Posts by DaveO

In this week’s audio and video recap, we lead off with a section from Big Sam’s Funky Nation that taper Z-Man pulled in Cambridge, MA. Z-Man is one of the tapers with the quickest turnaround, and he recently has moved to Massachusetts, so expect to see more uploads from that area. Also, we’ve got a rarely played cover from Gov’t Mule that Warren likes busting out in Caribbean climates it seems, a recording from a concert by Keller Williams showcasing his children’s songs, Umphrey’s McGee laying down a fantastic jam on an old classic and a crisp recording from Yo La Tengo.

If you don’t want to stay on the site for an hour streaming the individual tracks, you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast. Click here to download.

[Thanks to AHappyHourHero for this week’s photo]

Big Sam’s Funky Nation – I Came To Party > Big Sam Funky Nation > Gimme That Funky Horn
Date & Venue: 2011-02-03 – Middle East – Cambridge, MA
Taper & Show Download: Z-Man

Fresh off wowing fans on Jam Cruise, Big Sam’s Funky Nation delivers this 19+ minute segment to start us off this week. Big Sam’s Funky Nation [tour dates] plays tonight at Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar in Houston, TX.

Video from Saturday’s For the One Month to Mardi Gras party in NYC:

READ ON for tracks from Mule, Keller, Umphrey’s and Yo La Tengo…

With the announcement coming this past weekend that LCD Soundsystem would be playing their final show on April 2nd at Madison Square Garden, it seemed appropriate that we select one of their tunes for Cover Wars. All My Friends was released as a single for LCD’s 2007 album Sound of Silver. As you’ll see below, that single included two covers of All My Friends.

The Contestants:

Franz Ferdinand is the first of two artists this week who recorded a cover of All My Friends specifically to be released as a B-Side to the single.

Franz Ferdinand has played it live on a number of occasions:

READ ON for four more covers of All My Friends…

Last week, a band celebrated its 33rd anniversary, two guys both named Billy teamed up for a great show in San Fran, one of the contestants in this week’s Cover Wars did us the favor of playing Row Jimmy in their encore slot, an HT fave had a great matrix show up on the Live Music Archive and another band played their cover of Radiohead’s National Anthem for a second time. To figure out who these bands are, have a listen to Last Week’s Sauce.

If you don’t want to stay on the site for an hour streaming the individual tracks, you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

[Thanks to tbrown4 for this week’s photo]

Billy Martin and Wil Blades – Blue Pepper
Date & Venue: 2011-01-29 – Boom Boom Room – San Francisco, CA
Taper & Show Download: Burris T. Ewell

Drummer Billy Martin and Keyboardist Wil Blades teamed up for this show cleverly titled illyB+wilB. They were joined at times throughout the show by Cornelius Boots (baritone sax), Allen Herman (drums), Mike Olmos (trumpet), and Corey Wright (tenor sax). Medeski Martin & Wood [tour dates] hit the road March 2nd in Beaver Creek, CO.

READ ON for tracks from The Decemberists, PGroove and The Radiators…

Row Jimmy was released on the 1973 Grateful Dead album Wake Of The Flood. Over at one of my favorite GD online sites, The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, they point out…

First performance: February 9, 1973 at Rose Maples Pavilion, Stanford University. “Row Jimmy” was in the second slot in the first set. Other firsts at this show included “China Doll,” “Eyes of the World,” “Here Comes Sunshine,” “Loose Lucy,” “They Love Each Other,” and “Wave That Flag.”

That’s quite a batch of tunes.

The Contestants:

In this unsourced blog posting, Colin Meloy of The Decemberists discusses how his views of the Grateful Dead evolved over the years. It’s a highly recommended read and I like the fact that he addresses the facts that he blew some of the lyrics, that way I don’t have to call him out on it.

READ ON for three more covers of Row Jimmy…

There was plenty of live music last week that didn’t take place in Mexico at Mayan Holidaze, but since the taper Z-Man supplied more than enough material to dedicate this entire piece to this festival, I thought why not? We’ve got audio and video from 30db, the rarely taped act The Album Leaf, a 30+ minute segment from the Disco Biscuits, a tune from STS9’s “axe the cables” acoustic set, and an Umphrey’s McGee staple translated into Spanish.

If you don’t want to stay on the site for an hour streaming the individual tracks, you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

30db – Liar, The Good Times Are Killing Me
Date & Venue: 2011-01-21 – Now Sapphire Resort – Mayan Riviera, Mexico
Taper & Show Download: Z-Man

Our first segment of music is Liar from 30db’s 2010 album One Man Show followed by the set-closing cover of The Good Times Are Killing Me by Modest Mouse. While Brendan Bayliss and Jeff Austin already have plenty of tour dates on the books with their primary bands, 30db doesn’t have any future scheduled dates. They are both scheduled to play at Summer Camp 2011, perhaps that will be the host of the next 30db gig.

Wilco’s Handshake Drugs earlier on in the set:

READ ON for tracks from The Album Leaf, tDB, STS9, and Umphrey’s…

Hey Jude was the B-Side to the 1968 single Revolution by The Beatles. This single was the Beatles first release on the Apple label. Originally titled Hey Jules, the song was written by Paul McCartney in reference to John Lennon’s son Julian. One of my favorite online Beatles resources is Alan W. Pollack’s site, click here to read all the musical (and other) information you would ever want to know about Hey Jude.

The Contestants:

Leading off this week we’ve got The Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Soul Stew Revival courtesy of a great recording from That Tent at Bonnaroo. Source: 6-15-2008

Video from the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise January 2009:

READ ON for more nine more covers of Hey Jude…

Normally, I find the month of January to be a pretty uneventful one in the world of live music. Bands play big winter tours often leading up to a big New Year’s Eve blowout, and the beginning of the calendar year seems to be a rest from the road. So I was surprised when I did my search of the Live Music Archive and found 84 recordings already uploaded at press time. We’ve got Cracker covering an album in its entirety (and that wasn’t the only album in that show), the Disco Biscuits getting drummer Allen Aucoin back onstage, Grace Potter busting out a MMJ cover, an interesting sequence of music from Tim Palmieri and a couple of classics from the Tom Tom Club.

You can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

[Thanks to vanark for this week’s photo]

Cracker – Loser
Date & Venue: 2011-01-14 – Highline Ballroom – New York, NY
Taper & Show Download: Barry Shoop

Camper Van Beethoven & Cracker played three joint shows last week and at each one Cracker performed their 1993 album Kerosene Hat and CVB played Key Lime Pie, their album from 1989. You can read a review of the NYC show from Richard Gehr over at SPIN.com. For the audio from Kerosene Hat, I have selected their cover of Loser by the Grateful Dead. Camper Van Beethoven [tour dates] next plays February 18th at New Parish in Oakland, CA. No future tour dates currently on the books for Cracker. The Camper Van Beethoven set has also been uploaded to The Archive.

Video of Low from the NYC show:

READ ON for tracks from the Disco Biscuits, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Tim Palmieri and Tom Tom Club…

“Why don’t you do more Cover Wars that feature vocal harmonies?” I was asked last week. A great question, and obviously the motivation for this week’s selection. Helplessly Hoping is a track from the 1969 self-titled debut album from Crosby, Stills & Nash. The song makes heavy use of alliteration, a device that Stephen Stills – who wrote the song – humorously points out at the trio’s performance at Woodstock (which was the band’s only second live performance). After Graham Nash says it’s one of “one of the best ever written”, Stills quickly says into the microphone, “Helplessly Hoping Her Helicopter Hovers Nearby”.

The Contestants:

Leading off this week we’ve got the Cover Wars debut of Acoustic Syndicate, a band from North Carolina known for their strong harmonies. Source: 12-28-2002

READ ON for more covers of Helplessly Hoping…

Well, we flip the calendar year over to 2011 and it of course takes me a little while to make the adjustment. Every week [errr, almost every week] when I go to write this piece, the first thing I do is do an Advanced Search on the Live Music Archive for the range of dates from last week. At first I put in 2010 and got a little confused. Right, 2011. OK, back on track. A lot of the selections this week all come from either Jam Cruise or moe’s destination concerts down in the Dominican Republic. A Caribbean edition if you will.

You can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

[Thanks to tonedeaf for this week’s photo]

Little Feat – Fat Man In The Bathtub > Abba Zaba > Fat Man In The Bathtub
Date & Venue: 2011-01-03 – Infinity Hall – Norfolk, CT
Taper & Show Download: Dave Malloy (CTDave)

Well, since I got in alphabetical order – we’re actually leading off with the only selection not from a warm climate. But this is a very hot section of music from Little Feat’s encore which features their classic Fat Man In The Bathtub, a tribute to Captain Beefheart with Abba Zaba, and I heard a little bit of Scarlet Begonias in there too. Little Feat [tour dates] plays tonight at The Neighborhood Theater in Charlotte, NC.

All That You Dream from a few nights later:

READ ON for tracks from Lotus, moe. and Stockholm Syndrome…

Trey Anastasio announced today a two-week tour opening Friday, February 18th at the newly re-opened State Theater in Portland, ME and closing 15 days later on Saturday, March 5th at Oakland’s Fox Theater. The band lineup is identical to the band that toured last February and most recently played at the Hangout Festival in May […]

War Pigs is the first track on Black Sabbath’s 1970 release Paranoid, their best-selling album. On a personal note, I have two distinct early memories of this song. 1) Listening to my brother’s Faith No More CD and initially thinking it was their tune. 2) Later, at the age of 17, seeing Gov’t Mule destroy this song at BankBoston Pavilion as part of Summer Sessions (there were also sets from Galactic, SCI and moe.) Covers by both these bands will of course be included. Let’s have a listen.

The Contestants:

I know what you were thinking. You’re going to lead off with the version with all the trombones right? Yes, we are – thanks Bonerama. Audio Source: 2-13-2008

READ ON for more covers of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs…

December 31st is the biggest night for live music of the year. An argument might be made for Halloween, but I’m not buying it. Your non-live-music-loving-friends don’t say things like, “Halloween is the most anti-climactic day of the year” while you sit there and just snicker. We’ve been a little Phish heavy this week so let’s take a look at how 24 other bands rang in 2011.

Side Note: This was my first time using embedded images from setlist.fm and I must say it looks super slick. That site has really got it going on, I hope the quality of data improves as more people use it, because with better information – statistics like “What songs did LCD Soundsystem play in 2010” will be really useful to have for a wide variety of bands.

Better Than Ezra:

The Black Keys:

READ ON for lots more New Year’s Eve Setlists

We were saddened to learn yesterday of the death of Gerry Rafferty at the age of 63. While his name is most closely associated with the saxophone-rock-hit Baker Street, Rafferty also was a member of Stealers Wheel and wrote the classic Stuck In The Middle With You. The Guardian wrote a very in-depth obituary that […]

Welcome to a new year of Cover Wars. I could think of no better cover tune for the occasion than this 1983 U2 classic. New Year’s Day has quite the resume appearing in both Rolling Stone’s and Pitchfork’s Top 500 songs of all-time. We’ve got a good collection of covers this week, one of which was played just a couple of days ago, so enjoy and don’t forget to vote at the bottom.

The Contestants:

Though this was not the first time The Dresden Dolls covered this song, it certainly is the most recent. The band put together quite the New Year’s Eve setlist this year for their show at The Warfield in San Francisco. There is of course, the celebratory sounds of balloons being popped on the recording. Source: 12-31-2010

Video of the performance:

READ ON for more covers of New Year’s Day.

It might be a little early in the morning for this much guitar rock as Umphrey’s McGee rips through one of their oldest tunes Much Obliged and then plays the second half of Bridgeless at the first night of their New Year’s Eve run in Chicago. There will be plenty more where this came from […]

[Originally Published: August 3, 2010]

To my surprise, it was pointed out to me after our previous Cover Wars when we took a look at Any Major Dude Will Tell You, it was our first time ever selecting a Steely Dan song. Well, let’s make up for some lost time shall we? This week we’ll have a listen to four performances of Green Earrings, first track of Side Two of the 1976 record The Royal Scam.

The Contestants:

Animal Liberation Orchestra: Leading off this week we’ve got ALO who have been covering this tune since 2002 but it appears to have fallen out of rotation, at least judging by the results on the Live Music Archive which shows it last being played on Jamcruise in 2007. Source: 1-3-2007

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Every year I make my friends a Best Of Mix. OK, not every year – but I did it last year! And ScottyB asked me if I wouldn’t mind turning this year’s selections into this week’s Friday Mix Tape. Sure – why not. It’s a lot longer than the normal Friday selections, this is 25 […]

‘Tis The Season for jamband reunions. Don’t get confused, the inclusion of From Good Homes and Miracle Orchestra does not mean we set the time machine for Last Week’s Sauce 2000 like did earlier this year, these bands played shows last week. We lead off with a selection of Beatles songs from The Black Crowes’ farewell-for-now Fillmore Run. We sprinkle in some Shoegaze courtesy of God Speed You Black Emperor!, mix in the fusion sounds of Kung Fu and a slice of a San Francisco superjam featuring Will Bernard and Marco Benevento. Getting on a plane? Going for a long car ride? Take this 75 minutes of music with you by clicking below for all the audio in this week’s piece.

You can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

[Thanks to tonedeaf for this week’s photo]

The Black Crowes – You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Yer Blues, I Wanna Be Your Man
Date & Venue: 2010-12-14 – The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA
Taper & Show Download: Fillmore Crowe

As ScottyB recapped, the Black Crowes paid tribute to their influences in the encore slots of their six shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco. Only two of the shows have shown up on bt.etree.org, this encore is from Tuesday night’s Beatles tribute. No tape yet of the run-closing Rolling Stones segment.

A portion of The Band tribute encore from Friday:

READ ON for tracks from From Good Homes, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Kung Fu, Marco Benevento & Will Bernard and Miracle Orchestra…

People like to discount Wikipedia for being a source of misinformation, but I’ll tell ‘ya, a quick read of the page for Ain’t No Sunshine nets you some pretty damn good factoids on this 1971 Bill Withers classic. 1) Produced by Booker T. 2) Donald “Duck” Dunn plays the bass 3) Withers was working at a factory making toilet seats when he wrote the song. Okay, #3 they claim to have a source for from Rolling Stone but the link is broken, but I *want* to believe them. I’m sure it’s true. Anyway, literally hundreds of people have covered Ain’t No Sunshine, a search of allmusic.com brings you 1,456 results. What we’ve got below is 10 renditions we think are worth a listen.

The Contestants:

This same Buddy Guy album (Bring ‘Em In) appeared two weeks ago in the I Put A Spell On You Cover Wars. Carlos Santana joined Guy on that cover while Tracy Chapman joins him on this one. This cover features an early key change, multiple vocalists, horns – the whole nine yards.

READ ON for the audio and video of nine more Ain’t No Sunshine covers…

As I was watching the tapes roll in this week from recent shows, I had two thoughts about possible themes for this week’s edition: 1) Acoustic Performances/Sets 2) The Warren Haynes Christmas Jam. Not wanting to choose, we’re going to have a jumbo-sized Last Week’s Sauce and bring you six performances. We start out with three from the acoustic section: The Black Crowes, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds and Jeff Tweedy [with a little help from his friends]. Then, we’ll switch into high gear with some highlights from Asheville with help from Steve Miller, Umphrey’s McGee with John Bell and the brand-spanking-new Warren Haynes Band. This is a good one, so set aside some time and maybe even download the podcast if you want to take all of this audio with you.

You can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

[Thanks to tgakidis for this week’s photo]

The Black Crowes – She Talks To Angels, My Morning Song
Date & Venue: 2010-12-12 The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
Taper & Show Download: Fillmore Crowe

The Black Crowes have only three shows left before they start their next indefinite hiatus – three more shows at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore Auditorium. And they have already played three shows there so far. The locals are expecting big things this weekend in terms of special guests and I’m sure the Crowes will not disappoint. Recently, it’s been a formula of Acoustic Set I and Electric Set II and this run of shows has been no exception. These two hits closed Sunday’s first set.

More acoustic action from Sunday’s show:

READ ON for tracks from Dave & Tim, Jeff Tweedy & The Autumn Defense, Steve Miller Band, Umphrey’s McGee, and The Warren Haynes Band.