Might as well keep going with the obscure theme of “bands I didn’t know Noah Landis was in during the 90s” this week. Blister was around in the early 90s and put an album out on Rough Trade that seems to be released only in Germany. Late-era Christ on Parade bandmate Doug Kearney is also in the band, along with a bass player named Chaz the Spaz. With a name like his, it’s got to be good! Unfortunately, the tape cuts off mid-song, so we are missing some of the performance. Happy this exists.
Recorded by: Tall Tim Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card From Robert Eggplant’s collection
So, I went to this show on a fluke. I was following Uncle Tupelo around the Midwest and the plan was for me to drive to Kansas city and film them on this night, then get in the car and drive 9 hours to make my Chicago flight mi-day of the 15th. I was tired so Jim convinced me to go to this show instead. Thanks Jim- you probably saved my life. This place was cool- it was a shack/barn type place in the middle of nowhere. The lighting was minimal- it was a good thing I had the Sony TR-81 which did quite well in low light. Audio sucks, but I do have a good DAT audience recording of the show.
This was the last show I saw of the week long run in 1992. 5 shows in 6 nights. I was going to try to go to Kansas City the next day, but that would have been a long drive there, then driving through the night with no sleep to make my flight in Chicago. By the time I got to Columbia, I was pretty tired. I went to the “liquor and guns” store made famous by lyrics in “Whiskey Bottle”… and did not even realize it until well after the fact. D’oh! I got to the club late and it was packed. So packed that I could not get close and I could not set up my tripod. I ended up using my tripod as a folded up monopod-like thing. It turned out ok, except some people kept getting in the way of the filming.
Here is the last UT show from the November of 1992 run that I taped. I was supposed to go to Kansas City the next night and then drive 12 hours straight through the night to catch my plane in Chicago, but my body told me that wasn’t going to happen. I went to the Didjits show with Jim Utz instead. Anyway, I got to Columbia in the early afternoon and tried to find a liquor store for some beer. I saw this place with the sign “Liquor Guns and Ammo”, so I went in and saw that they only had lousy beer, so I bailed. It didn’t even occur to me until years later the store I was in was probably the same one described in UT’s song “Whiskey Bottle”. Duh. I conked out before the show and got there a little late. I get in the club and it is PACKED. Like, sold out packed… and I am late and I have no place to film. I had to wedge myself between some people and use my tripod like a monopod- hanging it over the railing on the balcony a bit to get a clear shot. I think it still turned out pretty good. The only downside of that approach was the DAT recording. I could not tend to the DAT so the battery dies during the last song, so you get crappy stock camera audio for that one.
Recorded by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony TR-81, Sony TCD-D3 DAT w/Nakamichi CM300 mic. Enhanced (degrain) via Adobe Premiere Elements/Neat Video Audio/Video synch via pluraleyes.
Oh man, preparing this was a pain in the ass of epic proportions. I will put a screenshot of most, but not all of the working files in the FB comment if you want a good laugh. This one probably had the most dramatic improvement over the original, once enhanced. I somehow stopped the camera at about 22 minutes, which caused the audio/video synch to misalign. I have no recollection of what happened at that 22min mark, but you can see the camera being moved around, and you can even see Gary Scheppers at work in the soundbooth. This was the most unique set of the entire tour. The band had a bunch of equipment break/broken strings, so they started pulling out the covers at about 50 minutes… Doug Sahm and more. My recollection of this show was getting there super late because I spent the day with Jim Utz, getting gas about 45min outside of Lawrence and thinking it was kinda odd that NOBODY was around… until I drove back through there during the day and noticed that it was the shittiest part of kansas city ever. My only other memory from this city is going to a mexican food place that was a total hole in the wall- in a steel building in the middle of nowhere- and this group was having a party and they kept giving me shots of tequila.
Recorded by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony TR-81 camcorder w/ Hi8ME tape; Audio recorded with YCD-D3 DAT and Nakamichi CM-300 mic Brighten/contrast adjustment and video denoise with Adobe Premierer Elements/Neat Video Audio/Video synch with Pluraleyes
This was my 3rd stop on that November 92 tour, following UT through the Midwest. I remember 2 things about that day- it was SUPER foggy. Fog like this does not exist in California. It was amazing I found my way to a hotel. The second was that I ate at a Mongolian BBQ place for dinner where an old toothless man had a stick that he used to cook the food in front of me. The stick was half gone due to overuse- meaning that I (or someone) may have been eating splinters. Yum. This video sounds really good. I am a bit shocked that the stock mic in the TR-81 performed so well.
It’s funny, I never thought that this was a very good performance. Now that I revisit it after 28 years, it was probably one of the best shows of the tour. The original perception was probably due to me being tired and hungover(this was the day after the “I went to the wrong state” debacle), plus it was the 3rd show in 4 days, and also the lighting in the venue being weak. I was able to brighten this one quite a bit and de-snow the picture, I also boosted the color intensity up quite a bit (like 85%) because the original was bland as hell. I was also able to get Izotope to get a decent read on this one (audience recordings are hit and miss) so I was able to boost guitar and vocals. The guitar was really low in the mix in the room. Great performance, and probably the best I have ever heard Bill play with UT.
Recorded by: Shayne Stacy Equipment Used: Sony TR-81 camcorder, Sony TCD-D3 DAT w/Nakamichi CM300 mic Brighten/denoise: Adobe premiere elements, Neat Video Audio remix in Izotope RX7 Audio Video synch via pluraleyes.
There is a REALLY long story about this show that I will paste below all of the tech details. As an aside, you would think that this “8mm video xfer and synch with better audio thing” would be simple, but it is a 10 step, multi day process… especially with all of the trial and error at the start. Please pardon the delays.
Recorded by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony TR-81 for video; Sony TCD-D3 and 1 Nakamichi CM300 mic. Xfer from a Sony DCR-TRV340 Hi8 camera via firewire. Audio rebalance via Izotope (boost bass and guitar) Video Noise reduction in Adobe Premiere w/Neat video. DAT xfer wirh Sony PCMR500 & M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card– Reaper Audio/Video Synch via Pluraleyes
I land in Chicago and see them at the Lounge ax on the first night. The next show was in Bloomington, at Jakes. This is before GPS and internet maps- I had a handful of AAA maps that put me in the general area of the club. So off I go- I leave Chicago and I see roadsigns that say “bloomington, 200 miles” or something like that.. so I follow them. I get to bloomington and I check into a motel 6. I start looking in the phone book for Jake’s, and I can’t find it. I spend an hour + trying to figure out where the club is, including asking the indifferent receptionist at the motel, when she finally says “are you looking for Bloomington IL or IN? You are in IL”. It is about 6pm, and I realize that I am in the wrong STATE for the show. My heart and stomach sank. I jump back in the car and consult the map. Looks like about a 3 hour drive, and I am panicking- afraid that I flew to the midwest only to miss one of the shows because of my stupidity. So I jump in the car and start driving. I take the most direct route on the map, which is a mistake because it takes me through a bunch of small towns with 25mph speed limits and stop signs(it seriously felt like I was going through people’s backyards). It is also raining torrentially and these huge semis are throwing swimming pools full of water on my rental car. It was probably the most stressed I had ever been in my life at the time- for 4 hours straight! I get to the club and burst through the door like a madman, expecting to see UT finishing up their set. The show had not even started yet, and all of these laidback people are looking at me from the bar like “WTF is your problem”. So I start drinking guiness, trying to calm down and I get completely smashed before the band goes on. I met a guy who I traded tapes with, who I am sure thought I was totally insane. Luckily for me, that was probably the best show of that tour.
When I started to prep this one, I realized I made a mistake while transferring it. Some of these old tapes are dirty, or the tape sheds and dirties up the heads while it plays. I needed to clean heads constantly to get some tapes to transfer. I thought I got a clean transfer of this one, but it craps out at about 17 minutes- sorry about that. The video wasn’t much longer than this anyway, and it looks like there is another version of this show (amazingly) up on the internet as well. If you ever wanted to see what a slow descent into dirty-headedness looks like, fast forward to 16min.
Recorded by: Craig Babb Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony DCR-TRV320 Degrain in Adobe Premiere Elements/Neat Video
In 1992, I had pretty much given up filming shows with the CV-80. It was a dinosaur after 4 years. I got the Sony TR-81 (hi8 hifi stereo camera) in late 92- it was a top of the line consumer model at the time. I took a week vacation and flew to the midwest to follow Uncle Tupelo around for a week and film them. I land in Chicago and start driving around- no map or anything- and I got totally lost. I stop at a gas station to buy a map and a random guy comes up to me and yells “what are you doing here? You need to get out- it is too dangerous for you”. Errr, ok. I flailed with the map for a while and eventually found the club. Lounge Ax was the most difficult venue to film- no place to set up a tripod. So I hand held it from the bleachers. Sorry for the shakiness. Jesse Hamm helped with this transfer, and the audio sounds really good. This may be Jeff Segota’s audio from his DAT and Shure VP88 mic.
Sacramento Music Archive 