The Arcade Fire 08/28/10 Reading

Arcade Fire
Reading Festival, Reading, Berkshire, UK.
28th August 2010


Broadcast 28th August 2010 by BBC three

BBC three is a digital only broadcaster

**Direct transport stream capture and authoring - No Re-encoding**

Video : PAL, 720 x 576, MPEG-2, 25fps, 4186kbps, Aspect Ratio : 16:9
Audio : MPEG-1 Audio Layer II, 256kbps 48Khz

DVB-T > Nebula DigiTV > VideoReDo > PVAStrumento demux > TMPGEnc
DVD format, BBC three logo, full menu and chapter selection by track.


Tracks

01 Introduction
02 Ready to Start
03 Keep The Car Running
04 Laïka
05 No Cars Go
06 Haiti
07 Modern Man
08 Rococo
09 The Suburbs
10 Intervention
11 Crown of Love
12 Tunnels

13 Sprawl
14 We Used To Wait
15 Power Out
16 Rebellion (Lies)
17 Month of May
18 Wake Up




35536e5165203ed672f5f1bff231c44e *VIDEO_TS\Thumbs.db
9e2fe312b61dc8e84da23267fdb92a3b *VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.BUP
9e2fe312b61dc8e84da23267fdb92a3b *VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO
61dfea31b8876c2b70cf553fe59e95e1 *VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_0.BUP
61dfea31b8876c2b70cf553fe59e95e1 *VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_0.IFO
9bed6051f1f8f214959dde0ff3ab11dc *VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_0.VOB
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1ebf9c0526179925e409e945dea27c6f *VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_3.VOB

Pulled down a torrent of this.  Headliners of the Reading and Leeds festival last month (sharing their top billling w/Blink 182 and Guns & Roses).  First off, gotta say that it's beautiful looking footage.  Those who shot this and those who rendered it into something that we can watch on our computers:Man! Really fine job guys!

I don't recognize anything in this lineage, so the links represent a complete nOOb trying to tackle yr signal flow:

DVB-T 
Nebula DigiTV 
VideoReDo 
PVAStrumento demux 
TMPGEnc

Kind of surprising that such a glamourless band can get top billing at one of the world's biggest shows...But the festival's policy seems to be- top bill one band less than a decade old alongside two legacy acts....And, unlike the 70's, 80's and 90's, where a well placed TV appearance could catapult a band to fame, a rock band really has to slog it out these days...And, keep reminding yourself, this band's latest album was released to first week sales of 156,000 and the #1 spot in the Billboard 2000...They made their way there social networking site after social networking site after social networking site.  Festival after festival after festival.  So many festivals these days.  People are wanting them more, I suppose.  And also, technology makes the logistics of herding all these people so much easier everyday. Some more of my rambling about the hundred thousand people festival HERE

As far as a review of the music goes, I have to confess I listened to about a quarter of it before tossing it in the bin.  If you, like me, have gone this long avoiding Pitchfork and the Arcade Fire, this video isn't going to turn you over.  I do remember thinking that it all might be more interesting if you could actually hear the accordion and the bowed instruments that the ladies play with such animation.  The most energetic song was "Power Out"...in which they really flash the lighting rig and streak some pixels across the Jumbotron (yeah, I know, but if you are so smart, what is it? a Barco?)

Speaking of Pitchfork, the site is leading the way forward into the future of the "dead rock image" :They now can deliver to you- POV: synchronized multiple streams of camera angles- one for each musician... so you can choose when to watch your favorite bandmember from the comfort of your virtual fandom.  No, I have not examined this yet.  Their inaugural concert was Broken Social Scene.  And I'm still trying to recover from the excitement of the Arcade Fire

((Hey Internet dorkdom, don't get so offended...and Hey----- Attention young white girls with rich parents: I really like these bands, honest...)

Cheap Trick 08/30/1979 Köln

Just back from a little bit of a break where I was rearranging my manias. The purpose of this blog and my interest in death, the law. video, and rock and roll is all up for debate. I will say that 1500 people have clicked across these pages. I've started to title the screen shots with the band names, so perhaps that will attract some more voices to the discussion.

I've very little to say about Cheap Trick. The definitive video bootleg of them is, of course, the Budokan show.  A version of which I have somewhere- along with 30 or so other Cheap Trick concert videos. And I don't even particularly care for Cheap Trick.  You see, in the era of disc collecting, you would get copies of whatever you could knowing that sometime along your collecting it would help you trade for something that you wanted to s see Now it is all torrents and harddrive space...Saving what you really want to see in the fear that one day, someone will stop seeding that special file that you really need...But then you reach that critical mass of having more than you could ever view. A sudden moment of stillness.

Nothing to say about Cheap Trick, but I do have to give a shout out to Rockpalast...Was it the greatest rock TV program of all time? It's certainly outlasted all the contenders. And never pandered to the lip synch crowd...When I see that a trader is offering up a Rockpalast show, I know it's going to be well filmed, that the band will be giving it a real effort. HERE is a list of every group that has been broadcast live on the program.

I also want to take the time to thank all of the people who have maintained the tapetrader.com database over the years.  Even though Web 2.0 is really making the damn thing look rather rickety. Even though I can't see spending a weekend burning dvds and making multiple trips to the post office- there is still a lot of information there that is going to be missed when the developers finally decide to pull the plug.  Hours of happiness and knowledge came down that pipe.  Big respect...

Nine Inch Nails 12/13/2008 Las Vegas

First off...I was actually at this show- so it's nice to have a video of it for a souvenir. I was never particularly familiar with the music, I knew the hits and heard most of the discs a couple times...but a friend who had seen NIN several times convinced me that the live shows always come correct with a great deal of energy and innovation. This turned out to be the case. While there were a few quieter pieces of music that added a little dynamics to the set, for the most part, the band stormed about the stage with all of the rebellious anger and self-loathing for which the music became famous... Equally impressive was the interactive LED rig constructed for the tour. For me, personally, it was more impressive than the actual music. I've clamped lamps onto truss for a living and seen many of the multi-million dollar Las Vegas Showroom spectacles. There were moments during this 2008 Planet Hollywood show which were some the hallucinogenic displays of light that I have ever seen (outside of when I was actually on hallucinogens, that is) Anyone would have been interested by it, regardless of their opinion of the band and the music...But I am not saying that the band was upstaged by the setting. In fact, it was just the opposite. What was so striking about the concert is that several times during the show the band's interaction with the multiple LED screens became part of the music itself.

The other thing about this show that merits discussion is how it came to exist as a video file- one of three parts of a project entitled Another Version of The Truth. It is an audience shot bootleg. But not just an ordinary one- it was edited together from footage filmed by more than a dozen audience members...The audiences' commitment to the proceedings and their unprecedented degree of involvement with it is at the cutting edge of rock and roll theater. A website was set up prior to the show and a forum was established in which all of those who were bringing in cameras coordinated which part of the stage that they were going to be responsible for filming. When the show was complete, the editing and distribution of the footage was all completed by a small army of volunteers all communicating the progress of their efforts- and the finished product, online.

Both the video and the show itself are so interesting that I foresee myself surfing through all of the discussions about how they came about in order to understand the fine details. There are other discs in the Another Version of the Truth project that I will review in months to come. And at that time, I will have hopefully digested this information in such a way that I can present it with a little more depth













Lineup

* Alessandro Cortini: Keyboards, programming, guitar, backing vocals
* Robin Finck: Guitar, backing vocals
* Josh Freese: Drums
* Justin Meldal-Johnsen: Bass, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
* Trent Reznor: Vocals, guitar, keyboards

Setlist

1. 999,999
2. 1,000,000
3. Letting You
4. Discipline
5. March of the Pigs
6. Head Down
7. The Frail
8. Closer
9. Gave Up
10. Corona Radiata
11. The Warning
12. The Great Destroyer
13. 21 Ghosts III
14. 28 Ghosts IV
15. 19 Ghosts III
16. Ghosts Piggy
17. The Greater Good
18. Pinion
19. Wish
20. Terrible Lie
21. Survivalism
22. The Big Come Down
23. 31 Ghosts IV
24. Only
25. The Hand That Feeds
26. Head Like a Hole



My first impression of "Las Vegas" was that seemed strangely different from the show as I had seen it. For instance, from where I sat, the Ghosts landscapes did not seem particularly compelling. Yet on the video, they really do have quite a beautiful dimension to them. And then, in the other direction, I remember being really struck by the weirdly distorted halos surrounding the band members in the song x, yet the video of this doesn't seem to have the same impact.

While the disc is very enjoyable and a fantastic accomplishment, I am going to embed another video from this tour for this review- The Big Come Down from the Another Version Bonus disc...When I play this for people, they eventually get sucked into how gorgeous the lights become ((fast forward to 3:00 of the clip- when the processors really start cycling))) ...From the things on Another Version that I've watched, the widescreen aspect of this video really does the best job presenting what NIN accomplished with their Lights Across the Sky tour. It's unfortunate that a 3-D recording didn't come to pass...I'd say that the current push to add a third dimension to video will make such a rendering of such a show the next step of the future.

Amon Düül 01/18/1975 Dillingen

In North America, prior to the internet, only the most weathered record store employee had any awareness of a Krautrock beyond late Kraftwerk, late Tangerine Dream and a Can comp or two.

Looking at Julian Cope's guidebook in a mid-nineties Virgin Megastore, I thought for sure that I'd never get a chance to hear all of the bands he goes on about. Damn if I was going to drop $30 (half a day as a wage slave) on some import CD without hearing it first and knowing if it would get more than a single play. And now there's blogs with file sharing links to all of this stuff, and even posts with a scan of Cope's book itself...so I can slowly make my way through his top 50 list. It's possible that, one day, I'll have built up a significant quantity of hot air for the purpose of impassioned arguments with similarly pathetic music dorks. As far as purchasing any of it, owning some physical copy, I'd have to say that it seems sadly unlikely. I thought that I would be a more positive associate to musicians at one point, but poverty has decided that this is not my fate...Perhaps some real music will appear one day and wipe away everything we thought we knew.ln
I have to say that, personally, the first couple of Amon Düül LPs don't really rise to the hype. They just aren't druggy or rocking enough for me. I thought that this live show might shine some light on the appeal of the group, but I'm still no fan. The high quality of the files making their rounds on the internet make this easy to watch, however...Its a beautifully filmed TV program with an in studio concert and lengthy discussions with the group. If you like Düül, you want this... The only bummer is the time code. Other than that the quality is ace.

running order:

01. Archy the Robot
02. Lonely Woman
03. Jam Session I
04. discussion with studio guests (part 1)
05. Surrounded By The Stars
06. discussion with studio guests (part 2)
07. Jam Session II
08. Traveller
09. discussion with studio guests (part 3)
10. La Paloma Jam

Renate Knaup Krštenschwanz - voc, percussion
Chris Karrer - guitar, sax, violin, voc
John Weinzierl - guitar, voc
Lothar Meid - bass
Falk Rogner - keys
Peter Leopold - drums
unknown keyboard guesting on La Paloma Jam

Attributes:
Video Format: PAL
Size [720 x 576] 25.00 fps 8.00 Mbps
Audio : Mpeg 1 layer 3
32 kbps 44100 Hz

What is it like? It's certainly unique. On one hand, you have the cabaret styling of the frontman. On the other, you have a group embarking on muso flights of jazz fusion. Only in the serious toned interviews do you get any impression of a hippie commune counterculture that music scribes tell us was the origin of their association. Of course, this is 1974, at this point, Germany's branch of flower power was aggressively fighting a losing battle with being marginalized out of existence.

I suppose I'll just use this post to scrabble down my impressions of the peak Kraut achievements, updated as the spirit moves me. Below is a youtube linked Rough Guide for Dummies to the Cope cited 50...I've got a much less tolerant ear than most. Kosmische= synths and a groove..Prog and Flute bore me, so much of the genre gets a quick dismissal.

1. Ash Ra Temple "Amboss"
2. Can "Mother Sky" "Mushroom"
3. Harmona "Watussi"
4. Neu "Hallogallo" "Negativland"
5. Tangerine Dream "Ashes to Ashes"

The Soul Jazz people, who rarely put out a record which doesn't have a good track on it, have just comped a krautrock sampler (misnamed as electronica because it rarely is)- I've only clicked the 30 second samples, and can say that there is a lot of variety to what's on hand

The Clash 02/01/1982 Tokyo

I play records every now and then in Vegas bars and the Clash is always a safe bet. Popular with the Warped tour set, the Hotrod/Tattoo set, the 77 forever set, the I-got-a liberal arts degree in college Loolapoolza set ...etc.etc. The only problem being that, as a snobby, elitist record collector, you tire of things that you've heard more than three or four times. I've looked around for quality Clash bootlegs a couple of times- so as to find some playable, familiar material that had the uncommon freshness of something that isn't readily available.
This Japan set is so readily available that you can find people hawking it on Amazon. Nevertheless, it is not official product. There is a recently issued live document (audio only) of a 1982 The Clash opening for the Who. I haven't got around to hearing this so I can't vouch.

This set was pro shot for TV and is very well filmed and edited. The quality of the image is fair...the file that I pulled from some random torrent had the following specs:
The_CLASH_Live_Tokyo_1982-DVD_RiP_Fr_DivX_HQ_AC3_2.0-OBG_IADV.avi
608X448, 700 MB, 29.97 fps, 1588 kbps

By the way. in Gspot, what are Len, Qf, Sar, Dar, and Par???

I expect that the only thing that has held this back from being sold through official channels is that the guitars sound dismally weak- thin and quiet. Really a shame because otherwise the performance is strong.

1. London Calling
2. Safe European Home
3. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
4. Brand New Cadillac
5. Charlie Don't Surf
6. Clampdown
7. This is Radio Clash
8. Armagideon Time
9. Jimmy Jazz
10. Tommy Gun
11. Fujiyama Mama
12. Police On My Back
13. White Riot

Vocals on Fujiyama Mama are courtesy Pearl E. Gates AKA Pearl Harbour...a punk goddess apparently linked with Simonon about this time.

Although I've taken a few stabs at becoming more familiar with the Clash beyond the official releases, I haven't gone too deeply into it. I can recall two other things that I've examined. I also have a video of a 1980 Paris show which I vaguely remember as perhaps superior to this...in terms of audio quality and energy level...I also have an audio boot of a Bond's Casino night which is of superb quality straight through and is actually holds the interest of a casual fan through the course of the whole show. The only thing to stop anyone from reviewing hundreds of hours of Clash show recordings needs nothing but bandwidth and time...For HERE is a whopping collection of links to such a collection, all in both MP3 and lossless!

Bob Dylan Eat The Document 1966

My loss of enthusiasm for rambling on about bootlegs is well timed. Because what is there to say that hasn't already been said about Bob Dylan? There are more than enough life long fans and scholars writing word after word after word about all of what he's done and what it all means. With Dylan, I actually enjoy the interpretations, the persona, more than I do listening to the songs. I got more entertainment out of Don't Look Back or No Direction Home than the LPs...
A buddy called me up and asked me if I had "Eat the Document" and I had to check; somethings I collect without really remembering and knowing what I have. Ridiculous, no? Whatever keeps you preoccupied...I had the Hard Rain TV special and the Isle of Wright, but that's it for Dylan DVDs. It showed up in the mail a few weeks later.

My impression was: it's a year later than Don't Look Back, and the success is now showing signs of becoming tedious. Whereas in the earlier film, Dylan seems to find the Dylan phenomenon a little surprising and precarious.

As for the electric controversy. What was at stake? What were they looking for that they were disappointed to lose? What was different, before and after? The birth of rock; with Dylan's conversion to be considered one of the signs...The death of rock; for which now a case could now be made - But of course, there are still bands, concerts, guitars, fame...What is different, before and after?

This disc's edition ("the videotape network") of the movie looks O.K. but the materials could really do with a little restoration work. The document was taped from a T.V broadcast- moderately sharp with rather faded color. The film itself is almost an hour. The disc I have has a considerable number of extras, they are:

dylan lennon conversation 21:09
cash documentary excerpt 3:30
johnny cash show appearance 8:17
'75 john hammond tribute 17:48
'75 NBC News clip :54
'75 ABC News clip 3:24
'79 SNL 7:01



Bob Dylan inaugurated the bootleg forty years ago...Since then, law breaking chroniclers have been continuously contributing to the public image of what the man has done. This has given birth to one of the two or three best concert databases I have seen: DVDylan. The beauty of its design is superb- A testament to the efforts of the obsessive-compulsive and their different kind of recording industry- as the consumer of commodities model of audience to a music itself undergoes transformation.

Lush 03/05/1991 London

Images...some video on your hard drive that wants looking at...some vinyl LP records in the garage that compel you to find them a new owner. There are, you know, images and real life. The one often a denial of the other...Something keeps telling you to not settle for the image, to somehow get to the place where things change you and can themselves be changed.
I review this because of it's brevity, mostly. I had the thing on in the background when I was reading something else. Apparently, Lush fans have compiled a whopping 5 DVD set of Lush footage. The person who upped the torrent for this TV show performance was doing it to provide an upgrade of material that was is in this collection. Such compulsion. Love for a rock band. People you saw twenty years ago on telly or at a gig and never actually met- though perhaps the bunch doing all this collecting were the inner circle of the earliest days. Those who were as secretly as instrumental for the existence of Lush as the musicians themselves. How far back in time does this sort of thing go?...A couple of centuries earlier there was written poetry and vicarious relationships from what people read. Cults of Hugo, Byron and the like...Before that, there are probably only political leaders, athletes, soldiers of renown, people you knew only through a crowd...saints as well, yes. Like, you go into a Hard Rock Cafe and see John Lennon's shirt behind glass- the shirt of Saint Lennon

In 91, I had the Gala CD, which I remember for "sunbathing" which had really complementary production on the sparse wisp of a song. I did some time at a college radio station and probably heard a few seconds of all of their tracks. If Lush is unknown to you, I'd first up recommend the remixes of the "Last Night" single. I hate strings in pop- but damn if they don't fly in perfect over the sequenced rhythm tracks in this supremely pretty tune.

The group do a good job with the first song in this gig, but I feel like the singer goes a little flat in the second. Still, nice enough distraction for the length of the clip.

If this blog were made up reviews of things you could buy, there would be a reason for it....Consumer reviews...Where can you get the most delivery for you entertainment dollar? But all of this can't be bought, and the reason for reviewing it is elusive. The reason for writing any of this escapes me: Why do I bother? Time better spent elsewhere, perhaps. I thought, the other day, using Exactfile, that the hashes used on the files could be their unique entries in a database- such that every digital file in which a certain celebrity is tagged would be uniquely identified and then you could eventually have the complete collection of every existing moment in which that celebrity was recorded. I thought for a moment about learning enough MySQL to construct the basis of such a thing...with the idea that understanding it might eventually be useful in some other way. Eventually such databases will exist not just for celebrities, but for everyday people.



Speaking of databases, I paid my first visit to songkick, the other day, which seems pretty well poised to beat pollstar as the most information rich, live rock show resource...pretty fascinating. Wondering about how this is all going to spiral into the future makes you wonder what kind of interface exists for Sporting Events...Team stuff would change its geography as seasons progress