Lou Reed 2000-03-31 New York audience recording from 1st generation cassette

"...we paid to have these 7 assholes imported from New Jersey tonight....give them a big round of applause...."
(....Lou responds to hecklers shouting for "Bruce"...)

PLAY LOUD

The Knitting Factory
New York
31 March 2000

disc 1
01: Paranoia Key Of E 5.09
02: Turn To Me 4.59
03: Modern Dance 5.53
04: Ecstasy 4.35
05: All Tomorrow's Parties 5.10
06: Future Farmers Of America 3.41
07: Turning Time Around 4.15
08: Romeo Had Juliette 4.14
09: Riptide 5.31
10: Rock Minuet 8.41
11: Mystic Child 5.54

disc 2
01: Mad 7.32
02: The Last Shot 4.04
03: Tatters 8.10
04: Set The Twilight Reeling 7.08
05: Dime Store Mystery 6.12
06: The Blue Mask 6.47
07: Hooky Wooky 4.02
08: Who Am I 6.09
09: Sweet Jane 5.03
Cuts around 10, 11 khz.

Lou Reed: guitar, vocals
Mike Rathke: guitar
Fernando Saunders: bass, bowed instruments, backing vocals
Tony "Thunder" Smith: drums

lineage: 1st generation Maxell XL11 cassette(s) - Pioneer CT-S670D player - wav - flac (level 8) - you

original audience recording by LB
transfer to wav August 2009 by lurid_uk
uploaded to Dime August 2009 by lurid_uk

Lou was scheduled to do 3 "warm up" shows at the Knitting Factory in preparation for his world tour to support "Ecstasy". My friend Garry and
I threw caution to the wind - we booked rooms at the Hotel Chelsea and flew over to see the 2nd and 3rd of the 3 shows. We were very pleased
to find that the Knitting Factory only holds about 400 people, all standing. For the 01 April show, we were about 15 feet back from the stage, and
on 02 April I was standing so close that I could practically have stretched out and touched Fernando's foot. The volume level was unbelievable,
which didn't make it easy to get a good recording. I'd never seen Lou in such an intimate setting before, and it was better than I could have
imagined (which at least made up for the outrageous cost of staying at the Chelsea Hotel!). The passion and power of his (and the band's)
performance doesn't really come across on the recordings. I had been listening to an advance CDr copy of "Ecstasy" for a few weeks, so I was
familiar with the new songs, but it was very different to see them performed right there in front of you. I certainly wasn't prepared for the "in your
face" intensity of "Rock Minuet", and nothing could have prepared me for the full frontal assault of "The Blue Mask".

As usual when he plays "at home", Lou seems very comfortable on his opening night - joking with the audience and easily handling the more
unruly members (..."assholes from New Jersey"...). This set list features a pretty radial re-arrangement of "All Tomorrow's Parties". Lou obviously
wasn't happy with it - it was dropped after this show.

some scans included *** :

1. Lou's set list 2000-03-31
2. Fernando's set list 2000-04-01 (signed by Lou and Fernando)
3. Sire Press Kit for "Ecstasy"
4. some Ecstasy tour ticket stubs
5. Knitting Factory Knotes Progam Guide March/April 2000

*** a few photos of Lou deleted in re-seed

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