Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey @ Greek Theatre 2014-08-29
Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey
"Retro Futura Tour"
Greek Theatre
Los Angeles, CA
August 29th, 2014
"The Time Of My Life"
VG-
*This recording is being offered in its original 24/48 format. Feel to convert the recording to 16/44
to fulfill your personal needs.
Lineage / Equipment:
12' from rail dead center (Sec: ORCH) / fob -> 6.5' h -> ca-11c mkII -> bat 2b bb - no bass roll-off ->
edirol r09 (24/48) -> sandisk 16gb class 4 sd -> reader -> audition 3.0 - significant level boost
(+24 dB l / +9 dB r) + (de-hiss process - left channel) -> har-bal 2.3 - slight eq (bass attenuate, treble boost)
-> cd wave editor (track split) -> tlh (flac 8, etc...) -> DIME -> you -> sense of enjoyment ->
sharing is caring -> support the artist (yes) -XX convert to mp3 (no!!!).
Taper: mixter_
K.I.L.L. = Keep It LossLess
Setlist:
01. We Are Detective (Instrumental Intro)
02. In The Name Of Love*
03. Lies
04. Sister Of Mercy
05. You Take Me Up
06. If You Were Here
07. Love On Your Side
08. "Tom Speaks"
09. Doctor! Doctor!
10. "Encore Break"
11. King For A Day
12. Hold Me Now
* contains elements of "The Gap"
57:30
Tom Bailey: Vocals, Guitar, Additional Synthesizers, Percussion, Tambourine, Harmonica on 05
Angie Pollock: Keyboards, Synthesizers, Backing Vocals
Emily Dolan Davies: Drums, Percussion
Amanda Kramer: Keyboards, Synthesizers, Backing Vocals
Robbie Bronniman: Programming, Additional Arrangements
The performance:
Tom Bailey has eschewed performing Thompson Twins material over the last 25+ years. The rather reticent artist has spent the last 2 decades
deliberately moving away from writing classic pop songs. Babble (ambient-techno), International Observer (dub step) Holiwater (Indian fusion)
and BSP (astronomy) have stretched the artist's musical boundaries over the years. Most recently, Tom has returned to pop music with his
collaboration with Mexican artist Aleks Syntek. After considerable coaxing from Howard Jones, Tom has decided to return to live performance
after 27 years.
Tom and his all female band (cheekily refered to as "The Sisters of Mercy") turn in a pitch perfect hour long set. After performing on the road
for 2 weeks over 2 continents, Tom appears a bit more at ease than his Sub89 warm-up gig. It's nice to see ex-InfoSoc babe Amanda Kramer once
again. She appears to be on a break from The Furs at the moment. Tom's voice is every bit as strong as it was when I saw The Twins nearly 30 years
ago on the other side of the hill at the Hollywood Bowl. Tom effortlessly plays guitar, keyboards, timbales, harmonica and yes tambourine throughout
the performance which was very reminescent of Prince. You truly get a sense of what a great musician and songwriter that he is.
The big surprise is that many arrangements have been updated thanks to the help of Jones' programmer, arranger, engineer, Robbie Bronniman. In spite
of the short set length many songs are represented in extended form, including "If You Were Here" complete with an additional verse. He doesn't
appear to be in a hurry to get off the stage as is the case for many 80's multi act shows. When I saw ABC at HOB 3 years ago, Martin Fry churned out
a near Ramones pace set as if his flight was about to leave in 20 minutes.
The recording:
This was my second outing with my brand new ca-ll cards. I was very excited as I managed to secure pit tickets and an ideal spot for the show beneath
the center fill speaker. Sadly, my left channel went "mute" at the beginning of opener Katrina (without The Waves). Unable to sort out the mic-bb-wiring
issue I was faced with either running internals on my R09 or accepting a dual mono recording with the right channel. Oh well, sh*t happens I suppose.
To my surprise, when I returned home I discovered the left channel had been recorded at a significantly lower level (to the tune of -15 dB). I was able
to dig it out in Audition. Fortunately, recording at 24bit/48Hz left me with something useable. I did apply a moderate amount of hiss reduction in
Audition on the left channel. It's still pretty uneven but I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out, all things considered.
That being said, there is very little chatter but I did have a fingers-in-the-mouth d-bag whistler and a few clappers near me. Picolo Pete is most evident
at the beginning of "Lies" and "Doctor! Doctor!". Not much I could do to move away from him without blocking someone elses view. I resisted the urge to
attenuate or channel swap those passages as they would have had a deleterious efeect on the music.
Please support the artist...
Buy a retro chic T-Twins shirt...
http://store5308086.ecwid.com/#!/~/product/category=10329568&id=39651630
or the newly remastered "Remixes and Rarities" CD...
http://store5308086.ecwid.com/#!/~/product/category=10514273&id=39990217
See a live show.
Enjoy,
mixter_
ijwthstd notes: I had some friends that were pretty excited about this but I don't think I ever listened to this and don't have any other recordings from whoever was on this bill
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