THE BEVIS FROND

personnel:
Nick Saloman - vocals, guitar
Adrian Shaw - guitar, bass, backing vox
Joe Propatier - drums

venue: T.T. the Bear's Place
location: Cambridge MA USA
date: 2001-05-23 [May 23. 2001]

source: audience MASTER
recording location: standing up against stage, L hand side of room in front of PA
recording gear: Sony ECM 929 one-point stereo microphone > Sony videocamera (exact model # not remembered)
lineage: 8mm MASTER (pb on same camera as recorded) > Pioneer SG 9500 [EQ] > dbx 117 [dynamic range restoration] > Sound Forge 4.5 [digital conversion] > CDR [unknown make & model outboard burner] > Exact Audio Copy [wav files extracted uncompressed] > DeGlitch [glitches detected & corrected] > Traders' Little Helper [flac files level 8 created, SBEs checked, checksums created] > torrent creation > www
total running time: 100' 04"
file size: 570 MB
sample rate: 16 bit / 44.1 kHz [CD compliant]
imaging: stereo
sound quality: 8 (out of 10)
recorded and mastered: Isotope Feeney
title: Frond On Frond
label: Mighty Big IF
artwork: yes

acoustic set:
01 She's In Love With Time
02 On A Liquid Wheel
03 Return Of The Stylites
04 Lights Are Changing
05 Lost Soul's Day
06 This Corner Of England
07 He'd Be A Diamond
08 When She Comes
09 I'm On Top Of It Now
10 It Won't Come Again
- - interval

electric set:
01 opening guitar freakout >
- - Snowdonia Blues
02 Stoned Train Driver
03 Maybe
04 Hole Song #2
05 High On A Downer
06 God Speed You To Earth

PERFORMANCE NOTES
The idea for this show was to have a sit-down acoustic set (NS & AS), short break, then a full-blown electric set (with drummer). The stripped-down acoustic presentation of the first half was an opportunity for Nick Saloman to air out a couple of new, obscure songs. When She Comes was (and remains) unreleased, with only one other confirmed live performance (a week earlier in Seattle). Ditto for I'm On Top Of It Now. According to his introduction recorded for Valedictory Songs, but didn't make the final cut.

Similarly, the electric set opens with an otherwise unknown composition, a guitar-heavy, musically (and lyrically) spot-on homage to Jimi Hendrix. This may be its only live appearance - - - I could find no other documentation of a performance. As it is unreleased and was not introduced onstage, an accurate title is guesswork. The most common one found on fansites = Snowdonia Blues, which (in deference to vox populi) I have used here. (The second most common fan-instigated appellation = the more evocative Message From The Rising Sun.)

Evidently an encore was planned, but as the band had already played past the puritanical 1:00 AM curfew and the houselights were up, it was not to be. What else might have been played? We will never know!

RECORDING NOTES
In general, my recording strategy is to get as close to the sound source as possible. Not everyone embraces this philosophy; but my desire is to get an audience recording that sounds as much like an in-line recording as possible, with a minimum of crowd intrusion (what I like to sardonically refer to as 'audience participation'). Also, for video purposes you don't want people in front of you. For this gig I was standing on the L hand side of the stage, close to the PA horns. One-point stereo mike was jammed into a bandana which I had wrapped around my forehead, Keith Richards style. Unfortunately, I am no Keith Richards. So instead of looking like a Rock Deity, I probably looked more like a nerd. Appropriately. But I was usually emboldened when in this mode by the fact that the lights were down. Plus I lived for deferred gratification: endure a couple of hours of nervousness (about getting bagged), physical discomfort, and the probability of looking kinda ridiculous, in exchange for a lifetime of being able to enjoy the resulting fruits of such endurance. Boo-yah!.

Because the microphone was clamped to my head, the L/R soundscape shifts slightly from time to time when my head turns. It's not glaring, but is noticeable thru headphones.

The voice heard right up on the microphone at the end of the tape is that of Nick Saloman, as he walked past me on his way to the bandroom. There were a few fans there entreating him for a couple more songs, and he had to sincerely apologize and explain that they couldn't do any more 'cuz it was past closing time. Unhappily that exchange didn't get captured on this document, as I was already packing up [what Mary Shelley described as] "the instruments of life."

WARTS
Because I was standing right up against the PA, the vocals are the tiniest bit over-recorded in places (especially during the 1st set - - - I must have moved slightly during the intermission). Minor.

In a couple of spots you can hear the closing squeak of the door to the bandroom --- which was just a few feet off to the side from where I was standing --- as people went in & out. That room had an old-fashioned spring-loaded door closer (like the kind you would see on an old episode of Lassie, or is referred to in BS Thunder Road), not the silent pneumatic kind most often seen today.

Lead vocals slightly muffled a couple of times during last song. Possibly NS off mike, or the result of some cheeky interloper contriving to stand in front of me (and thus my microphone) for the Big Finish.

FRONDLY PERSUASION DEPT.
As is my wont, I request that this not be uploaded elsewhere. I'll get around to it in due time (because I'm in love with time).


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