The Magic Band - Leeds Irish Centre, UK (2011)

The Magic Band
2011-12-08
The Irish Centre
Leeds, UK

01. Introduction
02. Steal Softly Thru Snow
03. Abba Zaba
04. Low Yo Yo Stuff
05. Diddy Wah Diddy
06. Smithsonian Institute Blues (The Big Dig)
07. Bass Solo
08. When it Blows it Stacks
09. Nowadays a Women's Gotta Hit a Man
10. Clear Spot
11. Circumstances
12. Kandy Korn *
13. Hair Pie **
14. Drum Solo **
15. On Tomorrow **
16. Alice in Blunderland **
17. My Human Gets Me Blues **
18. Suction Prints
19. Grow Fins
20. The Floppy Boot Stomp [take one]
21. The Floppy Boot Stomp [take two]
22. Click Clack
23. Electricity
24. Moonlight on Vermont
25. Big Eyed Beans From Venus

* Drumbo takes the drums mid song
** Drumbo on drums

Total [01:54:25]

John 'Drumbo' French - vocals, drums
Mark 'Rockette Morton' Boston - bass
Denny 'Feelers Reebo' Walley - guitar
Eric Klerks - guitar
Craig Bunch - drums

As with the Liverpool show at the Kazimier, I travelled down from Glasgow to watch and record The Magic Band at Leeds Irish Centre. In comparison, the two recordings are completely different styles of live tape – both with their own qualities. The Liverpool show was recorded from the back of the floor area, near the soundboard and above the audience giving it a sound quality that certainly has a degree of 'distance' and space. This Leeds show, by contrast, is recorded at the front, near the right-hand PA speaker, giving this recording a much more 'immediate' sound. It's very clear audio and at times could be mistaken for a soundboard recording as the sound is so direct. A recording like this would have been impossible at the Liverpool show because there were large groups of people having drinks and conversations around the PA system so the recording would have been ruined. Understandably, Liverpool was a Saturday night show with the atmosphere to match. The Leeds audience weren't quite as wild on a Thursday night so that made for more favourable taping conditions - there's hardly any talking recorded during this show, which was a great relief as I really wanted to get a good capture of The Magic Band. Unfortunately there are a few instances of 'crackle' which have been introduced by either a dry contact or loose wire or something - but luckily these are few. Disappointingly, Moonlight on Vermont is a bit of a right-off due to several drop outs but everything else sounds very good.

The band was in great form as per usual and John 'Drumbo' French comments that he's "never felt such team work from a group, ever" and that this band has really got it together. All the guys looked really happy to be playing and enjoyed the Leeds audience - this was their third time playing Leeds since reforming in 2001! As this was the last show of the 'mini-tour' Drumbo seemed to be losing his voice a little but this was just when speaking to the audience rather than when singing - as ever, Drumbo's vocals were top notch! There's also a great extended drum intro on Abba Zaba.

It looks like this line up will probably be back in the UK in the first half of 2012 as their date at All Tomorrow's Parties (ATP) was postponed until March, hopefully they'll stick a few extra dates in there too - they should really come further north this time!

IN MEMORY OF DON VAN VLIET, AKA CAPTAIN BEEFHEART (1941-2010)

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