08/11/85 - Chicago, IL @ Smart Bar

QUOTES

SOUNDCHECK

- Death Valley '69 intro
L: "Alright, it's cool, it's just really loud. Um... [plays guitar]"
[lots of chatter too indecipherable to transcribe]
[idle picking]
soundguy?: "K let's hear the vocals, go ahead."
K: "Check check check check check check louder check one check..."
soundguy: "Go ahead."
L: "Hey! What about monitors? We do that first or--"
soundguy: "No no..."
T: "The drummer hears fine [maybe?]."
- Death Valley '69 [stops during verse]
L: "Play the.. the bass is so dominant over everything. "
soundguy: "Yeah, because they're off."
T: "Yeah..."
L: "Why? I mean the guitars shouldn't be off..."
soundguy: "No, what I'm saying is that I can't get the vocals over stage line since they're off."
T: "With house power you can't get the vocals out of here over the stage line?"
L: "Really? How much power is there here?"
soundguy: "There's plenty of power."
L: "Well then how come you can't get it over them?"
soundguy: "Uh, stage line's pretty loud [note: may be hearing this term wrong] Vocals are pretty low"
L: "We play that loud every night. Let me just hear it first, play me just the beginning of the beginning so I can hear what the, where the guitar is."
T: "K click it!"
- Death Valley '69 intro
L: "Hold it, hold it! Right there, where you pushed up the guitar - that was the way it's supposed to sound."
soundguy: "Right. I understand. I know. The bass started..."
L: "That doesn't matter! The vocal still was really fucking loud, wasn't it?"
another soundguy?: "Mix ?? .. Well for him to have control over it..."
soundguy: "If it gets in the mix, then at least I can regulate the whole overall sound of the music, bring the vocals overtop of that."
L: "Yeah but--well maybe that's true..."
soundguy 2: "Your stage sound, your stage sound should come fast from the stage."
L: "I know but it's always like that when we play."
soundguy 2: "Well.. [???]"
L: "See the coolest thing is, why don't you adjust everything so that the bass [???]"
soundguy 2: "He can't adjust anything if he doesn't have control over it."
L: "Right so you want---"
soundguy 2: "He needs control out front of him... check two.."
L: "But it's really important for those guitars to be like completely, like, felt."
T: "Much more important than the vocals, don't worry about the vocals, the vocals are like, underneath, so don't worry about it."
L: "Oh right. That's the other thing, we like the vocals just louder than the music, not like.. not like a million miles louder like some kinda bands are."
soundguy: "Okay.."
L: "The bass is the really loud thing, at this point. The drums, everything sounds cool, when he brought the guitars up."
T: "You wanna go out there and hear that again, like full throttle? Or can you climb out there with your cord?"
L: "Well maybe I can..."
T: "Try it again, cuz we really have to like, rush."
- Death Valley '69 intro
L: "Alright now my mic is coming over, now talk in your mic..."
T: "Yeah hey, hey hey hey hey hey hey!"
L: "Like, I could hear myself from the stage but I couldn't hear him at all."
soundguy: "You're not in the monitors, no."
L: "No."
- Death Valley '69 intro
K: "This mic is much louder and he's not really singing.. [??]"
L: "Check one, this mic is like totally weird compared to this one."
K: "Yeah it's really [??]"
L: "Check one, this mic sounds really good, that mic sounds really bad. And it's not the singer, it's the mic. Check one two, one two. One! I wonder if this mic is too close to this PA, it's like practically feeding. How bout this screen? One two, one two, check one two. Let's move it over least, put it so it's not pointed towards that PA."
K: "[??]"
L: "Well that's what that's there for. Just start singing.. let's start with 'bom-bom-bow!' let's come in on that."
T: "Alright."
- Death Valley '69 intro
L: "Can you hear him back there?"
soundguy: "Yes."
T: "Alright let's do 'Hallo'."
K: "The carpet works [?], I can't hear [vocals?]"
soundguy: "Kim you gotta move back to the stage."
T: "The monitor..."
soundguy 2: "I can hear it back here."
L: "I wonder if you should sing in this mic, if it would be better.. better pickup?"
soundguy: "[??] Play me your kick drum please." [steve does]
L: "Yeah, that's okay with us. It sounds [??] [tape cuts]"
- Halloween [w. Kim doing 'check check' type vocals - stops early]
K: "Okay now can you put some of his guitar--"
L: "I want his guitar over here too."
T: "[?] is fine..."
S: "I want everything!"
L: "Listen, [?] the very last thing if you could just give us a couple minutes--"
T: "Let em in, it doesn't matter! [?]"
K: "Except our guitars are still low."
L: "Yeah except our guitars are still low!"
soundguy: "I can put those [?] in the um..."
L: "If you would do that, then we can let them in."
soundguy: "Let me hear a vocal."
L: "What?"
soundguy: "Is your vocal alright?"
T: "Yes."
L: "Is your monitor [?]"
T: "All I need is my vocals in front here-- thanks, hey that's great!"
L: "Alright, so your guitar... one monitor at a time?"
[indecipherable chatter]
K: "Yeah I think we all want [?]"
- Halloween [stops]
T: "Alright, and then a little bit of his guitar..."
L: "And I want my guitar here."
K: "Yeah not too much of his."
soundguy: "Tell me when."
L: "Can you make -- sorry -- his guitar, just the tiniest bit louder? Just a tiny bit!"
[more chatter]
L: "Um.. yeah, let's have the snare drum in the fronts."
[tape cuts out, cuts back in to whirring gtr + background talk]
clubguy(sg2?): "Who's got the money? You got.. give him the money? [?]"
L: "I mean, you know, as long as it sounds cool out front."
clubguy(sg2?): "Yeah it'll sound cool."
L: "I didn't mean to be snotty."
clubguy(sg2?): "That's right, as long as you don't put the stack of amps [??]"
??: "Who's doing ID?"
[background chatter]

SHOW

- Halloween
- Death Valley '69
- Intro
T: "1 2 3 4!"
- Brave Men Run
[madonna 'into the groove' tape plays for several minutes]
- I Love Her All The Time
- Ghost Bitch
- I'm Insane
- Kat N Hat
T: "1 2 3 4!"
- Brother James
- Kill Yr Idols
- Secret Girl
- Flower [w. Scream Tape playing underneath]
- Burning Spear [w. Scream Tape continuing]
[pat benatar 'we belong' tape plays for several minutes]
T: "Thanks. Alright, this is um.. the last song. It's called, uh, it's called 'Expressway to your Skull'. K. You into the groove? K this is, this is a rock song. And um, it's from our new album called 'Anarchy on St. Mark's Place'. It's a little story about E V O L."
- Expressway to yr Skull
T: "Thanks a lot!" [encore break] "K, we'll do one more song. Hey Lee! Kim! ... Steve."
K: "I'd like to thank the uh, PA tonight. Um, they were really great, they're the best PA we've ever worked with. Thanks."
T: "Alright we're gonna do a song about, like, tripping on LSD at Wrigley Field." [crowd applauds]
K: "I'd also like to thank Steve Albini for making it all possible. He really knows how to barbeque, I'll say that!"
T: "You got a bass pick? Hey uh due to a popular belief Steve didn't get his ass kicked at the [?] show tonight. Yeah, cuz he wasn't there! ha ha ! This song is called, um, it's called 'Madonna, Sean, and Me'."
- Making the Nature Scene
K: "Uh thanks a lot!"

OTHER PERFORMERS