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IN THIS ISSUE:
Fest-Heaven or Festi-Hell? / Birmingham BTE's "Imperfect" / Graham Colton Band Ezra Radio / USAToday Pic Just the Fakts Ma'am The Bootlog The Reviews BTE Caption News & Links TTOY Hall of Fame BTE Impressions
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THE BOOTLOG: Baden-Baden, you say? Yes, one of the best BTE performance of the post-Deluxe, pre-Friction era can be found on this German bootleg. Best of all, you can probably locate it in both audio and video formats. I’ve had the audio for a while, but I only recently got my hands on the video. An Austrian fan was kind enough to trade it with me. Of course, bear in mind that when trading video with other countries, you have to factor in the cost of transferring the video from the European PAL format to the US format. But for this video, it was definitely worthwhile.
Why is it so good? A bunch of reasons really. As you can see from the setlist, the performance nicely straddles the Deluxe and Friction eras. This was Kevin’s "maximum distortion" period (as I like to call it) and he really some lets fly with some tasty guitar solos. Tom doesn’t spare the bass either. You also get to see Cary flailing away on the drums, particularly on a nice drum solo at the end of "This Time of Year." A real highlight is the extended "Hoe Down" at the end of "Southern Gürl." The two Friction songs – "Long Lost" and "Desperately Wanting" are obviously almost the final versions that would soon appear on the album. However, you will notice subtle lyric differences, particularly in "DW." As for the video, the best thing is it’s professionally done. It’s not a handheld camcorder, but it was filmed for a TV show as evidenced by the appearance of host Bernd Mohrhoff who "sprechens the deutsch" between songs. It’s recorded from TV and there’s some less quality parts to the tape, but generally it’s very good video quality (although my copy begins a little ways into "Long Lost"). |
Not only do you get to hear what the band sounded like in 1996, you also get to see what they looked like. KG sports a ‘fro and looks more wiry and a little younger. Tom has the grunge look going on – longer hair and an untucked plaid shirt (an infrequent appearance these days). And let’s not forget James Arthur Payne who emerges from backstage to play acoustic guitar on "Cry in the Sun." Jim looks quite different than he does today. All in all this audio/video bootleg is a real treat for BTE fans.
It’s out there, so go get it... The Setlist Long Lost
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