Notes

Thanks to Geno & Luke of Mr. Smalls Theatre for permission to record & board patch in such a wonderful venue, and Mountain Goats mgmt / Brandon Eggleston for taping clearance & another spectacular mix.







Please support bands that support live taping, and who create such incredible works! Official store: https://themountaingoats.kungfustore.com/ (In League With Dragons merch now available online!)







There is little joy like reflecting upon the Mountain Goats roots and seeing/hearing what they have evolved into. When we ran into Jon Wurster after the show and mentioned how on point they've been as of late, his response was: "It's Matt Douglas."







Which may hold some truth, but I still set up on stage whenever possible specifically so I can capture those juicy fuckin' beats.







I hope everyone enjoys this incredible show.







PS: Please drop me a line if you notice any distortion/harsh clicks/issues with files that I missed. Just fixed 2 files which lacked metadata after someone let me know.







taperdetails:







I'd researched the venue and heard that it's a relatively tricky one- not much room to clamp or set up a stand without issues/significant room noise (SBD near bar). So I came packing a particularly low profile near-healy setup- JS-MCTB50 deconstructed to be just the tripod. Two black-gaffers-tape wrapped Magic cards affixed to two of the legs rougly 4" from stage floor, and CA-14 omnis clipped ear-distance apart from one another facing outwards. Normal healy is o-------o wheres mine would be at a wide Y angle. This combined w/ M10 + ca ugly pre = very low profile setup. I adore spaced omnis tendency to "pull the room into the recording", and given the quality of Brandon's mixes, I knew I'd be covered in terms of direct sound to all the instruments & vocals via the SBD. So mics were just for ambiance & extra pickup on the percussion (and in this case, bass). Extremely pleased with the stereo imaging & drum/bass capture of the CA-14s. Did make a key mistake here, though- didn't ask where the sub was located, and pretty sure I set up almost directly on top of it. This required me to effectively utilize EQ for the first time, and I am very happy with how much of the harshness I was able to reduce while still maintaining the room/drums/crowd. Had to set up right side of stage pretty close to an amp. Mixed omnis 100% L/R w/ stereo mix centered, roughly even levels. Manually positioned stage mics just after SBD waveforms individually on each track to account for drifting between 680mkii + m10. Binaural/near-healy + centered SBD results in a recording which lends itself both to headphones and stereos. Setting up so close to the crowd is always playing with fire but I love what it adds for the most part, save for one or two notes. Crowd RNG is part of the fun though, and tMG crowds are generally the best. Hope details might help someone else down the line.