Friday, March 29, 2019

The lost art of..........


For a while I was really in to recoding live shows and trading them.  I used to really love going to a show, recording it then at work the next day listening to the recording.  It was even more fun if it was a band that I heavily traded.  I’d know I was the one that captured the moment and in most cases I’d be trading that show off to a close circle of tapers/collectors.

Today I was listening to a deluxe version of Queens of the Stone Age “Rated R”.  Basically it is a two cd set, the first is the album, the second cd is b-sides and then a show from 2000.  It just took me back.

I used to run a D8 DAT deck for many years and then as the technology was expanding the D8 became even more of a hindrance.  I updated to a much smaller unit that recorded to a memory stick vs physical media.  It was odd, but the results were still the same.

Security has ramped up even more at shows so trying to sneak the gear in became less and less appealing to me.  Why get stopped at the door, or not let in at all when trying to record. On the plus side as well is I’ve been attending shows with friends the last few years.  For a bit nobody wanted to go out during the week so going alone taping would keep me ‘busy’ which was always a welcome distraction.  I’d camp out in my spot, not drink and mind my own business.

It is a silly point now since people live stream via their phones, or record on their phones and that is a post for another day.

I should dust the deck off soon.  Get to a show and just roll and see what happens.

The trade list is still out there, largely untouched for years.  Less and less people want the clutter of physical media, myself included.

Hard work to get all those shows.  Recording, mailing, trading.  Miss those times, then I look at boxes of un-listened to cds.