Mp3s: Wedding Present in Cambridge, MA
Posted on December 9, 2008 at 2:11 pm | No Comments
So what else can I say about seeing the Wedding Present live? I’ve used plenty of words to express my undying love for ’em here on the ‘Nac, been fortunate enough to catch them each time they’ve hit the Boston area since their emergence from hibernation in 2004, and as live performers they never disappoint me. The quartet gets on stage, rocks out on a setlist full of great recent songs and old faves, says farewell, and off they go. No encores, no requests considered, all business. In fact, the only fault I could find is that lack of spontaneity — they’re almost too pro — but they make up for it with the songs themselves and the energy with which they deliver them. Gedge & co. are ever dependable.
Here’s their early-October set, once again downstairs at the Middle East in Cambridge (their venue of choice, it seems). Personal highlights were “Kennedy” kicking things off, “Palisades” (maybe my fave from their latest, “El Rey”), and the late-set one-two punch of “Dalliance” and “Dare“, which were played more passionately than ever.
As Gedge always makes himself very available for chatting before and after the show, I was able to ask him about something I’d heard — that the band re-recorded the entirety of their debut album, “George Best”, when they were in the studio with Steve Albini working on “El Rey” — and David confirmed that was indeed the case. “Just for fun”, he said, and that it was fairly easy to bang out, since the lineup had performed the album on a short UK tour last year to commemorate 20 years since its release. And while there are no solid plans to release those re-recordings, he said they’d likely pop up as b-sides or some such thing at some point.
When I mentioned that I wished I could have seen that anniversary tour, he shared this likely possibility — with 2009 marking 20 years since the release of 1989’s “Bizarro”, well, you can figure the rest out. Yes, it looks like we’ll probably be treated to some U.S. shows that will celebrate the occasion, and that has me thrilled. In fact, I’m truly hoping that the stars align, and the crew from All Tomorrow’s Parties invites the Weddoes to ATP NY 2009 next September. That’d get me out to the Catskills again for sure.
To the live tracks we go…
Live at the Middle East Downstairs
in Cambridge, MA
on Monday, October 6th, 2008
01. Kennedy
02. It’s For You
03. Gone
04. Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk
05. You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
06. Lovenest
07. Blue Eyes
08. Palisades
09. Snake Eyes
10. Sports Car
11. Spider-Man On Hollywood
12. Crawl
13. You Turn Me On
14. Interstate 5
15. My Favourite Dress
16. Model, Actress, Whatever
17. The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend
18. Dalliance
19. Dare
20. Boo Boo
Some Wedding Present links…
Their official site, MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, and Manifesto label page. Additional Audio: Nothing in the way of officially-sanctioned free mp3s, so you’ll just have to hit up MySpace for song streams. Video: A bounty of official videos and live clips via a Weddoes YouTube search. You’ll find two official videos from “El Rey” there — “The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend” and “Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk“. Photos: All of my Flickr-hosted Wedding Present shots are here. Have a look at a full Wedding Present Flickr tag search as well. Upcoming tourdates: The Wedding Present has about a dozen dates left in 2008, mostly in the UK, but with a couple in Greece and the last in Turkey. Longer term plans include more UK dates in March along with a trip to Japan (and then hopefully we’ll get word about that “Bizarro” anniversary tour!). Listen to any and all ‘Nac-hosted Mp3s at the Hype Machine.
the fine print… If anyone has an issue with these Mp3s being made available, just let me know (my contact info in the ‘nac faq). Live sets recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps Mp3s. Files are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.
Comments
Leave a Reply