Thomas Dolby - 2012-04-17 - Los Angeles, CA (AUD/FLAC)

(Audience FLAC)

"Tempus Fugit"
The Time Capsule Tour
Largo At The Coronet Theater - Early Show

Happy Birthday to my brother!

EX- / VG+

Information:
second row - far left 12' from left stack -> 4.5' h -> slavesound omni's -> custom bb - no bass roll-off -> edirol r09 (44.1/16) -> pny 16gb pro 20mb/s -> reader -> audition 3.0 - slight level boost (no normalization) -> har-bal 2.3 slight eq (bass attenuate, treble boost) -> cd wave editor (track split) -> tlh (flac 8, etc...)

Taper / Engineer: mixter_

The Band:
Thomas Dolby: Vocals, Keyboards, Piano, Upright Piano on 10
Kevin Armstrong - Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals, Vocals on 08
Mat Hector - Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals

Special Guests:
Mandala Dance Theater: Belly Dancers on 06
Larry Treadwell: Lead Guitar on 14, Harmonica on 16
Aaron Jonah Lewis: Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals on 16. Banjo, Fiddle, Backing Vocals on 18 and 20.

01. "An Intimate Evening"
02. Europa And The Pirate Twins*
03. "My Uncle Steven"
04. One Of Our Submarines*
05. "Shiny Silver Box"
06. Spice Train*
07. "Jet-lagged @ 3 A.M."
08. Evil Twin Brother**
09. "The Nutmeg Of Consolation"
10. Love Is A Loaded Pistol**
11. "1950's Technology"
12. The Flat Earth
13. "The Lost Toy Poodle"
14. My Brain Is Like A Sieve
15. "Amerikana"
16. The Road To Reno
17. "Eco Hippies"
18. The Toad Lickers
19. "The Bayou Rain Song"
20. I Love You Goodbye
21. Airhead
22. "Dr. Magnus Pyke"
23. She Blinded Me With Science

1:26:45

* Solo Performance
** Duet with Kevin Armstrong

The Artist:
Thomas Dolby is a rather unique and enigmatic character in the annals of popular music. Best known for his synth / dance anthems of the 80's: "Europa and The Pirate Twins", "Hyperactive" and certainly "She Blinded Me With Science", he is a person who is actually very difficult to categorize musically. Like his friend and icon, David Bowie, he embraces many styles and influences and defies conventional cateogrization. He deftly and somewhat effortlessly moves from synth-drenched classic New Wave numbers "Europa", " Submarines" and "Science" to the piano jazz of "Loaded Pistol", "The Flat Earth" and "My Brain Is Like A Sieve". The world beat mash-up "Spice Train" melts into the electronica techno of "Evil Twin Brother". The Parliament / Funkadelic (after all he was in the band for a brief period) inspired "Airhead" fits together with the American folk of "The Road To Reno" and "The Toad Lickers" with the BeauSoleil Cajun ballad of "I Love You Goodbye". Essentially what is on display here is an aural map of the world with great songwriting at it's heart. This fact was lost on me 25 years earlier when I witnessed him perform with his white funk band "The Lost Toy People" in 1987. Now, I can understand and appreciate the musical genius of this wacky scientist.

Performance Notes:
Thomas regailed us with several stories and anecdotes between numbers. Much of this was already covered six months earlier during his AMOTFC lecture tour. Unfortunately the 30 minutes of stories and the fact that he was performing two sets this evening came at the expense of at least four songs for the early crowd. "Commercial Break Up", "Field Work" Hyperactive" and "Silk Pyjamas" sadly are not present in this performance. Having to be at work the next day at 6 A.M. prevented me from attending the second performance. What is here is nothing short of a stellar performance by some top-notch musicians. Represented here are two of Dolby's extraordinary guitarists: Kevin Armstrong and Larry Treadwell. Thomas shows us his chops on the Billie Holliday inspired "Love Is A Loaded Pistol" performing the song on an upright nearly as old as the Coronet Theater.

Recording Notes:
I was pretty fortunate to be seat assigned to the far left two rows back. So what you have here is essentially a left monitor "stack tape" (hence the left channel vocal dominance). Otherwise there would be more audience than music. A pretty solid recording throughout, although levels seemed to be all over the place. Quieter songs were boosted by approx +3dB. I resisted the urge to normalize due to the louder applause segments. Applause was meticuously detenuated by -3 to -6db in order to balance levels without sacrificing dynamic range. There are some minor glitches to the audience levels. This does not really distract from the overall listening enjoyment, IMHO.

CD Burning:
For the full show I would recommend splitting after Track 12. The appplause goes to -60 dB. Also, you may consider dropping the "stories" featured in quotes and burning to a single disc.