LUNA

personnel:
Dean Wareham - guitar, vocals
Sean Eden - guitar
Justin Harwood - bass
Stanley Demeski - drums

opening act for LOU REED
venue: Orpheum Theatre
location: Boston MA USA
date: 1996-03-30 [March 30, 1996]

source: audience MASTER
recording location: front row mezzanine
recording gear: single microphone (presumably Nakamichi 300 (cardioid capsule)) > videocamera (exact make & model # not remembered)
lineage: 8mm MASTER (pb on same camera as recorded) > Pioneer SG 9500 [10 band stereo equalizer] > dbx 117 [dynamic range restoration] > Sony RCD-W1 [standalone CD recorder, track start IDs inserted manually ‘on the fly’] > 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: 39' 51"
file size: 182 MB
sample rate: 16 bit / 44.1 kHz [CD compliant]
imaging: mono
sound quality: 6.5 (out of 10)(crunchy)
recorded and mastered: Isotope Feeney
title: Lean Mean Dean Machine
label: Lou? Naaah!
artwork: yes (in torrent)

01 California (All The Way)
02 Friendly Advice
03 Moon Palace
04 Chinatown
05 23 Minutes In Brussels
06 Sideshow By The Seashore
07 Bewitched
08 Ride Into The Sun [Velvet Underground] - w. guest vocalist LOU REED

PERFORMANCE NOTES
Headliner Lou Reed saunters onstage to duet w. Dean Wareham for the last song of Luna's set. Of course you almost need Forensic Voice Comparison to identify who's singing what. The song they do together = a lesser known (and scantily released) Velvet Underground song, only first officially issued on a latter day VU odds & sods [which is to say leftovers] compilation.

RECORDING NOTES
For those not familiar with Orpheum Theatre topology: the first 3 rows of the (one) upper level are designated the mezzanine, after which there is a horizontal aisle, and all the rest of the rows on the same level are called the balcony. Thus, the front row mezz is basically the first row of the balcony. Because it is curved (and the seats below are rectilinear) it’s hard to put an exact number on its vertical relationship to the orchestra, but it overhangs at about the 10th row. Pretty close to the stage, nobody in front of you, straight shot at flown PA speakers - - - prime exploitation real estate. Boo-yah!

I usually don't tape opening acts: just gives the Blue Meanies more opportunity to catch you in the act (and for recordings of performers you may not even be that familiar with or that interested in). Normally I would use the attendant darkness as the opportunity to calmly set things up unseen. But of course when it's Luna I'm not gonna let that escape unmemorialized. So I when the lights went down for them I tried to quickly (but nevertheless surreptitiously) put everything together. I had been strategizing this all in my head before it was Go Time, but it still took me a couple of minutes to get everything up & running, such that I missed the beginning of first song.

Front row mezzanine at the Orpheum was (because of its geography) Taping Central. [I was warned one time by a mentor not to leave cellophane cassette wrappers on the floor there, 'cuz the guys sweeping up after a show would see them and chuckle . . . just more evidence of what was going on up there to forewarn overzealous security dudes.] Sitting to my left at this show was a braintrust of a couple of guys intending to engage in their own popcultural larceny. They evidently weren't interested in Luna, weren't even in their seats while the band was performing. BUT... when Lou F'ing Reed unexpectedly materialized for the last song of Luna's set, they went into panic mode: galumphing over empty seats to claim their spots and hurriedly set up equipment so as to capture the Rock n Roll Animal. This commotion did not go unnoticed, and in due course a couple of security dudes came marching down the row (luckily for me not from my side). Exactly how that encounter played out I do not know; I was a few seats away and did not want to evince any particular interest ['...nobody here but us chickens']. I surmise that they did not manage to escape with a recording of the Luna/Lou collaboration. Whether they had the temerity to regroup and go for it as regards the Lou Reed portion of the proceedings I do not know either. [Actually, one of the cartel was someone I knew casually thru taping circles. He'd been in my house. From time to time recordings he's made have shown up on DIME under various noms de guerre. He's a good guy, I have a lot of respect for him (which forbids me from identifying him explicitly). This was just not one of his better moments.]

For my part all of this tumult put a chill on my gameplan. When Lou Reed showed up I took videocamera out of hiding (cf. WARTS below) to snag video of the moment. But when the security dudes arrived in the row --- all flashlights and walkie-talkies and attitude --- I ducked camera, afraid that I might be the next object of their attention. It got turned off in process, resulting in a short portion of the song being unrecorded until I could furtively turn it back on.

My original intention had been to AUDIOrecord Luna and to VIDEOrecord Lou Reed. But now, feeling that the activities in Row A might well be under scrutiny by the Forces Of Oppression, I felt that "the better part of valour is discretion," and decided to keep the camera hidden (audio only) for Lou Reed's segment also. So: that's One That Got Away (visuals-wise at least). [I did manage to abscond with the video of the Luna + Lou Reed number however.]

WARTS
First song joined in progress, missing roughly the initial 2 - 3 minutes (cf. RECORDING NOTES above).

As stated, my original intention going in to the show was to record Luna audio only (keeping the camera out of sight and using it just as a sound-recording apparatus), and to bring it out for full A/V capability (greater danger of being spotted, but more worth the risk) only for the Lou Reed segment. But when His Velvet Eminence appeared at the end of Luna's set, I hastily unswathed it to get video. Some mike bumps at beginning of Ride Into The Sun created in the process.

Jumpcut in the middle of Ride Into The Sun, due to security concerns (described in RECORDING NOTES above). Since this = a transfer of the raw masterrecording, what you hear = in-camera edit, with no attempt at ex post facto repair. Approximately 30 seconds missing.

REQUEST
Please don't upload this or share this elsewhere without my permission. I will do so 'IF' and when I feel the time is right (" . . . for dancing in the street").

- IF -

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