Very good recording. Huge Thanks to ianmacd for sharing his recording and story on DIME.
RECORDING:
Type: Audience master, recorded 4 metres back from the left PA stack.
Source: 2 x matched DPA 4060 mics ->
DPA MMA6000 amplifier (100 Hz low-cut filter) ->
Edirol R-09HR recorder (44.1 kHz/16 bit WAV)
Lineage: Audacity 2.0.0 (tracks split, fades added) ->
FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917]
Original Poster Notes:
I first saw Killing Joke as a teenager. I literally have no idea how many times I've seen them over the years, but it's a lot. I've seen blisteringly good performances, the occasional dismal one and a few run of the mill ones.
Tonight's show didn't see the band at the top of their game, but it certainly wasn't run of the mill, either. The evening stood out in a number of ways.
First of all, the dodgy support band: The Crying Spell. I'd checked them out earlier in the day on Spotify and couldn't be bothered to record them on the strength of what I'd heard. There was nothing new or noteworthy about them, except for their toe-curlingly bad cover of The Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now?'
Another support band, The Icarus Line, had also been billed to appear, but didn't. I have no idea why, but it was my intention to record them.
By the time Killing Joke come on, the Melkweg still isn't full. Even the upstairs balcony not being open hasn't caused the downstairs area to completely fill. Strange, because when the band last played here eighteen
months ago, the place was packed to the gills.
This makes for the easiest time of recording a Joke gig that I've ever had the good fortune to experience. The sound, too, this evening is excellent. Geordie's guitar could stand to be mixed a little louder, but that beast can never be loud enough for me.
The next thing that strikes me as the band get a couple of songs into their set is that the atmosphere this evening is lacking something. Perhaps it's because the foot of the stage, instead of being the mosh-pit that it usually is, bears a closer resemblance to the scene of a press conference. Amateur photographers form a cordon along the foot of the stage, squinting, clicking and experiencing the entire gig through the glass of their lens.
Behind them, legions of others experience the gig through the LCD screen of their mobile phone, as they capture yet another wobbly video clip for You Tube.
I, too, am here to record the experience for posterity, but, at the risk of sounding supercilious, I am firmly rooted in the moment. My recording may allow me to re-experience the gig time and time again, but right now, I'm focused on the action in front of me. The recording is secondary to the experience it documents.
As the gig progresses, I'm struck by the rather businesslike performance being turned in by the band. I can't recall having witnessed a gig with absolutely no banter from Jaz, but after the initial "Good evening", not another spoken word passes his lips.
There seems to be a sense of urgency on stage. The gaps between songs are minimal and, with no banter from Jaz, the band storm through the set in no time.
No sooner do they leave the stage after 'Pssyche' than they're back for the encore, which skips the listed 'Love Like Blood' and rearranges 'Requiem' before 'Wardance'.
After just 80 minutes, they leave the stage. Geordie taps his wrist to a roadie in some kind of reference to the time and then they're gone.
It's all slightly odd. I have no idea what the big hurry was, or even whether the sense of urgency I perceived was real, but would guess that the band perhaps still had to travel down to Tilburg for their gig at Roadburn the next day.
The roadies immediately start to break down the equipment and it's clear that no amount of yelling and stamping is going to extract another song from the chaps tonight. That's our lot.
So, what we have here is probably my best-sounding Killing Joke recording of all time, albeit of a show that does not rank amongst the band's greatest. It wasn't bad, by any means, but it didn't soar to the heights that I know they are capable of.
The one time I felt the earth start to move was during 'The Great Cull', a song whose chainsaw riff and stomping drums wield the power of a runaway juggernaut.
That said, it does sound bloody good to these ears and, for that reason alone, it will be receiving considerable future repeat play in this household. Due to the thinner than usual crowd density, I was able to produce a recording almost free of hindrance from those around me. The sound, which can sometimes
be murky at Killing Joke gigs, was on the mark tonight.
No post-production of this recording has been performed. What you get from me is what I heard.
SET LIST:
01. [intro]
02. European Super State
03. Sun Goes Down
04. Rapture
05. Fema Camp
06. Bloodsport
07. Pole Shift
08. Chop-Chop
09. Change
10. Primobile
11. Depthcharge
12. Asteroid
13. The Great Cull
14. Corporate Elect
15. The Wait
16. Pssyche
17. [encore break]
18. Requiem
19. Wardance
Running time: 83m 00s
http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/0QLVPA86/kiljokmelk20120411.part1.rar_links
http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/1V4QTFIO/kiljokmelk20120411.part2.rar_links
http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/0LSI8XJZ/kiljokmelk20120411.part3.rar_links
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