Tour Bootlegs

[TheEqualizer]

Does anyone know if any soundboard bootlegs exist for this tour? If not, what show has the best sounding bootleg? I've heard things about the Dodger stadium and Houston shows but have not been able to track down copies myself. Links to gigasize or the like would be most appreciated

[PapaCat]

Unfortunately, The Police are NOT at all taper-friendly. Or, perhaps more accurately, their management is not. That means it is hard to get a good quality taping from any of these shows. The recordings I have heard have been mediocre at best, usually due to a lot of crowd noise and crowd-level mics. (No way to elevate the mics above the crowd if you are trying to be discrete).

The one from Bonnaroo is ok and very widely available in BT circles. Edmonton and one of the Vancouver nights are also floating about (the Vancouver I found was awful quality due to someone singing loudly and badly off-key right next to the mic).

I think the StingCorp management team that is running the show has a serious vendetta against tapers or something because I haven't seen much of anything come out. It really is unfortunate that some bands are so vehemently against tapers at their shows. The more you allow tapers to do their thing the more it feeds the enthusiasm of your fan base. Plus, it lets those who had an awesome time at a show find a momento that will recall those memories every time they play it (like my copy of the Wilco show in Charlotte last month). Since most tapers trade or give away their recordings for free, it isn't like anybody is getting rich off live recordings and they hardly create any significant trade-off with album sales, as usually only the diehard fans are into the tapers' recordings of live shows.

Anyway, good luck on the hunt.

[phaty]

[quote="PapaCat"]The more you allow tapers to do their thing the more it feeds the enthusiasm of your fan base. [/quote]

... did anyone call me ... ?

As we were all able to witness in this forum what bootlegs did in the first place was to attract a load of buttheads "reviewing" the show from the recordings without ever saw it in real life - they flew in like a bunch of flies attacking a pile of cow shit on a farm!

I think the mamagement or the band couldn't care less about the money they might lose - which they don't - but I am sure they want to controll how their shows and songs sound to the outside world!

I usually write a nice "oh for fuck sake" in those postings of mine (aka "The Phaty Bootleg Bitching") but I won't - most likely because you have a hot wife!

[PapaCat]

Unfortunately, in this case, banning legit tapers only produces crappy clandestine bootlegs that then make the concerts sound much worse. If they were taper-friendly (sold taper tickets with taping rights and set off a designated taper section) then the recordings would be much higher quality and available in fully lossless format. There are a ton of legit tapers out there who really want (and are willing to pay) to make high quality tapes of live shows. It's just a shame that more bands aren't willing to embrace that community and trust it to generate good quality semipro tapes of the live gigs.

As for people reviewing show on the basis of crappy clandestine bootlegs... Well that's just all the more reason to want some higher quality semipro tapers at those shows to produce high quality lossless audio tracks to get a much better feel for what the music actually sounded like.

Bottom line is, management won't completely stop taping. The question is whether they want a few low quality clandestine recordings to be running around or they want a small rabid base of semipro fan tapers producing some outstanding quality tapes with the management's support.

As for my hot wife, she's smokin' crazy hot, tis true. And wicked smart too! =D

[NoOneYouKnow]

Maybe I'll never tire of pointing this out, but they could bypass the whole semi-pro taper scene altogether and just sell their own shows like primuslive.com does. I think I read that Stewart knows one of the guys from Primus.* Maybe he could talk to him about it.

There's your soundboard tape right there. It won't be free, but it will sound A++, and you won't have to worry about it getting all lossy from transcoding.

Instead people will complain that they're only available for sale as MP3's.


*please don't fall for that.

[PapaCat]

[quote="NoOneYouKnow"]Maybe I'll never tire of pointing this out, but they could bypass the whole semi-pro taper scene altogether and just sell their own shows like primuslive.com does. I think I read that Stewart knows one of the guys from Primus.* Maybe he could talk to him about it.

There's your soundboard tape right there. It won't be free, but it will sound A++, and you won't have to worry about it getting all lossy from transcoding.

Instead people will complain that they're only available for sale as MP3's.


*please don't fall for that.[/quote]

Primuslive sells both MP3s (lossy) and FLAC (lossless) on most if not all of their sets, if I recall correctly. It is a great option if a band wishes to provide a direct outlet for copies of their live gigs. The downloads are pretty reasonably priced also.

Interestingly, Primus is also a taper-friendly band, so in addition to the nice soundboard-mixed official Zoltron sets, they allowed tapers to tape their shows and freely trade them. Oysterhead also.

[DirtyMartini]

Eq, can't help you as to which are "best" but there's lots of info, links, etc, here:

http://www.thepolice.com/members/commun ... board=14.0

(Not sure if you have to sign up for a "free membership" to see that thread, but I know that you do NOT need to be a paying member to see it.)


And PapaCat's wife is indeed smokin' crazy hot and wicked smart. I can vouch.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

StingCorp vs. Oysterhead...

And I get griped out in every thread in which I dare to suggest Stewart might wish to revisit those halcyon days with Claypool and Anastasio...There's a lot of upside, I'm telling you.

[PapaCat]

[quote="Divemistress of the Dark"]StingCorp vs. Oysterhead...

And I get griped out in every thread in which I dare to suggest Stewart might wish to revisit those halcyon days with Claypool and Anastasio...There's a lot of upside, I'm telling you.[/quote]

No fear, Dive! We can cover each other's back on this one.

As much as I am thrilled by the Police reunion and overjoyed that I finally got to see The Police live (and will get at least one more show in on this tour), I would be happiest seeing Oysterhead reunite next summer, do another album, and do some festivals (Bonnaroo '08?).

To be bluntest about it, I'm far more a Stewart fan than a Police fan and I'd rather see him doing HIS thing in a more balanced management environment and a more experimental or open format than StingCorp would likely ever permit. That's one of the great things about Oysterhead. You have three great musicans, each with an incredibly unique and distinctive style, and none of them compromise that style at all when they play together, yet it functions as a composite beautifully. It's almost as if they just got together, started playing with little to no plan, and it organically wove together into this strange but wonderful thing called Oysterhead. It seems like the exact opposite of the Police: OH is loose, open, funky, and minimally planned. That may be an illussion but it's one I will buy into gladly. They just don't seem invested in controlling the whole thing or other members' elements of the whole and for them it works fantastically. Plus, Les > Sting for my personal tastes! <duck!>

[Duke]

I would be happiest seeing Oysterhead reunite next summer<<

Don't think that's gonna happen for a while with Trey's recent adventures in the United States judical system.

[PapaCat]

[quote="Duke"]I would be happiest seeing Oysterhead reunite next summer<<

Don't think that's gonna happen for a while with Trey's recent adventures in the United States judical system. [/quote]

Well, Trey has avoided any jail time through his plea agreement in April and got 12-18 month of drug testing and is in a court-monitored outpatient program, but he is playing at 10k lakes festi this summer in a few days and has a new album coming out a week after that.

Did something else happen more recently I missed? Did he get into more trouble?