Undergoing severe concert withdrawal? The music biz is here to help with another slate of excellent live recordings. This week: Frank Turner finds a new way to tell some old stories, Jerry Garcia and Clarence Clemons join forces for a smoking set laced with cool covers, and The Hold Steady share another marathon performance from overseas. Listen to them all below and make a night of it. And if you want to make the whole experience feel even more like a real gig, just dim the lights, charge yourself $18 for a glass of warm draft and have someone tall stand in front of you screaming at the top of their lungs all evening.
Frank Turner
Live In Newcastle
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Captured at O2 City Hall Newcastle last November, the 20 track live recording was made during Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls’ 2019 headline tour in support of his latest studio album release, No Man’s Land, his fourth consecutive UK Top 3 album to date.
The digital release of Live In Newcastle snapshots a shake-up of Turner’s live set up, featuring un-plugged versions from his extensive back catalogue performed with The Sleeping Souls, uncharacteristically for Frank, to seated audiences. Speaking about this alternate approach to his 2019 shows (across which the full-band sets followed up a solo acoustic opener from Turner), Frank notes: “The storytelling set that I put together with The Sleeping Souls last year was a new venture, an experiment, a risk, and in the end a huge success — I couldn’t be more proud of the way we found a new angle on my songs and my live show. I’m excited that we managed to capture the magic and get it out there for everyone to enjoy.” The album recording also takes in introspective and deeply personal discussions of the material, shedding new light on old favourites.”
Jerry Garcia Band
GarciaLive Vol. 13: Sept. 16, 1989
THE PRESS RELEASE: “GarciaLive Volume 13 puts a spotlight on the Jerry Garcia Band’s legendary September ’89 run highlighting the Sept. 16 show at Poplar Creek Music Theatre located in the suburbs of Chicago. Alongside the Jerry Garcia Band — John Kahn, David Kemper, Melvin Seals, Gloria Jones, and Jacklyn LaBranch — there is one BIG addition on saxophone… the Big Man, Clarence Clemons (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band). While the setlist is fairly standard for the era, Clemons helps the band find new heights on old staples like The Band’s The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, The Beatles’ Dear Prudence and a pair of Garcia/Hunter originals, Cats Under The Stars and They Love Each Other. One relative rarity of note is a positively blistering take on The Rolling Stones’ romp Let’s Spend The Night Together, dusted off earlier in the year after having been absent since ’76, which closes set one spectacularly. Top to bottom, this one is filled with magic.”
The Hold Steady
Live in London 3-9-19
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Our last shows before we all went into lockdown happened over an incredible weekend in London in early March. The Weekender has become a fantastic part of the THS calendar, and the audiences in London are simply amazing to our band. For our next live release, we’re flashing back to the second night of The Weekender II: March 9, 2019 at Electric Ballroom. We got on stage to All The Young Dudes, opened with Stations and the night unfolded. This one contains the live debut of Denver Haircut and a Discouraged dedicated to our friend Scott Hutchison. Pretty rocking four song encore to close it out. Thinking lovingly of The Weekender and how amazing it will feel to do this again. For each Bandcamp Unified Fridays live recording THS releases, we’ll be donating a portion of the proceeds to a staff fund from one of the past shows.”
