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Today In History
June 5th
0 shows
0 tapes
Years
2025
8 shows
8 tapes
2024
5 shows
5 tapes
2023
5 shows
5 tapes
2019
1 show
1 tape
2018
2 shows
2 tapes
2017
5 shows
5 tapes
2016
3 shows
3 tapes
2015
3 shows
5 tapes
2014
9 shows
12 tapes
2013
6 shows
10 tapes
2012
8 shows
9 tapes
2011
5
PlaybackListensHours
48h00m
7d00m
30d519m
14 shows
14 tapes
2010
4 shows
4 tapes
2009
5 shows
5 tapes
2008
3 shows
3 tapes
2007
6 shows
6 tapes
2006
7 shows
8 tapes
2005
2 shows
2 tapes
2004
10 shows
10 tapes
2003
4 shows
5 tapes
2002
10 shows
10 tapes
2001
3 shows
3 tapes
2000
1 show
1 tape
1999
3 shows
3 tapes
1998
5 shows
5 tapes
1997
2 shows
2 tapes
1998
12/2/98
Greenback Dollar ->
4:14
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right ->
2:20
Thunder Road ->
2:50
Chelsea Hotel #2
0:35
banter - the intentions
1:56
Thanksgiving Day Parade
10:48
Oh Carol
5:21
banter - inviting Gidget to the stage
1:07
Lightning Jazz
7:10
This Life
6:40
One Thing Real
6:35
Marilyn
4:22
In God's Time
4:37
Warm
5:05
Green On You
4:45
encore break 1
0:47
Opposable Thumb
3:21
encore break 2
0:40
Jew From Kentucky
2:03
encore break 3
2:23
Waiting for Van Gogh ->
6:40
Chelsea Hotel ->
4:44
Black Tornado
6:15
FIN
View on archive.org
Sources
Taper: Scott Bernstein
1:35:18
Taper:
Scott Bernstein
Transferrer:
Scott Bernstein
SHNID:
danbern1998-12-02
Source:
Audience
Lineage:
Original Master Recording: Neumann TLM-170 (cardoids) -> Sonosax SX-M1 -> Tascam DAP1 (@16/48) Master DAT playback: Sony R500 -> Sound Devices 722 digital input (@24/48) Mastered: Soundforge Pro 13.0 - File processed in Soundforge for volume normalization and removing some extraneous noises like door slams, loud yells, minimizing loud claps etc; 24 -> 16 bit dither using POW-r Dither with POW-r #3 noise shaping. Tracked in CDWav. Tagged in Tag&Rename 3.9.15
Taper Notes:
View Notes^ = cuts in on the instrumental jam at the end of track 4 * = first live performance + = Duke McVinnie performance with Dan adding background vocals and harmonica # = Martha Wainwright solo performance $ = w/Martha Wainwright NOTE there is 20 seconds missing of the instrumental jam in track 4 due to an equipment failure (likely a battery death on the Sonosax pre-amp) Additional musicians: Duke McVinnie - guitar, Merle the drum machine Richard Khuzami - various percussion Gidget - Dan's dog Recorded by Scott Bernstein Transferred (5/5/2020), tracked (2/16/2023), mastered (2/20/2023-4/9/2023) and posted (4/16/2023) by Scott Bernstein Follow me on Twitter to track my postings of FREE live music and concert photography: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/scott_bernstein" rel="nofollow">http://www.twitter.com/scott_bernstein</a> Or become a "fan" on Facebook here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Bernsteins-Live-Music-Photos-Page/166706713365451" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Bernsteins-Live-Music-Photos-Page/166706713365451</a><a rel="nofollow"> Photo credit: Meredith Jacobson Marciano Collection: New York in the 1970s through 9/11 </a><a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/ia_image/nightingale-bar-213-second-avenue-northwest-corner-of-13th-st/" rel="nofollow">https://www.villagepreservation.org/ia_image/nightingale-bar-213-second-avenue-northwest-corner-of-13th-st/</a> Taper Notes: This show was the first show in a weekly residency (dubbed "Experimental Wednesdays") that Dan played at the Nightingale Bar while he was living here in town in NYC for a bit. Dan had an extended stay here because been offered the cool opportunity to decorate a room in a hotel (at 23rd and 5th) where different artists decorated each room and Dan took the the time to do it right (and, presumably, stay in the room he was decorating). First a little history about this venue — in these days The Nightingale (which closed down in 2013) was this tiny little shit-hole bar with a pool table, a little sound system, and a stage area (which wasn't even raised up from the floor) and held about 100 people — some percentage of whom were guaranteed to be drug dealers and/or sex workers. Not to mention it had absolutely ZERO ventilation, and these were the days when people still smoked in bars. But there was something special about the place in the bands that they booked — so much so that you might say the venue (for a time) was kind of a farm team for larger venues like The Wetlands. Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, God Street Wine, First House, and a few others all grew out of The Nightingale. As you will hear, the cash register was LOUD (and apparently you could still get $2.00 beers here), the pool table was loud, and the front door would slam really loudly every time someone came in or out of the venue (I've done my best to minimize some of these in my mastering process). For an idea of how small it was, check out this video <a href="https://vimeo.com/52052565" rel="nofollow">https://vimeo.com/52052565</a>, and this photo for how it looked on the outside <a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/ia_image/nightingale-bar-213-second-avenue-northwest-corner-of-13th-st/" rel="nofollow">https://www.villagepreservation.org/ia_image/nightingale-bar-213-second-avenue-northwest-corner-of-13th-st/</a>. This page has a decent artistic depiction of what it looked like <a href="https://jambands.com/news/2010/11/04/a-nightingale-bar-reunion/" rel="nofollow">https://jambands.com/news/2010/11/04/a-nightingale-bar-reunion/</a>. This is an odd duck of a show — as were all of his shows around the time. On the plus side — somehow he had hooked up with the talented Duke McVinnie (<a href="https://www.dukemcvinnie.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.dukemcvinnie.com/</a>) to play with him on electric guitar. He is most famous for having been part of the band Shivaree from 1997-2007 with Ambrosia Parsley as the vocalist. Their most well known song is "Goodnight Moon" which was used in many soundtracks (Dawson's Creek, Silver Linings Playbook, Kill Bill Vol. 2, and the TV show Weeds). But Duke also known for working with Joan Baez, Martha Wainwright (who is also heard on this recording), and Madeleine Payroux. On the big negative side — Duke brought with him "Merle", a drum machine — which is AWFUL. It wasn't used on every song, but in my humble opinion, the performance would have been better if Merle had been left home and unplugged. Additionally, it seems that Duke brought along Lebanese percussionist Richard Khuzami (https://www.facebook.com/rkhuzami/) who added excellent touches to most songs. Roaming around the venue was Dan's dog Gidget, who got called to the stage at one point. In terms of the performance itself, this show is significant in a few ways — starting with an opening medley where Dan pays tribute to all of his biggest influences by covering a song by each — Woody Guthrie (Greenback Dollar), Bob Dylan (Don't Think Twice, It's All Right), Bruce Springsteen (Thunder Road), and Leonard Cohen (a tease of Chelsea Hotel #2). Then, out of nowhere, he drops on the unsuspecting crowd, the premiere of one of his best (and most enduring) compositions ever (written just the week before), the epic "Thanksgiving Day Parade" (performed from his lyric sheet, with only one mistake despite its many many verses). Then Dan stepped away and let Duke McVinnie (whose voice sounds vaguely Tom Waits-ish) have a turn at the mic, where he performed his original "Oh Carol" (not to be confused with a few other songs with the same title); which was followed by Martha Wainwright performing her song "This Life". In between, we got what looks to be the second ever performance of his new song "Lightning Jazz", a really funny audience-participation number (which we had to be trained on). Martha stuck around to provide some backing vocals on a few other songs ("One Thing Real" and "Warm"). The NYC crowd was not letting Dan off easily — calling him back for 3 separate encores — the first two were of his more comedic side (Opposable Thumb — about his dog Gidget growing an opposable thumb], and the ever-popular Jew From Kentucky). The final encore block was a one-two-three punch of some of his best songs — "Waiting for Van Gogh", "Chelsea Hotel", and "Black Tornado" to finally send us home. If you want to hear Dan in a very very relaxed setting (fully 180 degrees in the opposite direction of his NYC Bottom Line shows at the time), check this show out. For specific song selections, make sure to check out "Thanksgiving Day Parade" and "Lightning Jazz" in their embryonic forms, and check out excellent versions of "One Thing Real", "In God's Time", "Opposable Thumb", and "Jew From Kentucky". The opening cover song medley is fun too. Note that some of the other Dan Bern fans shared around CD-R versions of my recordings of this run just after the shows completed. This is a completely remastered version of the show and should surpass the original versions that circulated at the time. I will be posting the entire run of NYC Experimental Wednesdays at the Nightingale Bar in short order. Enjoy!