Support Your Local Emperor | 1995-05-01 | Blues Traveler

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2:11:49

Rating:

10.00 / 1 rating

Taper:

Scott Bernstein and Geoff Tischman

Transferrer:

Scott Bernstein

SHNID:

bt1995-05-01

Source:

FOB Audience DAT

Lineage:

Master recording: Scheops CMC54 (FOB) -> Sonosax -> Sony D10 Pro II -> (via digital patch) Denon DTR-80p (@16/48) Transfer: DAT playback: Sony R-500 -> Sound Devices 722 digital input (@24/48) Mastering: Sox 14.4.2 to remove pre-emphasis curve applied by Sony D10 Pro II A>D converter; Spectralayers 11 to manually wipe hundreds of nearby loud crowd yells, whistles, claps, etc. Adobe Audition 25.0 16 -> 24 dither with settings: Triangular (Shaped) dither with Weighted (Heavy) noise shaping (16.5khz crossover, 24db strength), Adaptive Mode off. Tracked in CDWav. Tagged in Tag&Rename 3.9.15.

Taper Notes:

View NotesRecorded by Scott Bernstein and Geoff Tischman borrowing Eliot Byron's gear; Transferred (5/26/2020); Mastered/Tracked 4/9-10/2024; Additional mastering done on 12/8-20/2024; posted 1/13/2025 by Scott Bernstein

Taper notes:
For BARN266, I go back....way back -- to 1995 for a Blues Traveler show.  Blues Traveler were the first next-generation jamband that I got into after getting into the Grateful Dead -- back in 1989/1990.  Somehow they managed to get a record deal AND radio airplay on WNEW-FM classic-rock radio, and I loved their sound.  Not only that -- they were local boys from Princeton, NJ who made it big in NYC.

I saw & taped them a few times during their early days, and this was one of the shows that I taped early on in my DAT days before I had my own microphones. On this night, I hooked up with old taping (and RU) buddy Geoff Tischman who borrowed Eliot Byron's Scheops microphones, Sonosax, and trusty Sony D10 Pro II -- which I digitally patched out of with my tiny little Denon DTR-80p.  We were set up right in a great center orchestra seat, and this show reflects the sound of killer gear set up in a perfect location.

There was extra incentive to trek all the way back to New Brunswick, NJ (site of my alma mater) from NYC on this night, as new-favorite band God Street Wine was the opening act (I previously posted the GSW recording here <a href="https://archive.org/details/gsw1995-05-01" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/gsw1995-05-01</a> as BARN246).  I tried to release this recording at the same time as when I posted the GSW opening set, but for some reason, the DAT transfer had 7 or 8 short segments with high error rates and "zits" on the recording.  Of those problematic segments, I was able to repair all but one of them with a fresh transfer of the section of the tape in question.

Getting to this performance -- while this isn't Blues Traveler during their absolute *best* period (89-92), this is still BT at the height of their prowess -- and most importantly before the untimely tragic death of their bassist Bobby Sheehan due to an overdose in 1999.

The bulk of this show features songs from the album they were in the midst of a lenghty tour to promote -- Four (not coincidentally, their 4th album, released the previous September) -- "Crash, Burn" (a song that goes back to their earliest days as a band, but finally given a studio release at the time), "Freedom", "Hook", "Look Around", "Price To Pay", "The Mountains Win Again" (my favorite song from the album), and the hit single "Run-Around".  We get 4 cuts from their previous album, Save His Soul: an expansive and breathtaking almost-15 minute take on the excellent "Go Outside And Drive" (jamming through the song "Tequila", Beck's "Loser", and "Inch Worm" and finally landing in a cover of War's "Low Rider" -- much like the version recorded on this same tour and released on the album "Live From The Fall"), the rockin' "Love and Greed", "Manhattan Bridge", and "NY Phophesie".  We also got 5 stone cold classics from their second album Travelers & Thieves: "Optimistic Thought", "Support Your Local Emperor", an 11 minute epic version of the acoustic "Sweet Pain", "The Best Part", and an always-welcome main set-closing "What's For Breakfast".  And finally (and somewhat sadly) we got only 2 cuts from their first/self-titled album -- their big hit "But Anyway", and the highlight of the show: a 16:40 version of "Sweet Talkin' Hippie" augmented by the sweet talkin' hippie himself, Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors on a scat vocal duet.

All in all, a killer show.

I would only see the classic lineup of this band one more time -- at an amazing show at Central Park Summerstage in 1997...before Bobby's life was taken from us.  The band was never the same after Bobby's death.  They are still worthwhile to see, but much of their magic was due to Bobby's presence.

Of additional note:  There are several inferior versions of this show that had been posted to the Live Music Archive:  One is sourced from a terrible sounding bootleg called "Chunky But Funky" which is missing the first 3 songs and has digi-noise.  Then there seems to be another version whose audio was downloaded from Youtube but is also missing the first 3 songs.  Then there is another version which was also recorded with Scheops microphones but sounds to me like it was recorded much farther away in the balcony -- and was recorded on cassette, but seems to have some cuts in it due to cassette flips.  I actually spent a significant amount of time listening through this one and cleaning up a ton of yells, whistles, claps, etc. from the extremely boisterous Jersey hometown crowd (not far at all from Princeton, where the band hails from).  I was able to scrub all of them them out cleanly thanks to the amazing software tools in Spectralayers 11.  I know it was worth it to polish this prime example of prime Blues Traveler.  I hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as I did.

Enjoy!

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