11.29.2007

Source A: Solid State Recorder -- Core Sound Binaurals > bass roll off battery box > Edirol R-09 (24/48)
Transfer: Adobe Audition 3.0 (track splitting, fades, downsampling) > dBPowerAMP (flac 8)
Taper: Seth
Gen: 0 from Master
News Paper Article: Click Here
MP3 Sample - MJK calming audience: Right click & save
MP3 Sample - Audio Sample: Right click & save

Notes - Taper: The mix in the arena wasn't great to begin with. The vocals were not up enough and this was one bass-heavy experience. I'm glad I used my bass roll-off. The SQ is nice but the audience was wild and it definitely comes through in the recording. I give it a VG+ to EX- mostly due to crowd noise. Because of high security, a mic cable that wasn't plugged in all the way, the setting of levels and insane pushing and shoving, the first 3.5 minutes are of very poor quality. The band also seemed to be distracted a lot but I guess it's understandable with the mini-riot that was going on. It truly is a miracle that nobody died. In all my 30+ years of going to shows, this was one of the strangest shows I've ever seen. It started with an email I received a few days before the show from the company that sells the tickets online. It basically told me that I better forget about bringing my gear in because everyone would be searched and if anything is found (even a cell phone!) it will be confiscated and not returned. See screenshot of email. Just before the show, I went up to the doors and watched as they frisked each person one by one. They looked in shoes, opened and smelled packs of cigarettes, made you open your coat, take off your hat, empty your pockets and physically searched you. Needless to say, the lines were HUGE. Watching this, I decided to take a chance anyway but did return my camera to the car as my gear was taking up all my hiding places. Sorry, no pics. After 35 minutes in line, I made it in but the security was intense. A monster of a huge security guy was walking back and forth right in front of my row and there were actual police everywhere. Not very conducive to recording. There was an electricity in the air and an incredible amount of alcohol was flowing. At least 5 people spilt beer on me before the show started as they only sold open cups. Trans Am had opened for Tool and to my surprise, they were quite good. Unfortunately, I did not record them. The crowd was really starting to get antsy and you can clearly hear it in the recording. When the band hit the stage there was a rush for the front. My awesome 4th row center tickets were now irrelevant as without me moving an inch I was now in about the 10th row! The first 3 rows were absolutely packed and very quickly started becoming a dangerous situation. All that security disappeared and the chairs of the first 3 rows slowly started flying. During Schism this craziness started really getting out of control and dangerous. People were getting hurt and the band could not help but notice. House lights came up and you'll hear Maynard ask if the crystal meth has worn off yet and then he really tried to calm down the audience creating the title for this show. When he asks if the people "over there" are having a good time, he's being quite sarcastic and was clearly mad. It got better for about 8 minutes but then started getting worse and worse and really reached it's peak while an overly crowded makeshift mosh pit and just insane people were shoving and pushing and chairs started flying. House lights came up again and security and the police were trying to get in there to help/bust it up but it was just too crowded for them to get in. The whole first three rows were literally destroyed and taken apart and thrown into the "moat" between the front row and the stage. The band did seem legitimately concerned and stayed on stage sitting on the risers, watching and talking amongst themselves. The taper's curse is knowing you're recording while those around you are completely ambivalent chatting, screaming or talking to you and there's nothing you can do about it. You'll hear a lot of audience in this one...there's even some sounds that sound as if they may be me but they're not. You know I had people talk to me, step on my feet, ask me questions, spill beer on me, knock me over, etc. yet not a single peep uttered by me. It's tough being a recordist! Some interesting audience bits to listen for: the guy asking for rolling papers, the guy who was trying to pick up a girl, the guy who spotted my mics when the house lights came up, the crowd reaction when a girl flashed the crowd, the apologizing guy who bowled a bunch of us over, a single cough from me and much more! Remember that this recording was made binaurally. It will naturally sound much better with a pair of headphones & cranked up loud! Peace & enjoy, Seth.
Technical Notes by Taper: Between Disc 01 & 02 - changing SD memory card during incident - literally missed less than 10 seconds of non-music. **various songs were - Wings for Marie & 10 000 Days (Wings pt2). During this time, the band was on stage but they seemed very distant and not happy to be there. They were talking and not paying much attention. Also during this time, some house lights went up and roadies in white medical coats set up a small drum kit (kick, snare, 4 roto-toms, a crash, ride & high-hat - wasn't miked well) in the front for Seb to play during Lateralus.
Notes - Galen: The audio recording itself is pretty good. What I mean by this is the actual audio capture. The vocals although low in the mix are apparent at least some of the time, the guitar is relatively clean & the bass/drums are not so bad. Not perfect but not terrible either. If it was just the performance on this source then this would probably bode better, with me, than it does in the state it is in. I think we all know how annoying Tool crowds are but *just the people by the taper* are absolutely horrid. Conversations abound - only dampened by the 'YEAH - TOOL!' scream pervasive throughout this source. It is painful. And during the mini-riot, quit parts, good God. Tool crowds are almost as worse as Primus or Marilyn Manson crowds. Not sure what the recipe for meth is in Kelowna's territory but, just a suggestion, maybe a switch to something else like battery acid would be better? The overall sound quality is not EX in any real capacity - especially if you were to compare this capture to many, many other recordings from the 10K Days era. This is marginal, overall. If anything, it meets minimum criteria. Again, a lot of this has to do with the extremely abrasive crowd & all the associated chatter around the taper throughout the entire show. This is an example of a crowd ruining a source. The taper though to his credit was diligent & professional throughout.

Maynardism: "I don't want to be the soundtrack to someone's death."

Time: 112:43

Jambi
Stinkfist
46 & 2
Schism
Lost Keys/Blame Hoffman
Rosetta Stoned
Right In Two
Wings For Marie
10,000 Days
Lateralus
Vicarious