Yo La Tengo - live at the First Unitarian Church

Recorded live in Philadelphia, PA 10/12/04 - 152 min

Notes

DAT master (CSB w/bass roll-off -> M1 [mic in, AGC]). This was a seated show in the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. I was sitting directly in front of the outer right speaker, one row back. Sound is good overall, but mixed: quiet songs like "My Little Corner of the World" are very clear, but cacophonous numbers such as "It's a Beautiful World" are kind of echoey.

Three sets (54 minutes, 54 minutes, and 44 minutes). Third Philadelphia show in a row featuring members of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Final stop on the tour of swing states.

An amazing lineup of featured performers play with the band:

Fun version of "It's a Beautiful World", sung by James. (Is it me, or do YLT get some of their cover ideas from commercials? "It's a Beautiful World" was used as the jingle for various Target spots a while back, and "You Sexy Thing" was in a Burger King commercial shortly before YLT were covering it. I realize that's only two songs of the hundreds they know...just saying is all.)

Dave Schramm plays lead guitar on "Tears Are In Your Eyes".

Calvin Johnson sings several songs as only he can, including an oddly compelling duet of "The Trouble With Me" with Georgia.

Organ levels were very low in "Autumn Sweater" until the sound guy fixed something.

Tremendous extended version of "Little Eyes".

Sound levels drop for a few seconds in "Little Honda" due to a careless audience member bumping our local speaker, causing it to briefly lose power.


Michael Edmonson (edmonson@sdf.lonestar.org)