banter - Juno What | 2012-04-29 | The Motet

2:35:09

Rating:

9.00 / 2 ratings

Taper:

Scott Bernstein

Transferrer:

Scott Bernstein

SHNID:

motet2012-04-29.tlm170.flac16

Source:

FOB Audience

Lineage:

Neumann TLM-170 (cardoids, FOB center main floor in sweet spot, about 20 from stage) -> Sound Devices 722 (@24/96); FLAC File processing in SoundForge Audio Studio 10.0d (volume normalization; resample to 44.1 with iZotope 64-Bit SRC set higher than "Highest Quality" setting w/anti-alias filter; 24->16 bit dither using iZotope MBIT+ Dither with Ultra noise shaping, High dither settings, manual clap removal); Tracked in CDWav.

Taper Notes:

View NotesI spent hours scrubbing many many local annoying claps from this recording by hand:  S1T4(2 claps), S1T6(20), S1T7(87!), S1T8(83!), S1T9(32), S1T10(25), S1T11(4), S1T12(70), S2T2(72), S2T3(36), S2T6(12), S2T7(10), S2T8(48), S2T10(22), S2T11(12), S2T12(35), S2T13(1), S2T15(18)

* =w/Dark Star teases

Recorded, mastered, tracked and posted by Scott Bernstein (5/1-5/8/2012)

There is a higher quality 24 bit version of this recording (soon to be) available at <a href="http://archive.org/details/motet2012-04-29.tlm170.flac24" rel="nofollow">http://archive.org/details/motet2012-04-29.tlm170.flac24</a>

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Check out the photo album that I posted from this show:
<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url("https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif") no-repeat left;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104160462858110257880/MotetFunkIsDeadHighlineBallroomNYC20120429?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite" rel="nofollow"><img src="//web.archive.org/web/2im_/https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-IG97XKQX95U/UgICaBizgwE/AAAAAAAAwy4/b7iuVqOMb70/s160-c/MotetFunkIsDeadHighlineBallroomNYC20120429.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;" alt="MotetFunkIsDeadHighlineBallroomNYC20120429.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104160462858110257880/MotetFunkIsDeadHighlineBallroomNYC20120429?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;" rel="nofollow">Motet - Funk Is Dead, Highline Ballroom, NYC 2012-04-29</a></td></tr></table>

Generally I'm not into going to see cover bands -- especially Grateful Dead cover bands....but the combination of a great band (that's not normally a cover band), The Motet, with an interesting concept (funk takes on Grateful Dead music -- with horns and 3 vocalists) and a pleasant venue on a Sunday night made for a show with lots of promise.

The "Funk Is Dead" project is admittedly somewhat of a marketing gimmick, helping The Motet, which is a band that is apparently popular in other parts of the country (out west, in their home state of Colorado but has no draw here in NYC) draw a crowd in a tough market.  But the band is no joke, and they did not take this as any sort of half-assed challenge.  They beefed up their lineup and really took the concept to heart.

Yes, some of the songs from the Grateful Dead catalog that they chose to perform already have funky arrangements ("Scarlet Begonias", "Feel Like A Stranger", "Shakedown Street") so those were performed faithfully and powerfully....but most of the other songs that they picked have been completely rearranged as funky rave-ups.  To give you some idea of what's going on here, listen to the radical rearrangements of "They Love Each Other", and "Playin' In The Band", the first 2 tracks of the set.  Then consider things like an amped-up "Loose Lucy", a down and dirty slinky "Casey Jones", a barely-recognizable Stevie Wonder-like arrangement of "New Speedway Boogie", "St. Stephen" arranged like a David Bowie cover (described by a friend at the show as an improbably "sexy" arrangement) that transmutes into a slow funk groove, "Scarlet Begonias" with a dub breakdown, and a very unique taste of "Dark Star".  The show closing acapella "And We Bid You Goodnight" is perfectly faithful to the Grateful Dead's arrangement.

Seriously, this was a great night (just the right amount of people and perfect vibe) and it comes through on the recording.

Don't miss it!  And go see The Motet the next time they come to your town!!!