Acid Mothers Temple May 2nd, 2012 Johnny Brenda's Philadelphia, PA Source: Roland Edirol R-09 (onboard mics, low-cut on, AGC off) > WaveLab (Puncher (medium density, 75% effect, 0% output gain) + SL-1 StereoExpander (100%)) > GoldWave (volume brought up to 97.5% of maximum peak) > CDWAV (tracks split and saved as .FLAC level 8 ) > foobar2000 (Tags + ReplayGain) Location: In a stunning reversal of typical ZP @ JB taping practice, this time we're at house front-left, about ten feet in front of Tsuyama, five feet in front of the soundboard. Taper: ZaPenguin (zappa.penguin(AT)gmail.com or http://db.etree.org/ZappaPenguin) SBD man: Paul SOUND QUALITY: B+. Due to circumstances beyond my control (circumstances, in this case, being the hundred-plus Philly Phanatics who swallowed up my path from the soundboard to my usual balcony perch), I ended up having to record this from basically the opposite end of the venue from my usual Taping Perch™. The result is a somewhat more-boomy soundscape dominated by Tsuyama, with Kawabata's guitar a bit distant. Certainly listenable, and a lot better than what I was worried this would sound like - give the Johnny Brenda's sound team some major credit, because the sound around the mixing console absolutely EATS. Between the balcony overhang and the layout of the PA speakers, it ends up sounding even more boomy and indistinct to human ears than the sound at my infamous former arch-nemesis, the Red and the Black. The fact that it sounds so good for the rest of the oddly-shaped venue is testament to their highly skilled guesswork. Thankfully, however, the sound of the recording is much more clear than what my ears were hearing! Bottom line is that there's a weird deadzone in the spectrum, where it feels like I added cheesy artificial bass boost - but the only post-processing here was the usual stereo separation and slight compression (of the sonic variety). THE BAND: Tsuyama Atsushi: monster bass, voice, cosmic joker Tabata Mitsuru : guitar, maratab Higashi Hiroshi: synth, guitar, voice, dancin'king Shimura Koji: drums, latino cool Kawabata Makoto: guitar, voice, speed guru TRACK LIST: CD1 [45:04] 01. "The Last Jam" [20:01] 02. Shine On You Crazy Dynamite [25:03] CD2 [60:14] 03. "Tsuyama's Last Nocturne" [4:13] 04. > Pink Lady Lemonade [12:03] 05. > Om Riff (Gong's "Master Builder") [9:23] 06. > Pink Lady Lemonade [5:39] 07. > "A Brief Visual Interlude" [1:00] 08. > Cometary Orbital Drive > Speed Guru [14:56] 09. Audience & Tuning [2:17] 10. Chinese Flying Saucer [10:42] Note: Om Riff, also known as OM Riff, also known as Om (or OM) Riff From the Cosmic Inferno, is a reworking of Gong's "Master Builder". MINI BIO: "Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (and subsequent offshoots) is a Japanese psychedelic band founded in 1995 by members of the Acid Mothers Temple soul-collective. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career featured many musicians but by 2004 the line-up had coalesced with 4 core members and frequent vocal guests. The band have a reputation for phenomenal live shows, and releasing frequent albums on a number of international record labels, as well as the Acid Mothers Temple family record label which was established in 1998 to document the activities of the whole collective." - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which every 14 year old has edited. BAND PAGE: http://www.acidmothers.com SHOW NOTES: It's been a real unproductive time of things lately on the ZP shows front. Rather than waste any more time than absolutely necessary, I'll just keep my rundown brief - and bullet-pointedly so at that! - The opening acts for this leg are The Clang Quartet (The Clang Quartet is to Merzbow what Stryper is to Poison) and Phantom Family Halo (sort of like Indian Jewelry - think Hawkwind meets the Melvins). - If the Tsarship Unicorn and Mopar Mountain one-offs don't count, I think the Family Halo is my favorite AMT opener. - The drive up was uneventful, and big props to LqStuart for playing the ever-critical chauffeur role - the only thing about AMT at Johnny Brenda's that I don't like is having to drive to Philly, and LqStuart removed that hurdle. - As mentioned above, the Philly Temple Phanatics sorta made my escape from the soundboard to my typical balcony position impossible. I spent most of the show freaking out over how terrible this recording would sound, and must admit I'm actually somewhat pleasantly surprised at how listenable this turned out. - Unfortunately, and perhaps - depending on how emotionally invested one is in the sounds of soundboard recordings - tragically, no SBD from this show. Paul was happy and completely accomodating as always, no complaints there - but for some reason all I got was ninety minutes of line noise and slight static. Probably somebody flicked the wrong switch on the board at some point, because it was fine last year! - The opening jam has really, really stretched out - used to be about 7 minutes on other tours, now I clock it at 20 minutes. Maybe they're throwing some medley in there? - Tabata is a great addition. He frees up Higashi to focus on synthesizer punctuation, and the guitar synth is just awesome to hear - it took me a while before I actually figured out what was going on. - I like the new song, Shine On You Crazy Dynamite. - I really like the Om Riff in the middle of Pink Lady Lemonade - a well-deserved resurrection of a great song, and the band really takes it to transcendental places. - I absolutely do not like how Pink Lady stops cold before we go on a Cometary Orbital Drive. Not one bit. You can rest assured that I am writing a very strong letter to Acid Mother Management, as well as my local Congress-people, as well as that one dude who hangs out in front of the 7/11 in White Flint, to this effect. Because my opinion Definitely Matters. - Sure, some might see it as an artistic "death and rebirth" sort of thing. I don't care. I don't want to hear it. The sai-guitar solo which previously occupied this spot was a much better way of letting Pink Lady rest, and usher us in to our Orbital Drive. Ugh. - I mean, yes, I get that Kawabata already did a sai solo in Shine On, and that the sai solo also doubles as an opportunity to tune, but you know what? I'm hopping mad. - That minute or so of dead air is quite possibly the worst thing to happen to music since Dylan crashed his motorcycle; or Hendrix got drunk and took a nap; or Skip Spence met Matthew Katz, except I guess if that hadn't happened Moby Grape wouldn't have even been around to get completely violated by Katz for decades, but I'm so angry I can barely see right now so let's just agree that Matthew Katz had nothing to do with the founding of Moby Grape, no matter what the lies of history tell us. - But at least here in Philly, the band took the opportunity to goof off for the video cameras which projected a psychedelic, edge-enhanced version of the stage behind the stage. Yes, a middle finger was extended. - Johnny Brenda's has a laser show now! Though they should probably consider mounting the projectors a bit higher - not quite sure if the intent is to speckle dots on the backs of audience members. I guess it prevents blinding the band? REQUESTS & REMINDERS: Do not sell this recording. Do not buy this recording. Do not sell this recording, then buy it from yourself. If you're plugged into a soundboard, and the soundboard op has turned the little knob all the way to max, and you've turned your levels to 100, and you're still barely breaking -40dB, then chances are you're not actually getting music. CREDITS: Paul - psychedelic freak-out sound-wrangling and lighting effects The Philly Temple Phanatics - psychedelic freak-out slam-dancing and sweatmops LqStuart - psychedelic freak-out dump-taker and driver Torrented by the taper: ZaPenguin email - zappa.penguin(AT)gmail.com web - http://db.etree.org/zappapenguin (always woefully out of date) Band page: http://www.acidmothers.com