Richard Buckner
2011-11-24
Music Star
Norderstedt Germany

Church CA 14 > Sony RH 1 > Hi-MD (PCM mode)
> Sonic Stage (wav) > Audacity (level adjustment, trackmarking, leveller on close clapping) > TLH > flac level 8

TRT 78 min

recorded 2 meters from stage, left


Richard Buckner toured Europe for the last month. 9 shows in the UK, 5 in the Neatherlands, 5 in Scandinavia, 1 in Paris and 1 in Germany - and of all places in Germany he played Norderstedt, not known to many people even in the metropolitan region of Hamburg, but home of the "Music Star", one of my favorite clubs in the region, for it's dedicated team who has brought a score of great musicians to this place on the fringes of Hamburg, for it's small but dedicated audiences and for the concept of music admission free - just that everybody puts what he thinks it's worth and can part with in a battered piggy bank.
To say it with Buckners own word: "This is really cool, this is like what Austin City Limits used to be like..."

There has been kind of an inundation of old Buckner shows on dime but only a trickle of recent shows - so here's some fresh autumn drizzle to contribute to said flood.

Impressive performer, great and intense show, much louder than expected. Buckner was backed by Sacri Cuori from Bologna, who opened with a half hour set of instrumentals, all very crafted musicians and towards the end of the tour perfectly playing together.
Hardly any banter, just music, mostly not even a chance for justified applause between the songs because Buckner played 2 or 3 songs in a row, only stopped to tune once in a while.

The audience as attentive and respectful as always, no chatter, no coughing (surprisingly, November in Hamburg), nice sound, the drumset was sometimes set of by the guitars in the close quaters and they played with a lot of pedals, so the distortion you get was there and not caused by the recording.
The usual remastering: lowered a couple of volume peaks, level adjustments, hard limiter on close clapping (apllied manually), augmented tr 18 (solo very quiet) by 2 dB, no equalizing.

I recorded the instrumental Sacri Cuori opening set as well, if there is demand I can upload it later. It sounds like a mixture of Friends of Dean Martinez and Enrico Morricone, not surprisingly if you take a look at who participated on their debut recording, reads like the who's'who of the Tucson scene, from Howe Gelb to Convertino, Nick Luca, John Parish.

01. Traitor
02. > Amanda Barker
03. > Escape
04. Her
05. > Thief
06. > And The Clouds've Lied
07. Collusion
08. > Ed's Song
09. > Ponder
10. Town
11. Gauzy Dress In The Sun
12. Witness
13. > Loaded At The Wrong Door
14. Confession
15. A Year Ahead
- 1st encore -
16. banter / tuning / unplugged cable
17. A Chance Counsel
18. Ariel Ramirez (solo)
- 2nd encore -
19. banter
20. Tom Merritt
21. > Before

Richard Buckner - vocals, guitar
Francisco Pico San Paoli - keyboards, bass
Denis Valentini - drums, percussion
Antonio Gramentieri - guitar