https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Duuude, Tapes! Mos Generator, Live in Europe 2013

Posted in Duuude, Tapes! on October 14th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

I wasn’t quite sure what was going on with Mos Generator‘s new Live in Europe 2013 cassette until I flipped the case over and saw three crucial words written all in caps: “STEREO AUDIENCE RECORDING.”

In a way, that tells a large part of the story with the Lame is Me Records release, which is the second recorded document to emerge from the Washington trio’s European run earlier this year with Saint Vitus behind the Lay Bare Recordings vinyl, In Concert (review here). It is an audience recording. Where In Concert had professional production, a crisp, clear sound and a vibrant mix, Live in Europe 2013 is much rawer in sound and execution. It’s a solid pickup for fans of the band and no doubt makes a decent option on the merch table, but its intent is clearly different from the other live outing. More or less, it’s a bootleg.

And once I realized that, my entire context for it changed. The tape compiles two sets — one recorded in Aschaffenburg, Germany, and one recorded in Vienna, Austria — and puts one on each side, a slightly varied setlist setting them apart as changing out a jamming “Step Up” for “Beyond the Whip” marks out one night from its companion. Immediately I was reminded of being in the musty shop where I used to buy my bootlegs, scanning the spines of cassette cases for dates and places to see which copied shows from which tours I could get on the cheap. Audience recordings, straight from master to the tape or stripped through further generations of recording-to-recording transfer of what little fidelity they had, are always a tricky prospect, because so much depends on the equipment. Mos Generator‘s material comes in pretty clearly, considering, but if you go into Live in Europe 2013 thinking it’s going to be hitting the same kind of standard as In Concert, let me be the first to tell you that’s not what’s going on here and it doesn’t seem like it was meant to be.

One of the big arguments I hear against the “tape revival” is that it’s needless. Why bother with a tape for anything other than ’90s sentimentality (including, as you can see in the paragraph above, my own)? Well, a release like this, with its transparent green cassette, limited run and for-fans-only vibe, makes a perfect tape. You wouldn’t press either of these shows to a CD, and the expense of doing a vinyl run for an audience recording — let alone a 2LP to get both shows in — is ridiculous. But with a tape, anyone interested in getting more of a taste of Mos Generator‘s 2013 European tour can do so with a sonic feel that, in its own way, is as classic as the rock itself. I’ve got some audience-recorded Sabbath bootlegs and other stuff. It’s a very specific sound, and again, once I saw those three words, Live in Europe 2013 made a whole lot more sense.

If, like me, you’re a fan of what Mos Generator do — especially if, like me, you’re a fan who’s never seen them live — then Live in Europe 2013 legitimately has something to offer that even In Concert can’t by its very nature. If you want to call my digging on a raw-sounding tape pointless nostalgia, well fine, but you could just as easily apply the same critique to people delving into heavy ’70s riffing in the first place, and that’s not an argument I hear very often. Dig it or don’t, if it’s one more way to get a feel for what these guys can do on a stage, then the only complaint I’m about to make is that neither show has “Cosmic Ark” on it. Beyond that, my issues are nil.

Mos Generator, “This is the Gift of Nature” Live in Vienna, Austria, March 22, 2013

Mos Generator’s official store

Lame is Me

Tags: , , , , ,