GRAHAM PARKER
solo acoustic / electric

personnel:
Graham Parker

event: WBOS Concert Series
venue: International Place
location: Boston MA
date: 2000-01-06 [January 6, 2000]

source: audience MASTER
recording location: front array of portable chairs on R hand side of stage [cf. pictures folder]
recording gear: Sony ECM 909 one-point stereo microphone > Sony videocamera (exact model # not remembered)
lineage: audience MASTER > Sound Forge 4.5 [digital conversion] > CDR [unknown make & model outboard burner] > Exact Audio Copy [wav files extracted uncompressed] > De-Glitch [glitches detected & corrected] > Sound Forge 11.0 [minor edits] > Traders' Little Helper [flac files level 8 created, SBEs checked, checksums created] > torrent creation > www
total running time: 62' 21"
file size: 354 MB
sample rate: 16 bit / 44.1 kHz [CD compliant]
imaging: stereo
sound quality: 9.5 (out of 10)
recorded and mastered: Isotope Feeney
title: Live! Alone In Cafeteria
artwork: yes

free lunchtime concert presented by local radio station
solo acoustic / electric performance.

01 introduction
- - Obsessed With Aretha
02 Durban Poison
03 Don't Let It Break You Down
04 Love Gets You Twisted
05 Fool's Gold
06 Christmas Is For Mugs
07 Between You And Me
08 Syphilis & Religion
09 Watch The Moon Come Down (Revisited)
10 Cupid [a cappella]
11 Lady Doctor
12 Burnin' On A Higher Flame
13 Get Started. Start A Fire
14. Local Girls
15 Heat Treatment

For a number of years, local radiostation WBOS sponsored free promotional concerts; some (like this) at lunchtime, others ---during warmer weather --- outdoors after work. The series were presented under a bunch of umbrella designations, one of the more ostentatious being Music Festival for The Earth (which must have succeeded in its purpose to some degree, as the earth IS still here!). At this juncture it was touted as merely the WBOS Concert Series. Happily I was working nites during this period, so I could easily go to lunchtime presentations. Lucky for me that I was, 'cuz even if I'd had a 9 to 5 job I probably would've gone anyway - - - and eventually gotten fired for taking too many 'long lunches.' The station went thru a number of format changes over time: easy listening, disco, oldies, country - - - whatever they thought would make a buck any given point, I guess. This golden period was their adult contemporary phase, and the acts they presented during these freebies --- Squeeze, Hot Tuna, Nick Lowe, Roger McGuinn, Al Stewart, Jewel, Rosanne Cash, Badfinger, Sheryl Crow, Clarence Clemons, Nils Lofgren, Holmes Brothers, Spirit, Robert Randolph, Todd Rundgren, etc. etc.--- reflected that playlist. The last time I checked that FM frequency out of curiosity, it was playing David lee Roth and Megadeth. I guess the days of Nick Lowe and Al Stewart [my taste] are long gone - - - but they were quite the resource for live recording opportunities while they lasted.

The longest-utilized setting for the lunchtime concerts was the waiting area/food court at Boston's South Station railroad terminal. That was kinda cool in a weird way - - - there were train announcements over the house PA squeezed in between songs. Or sometimes during!! But for some reason (unknown to me) the locale unexpectedly switched to International Place: a stodgy business office edifice just a 5-10 minute walk from South Station. The vibe there was much more corporate and non-rocking. On the periphery of the makeshift performance area were a salad bar and a food court, where tomorrow's Movers & Shakers discussed football over Au Bon Pain southwest chicken. Where are they now??

PERFORMANCE NOTES
I was focused on the proceedings onstage, and wasn't looking around that much, so I don't really have a sense of what percentage of the audience was composed of Graham Parker fans who somehow managed to sneak away at lunchtime, and what percentage composed of investment bankers who had wandered down from their desks at lunchtime and just got curious what the noise was all about. There were people eating at surrounding tables, completely ignoring the music. Perhaps aware of the suit-and-tie contingent, GP may have chosen a slightly tamer-than-usual songlist. No songs about abortion. And he did catch himself at one point and swallow an f-bomb just in time. (He substituted the word 'shit,' which I guess is a little more suitable (ha-ha) for the corporate crowd.) Nonetheless he DID include the (unreleased) song Syphilis & Religion for a dose (ha-ha-ha) of oldschool Angry Young Man attitude.

RECORDING NOTES
The makeshift stage was set up in the atrium of the lobby. Very high ceiling, reflective surfaces made for echoey, ping-y sound. I was seated frontmost in a group of portable dining chairs (prob. gleeped from the foodcourt reserve stash, methinks) right up against the R hand side of stage. Clear shot of PA, no obstructions, no chatty-cathy types in my vicinity. Exploitation gold.

MIXDOWN NOTES
Recording is nice and clear. I don't remember doing much except encoding it to wav files via Sound Forge.

WARTS
A few minor mike bumps at beginning (before music starts)

The first verse of Cupid = M.I.A. Some kind of technical problem (which I cannot now recall). Possibly tape swop? (which doesn't make sense only 40 minutes into proceedings, but if you factor in the soundcheck . . .)

BENEFACTION GUARANTEED
Please don't convert this (to lossy or Scientology!) or upload it elsewhere.

- IF -

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show:











GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (19).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (2).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (20).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (21).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (22).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (23).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (24).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (3).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (4).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (5).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (6).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (7).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (8).jpg
GrahamParker2000-01-06InternationalPlaceBostonMA (9).jpg