2012.02.28 - Sydney, Australia - Entertainment Center
- Format: FLAC
- Size: 619 MB
- Type: Amateur Recording
- Lenght: 01:32:20
- Taper: Starclassic
- Quality: A
Source/Lineage: Core Sounds Cardioids (pointed towards stage to minimise crowd noise) -> Sony PCM-M10 (mic-in, 48kHz 24 bit, downsampled to 44.1/16 for your CD burning pleasure) -> Soundforge 10.0b w/Izotope Ozone 5 Mastering Plugin -> FLAC Level 8
Recorded, mastered and processed by: Yours truly ... Starclassic.
Location: First elevation and eight rows in from immediate right of sound desk.
I've never been a massive fan of the band but they're the only band that doesn't really do many guitar solos which I still manage to respect. They're up there having fun and putting out some good messages as they go along. Overall, it was one of those gigs that I had to check out, at least once.
Coming off the back of a crappy Soundwave festival, they were kind enough to play an exclusive show for the crowd for just over 1.5 hours and while that's a little short for me, it's still great that they were happy to do so after their gig beforehand anyway. The energy was all there, constantly being exchanged between the band and the crowd, the setlist spanned their catalogue reasonably well - with a greater emphasis on their Toxicity album, which isn't a bad thing - and all in all, it was great entertainment to be had by all.
The only non-technical issue I had to contend with was a twat who sat next to me but should have bought himself a dancefloor ticket. Normally, people get seated tickets so they can sit and actually absorb the show. Maybe this guy was left with no option because floor tickets sold out? I don't know. All I do know is, he was fucking clapping at the beginning of every fucking song, whistling and fist pumping the air incessantly!! Thankfully, the fist pumping didn't cause any phasing issues but his clapping, well, I'm sorry guys. I did all I could without starting a fight and further ruining the recording in any way.
Technically, I wanted to kick the sound guy in the face. Audio guys working with digital consoles seem to lose the concept of quality audio and this was no exception. What made it so bad for me was that the audio guy was just aiming to be loud and brickwalled the final sound with a hard limiter which was set way too harsh. In fact, trying to expand that audio a little from the raw recording in the processing in order to counteract the pumping dynamics was difficult but I think I managed to find the best possible compromise. Then we had the excessive midrange and high frequencies. The EQ curve in Ozone 5 turned out a very weird shape. In fact, it probably has been my weirdest curve yet. Trying to cull the cut from the cymbals and still maintain a little sparkle in the guitars was again, an exercise in compromise. One of these days, we will get good audio guys at more gigs. Until then, we'll have to contend with muppets. I'll give this recording a C+ but as always, you can be the judge from the samples.
Anyhow, with all that in mind, hopefully you'll enjoy it.
...and please, don't sell this bootleg, otherwise you're just plain old scum. That and Daron will make your ears bleed with his horribly squeaky vocals.
SETLIST:
- Prison Song
- Soldier Side - Intro
- B.Y.O.B.
- Revenga
- Needles
- Deer Dance
- Radio/Video
- Hypnotize
- Question!
- Suggestions
- Psycho
- Chop Suey!
- Lonely Day
- Bounce
- A.T.W.A.
- Kill Rock 'n' Roll
- Lost in Hollywood
- Forest
- Science
- Holy Mountains
- Aerials (feat. Ben Weinman)
- Tentative
- Sultans of Swing
- Suite-Pee
- War?
- Toxicity
- Sugar