Public Image Ltd. - 2012-10-28 - Los Angeles, CA (AUD/FLAC)

(Audience FLAC)

Club Nokia

"All Communication Is Relevant" 

Lineage / Equipment: 
Location: 35' - 40' fob (second rail) -> 6.5' h -> slave sound ultra stealth omni's -> custom bb with no bass roll-off -> edirol r09 (24/48) -> sony 16gb class 4 15mb/s sd -> reader -> audition 3.0 - slight level boost (+2.5dB 1 / +0dB r) (no normalization) parametric eq - bass roll-off @ 107Hz (peak recovery) -> har-bal 2.3 moderate eq (bass attenuate, treble boost) -> -> audition 3.0 - dither to 16/44.1 -> cd wave editor (track split) -> tlh (flac 8, etc...)

Taper: mixter_ 

John Lydon: Chants, Rants, Baileys, Spit 
Lu Edmonds: Saz on 01,06,07,09,14,16. Telecaster on 02,11. 1963 Gretsch on 03,04,08,10,15. Cumbus on 05,14. 
Bow on 05. Les Paul on 12. Ebow, Propeller and Effects on 12, 14. 
Scotty Firth: Bass Guitar, 5-String Upright on 05, 12. Bass Synthesizer on 05, 16. 
Bruce Smith: Drums, Percussion, Rhythm Programming 

01. This Is Not A Love Song 
02. Deeper Water 
03. Albatross 
04. One Drop 
05. Flowers Of Romance 
06. Disappointed 
07. Warrior 
08. U.S.L.S. 1 
09. Reggie Song 
10. Death Disco (Swan Lake) 
11. Bags / Chant 
12. Religion 
13. Encore Break 
14. Out Of The Woods 
15. Rise 
16. Open Up 

02:05:20 

The Performance and Recording: 
A "pitch-perfect" set from Johnny and the boys this go around. After nearly 3 years together, this incarnation of PiL is as good as any I have heard. This includes the Levene/Wobble era. Sorry metal boxers, just my take. Some classics from the last tour most notably "Poptones", "Tie Me To The Length Of That", "Psychopath" and "Memories" have been eschewed in favour of the newer "Deeper Water", "One Drop", "Reggie Song" and "Out of The Woods" (John's ode to General Stonewall Jackson). The new tracks sit very nicely in the set with the classics. In fact the 9 album songs "Disappointed", "Warrior" and "U.S.L.S. 1" with their 90's-era Stephen Hague synth lines appear more out of place in the set than the songs from "This Is PiL". John appeared to be in good spirits perhaps aided by the Baileys. He did seem somewhat perterbed at the lack of audience enthusiasm. It did make for a fantastic recording though. In all sincerity I just fucking LOVE Club Nokia! It's bar-none the best sounding 2,500 capacity venue that I have ever heard. 

John's voice was incredible and did not appear any worse for wear after being on the road for a month performing 2 hour sets. A nice balance of all the instruments with John's signatory singing. 

"Religion" came out pretty "hot" during John's calls for "more bass". I wasn't able to adjust levels on the fly as I was caught napping. Sorry about that. This time Icarus flew a litttle too close to the sun (Ha Ha!). The clipping isn't too bad and is isolated to the right channel for a few moments. I was able to recover the peaks in Audition by employing a 107Hz roll-off something a "proper battery box" would have done anyway. Other than that, it's pretty close to perfect. The Sunday night ("we gotta work the next day") L.A. audience was, much to the chagrin of Mr. Lydon, rather sedate. There are repeated calls for the audience to "participate" during the show which was being filmed for a documentary. Said participation during "Rise" was rather pathetic and anemic with the exception of the "Yuh-Yuh" dude's unique blend of bird calls (WTF?). Thankfully his whistles and trills are mostly isolated between numbers and the encore break. House levels drop for a brief 
moment during the first measure of "Out of The Woods".