Yusuf a.k.a. Cat Stevens
Oriental Theater
Chicago, Illinois
September 30, 2016

Source: Audio Technica AT-899 omnis => Edirol R-09 (24-bit)
Transfer: R-09 => WAV => Magix Audio Cleaning Lab => FLAC

Location: Main floor, ~25th row, left of center

Disc one (81:05):
(1) Entrance (0:35)
(2) Where Do The Children Play? (3:19)
(3) Don't Be Shy (2:55)
(4) Banter (2:08)
(5) Here Comes My Baby (2:53)
(6) Beatles banter (2:15)
The Beatles - From Me To You (deleted - official release)
(7) The First Cut Is The Deepest (4:02)
(8) I Love My Dog (2:48)
(9) Matthew and Son (2:24)
(10) Banter (1:05)
(11) Northern Wind (2:50)
(12) A Bad Night (1:18)
(13) Banter (1:04)
(14) Trouble (3:01)
(15) Banter (1:09)
(16) Katmandu (3:24)
(17) Banter (1:12)
(18) Mona Bone Jakon (1:42)
(19) Miles From Nowhere (false start) (0:43)
(20) Miles From Nowhere (3:35)
(21) On The Road To Find Out (5:08)
(22) Tea For The Tillerman (1:00)
(23) Sad Lisa (4:16)
(24) Into White (4:31)
(25) Father and Son (3:51)
(26) Moonshadow (3:00)
(27) How Can I Tell You? (4:51)
(28) Sitting (3:30)
(29) Boy With A Moon and Star On His Head (6:22)

Disc two (52:54):
(1) Oh Very Young (3:48)
(2) Novim's Nightmare (4:47)
(3) Be What You Must (3:57)
(4) People Get Ready (3:42)
(5) Roadsinger (4:01)
(6) Banter (1:01)
(7) If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out (3:52)
(8) Maybe There's a World => All You Need Is Love (6:04)
(9) Peace Train (3:50)
(10) Encore break (2:08)
(11) Wild World (4:16)
(12) Another Saturday Night (3:24)
(13) Morning Has Broken (2:55)
(14) Banter (1:50)
(15) You Are My Sunshine (3:12)

Md5 signature file is included. Sorry, no artwork (feel free to make some). There are no fades applied; if you choose to burn to CD, these splits are merely a suggestion.

Comments:

Cat Stevens returned to the U.S. for a brief tour in fall 2016 with a theme similar to the MTV "Storytellers" concept from the 1990s. This was a largely solo acoustic show with a handful of side players tastefully adding guitar and percussion supplements to the music; the focus was very much on Cat and his guitar. I feel quite fortunate that, given that he's pretty much given up touring since I was six years old, I was able to see him twice and produce two pretty good audience captures in a two-year period -- he's very much been on my bucket list since I've been attending concerts.

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance -- any hardcore fan would love the setlists from his 2016 tour, because he reached deep into his catalog to select songs that were representative of the various points of his life. This show didn't produce as many goosebump-producing moments as the 2014 show, probably because I'd already seen him ... however, it was riveting from start to finish. Ticket price for my wife and I were about $550 combined, and it was well worth it. Despite the fact that he's nearly 70 years old, his voice sounds exactly the same as it did during his 1970s heyday. Even though he's been away from the spotlight for decades, he still knows how to keep his audience engaged.

Given the tight security he used again on this tour (you needed to provide the full name of yourself and your guest so they could perform a background check; then pass drug-sniffing dogs and go through walk-throughs), I used the same recording rig I used in 2014 to reduce my "metal content." The Audio Technica mics are not my preferred mics, but offer the advantage of pretty good sound quality with no battery box/pre-amp ... the result was pretty much the same as 2014. Acoustic shows are always hard to record because the audience clapping can overwhelm the performance; these mics gave me some better fidelity than I could have asked for.

I tried not to overdo it on the post-production. I tried to normalize the sound as well as I could to keep the between-song clapping from blowing out my speakers ... there are some pretty wild swings in volume between the tracks, but I really didn't do anything during the songs themselves. I don't think it will be too much of a distraction for the casual listener.

Please remember to support the artist, particularly his newer material -- after this show, I have a fresh appreciation for the music he has created over the last ten years.

(Note: When Cat was talking about The Beatles' influence on his career, he actually put a vinyl album on a turntable and played the commercial release of "From Me To You." I deleted the actual song from this tour, though I left his discussion of the song intact.)

Mp3 samples are included.