DeVotchKa
2021-09-03
Bottlerock Festival
Plaza Stage
Napa, CA

SOURCE:
SP-CMC-8 (w/Mods) > Sony PCM-M10 > Sandisk Mini-SD Card (32gb - Class 10)

TRANSFER:
.WAV (24 Bit) > Adobe Audition 2021 CC (normalize/amplify/tracking/downsampling/dithering) > .WAV (16 Bit) > Trader's Little Helper > FLAC (Level 8)

SETLIST:

01. The Alley
02. Let Me Sleep
03. Head Honcho
04. Along the Way
05. Queen of the Surface Streets
06. Contrabanda
07. All the Sand in the Sea
08. The Clockwise Witness
09. 100 Other Lovers
10. Love My Way (The Psychedelic Furs cover)
11. The Enemy Guns

NOTES:

I hadn't seen DeVotchka since Coachella 2008 (in fact that was the only time I had seen them until this Bottlerock performance), and when I saw them on the lineup, I was sold, simple as that. I absolutely love this band and their sound. I've listened to them for almost 20 years, and they never fail to break your heart, yet mend it and make you smile at the same time. It's rather amazing. They were easily my most anticipated act of the day (perhaps of the entire festival). I actually really like the stage they were on too, as it's the one that has a permanent roof/shade structure and feels very hidden and intimate. I only wish they had been booked later in the day, maybe around sundown? That would have been ideal.

As for the performance and the recording, well....the sound at this stage had something funky going on. Whoever was mixing the FOH, imho, did not have a clue about what they were doing. Some instruments you couldn't hear. The vocals were WAY TOO LOW. Seriously, the vocals needed a good cranking and never received it, and I have no idea why. So the sound was not ideal and it shows on the recording as parts are a little quiet or muffled and the vocals are hard to hear sometimes. We also got stuck around some typical snobby wino Napa assholes, who literally decided to talk and not even face the stage while the band was playing! What the fuck!!?? God I hate these kind of rude assholes at festival shows. If you plan on talking to your friends, drinking your overpriced wine, and not even face the stage/band, then please, for the love of God and all of us who came to fucking hear the actual show, go stand in the fucking back and leave us alone. We had to move around a bit to find a better spot and eventually did.

Lastly, and I just have to mention this, they did not play "How It Ends" and it really broke my heart. For months, hell, for years, I've been wanting to hear this song live (they didn't play it at Coachella 2008) and I was sure they were going to play it here (they've been closing all their sets with it on this past tour of theirs), but with 5 mins to go and "The Enemy Guns" starting, I knew it was not to be and my heart literally sank. If they had played it, I would have easily called this my favorite set, and maybe even gave the entire weekend experience a 100 out of a 100, but this missing piece stung, so I can't call it perfect. Oh well.


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