first in a small series. i'm in the process of moving and recently came across a box filled with tapes of various shows that i went to during the years 2000-2001. just before i went to london for my semester abroad i bought a tape recorder at best buy of somewhat questionable quality- it had a stereo microphone with a clip. i took it with me to london and recorded every single show that i went to (except for maybe one of two). once i'd started this process i couldn't stop and the taping continued until about the time we moved to portland. after finding this treasure trove of forgotten stuff and discovering that many of these old recordings made with this crappy tape recorder were of perfectly listenable quality i decided to take the time to convert the best ones of the bunch via the new ion usb turntable i have (it has an 1/8" input jack). the first show i converted was this one from my first mogwai show in lawrence, kansas at the granada. to anyone who doesn't live in the kansas city area basically what you need to know is that hardly any bands that a 20 year old into indie music would want to see ever bothered to stop in kansas city. this was true of most american bands but went double for british bands. the majority of good indie music within range passed through lawrence, kansas- the tiny, idyllic college town that is home to the university of kansas. 90% of the high school graduates from my class ended up at ku. i reviled the idea of following them, but once i moved back to kansas city from my year at columbia college here in chicago i spent most of my nights driving to lawrence to go see shows at the bottleneck (a dingy, dark, smoky, poorly-ventilated club that had about a 300 person capacity) and the much larger granada. when i think of a lot of my poetic show-going moments the lion's share of them happened at the bottleneck.
about mogwai. i continue to love mogwai. i still don't have 'the hawk is howling,' but was a fierce devotee and defender of 'mr. beast.' back in 2001, though, they were one of my favourite bands as they had been since 1999 when i bought 'come on die young' and 'young team.' back then i used to spend tons of time on the radiohead message board and one time struck up a conversation with someone about mogwai. the person i talked to was friends with barry, the keyboard player who was a new member at that point. i talked to him about how i was dying to see them live as i'd heard they were fantastic, but that this would probably never happen due to the fact that i lived in kansas city and that mogwai probably couldn't find the state of kansas or missouri on a map (fuck, i bet you could find plenty of people who live in new york, l.a. or chicago who couldn't either). the person i was talking to seemed to take it to heart and within two years they showed up to play at the granada. i don't know if that had anything to do with it, but regardless i went and it surpassed my expectations. i've seen them twice since and i think that nothing will ever surpass the amazing feelings that were stirred up for me at this show. so given all of that, here it is in all of its glory-
http://www.mediafire.com/?mnj5nat2i0g (192 kbps mp3s)
if you want the flacs you'll have to ask for them and then i'll post them.
stay tuned for the next in the series. mogwai is a good jumping off point stylistically for the types of shows that i went to back then.
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