Rolling Stones
Desert Trip 2016 Weekend 2
Empire Polo Grounds
Indio, Ca
October 14, 2016


Recorded by Daspyknows

Recorded from back wall of the Pit At Right Stack
Schoeps MK4/NBox Platinum Tascam DR-2D 24 Bit 48K

Processed using Soundforge 11, resample, to 16bit 44.1K
TLH to convert to Flac


Master 2016.75

01. Intro
02. Jumpin' Jack Flash
03. Get Off of My Cloud
04. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
05. Tumbling Dice
06. Just Your Fool
07. Sweet Virginia
08. Angie
09. Live With Me
10. Paint It Black
11. Honky Tonk Women
12. Band introductions
13. You Got the Silver
14. Little T&A
15. Midnight Rambler
16. Miss You
17. Gimme Shelter
18. Start Me Up
19. Sympathy for the Devil
20. Brown Sugar
21. Crowd
Encore:
22. You Can't Always Get What You Want
23. Satisfaction


Just the basic taper requests here and please no vitriol:
Don't be an ass by selling this or using it in a video that is sold
Don't modify the info file
Don't remaster and/or post on other sites that are not 100% free
If shared keep info file intact but create a second file with any changes
Don't convert to lossy formats except for personal use
Do support the artists

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The Desert Trip Adventure:
My friend Jay arrived Wednesday night well after midnight from New York. The plan was to leave 6:30 to 7AM Thursday for Indio. I had planned a route for an enjoyable drive that avoided LA and its traffic. The route planned was I-80->I-580->I5->HWY-46->HWY-99->HWY-58->I-15->HWY-247->HWY-62->I-10. We got on the road at 6:30 with the truck loaded for theweekend. I started the drive with a stack of CDs I burned from my friend's weekend 1 recording. I started with Dylan which sounded real good. For the first part of the drive my friend got a bit of sleep while I enjoyed hearing the Rolling Stones. As I cut off to HWY-46 my gps app kept arguing with me but I was on a mission and knew my route. As we were heading east the Stones transitioned to Neil Young. As Neil finished Down By The River we stopped for gas and a few other things we needed.
Back driving Neil finished up and in went Paul McCartney. We were driving on HWY-247 outside of Barstow and his a dead zone for my phone. Once I got back in signal range I checked the voicemail and I had received a call from a friend vacationing in Panama. Him and his wife live in Joshua Tree and an old client of his was Pappy & Harriets. His message was I just was told McCartney playing Thursday night. I had been driving that route for a reason. I knew it was a race against time and put pedal to the metal. My GPS said we were 65 minutes away but that was based on the posted speed limit. I was not going to let that deter me. Double yellow lines and Do Not Pass signs were just suggestions. My friend didn't say much as I drove. Once we got to the road to the bar and saw other cars streaming in we knew others knew. As we got close it was crazy. I dropped my friend off to fight the line and parked my car. Also tried to find my friend's wife from Joshua Tree. After parking we met up and we knew we were close to the threshold of 300 capacity for an indoor show. When I parked I grabbed my gear and batteries and set everything up while on line. Was prepared to wait for hours but when they gave out wristbands we came up short. Knowing I was the only possible taper I was disappointed.
We got in the truck and put on the Who for the last hour of the drive. We checked into the condo in the community across the street from the festival and settled in. The other folks who were staying with us arrived and we were visited by some folks I was in touch with from a Desert Trip Facebook Group. James, his dad and friend who traveled from Christchurch, New Zealand and Cheryl who lives nearby and had gotten me a guest parking pass to enter the gated community easier came by. We were up late and as expected I was up at dawn all excited.
I had breakfast and all I could think of was getting my gear in. We arrived before doors opened and I beat security and walked to the lockers to stash what I didn't need before heading to the pit to survey the area for the right taping spot. I had been in touch with Melanie online and told here where to likely meet me. When I got to the pit she was there with her husband waiting for me directly facing the right speaker stack. Dead center wasn't possible due to Mick's catwalk so I was ok with a stack tape. The running joke was the first people to find me were going to get CD's or a USB stick with weekend 1 on it. There was a bunch of people in a facebook group who I wanted to meet and I planned to do that while trying to stay cool. I met a fellow taper but the others were at a different spot. They wanted me to find them but it was too hot to walk around and I knew 3 days required conserving my energy.
I got back to the spot for Dylan. Another taper met me at the spot and we set up side by side. I noticed how good the sound was and that it was pretty crowded. Due to Mick's catwalk people would walk past us to the left and then turn around and come back. Security was 10 feet to my left the entire set. Towards the end of the set I get a message from a friend of my friend who recorded weekend 1 asking me if I had brought my backup rig in. He was in good reserved seats but his wife didn't want him to tape. I said it was in the car and he asked if I could get it for the Stones. Ummm, no. I am not risking sneaking in gear between sets and blowing my recording. Out come the Stones and they just tore it up. During the set Melanie and Bob had enough crowd and went to their seats but luckily Cheryl and Mark came by and provided coverage. I got some of my favorite songs and really enjoyed it. After the show it took an hour to get back to the condo and after the show we relaxed and listened to the Stones. I created an untracked fileset to share and got to bed after 3.
Saturday I was up at 6:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. I got everything ready and prepared to sneak my backup rig past the metal detectors. Again, I beat security and I got to the pit and secured the dead center spot. Soon after Melanie and Bob joined me so I could go set up and try and find some people. I met James, his dad and friend while waiting for the guy to pick up my backup gear. James went and got me some food which I often forget about until it is too late. Filet Mignon Mac and Cheese was the perfect pre show meal. At this point my internal alarm clock is starting to buzz and I am getting messages the pit is getting crowded and I need to get back. Still waiting for the guy to get back backup rig. He finally arrives 45 minutes late. I put batteries in and hand off the gear and tell him to put in on and soundcheck but I need to go. I get to the pit where my taping friend, Jay, Melanie and Bob are there fighting the crowd.
Neil starts solo acoustic and it sounds so sweet. We are against the back wall of the pit and people are trying to pass in front of us going both directions. There is no room and I am pinned to the wall. I notice Melanie is getting beat up my the crowd and I am just hoping to survive the night. During the fifth song I get a text message from the guy who borrowed my gear. He proceeds to tell me it's not working. I asked if he checked everything before he went in and he tells be he got the seat during the third song and nothing worked. I asked if he checked it going in and he told me it wouldn't have mattered. At that point I told him I didn't have time for this and to give me the gear back after the show (turns out everything worked but he never turned it on, doh). Neil's set is amazing but it gets more and more crowded. Security is squeezing past me and at one point a security guy is unable to move and is jammed up again the pack with my gear. Given the crowd I was hoping that everything was working and I didn't trash my gear.
Between sets Melanie and Bob retread and its Jay and my taper friend. There are loads of people without pit wristands and it is painfully crowded to the point I was starting to worry whether I would be able to pull it off. We end up with two couples with grandstand seats in front of us who are almost having sex fully clothed. At one point I was expecting to see his tongue come out her ear (sorry for the graphic). We are getting pushed and bounced around and at one point I get twisted and feel my back go. I am holding myself up again the back wall hoping I don't go down. After a few songs it settles out. Paul says he is bringing out a guest and everyone wonders who it is. Out comes Rianna who is not a favorite of mine. I didn't mind it though and I knew we were seeing something happen once and I was recording it. Soon after Neil comes out for a few songs. During Why Don't We Do It The Road the two couples left and we all high fived. When the set ended there was a bit of relief and elation when I got back and the recording was really good.
Once I got back to the condo I sent out a bunch of messages to people in the pit asking for help on Sunday. I knew I could not survive a repeat. I received lots of responses and was hoping for the best. I was in touch with another taper from LA who decided to come out as well. I got in when doors opened and got the spot again. As show time got closer Cheryl and Mark joined us and so did Petra and her daughter. Jay and Elizabeth also were there so I was in a bubble. Another guy took a spot in front of us. He had no idea we were taping but helped direct people around. Cheryl sends me a message asking if he was with us and I said no. I said he gets CDs between sets. Meanwhile The Who are just tearing it up. The last few times I saw them it was OK but this set was crazy. Brought me back to high school where The Who was my favorite band and since I was in the bubble I could really focus on the music. The set ended with the view of blood going down the side of Pete's face and he is just playing his ass off. The only shock was when a security guy started tapping my shoulder to ask if a backpack was mine. It is the only real flaw from 3 days of recordings
Between sets Cheryl and Mark retreat but we were in good shape. It is crowded but we were under control. Roger Waters comes out with his band and the sound and the visuals had me mesmerized. I find myself losing my mind in the music and realizing I need to focus or I will go down. I needed to concentrate on the task at hand since this was the final set and I was going to capture every note. As Roger works through his set we get to see Fearless which I had never seen live followed by the journey to the Dark Side of the Moon and then the best of Wish You Were Here. Once the set goes into Animals the crowd starts to thin out. Something to do with people being offended by the anti-Trump visuals possibly. Personally I enjoyed it and since Animals is one of my favorite Pink Floyd albums I was having the experience of my life time. By now I had realized my back with shot from three days and I found I was holding myself up against the wall behind me. I didn't want it to end and was holding on for dear life. As the show reached its conclusion I enjoyed the Bain Damage Eclipse. By then Jay, Elizabeth and our mystery friend had left but the crowd was really thinned out. The show ends with an emotional version of Vera, Bring the Boys Back Home and Comfortably Numb and then it was over. What an amazing experience.
We all went back to the condo, listed to Roger's set again and I finally got to sleep at 3. The alarm went off at 7 and by 7:30 I was packed and leaving Indio. I started my drive listening to the festival in reverse starting with Roger. As I drove up I-10 I looked up and saw a rainbow and dark rain clouds. This brought out the emotions experienced from such an epic event. For those who were there, we experienced an event of our lifetime, for those that decided not to go, your decision to miss this event was not the right decision and for those who are listening to my recordings I hope you enjoy the music and can feel what was an epic event.