gursky

I was at the Edmonton show, and that made #27 I've seen MG/B perform. It's hard to compare shows after a while unless it was one of a kind (ie: Pepsi Taste Tour in '99, first solo acoustic tour in '06) but last night was a solid performance with a high energy level from the band and determination to rock. The concert was at a sit down venue, which always poses issues for crowd engagement but has the plus of great acoustics. After a few songs Matt encouraged everyone to stand up and most people did for the remainder. The classics (Load Me Up, Apparitions) received the biggest reaction but from start to finish the band didn't give up and there was a nice mix of Arrows of Desire and past works thrown in. The banter level was at a minimum, Matt commented at one time he had nothing, and this lack of banter lead to a quicker transition from one song to the next. With this Matt mentioned he wasn't as young as he used to be and took the opportunity to let the band noodle around or play intermission music. One thing that will never amaze me is that even after Matt explains that the Inner Ear Monitors prevent hearing the audience people will still continue to shout to the stage...it makes no sense. As we've seen from past reviews the new material sounds great live and I felt like the audience was in to it as well. As you can see above, the show had a few gems put in to the set, would have loved Future is X-Rated in there but the night wasn't without some personal highlights like: Non Populus - This song was my favorite from last tour and continues to be a favorite now. If a show can't get Near Fantastica then Non Populus fits the bill. Great guitar work, it's straight up awesome. Via Dolorosa, So Close and Garden of Knives - These were all excellent live and I hope a few of them stick around in future tours. Rabbits - How can you complain about this being performed? Alert Status Red - Always great live and sandwiched between So Close and Via Dolorosa it was a nice combo. I did record the show and will work through it today. I will try and have the full show available this weekend. It's too bad there hasn't been the usual amount of shows being recorded. The guys out east, Pintowax or 5ilent Narcotic, were always good for a few but things happen, people move on or they just can't make it out to record as much as they used to. Live Road is a nice addition and scratches that itch to hear how the material sounds.

Two tickets purchased for the November 14 Edmonton show. The pre-sale options at Jubilee were surprisingly good and I was able to get front row/first balcony spots, something I usually have to try and get at the public on-sale.

Nice to get some updates about the album. Not that I have any evidence that says otherwise but this kind of surprised me.

I also made it out to the show and your review pretty much covered it. This was my 25th time seeing MG/B perform and knowing it was a festival-type concert the performance was what I expected. The crowd didn't react to the non-singles but that didn't stop MG from playing songs like Non Populus, Zero Orchestra, Great Whales of the Sea and I'm a Window to spice up the show. Songs like Everything Is Automatic and Future is X-Rated are personal favorites of mine so I'm always pleased when they get performed live. It was a solid 90 minute set but not really fit for an open aired summer festival show, still I'm always happy to see MG perform. I usually record Edmonton shows but because of time constraints and the venue at Capital Ex I didn't roll tape. I don't think we're missing out on too much by not having a recording of the show as far as performances go. There were no new songs or surprising reworkings of favorites. There was a little bit of amusing banter regarding Iron Maiden (they were playing in Edmonton that night), being electrocuted on stage and the aforementioned tirade of the guys who were being violent in the crowd. However, at the next show (solo or full band), I'll be there and ready to record.

The November 15 Edmonton show opened with While We Were Hunting Rabbits and it was just vocals and piano. I don't have the single file available on my computer but you can download the entire MP3 show from here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/o7fe5v (200MB).

Very true, I thought it was just rowdy Edmonton being disrespectful but it seems to follow him across the country. I don't know where it came from either but if it started out as a joke ("Play Rico"), Matt's perceived accessibility or something else. It's become very prominent and I'm sure it gets annoying for them on stage too to hear muffled cries for songs. At the March 2006 acoustic show in Edmonton someone yelled for "Symbolistic White Walls" and he accepted and played it, so sometimes it works and maybe that hope of sometimes is enough to encourage people to keep yelling from the stands.

Or maybe not. The lossless/FLAC Dimeadozen link is here. An account is required to access Dimeadozen but if there is a problem seeding it there I can put it up somewhere else. You got it. Jubilee is great for acoustics and I was first row on the first balcony nearly in the center so the sound came straight to me with nothing in the way. When MG plays at sit down venues like this recording the show is easy and I don't even feel it obstructing my enjoyment.

The November 15 Edmonton show has been tracked out, converted to FLAC (for www.dimeadozen.org later tonight - I'll edit this space when it's available) and the MP3 copy is available here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/o7fe5v. This is the entire concert put into a ZIP file and it is 200MB. For those curious here is the info file. To make this MP3 rip I used the original WAV files and then had iTunes convert to MP3 with a bitrate of 256kbps using VBR on High setting (screenshot of settings here: http://i.imgur.com/YcCWp.png).

Here are a few thoughts on the Edmonton (November 15) show. Compared to recent tours this stands out as the best. After seeing MG/B play for 13 years over 24 shows it's still impressive that each tour can be engaging and different from the last. Any given tour is capable of upstaging my personal favorites from the past. There was a nice mix of new and old in the setlist, the band was spot on and even though the crowd sat (those who stood in their seats had an usher come and tell them to sit down) I feel like the crowd was into it and the band was in good spirits. There was a bit of banter, some interaction with the audience and no political talk (a big change from previous tours). Ian playing again was great and he added a bit of life into the songs. Speaking of which, the addition of the keyboard on this tour is awesome and really adds to songs from Lights of Endangered Species as well as ones from the back catalog. Hornets was not played but there was Rabbits, Future is X-Rated, Champion of Nothing and Alert Status Red plus Non Populus and Zero Orchestra rocked as hard as I expected. Here is a SoundCloud link to my recording of Zero Orchestra from last night. I am missing some editing programs on my Mac so it'll be a few days before I can track out the entire concert but it'll be coming soon.

True advice. Even looking on Ticketmaster a few in the lower and first balcony have popped up online. If you get that CTR1 - Row A - Seat 144 seat you can sit beside me and watch how awkward I am when I record a show.

If you're comfortable with it there are a few tickets available on Kijiji : http://edmonton.kiji...matthewQ20good.

No, it was performed at the November 14 Edmonton show and I'd imagine at prior BC dates too.

To this, I also have an Edmonton October 2005 recording with "The Future Is X-Rated"; so it's been played recently but not since a few tours back and definitely not with the current band. All the same, a very cool surprise and I'm glad the Eastern shows are treated to some surprises like this.

Looks like Alan Cross is at the Winnipeg show tonight and has made a few tweets about it. There is nothing setlist specific (outside of the polka one) but here are his recent MG related ones: There doesn't seem to be any recent chatter on the #mgtour2009 tag either.

For redundant purposes I uploaded the November 14 Edmonton MG .zip to another location, and I also finished editing the Mother Mother set. Look below and rock out! [hide_me] Matthew Good - November 14, 2009 - Edmonton, Alberta: MP3 Link 1: http://www.sendspace.com/file/fsj66m (154MB .ZIP) MP3 Link 2: http://www.zshare.net/download/68593200bcc41cc0/ (154MB .ZIP) FLAC Dimeadozen: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=276697 Mother Mother - November 14, 2009 - Edmonton, Alberta: MP3 Link 1: http://www.sendspace.com/file/i7ufqk (45MB .ZIP) * MP3 Link 2: http://www.zshare.net/download/68593450f95510b2/ (45MB .ZIP) * FLAC Dimeadozen: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=276790 (this won't have a seed until 21:00MT Tuesday/November 17) * The Mother Mother ZIP does not include the info file, so if you really wanted it you can get the MP3 info file here. [/hide_me]

Namely it's quality. This site gives a quick rundown of the difference, or you can learn more here. I'm a trader so I share in FLAC, but I understand some fans just want MP3 so I decided to save them the step. Anyway...I don't want to pull this thread off topic by talking about lossless vs. lossy. Sorry about the previous link confusion, I have re-uploaded the file and hopefully this one lasts a little longer. [hide_me]The download link for the 154MB .ZIP is here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/fsj66m. If this happens again I will upload the file to another location.[/hide_me]

I won't be able to seed the November 14, 2009 Edmonton show in FLAC until later this evening, but for those who are interested in lossy bootlegs I uploaded the show to my me.com account. [hide_me]The ZIP is 154MB and can be downloaded here: http://files.me.com/gursky/ziq03u. Not sure if there is a transfer limit so if it goes down I'd appreciate it if someone let me know (so I can put it back up) or if they would mirror it somewhere else that would be swell.[/hide_me] Anyway, here is the information from the show... Matthew Good Shaw Conference Center Edmonton, Alberta Canada November 14, 2009 Recorder: Sean Gursky ([email protected]) Location: On the floor, in front of soundboard Gear: SP-CMC-2 (AT831) > SPSB-1 - Bass rolloff at 107Hz > JB3 Transfer: JB3 (wav @ 44.1) > USB 2.0 Editing: Audacity Amplify > Har Bal 2.0 EQ > Goldwave Track Split Encoding: WAV to --alt-preset standard VBR MP3 (CDex with Lame 1.30) Setlist: 01. The Boy Who Could Explode [06:28] 02. Great Whales of the Sea [04:43] 03. The Vancouver National Anthem [07:30] 04. Last Parade [05:38] 05. 'Don't take offense' [02:02] 06. Load Me Up [06:24] 07. 'Pirate and ninja story' [04:32] 08. Avalanche [09:11] 09. Odette [03:23] 10. 'A little Michael Buble break' [02:25] 11. A Single Explosion [03:06] 12. Born Losers [05:10] 13. Weapon [06:03] 14. 'You got thrown out during a polka' [03:04] 15. Apparitions [05:43] 16. Empty's Theme Park (fire alarm false start) [02:24] 17. Empty's Theme Park [09:33] 18. Encore Break [02:11] 19. Strange Days (acoustic) [04:23] 20. Giant [06:28] 21. Volcanoes [05:02] 22. Everything is Automatic [04:36] This has also been posted in the NF Lounge. EDIT: The URL of the FLAC torrent will be posted here when it is seeded.

As promised, here is a song sample from Edmonton November 14. "Great Whales of the Sea" can be downloaded from here: http://bit.ly/30OWUL. To save on my bandwidth I uploaded it as an MP3 (4.5MB), but the whole show will be seeded in FLAC. EDIT: I think my recording was fairly good. I have recorded at this venue many times and found my spot last night to be pretty optimal for sound. I had some talkers around me for some songs, but the mics may not have picked that up (it is usually never as bad as I think it is). This song sample was EQ'd with Har Bal so it makes it sound a little brighter then the original recording so I will spend some time doing that to the whole show (assuming it doesn't make it sound worse).

Attended the 11/14 Edmonton show, fairly decent set list; but after 23 times it's tough to pick the best shows over 10+ years. As said in this thread, the new songs sound great live. Having Giant in the encore was a thrill, no matter how many times I hear that I love it. I am just in the process of transferring the Mother Mother and MG recordings over so look for a sample later Sunday morning and the full MG show available a few days later.

Is there any text on there? Perhaps the tour name and year? Or is it just downtown Vancouver? Is the print a drawing/painting or an actual photo?

Are these similar to the autographed posters he had during the Solo Acoustic and Nothing To Hide tours (square in shape)? Or do they have the Vancouver album art on it?

For the first time since Limblifter and Auf der Maur opened for MG am I excited to see an opening band I know. Wil rocked, Ladies and Gentleman were awesome, Melissa McClelland was amazing and Dala was fun; however, I didn't know of them until the tour. But Mother Mother and Matthew Good? That's a great one-two punch and I have the benefit of knowing I have to record the opening band, rather than regretting it halfway through the set.

And the first 200 to order the CD will receive it autographed.

Here is a sample of my recording from the June 21 (Edmonton) show, A Single Explosion. I will be working on the remainder of the concert over the next few days and then I will torrent it at Dimeadozen and Zomb.

Can't speak for any other Western dates but Edmonton (June 21) will be recorded.