Two Sails: Panda Bear @ ATP (9.11.09)

This post will be a little bit different than the norm since we didn't actually record this concert. Me and Jen were there though, we just didn't have a recorder at the time. This recording comes courtesy of Collected Animals user Maxwell Hell, who ripped the concert off of an internet broadcast by WMFU radio. This concert is probably the best I've ever been to for a bunch of reasons: the setting (Kutcher's Resort in upstate NY) was beautiful and relaxing, it was our first time seeing Panda Bear solo, and the setlist (complete with 3 songs we had never heard before) was a near perfect mix of new and old, with I Think I Can, Surfer's Hymn, and Friendship Bracelet for the first time, along with what is probably the best version of Bros and a rare live version of Boneless.

The problem for me has always been the rip itself. The broadcast had a number of glitches where the songs cut out for anywhere between 1 and 5 seconds, which really ruined the flow of the songs. On top of that there's some mouse clicking sounds and strange computer sounds that take away from the set. The other problem was that the equalization was all off. The bass had no kick and the vocals were (I thought) a little to high.

So in honor of the upcoming release of Tomboy, I decided to play with the recording a little bit and see if I couldn't make it a little more worthy of the event it recorded.

I removed all of the gaps that broke up the songs, but unfortunately couldn't do anything about the random clicking or other annoying computer sounds. In addition I gave the bass a sizable boost to get the bootleg to sound more like the actual show did. Check out #1 for an example of how much better the bass sounds in this version. In the original the beat is there, but it has no 'kick' to speak of. Now, it hits a lot harder and sounds like it did at the actual show. It still isn't perfect, but I think overall you'll find it's a large improvement over the original version of the recording. Enjoy!