Hippie Sounds

Get Legal Bootlegs

by Jennifer on September 8th, 2007

Sort of bootlegs; more like concert albums and only for some Australian shows — still with me? Still, despite the current limitations Live Band is shaping up to what looks like a stellar idea.

Lauren at Oz Music Scene clued me in to this new endeavor. If it expands, it’ll be big I suspect. The idea behind Live Band comes from a fellow named Jamie McDonald who has a vision of producing quality live recordings minus the fuzz and distractions while keeping the sounds of the audience, music, and rest of the typical concert sounds in tact.

So far the site has only covered Australian concerts but expansion is probably inevitable. Currently it looks like over 20 shows are available for download and New Pants is coming up. Who are New Pants –got me. They may be this band though. So, I don’t recognize most of the downloads available right now; mainly because other than what I learn from Lauren’s stellar blog I don’t know much about Oz music.

That said I’m intrigued by the whole idea. Being a Dead fan I’ve got a fair share of bootlegs and I have mixed emotions about bands I adore being recorded in a crispier method. I like all the pops and crackles — reminds me of vinyl. However, sometimes the crowd can be obnoxious. There are moments you hear a bootleg and wish you could hear less of the rowdy screams and more actual music. This is why I don’t show Rolling Stones videos here; it’s rare to find one you can hear because the screaming girls are insane.

I think nonprofessional concert recording really depend on the concert scene and the crowd dynamics. Since you can’t always trust those specs this whole professional bootlegging seems smart.

What do you think? Would you download concerts from a site like Live Band.

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POSTED IN: Concerts, Cool Music News, Live Music