Good Listening: Got Some Live Stuff If Ya Want It

From time to time, I get emails about some of the more popular live shows that I’ve posted here at ATV for download, either because there is a broken link or because they want to thank me for the post. (Gratitude on the internet, folks. It really does happen occasionally.)

Two of my personal favorites come from the same club in San Francisco and were broadcast back to back at the end of April in 1995. On the first night, the Jayhawks took the stage at Slim’s for a set in support of their latest album at the time, Tomorrow The Green Grass. The following night, Del Amitri were onstage playing songs from their entire catalog including Twisted, which was their most recent disc of the moment.

I have a special affection for the Del Amitri set, since it is very representative of the tour, which I saw three times. I also caught the Jayhawks in this same time period, but their performance was abbreviated, since they were performing as part of a three band bill with Soul Asylum and Matthew Sweet (and it was an awesome night, indeed).

The Del Amitri recording is sourced from a DAT of the FM broadcast. Before it was so easy to download live shows on the internet, I did a lot of tape trading, eventually moving into the digital realm with DAT tapes. I did a string of trades with a San Francisco taper who had great recordings of a lot of the local broadcasts. A lot of those tapes of mine have disappeared into the ether, including a dada live performance from the El Subliminoso era which I really wish that I still had. It clocked in at about seventy minutes and although it had quite a bit of static, it was awesome. Wish I could hear it again, so if you have it, drop me a line!

The Jayhawks recording is one that I had for quite a few years and then discovered that when I had burned CDs of the show, I somehow ended up with gaps in between the songs on the second disc. That has been fixed with the newly revised post (linked above) which uses a new source that as I recall, came from a pre-FM recording and if memory serves me correctly, it includes some songs in the encore which were not broadcast. Either way, it’s the complete set and captures a great performance.

(And wouldn’t you love to get another Jayhawks bootleg from the Louris era ‘Hawks? You got it.)

Hall & Oates has been another topic of recent discussion and a show that I get a good amount of email about is their “Acoustic Power” bootleg, which I had a recording of for quite a while that was several cassettes removed from the master, as all good bootlegs are. I upgraded with a better source which sounds like it’s almost directly from the original Japanese television broadcast (which again, I’d love to have a copy of…..). I’ll kick myself for a long time for missing this tour, but it’s nice to have this bootleg to enjoy at the very least.

So there’s a few things for you to listen to….hopefully you’ll enjoy at least one of them!

3 Comments on “Good Listening: Got Some Live Stuff If Ya Want It

  1. It’s been a while, but I’m 99% sure I found this blog from that Del Amitri post many moons ago. Saw that tour in London in July 1995. Amazing night. And Justin Currie has a new album out later this year. Thanks for the post.

  2. Greg, thanks for the good words! I’m aware of and looking forward to the new Justin solo disc! Loved the first two!

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