other two sets, hopefully he'll find them soon. As with most of his collection, he did not have the exact date noted on this cassette, just "same week as Zevon" noted (technically not the same week, but same weekend, yes: see Vols. 5 & 6). Thanks to gv0000 and john234 always at the ready with their lightning-fast research, the exact date was sussed out. 

Gene flubs the recording levels at the start of the first song, and there's a significant chunk missing on the tape flip. Ironically "Sharon" — a CD bonus track, back when people had to be enticed to buy CDs versus vinyl, before they became popular reigning media and before the world then reverted back to vinyl worship again — gets atrophied, as does the beginning of "Suspicious Minds." The sound of the music though is primo, the drums and instrumentation along with the vocals all in fine balance.

Enjoy,

elegymart

The dB's - Peppermint Lounge, NYC 1982 - NEW FIND!

Peppermint Lounge 
New York, N.Y.
Jan. 22, 1982

audience recording (sound quality: VG+; from Gene Poole master recording)
      

FIRST SET

The other Fab Four: Peter, Will, Gene & Chris

photos by Julia Gorton except Will Rigby by (unidentified)

01  Black and White
02  We Were Happy There 
03  Ups and Downs
04  I Feel Good (Today) 
05  pH Factor
06  Amplifier
07  Ask for Jill
08  Living a Lie
09  Excitement
10  Bad Reputation
11  Happenstance
12  Neverland

SECOND SET
13  intro
14  Up Around the Bend 
       (CCR cover)
15  Soul Kiss
16  Big Time
17  Living a Lie
18  Molly Says
19  The Summer Sun
20  Judy

21  In Spain

The dB's by Julia Gorton, c. 1982

courtesy of The Winston-Salem Journal

    

22  Big Brown Eyes
23  Storm Warning
24  Excitement
25  I Thought (You Wanted to Know)
26  Tobacco Road (John D. Loudermilk song 
        via Spooky Tooth) 
27  The Fight

The dB's:
Chris Stamey – guitar, vocals
Peter Holsapple – guitar, vocals
Gene Holder – bass guitar
Will Rigby – drums

ROB SEZ: In case you ever wondered about the value of this new-fangled thing called the Internet, wonder no more. Through the magic of the web, here now is one of two recently-surfaced dB's audio artifacts. Both are courtesy of the tape archives of Gene Poole and the audio expertise of elegymart. The first one, offered here, is vintage dB's. It was captured during the brief period after the guys recorded Repercussion but before Chris left the constraints of the band to pursue other musical adventures. Mr. Poole managed to capture very good quality audio without undue, non-musical intrusions. Recently, elegymart lovingly transferred the raw audio and made it available to us (read his fine notes about the recording below). There was a speed problem I corrected before offering it to you here, so this is my take on GP's original recording. Next week: a 1987 dB's live recording, newly-unearthed, also courtesy of Gene Poole & elegymart.

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MP3@320 

THE GENE POOLE COLLECTION VOL. 170

We're bringing you two sets this time from the classic line-up of the dB's from the Peppermint Lounge. 

The band have just come back from playing Los Angeles, and this was their supposedly final show before embarking for an European tour (Robinbrevard's live gigology shows they continued playing some US east coast dates into February, so who knows). There's also an ad for this show that appears to be edited and has the old 128 West 45th Street address on it, but the Peppermint Lounge should have closed out of that location by 1978. By 1980, the club would have been firmly established at its downtown address.

The dB's play what they consider a tight set at 11:30 PM, followed by their much later and looser set at 2:00 AM. Admission was half price before 10:00PM, which seems to have encouraged Gene to be there on time. Consider these other following elements: Gene continues to be an avid follower of the dB's to this day, plus his recordings of 1982 vintage were not plagued with mic problems as they were in later years, and he was usually able to situate himself in the sweet spot at the Pep. Yeah, this one's a keeper.

The dB's only repeat two songs in each set, "Living a Lie" and the heretofore still unreleased "Excitement." There's enough variety between the two sets, and their early catalog was chock full of power pop goodness, so you're bulletproofed against disappointment here. The quirkiness of the late show turns up covers from Creedence and the Nashville Teens (there is a mid-cut due to a tape flip on the latter, however). The Pep DJ sounds thrilled enough by the CCR that "Sweet Hitchhiker" is cued up to play after the band concluded the evening.

Enjoy,
elegymart