Thursday, April 4, 2024

The Magpie Salute 2017-09-10 The Catalyst Santa Cruz, CA

The Magpie Salute
The Catalyst
Santa Cruz, CA
September 10, 2017

** 16 BIT **

Source:  Sonic Studios DSM-6P w/3-way lo-cut filter (@ 80hz, middle setting) > Tascam DR-2d @ 16 bit/44.1 kHz
Mastering:  .WAV > Sound Forge Pro 11.0 (Build 299) [iZotope Mastering Suite (declick); minor edits, normalize, & fades] > CDWav tracking) >                Trader's Little Helper (level 5) > FLAC > TagScanner 6.0.18 (tagging)
Location:  Left side of the balcony, 15 yards from the left stack, Marc's side, mics mounted on the "blue head" sitting on a table (see photo)
Recorded by:  Steve "ballsdeep" Hagar
Mastered by:  Dennis Orr

Setlist:
01 Intro Music
02 Omission
03 P.25 London
04 What Is Home?
05 One Mirror Too Many
06 The Vulture (1)
07 Down The Road (2)
08 Feel
09 Times Passes Slowly (2)
10 Chat
11 Last Time Again
12 Bring On Bring On
13 Title Song
14 A Change Of Mind (1)
15 Music That Will Lift Me (2)
16 Willin'
17 Gasoline Alley
18 Oh Josephine
19 Halfway To Everywhere
20 Paint An 8
21 Chat & Band Intros
- Encore -
22 She Gave Good Sunflower
23 Sting Me

(1) Marc - lead vocals
(2) Rich - lead vocals

Rich Robinson - guitars & vocals
Marc Ford - guitars & vocals
John Hogg - lead vocals & percussion
Sven Pipien - bass
Joe Magistro - drums
Chris Konte - keyboards
Nico Bereciartua - guitars & mandolin (on "Gasoline Alley")
Charity White - backing vocals
Adrien Reju - backing vocals
Katrine Ottosen - backing vocals, harp, & melodica

Show Notes:
I could go on for pages about my experience on Sunday, September 10, 2017.

Got to share some conversation with first Marc, Charity and Chris...then Rich came out, and I *had* to thank him for getting this music back out on the road.

Which then turned into soundcheck permissions (this will see the light eventually, likely after these 10 shows are over), and a pretty sweet photo op (which IS included here).

Beyond that, I'm not sure if there are enough superlatives to sum up what I witnessed onstage tonight.

While the crowd was horribly sparse (Rich joked pre-show about being in enemy territory (that being Santa Cruz, full of gnome piss and owls), but you would never know from the effort that the band left onstage for the fans who did show up. Rich joked with us too, saying "Welcome to our secret show, we only wanted you here anyways", "Welcome to our own Studio 54", "We're gonna record an album of Molly Hatchett covers...that sound like Prince"...

A few highlights from my sleepy mind:

- "Willin'"...the BEST version these ears have ever heard. Rich slips into a lower register for this one, and his enunciation of the words is a welcome respite from previous versions with Chris' caterwaul. Goosebumps on goosebumps, and tear-worthy. No bullshit.

- "Gasoline Alley"...immediately after the above song, John just *owned* it. To the point that Rich told the crowd "We're just gonna have him sing it again".

Speaking of again...

- "LAST TIME AGAIN"!!!!!...holy fucking mother-of-Jesus. When the sparse intro started, and plowed into the chorus, it was as if we were somewhere else. On mescaline. With geisha. Then we were brought back to reality with the plaintive ending. It just kept building, layer after layer. A ridiculous amount of texture, in fact, they had texture to burn on this one

- "Title Song"...ethereal, spacey and sincere, all in one 7 minute ball of wax. Every challenge Rich seems to throw at this cat named John, he answers the call. Take a listen to see what I mean.

- the trifecta of TSAOC 'non hits'...not necessary to name them, but all 3 of them were fresh, powerful and full of ear candy. Like 'Snickers in your ears" candy.

Could go on and on, but I won't.

Instead, I'll cut to the chase. Dennis is your real hero in all this. And maybe the internets.  Screw Gates and Allen, but be sure to give Dennis a gracious shout-out. Or at least a "thanks Dennis".

"Team HagOrr" seems to be hammering them out...and there's still SIX more to go.

I've already fucked off, but you can tell me to do so again. I'm quite used to it at this point.

Time to rest my head and decide if I wanna fight SF city traffic for a one-two punch of Mavis Staples in Petaluma (6:00-8:30) and Steve Winwood in Santa Rosa tomorrow (his daughter's opening set starts at 8:00). The Mavis show is for free; Winwood is not.  And 18 miles separate the 2 venues.

And Melissa Etheridge is soon on her way to my home state for shows this weekend...

More.

Later.

(As there always is).

-ballsdeep OVER/UNDER/SIDEWAYS/OUT!!!!!

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