canspice.org

Following Geof’s tradition, I’m going to highlight some of the new music I acquire over the preceding week or so. I don’t buy music all that often — the last time I bought an album in a store was over Christmas holidays. Instead I download bootlegs. From legitimate sources, and from bands that don’t discourage fans swapping concert recordings. Here are two that I grabbed recently:

• John Mayer, Hotel Cafe, West Hollywood, California, April 10, 2006. Under the moniker of “Bill Buchanan”, Mayer performed in a small venue with only bassist Pino Palladino joining him. This is a preview concert made up of songs from his upcoming album “Continuum”.

  I’ve never listened to John Mayer before, other than that “Your Body Is A Wonderland” song that’s so popular, and I’m terribly impressed with this concert. It’s an excellent soundboard recording that shows off Mayer’s guitar and songwriting skills in the best possible light. The audience noise is a tad loud at times, but only during interludes between songs. You truly get the feeling you’re there, with the occasional crash of bottles as the barkeep throws another empty into the bin, with snatches of conversations between audience members, and even a cell phone ringing. The songs are excellent, with nary a miss amongst them. Mayer reveals his blues influences in most of the songs, with obvious leanings to light contemporary rock. If this concert is any indication of the quality of the album, then the album will be excellent. Of course, with the album you won’t get the audience or the flashes of Mayer’s sense of humour that come out between songs. “When you’re a kid and you get a tennis ball to the nuts, it’s one of the worst feelings in the world, but as all men will tell you there’s no better feeling than when it stops hurting.” Good stuff.

• The Tragically Hip, Royal Theatre, Victoria, BC, July 13, 1991. A relatively short concert by Hip standards at just under an hour and a half, it still manages to tear through 19 songs. Fans familiar with Hip concerts will realize that this means nearly every song performed is as recorded in the studio, with few Gordisms. In fact, the only songs to come in over six minutes are “Fight”, “New Orleans Is Sinking”, and “I’ll Make Love To You Anytime”, the latter of which is only lengthy because of the audience clapping and cheering for an encore. Musically it’s an excellent concert. “Boots Or Hearts” is bluesier than ever. “Trickle Down” has a small monologue about morphing into an ape, and “NOIS” has an excellent extended Gord monologue. The recording is a little unfortunate, suffering from tape distortions at the beginning and drifting from left to centre through the concert. There’s a lack of high-end and an abundance of low-end, and there’s notable tape hiss throughout. Still, a worthwhile download for those who like vintage live Hip.

  As a bonus, the download comes with four songs recorded in 2002. Again from Victoria, these were recorded from outside the concert area as the Hip did soundchecks. The first two, “The Dire Wolf” and “Lake Fever”, have a lot of traffic noise in them. The last two, “Bobcaygeon” and “700 Foot Ceiling”, sound like they were recorded in the building but outside of the concert hall. If these four tracks were available for download by themselves I probably wouldn’t grab them, but they’re a nice addition to this package.

  As with all torrents hosted on The Hip Tracker, you’ll need an account to see this concert’s details. Don’t worry, they’re free.

If you want either of these concerts and there aren’t any seeders, shoot me an email.