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Live At Massey Hall

By malarky, in Matthew Good

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AnOceanPearl

AnOceanPearl

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I know I'm a little late with this, but I moved and had no internet for a couple weeks, so here is my little review of Live at Massey Hall:

 

I always get really excited whenever there's a new MG release on the horizon, and Live at Massey Hall was no exception. I've never been disappointed with any of the concerts I've seen him play, and even though I've heard quite a few others through the wonders of bootlegging, a proper live release was something I've always hoped for. So now that it's here and I've had the chance to listen to it a fair bit in a few different formats, how does it stack up to my expectations? Overall, I'd have to say it stacks up pretty well, and the few issues I do have with it really just come down to nitpicking and personal preference.

 

So what do I like about the album? The setlist is pretty good, Matt's and the bandmembers performances themselves are fantastic (Weapon, Black Helicopter and 99% of Us is Failure really stand out to me) , and the sound quality, for the most part, is pretty good. Considering that they had not been playing together for very long before the show was recorded, I'm quite impressed with how tight the band sounded, and I like the variations that they brought to some of the songs. I've seen Matt play with MGB, solo with Rich Priske, Christian Thor Valdsen and Pat Steward and with this new band, and I have to say this is probably my favorite line up of musicians that I've heard and seen him play with and I hope he uses them in the future, if not on an album, then live. I think the thing that impressed me the most was how much Matt's use of electric guitars in the songs from Hospital Music really transformed the songs. I think it made them more energetic, more intense and a lot more fun to listen to.

 

I do have some issues with the recording, though, like I said before, it's mostly just minor nitpicking that doesn't detract from the album. First off is the editing of dialogue for timing purposes. One of the things I've enjoyed about Matt's live shows is his banter, and while I understand that cutting the majority of it out was probably necessary, the fanboy in me wishes it was left intact. The second little bit that bugs me are just a couple of choices made regarding the performances of some of the songs. I'm disappointed that the extended outro to Hello Time Bomb wasn't used during the tour, and neither was the newer intro/verse lick that was being used in Load Me Up, and I can't stand the "yeah yeah yeah" bit at the end of She's in it For the Money, on Hospital Music or on this recording. Another thing I didn't like was him singing "apparitions, na na na na..." at the end of Apparitions. With the way Stu's lap steel solo covers what would be the guitar solo and the final chorus (if compared to the Underdogs recording), singing those little couple lines at the end sounds a bit awkward to my ears. If it was me, I would have not sang anything, or just the "na na na na" part, but they're his songs and he can sing them however he chooses. As I said, those are just minor gripes that don't take away from the album.

 

The one thing that I do have a bit of an issue with, to the point where there are some songs I don't like listening to on my computer or my iPod, is the sound quality, specifically, the bass being quite low in the mix. I've listened to the album in various formats: iTunes download as 128kbps AAC files, iTunes CD rip as 256kbps AAC files (which are my usual rip settings), iTunes CD rip as Apple Lossless files between 781 and 1029kbps, depending on the track, and I've listened to the songs in all these forms on my MacBook with the internal speakers and with headphones and with my iPod and headphones. I've also gone into the equalizer settings and added bass boost, and for the most part, the bass is still very difficult to hear, which is a shame, because it makes some parts of some of the songs sound very thin (the breakdown in Born Losers, the third verse in Load Me Up where it's just Milos playing for a bit are a couple examples), but mostly it's a shame because Milos' bass playing is just fantastic. The only way that I've really been able to bring out the bass sounds clearly is with my girlfriends dvd player and the surround sound system that goes along with it. With the subwoofer, the bass comes through loud and clear, and the quality of Milos' bass playing becomes very evident, and I feel he really added his own flair to a lot of the songs, and I wish that it was bumped up some more in the mix.

 

The last little issue I have is with the CD case itself. I don't have a problem with cardboard digipack cases, but the packaging for Live at Massey Hall looks kind of cheap to me.

 

Overall, even though I have some issues with the sound mixing and some minor gripes which are really just me nitpicking, I'm quite happy with the album and it's a worthy addition to the Matthew Good catalogue. 4/5

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B Gallagher

B Gallagher

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Very valid comments. I don't like the digicase - was expecting something closer to the In A Coma release, rather than just the CDs put into cardboard slots. It feels cheap.

 

You're correct that the bass comes through well if you have a subwoofer. The internal speakers on your MacBook will give you virtually no bass, and depending on what sort of headphones you are using (hopefully not Apple's).

 

And I agree, I don't like that it was editing for 'timing purposes.' Especially when there's there's room for 15 more minutes on the first disc, and 35 minutes on the second disc! What banter is included is great!!

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Manchalivin

Manchalivin

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Honestly, I had kind of thought the bass sounded quite high in the mix, or at the least very easy to hear. I listened to it with my Technics DJ headphones that I think sound very good for 40 bucks and a mid-high grade Panasonic cd player and the sound quality is overall plenty fine to me.

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Computer

Computer

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Mine are Klipsch. Very good...

I'd recommend both Klipsch, and Bose as the obvious choices. I have a klipsch ipod dock which kicks ass, and 2 pairs of Bose headphones, a pair of $100 buds that do the job and an awesome set of $300 headphones that I wear everyday.

 

If you want noise cancellation I'd go with something like Shure in-ear though, they're different and take some getting used to, but it helps drown out all the noise in society.

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Guest jjazz

Guest jjazz

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This band is super tight, but I still prefer the CTV, Rich, Pat band. They were more exciting to watch, each show was like an unrehearsed jam session. Plus, they ventured into the experimental side of already established songs ie: load me up, htb, near fantastica, giant

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Manchalivin

Manchalivin

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Been listening more, and the CD is definately growing more on me.  I love Weapon, bring back memories of me totally thrashing to that song on the tourstop i went to.

 

I have to say this:  the band is damn good.  The lead guitarist is 3x as good as Dave will ever be.

He may technically be better, but I still prefer most of the MGB album versions that Dave played on to the MGB ones on this live recording.

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Bigger Than Jesus

Bigger Than Jesus

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This band is super tight, but I still prefer the CTV, Rich, Pat band. They were more exciting to watch, each show was like an unrehearsed jam session. Plus, they ventured into the experimental side of already established songs ie: load me up, htb, near fantastica, giant

 

I agree! The distinct playing styles, specifically of Chris and Pat, really added something to the experience of being there. The addition of their 'isms' to the songs, making them significantly different than the recordings in many cases, was really awesome.

 

That said, this band IS tight. It's just different.

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finboy

finboy

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He may technically be better, but I still prefer most of the MGB album versions that Dave played on to the MGB ones on this live recording.

 

i'd have to agree, i think dave was able to bring quite an interesting approach to many songs and brought some lead parts that really complimented matt's rhythm work

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folk singer

folk singer

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I also agree, it's really noticeable on AoB.... most of those songs still give me chills when I listen really closely to them (especially: Man of Action, Workers and Under the influence) and I think for the most part it's style of Dave's guitar complimenting Matt's rhythm

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prototypepariah

prototypepariah

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MY favorite live version of NF comes from the CTV/Pat/Rich grouping, however after listening to Massey repeatedly since I got it, I appreciate the tightness, and proficiency of this grouping.

 

 

haven't heard the new "band" yet but the nf versions from the various live shows bootlegged and being their a few times. the live version of that and pledge of allegiance(a song i'm not super fond of on the cd) are just better than awesome for lack of a cool vocab word!

 

 

also just loved how the songs were revamped just a bit esp. hello time bomb. I really love x-rated reworked but I think that was still with mgb.

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