M.D.C.- Cornerstone, Berkeley Ca 5/26/23 4K UHD Multicam w/Schoeps Audio Millions of Dead Cops MDC

I don’t even know where to begin with this one.
I busted ass and left early from Sacramento to get to Cornerstone right when the doors open at 7pm, and I was one of the first 10 people in the venue. I start asking around for permission to film, since I have permission from MDC. The PM tells me that my facebook message conversation with Barry isn’t good enough, he needs to talk to him in person. MDC is not at the venue yet, so I wait… and wait. In the meantime, I ask the soundman for a board feed and I will only plug in once permission is secured which gets me a vague “OK…”. Barry gets there at about 7:40 and gets me permission for MDC and offers to help with GBH- thanks Barry! I run into Ross from GBH at the bar and he gives me the “thumbs up” for video, but I knew that would not be enough unless I got to the PM and GBH’s manager… which was impossible.
The show is sold out and the venue is pretty small with a balcony that goes across all 3 non-stage sides of the venue. I mention this because when a punk show sells out there, just about everyone goes down to the floor and a big pit starts, smashing the rest of the crowd against the sides and making it impossible to move through the place. This is what I get to deal with in setting up 6 cameras (5 mounted plus the one I am using) across the entire venue- front and back, stage left and right. I got them set up just in time and bolt back to the soundboard to see if I can plug in the recorder- soundman is busy and unavailable so I hit record, leave my XLR cables clearly visible (needing them to be plugged in), and go to my spot to video. I sure hope he plugs it in!
I film in front of a pole that is in between the 3 merch tables on the left hand side of the venue. I figured I’d be OK there since it is all the way on one side of the venue… nope. I am in the middle of a walkway that appears when MDC starts and I have no place to go,. People bump into me constantly through the set. My position for audio is shitty, since the sweet spot in the venue is in the middle of the pit. I make the best of it anyway.
Set ends and I go to the stage to pull the gopros off, and I see GBH’s manager(who I never got to talk to) and the PM waving at me, asking me to get the gopros off the stage urgently. I’m going as fast as I can. I fight through people and pull the cameras off the stage and poles and lay my camera backback right into a puddle of beer while pulling down the last one. The very last thing I do is go to the soundboard to get my recorder. There my recorder sits, with an XLR pair of soundboard plugs sitting about 3 inches from my plugs… not plugged in. I wanted to take a picture because I couldn’t believe it, but I couldn’t get the phone out of my pocket because it was TOO FUCKING PACKED to even do so.
So despite all of this, this is probably the best MDC video I have done. Dave has an in ear monitor and it has made all the difference- he can hear and he is on point. Crowd is wild and the band is on fire.
I did not film GBH. In fact, I left during the first song or 2. I’m too old for this shit. As a bonus, I’ll post me walking out of the venue during GBH. If you want to see a GBH video, search the website or channel- there are 2 multicamera videos done with permission.

Recorded by: Shayne Stacy\
Equipment used: Canon HFG60, Canon HFG50 x2, Gopro Hero 7 black x3.
Audio equipment: Schoeps CCM4/Tinybox/Sony A10
Edit by tromster
Shoutout to Wayne Triggs for watching stuff and for the help.

Live Concert Video

M.D.C.- Cafe Colonial, Sacramento Ca. 4/2/22 4K UHD Master w/ Rode Videomic Pro Stereo Millions Dead

There were so many good shows last weekend and I was planning on hitting at least 3 of them, and then my son got me sick. After resting up for a good part of Saturday, I was able to get to the show just in time to see MDC. It was nice catching up with Barry briefly. MDC’s new songs are really good!
There are a few cuts in the video. I did not have the energy to charge batteries before the show, so I was juggling 3 almost dead batteries while filming. I also tried a new setup (GH5S and the DPA mics) in preparation for the 7 seconds shows and it worked out great. Hope you like it.

Recorded by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Panasonic GH5S, Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 II ASPH Lens w/ Sony A10, church audio tinybox preamp and DPA4061 mics

Live Concert Video

M.D.C. Acoustic- Cafe Colonial, Sacramento Ca. 11/22/19 4K UHD Live

I was hanging out with the kids last night, watching Scooby Doo and Speed Buggy cartoons and my wife asked me to take something to my mother-in-law. She lives less than a mile from the cafe, so I popped in to see if I could catch the M.D.C. set… but they were not headlining so I got there about halfway through their set. I got the last 15min. Oh well, it was nice to talk to Dave and Mike a bit, and I got to try out the new Canon HFG50!

Recorded by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Canon HFG50 & Rode Videomic Pro Stereo

Live Concert Video

M.D.C.- Blue Lamp, Sacramento Ca. 1/21/18 Multicam Live MDC Millions Dead Cops

This one has a LONG, wacky backstory to it. This was MDC’s last show of the US leg of their tour- they were flying to Japan early the next morning out of SFO (2.5 hour drive). They had already parked their tour van by SFO and were playing on borrowed equipment. Barry Ward came to me and asked if he could borrow an amp from someone, so we (me and someone else- eric Marias?) called everyone who lived close and Cory Weigert had Andy’s amp from the Peace Killers. So, during the set break right before MDC goes on, I haul ass in my car to the Cafe Colonial to meet up with Cory. He is still talking to Andy and he gets the OK. In our haste, Cory locks himself out of the Cafe- he is yelling through the mail slot to Matt to let him back in… we finally get the amp and haul ass back to the Blue Lamp. I pull up on the sidewalk and bring the amp on stage… and they don’t use it. Barry DI’d into the board. So I scramble to get cameras up and film this video. Thanks to Cory for enduring all that, and thanks to Gabi for pushing the band’s start time back until we arrived.

Epilogue: About 2 days after the show, I get a FB message from one of the opening bands. He was upset that MDC named his band as the guys who were supposed to loan them equipment. Ah, no good deed goes unpunished. Oh well. 🙂

 

Recorded by: Shayne Stacy

Equipment Used: Canon HFG40 w/ Rode Video Pro Stereo Mic, Canon HFG30 on tripod, Canon HFG10 by stage, Gopro hero 4 silver on Al.

Edit by: Tromster

 

 

Live Concert Video

MDC- 924 Gilman, Berkeley Ca. 6/24/88 xfer from 1st gen VHS tape w/ enhanced audio Live M.D.C. Punk

I’m late today- very busy. Here is the last full show from the Gilman benefit streaming event. There are tons more Gilman videos that I need to clean up and improve audio. It’ll take months or maybe years. Stay tuned.
Like the Op Ivy, this one was also taken from the cleanest VHS copy available- the tape comes from legendary soundman Radley Hirsch’s VHS tape, transferred with a high end VHS setup.
If you have heard/seen other versions of this show on youtube, the straight board mix on the video is not great. It is basically all bass and vocals. We extracted the audio and we were able to improve it a little. You can now hear guitar and there is some snare in there as well.

Recorded by: ?
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Transfer equipment: JVC HRS9800 & Canopus ADVC300
Audio rebalance in Izotope rx7

Live Concert Video

M.D.C.- The Farm, San Francisco Ca 10/10/87 xfer from master soundboard cassette MDC Millions Dead C

James Edmonds also sent me this MDC set- it was on the flipside of the Feederz show. Funny story about this one from James- “The MDC set is only half, as someone else wanted to record that set & our sound guy split recording time, so somewhere out there is the other half.”. I can’t say I have ever heard of that being done before.
Sweet Hendrix cover!

Recorded by: James Edmonds
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
I think I rebalanced this in Izotope Rx8. Sounds great regardless

Live Concert Video

MDC- 924 Gilman, Berkeley Ca 7/25/87 xfer from 1st gen soundboard cassette rebalanced M.D.C.

Yet another M.D.C. board tape- this one comes from Wayne Vanderkuil via Radley Hirsch. Radley always hooked us up. Dave is a comedian at the start of this set.
The mix slides around a bit, but I did boost guitars +6 and drums +2. Sounds better now. This appears to be the complete set.
Also, I am using a new program (vegas pro) to create these audio posts. Is the thumbnail all blurry for you? It looks like crap from my side, but after I post on YT it seems to resolve itself.

Recorded and mixed by: Radley Hirsch
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card

Audio Live Concert

Dave Dictor (M.D.C.)- 924 Gilman, Berkeley Ca. 6/20/87 xfer from 1st gen Soundboard Tape Acoustic

We have some short audio posts for you this week. This one is interesting because it looks like Dave just showed up at Gilman and hopped on stage and played some acoustic songs. He is not on the bill for the June 20 show and he mentions just stopping by. That’s pretty cool. I don’t recall Dave doing many acoustic shows back then.
Tracklist: Soup Kitchen Celebrity/My Family’s a Little Weird/S.K.I.N.H.E.A.D./ Chickensquawk

Recorded and mixed by: Radley Hirsch
From Wayne Vanderkuil’s archive
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card

Audio Live Concert

M.D.C.- The Farm, San Francisco Ca 8/17/86 xfer from 1st gen soundboard cassette

Yet another one from the Vanderkuil treasure trove today. Thanks to Radley Hirsch for mixing, recording, and sharing with Wayne (and us).
This one starts out with a LONG, entertaining monologue from Dave. Music starts at 6 minutes in, and the mix gets good at about 10min. Short set- 25min including the 6min of no music.

Recorded by: Radley Hirsch
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
Rebalance in Izotope Rx8: +5 on guitars

Audio Live Concert