Arlo Guthrie
Forbes Hall @ The Clark Center for the Performing Arts
Arroyo Grande, CA
April 8, 2015

16 BIT

Source: Neumann AK-40s (ORTF In Hat) > LC3 > KM-100s > Beyer MV-100 > Tascam DR-100mkII @ 24 bit/48 kHz

Mastering: .WAV's > iZotope RX3 Advanced v3.00.695 (declick) > Sound Forge Pro 10.0a (minor edits, normalize, & fades) >
WAV > Audacity (Track Splits, Down Sample / Dither To 16 bit / 44.1k) > FLAC
(Level 8) via xACT 2.35) > FLAC Tags Via xACT 2.35

Location: 7th row, Center Section, three seats in from left-side aisle
Recorded, Audacity track splits / down sample, and FLAC tags by: OldNeumanntapr

Mastered by: Dennis Orr

Setlist:
Set I:

01. Motorcycle Song
02. talk / band intros
03. Chilling Of The Evening
04. talk
05. Darkest Hour
06. talk
07. Me And My Goose
08. talk
09. Ocean Crossing
10. Last Train
11. Pig Meat Papa*
12. talk / Wavy Gravy story, Woodstock story, Checker cab story
13. Coming Into Los Angeles

Set II:
01. Alice’s Restaurant
02. talk
03. St. James Infirmary**
04. talk
05. Hear You Sing Again***
06. City Of New Orleans****
07. talk
08. Highway In The Wind
09. This Land Is Your Land***
10. talk
11. My Peace^*

* Leadbelly, circa 1935
** Cisco Houston
*** Woody Guthrie
**** Steve Goodman
^* Words By Woody Guthrie, Music By Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie - lead vocals, guitars, & keyboards
Abe Guthrie - keyboards
Bobby Sweet - lead guitar & violin
Terry A La Berry - drums

Taper Notes:
I hadn’t seen Arlo in almost 17 years, since he played the old Cuesta College Auditorium in San Luis Obispo. I noticed right away that Arlo appeared to have lost weight since the last time I’d seen him. His voice was a little craggy, which he attributed to being sick.

The night before the show I burned CD's of the two previous Arlo shows that I had recorded (3/23/91 Ventura Theater and 10/23/98 Cuesta College), in hopes of giving them to Arlo. I wasn’t sure if he would meet folks after the show, like he did at Cuesta in ’98, so luckily I was able to stop by the back doors of the Clark Center at around 3 pm. I was able to give the discs to Arlo’s bus driver and he said that he would pass them along.

My friend Dave bought four tickets back in November or December, when they went on sale, so I knew I had a good reserved seat waiting. Even though Arlo is reputed to allow taping, I decided to go stealth because it would be easier. Plus, my seat was about 10 feet or so in front of the board, which is where I figured to set up if I went the open taping route.

I wasn’t sure the venue would allow me to bring in a mic stand, and even if they would have I thought the possibility was high, being it was a sold out show, that someone in the back would complain that my microphones were blocking their sight lines. When we walked out after the show I noticed that Arlo’s sound crew had brought in their own mixing board and lighting gear, and the house board was covered up in the spot where I had set up before, for Dark Star Orchestra in 2007. So, it was a good decision to run stealth. Fortunately the crowd around me was very quiet. One guy behind me coughed a couple of times but it wasn’t intrusive. There was a baby that cried once or twice during the second set but fortunately it was way in the back of the hall.

Being a multi-media presentation, Arlo opened the first set with a claymation video of the Motorcycle song, complete with Arlo as a pickle riding his Honda and falling off the cliff and smashing the police car. The band came out, in the dark, while the short film was playing, and synched their playing with the film soundtrack. There was also a cartoon later depicting a little boy and his pet goose, which Arlo used to highlight a children’s song about the goose being cooked and eaten for dinner. ‘Coming Into Los Angeles’ closed the first set, which is a favorite of mine.

The second set opened with ‘Alice’s Restaurant’, with four part harmony and full orchestration. ;) Arlo had film clips from the 1969 film ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ playing behind the band during this part of the show. He remarked to the crowd that Officer Obie, as well as the judge, were real people playing themselves and were not actors. Arlo said that Obie told him when the film was being made that if anyone was going to make a fool out of him he should do it himself. He said that he and Obie actually developed a friendship that lasted until the officer’s death.

Arlo played ‘The City Of New Orleans’, which was written by Steve Goodman. He mentioned that Goodman wanted him to pass the song on to Johhny Cash but Cash wasn’t interested, having done a recent trains album. ‘That was fortunate for me,’ Arlo said. He also played ’St. James Infirmary’, which I don’t know if I have heard before.

Arlo played a plethora of acoustic guitars, including a 12 string that seemed to be electric/acoustic, which had a sound hole that was high up in the front corner of the body. He fiddled with one acoustic six string guitar which needed some adjustments and remarked to the crowd, ‘Funny, I tuned it last year.’ He also played keyboards. His son Abe played keyboards and he had a lead guitarist who also played violin. His drummer was surrounded by a clear Plexiglas sound containment wall.

All in all it was a good concert evening in a really small intimate theater. The theatre at the Clark Center holds a little over 600 people.

Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. ;)
DO Convert To MP3!