Friday 10 January 2014

The Velvet Underground - The Playhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland - 02.06.1993 (Flac)





A "Nothing Songs" release. Excellent soundboard recording.Thanks to Gavin and MG196 for sharing it on Dime.

Lineage:  Silver CD -> .aif -> CD-R -> .aif -> xACT flac conversion (level 8)


DISC1\
01 Real Good Time Together\
02 Venus In Furs\
03 Guess I'm Falling In Love\
04 After Hours\
05 All Tomorrow's Parties\
06 Some Kinda Love\
07 I'll Be Your Mirror\
08 Beginning to See the Light\
09 The Gift\
10 I Heard Her Call My Name\
11 Femme Fatale\
12 Hey Mr. Rain\
13 Sweet Jane\
14 Velvet Nursery Rhyme\
15 WL/WH

DISC2\
01 I'm Sticking With You\
02 Black Angel's Death Song\
03 R&R\
04 I Can't Stand It\
05 IWFTM\
06 Heroin\
07 Coyote\
--rehearsal/soundcheck--\
08 Venus In Furs\
09 Beginning to See the Light\
10 I Heard Her Call My Name\
11 Femme Fatale\
12 Hey Mr. Rain\
13 Sweet Jane

When it comes to bootleggers, there is nothing I hate more than them making money off of starving fans.  What Nothing Songs has done is exactly that.  Several of their "releases" were actually downloaded from DIME!  So, this is a big SCREW YOU to Nothing Songs.\
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As for this set, the sound is really excellent.  There are some very slight flaws in the recording...an edit here and there (first couple of seconds of Sweet Jane are cut), but nothing that makes this less than a superb soundboard recording.  However, there are some dropouts during the soundcheck.\
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Unfortunately, Lou's voice is WAY in front of everything else.  I never liked the Reunion gigs.  A seminal noise-art-punk influence had decayed into a pop band.  Listen to Disc 1/Track 1 for a perfect example of what I mean.  I can't fault any of 'em for cashing in on their legacy, but I still refused to pay to go see 'em live in 1993.  Everything sounds so crisp and clean...as if meant to be played on the radio!  Yikes!!\
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I will say that Cale sounds great as usual (especially his piano on ATP) and Sterl's guitar lines sound as perfect as I have heard on any VU recording from the 60's.  Moe is simply...Moe!  Lou's voice sounds great (compared to today), but his phony banter with the audience is nauseating.  I remember reading how before the reunion gigs, Lou was frustrated with the sound he was getting from his guitar on "I'm Waiting for The Man."  He just couldn't get it to sound as powerful as on the records.  Moe had to remind him that he used to ONLY hit the strings on the downstroke during that song!\
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I love the rolling country guitar during "I'll Be Your Mirror," but goddamn, will Lou shut up at the end of "Rock & Roll?!?!"  Shut the F@\'a2K up and play!!  (crap, I just quoted Zappa in a Lou torrent)  Cale's voice is pretty true to the originals.\
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Granted, a bunch of middle-aged people aren't going to sound as ferocious playing live as when they were 20 (aside from The Stooges...maybe), but this is a fantastic document of the Reunion Tour.  I'm willing to say that it is better than the official release, which Lou personally oversaw.  Go figger.\
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Initial sacrifice ($) made by Gavin\
MG196


VUN930602Edi.rar

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