Rhythm Devils 09/01/2010
BB King's Blues Club, New York, NY
Source Summary
Flac2444 +2496 FOB Audience
Neumann TLM170s (cardoids center sweet spot of main floor, about 15 ft. from the stage) -> Sound Devices 722 (first 3 tracks are @24/44.1; rest of the show is @24/96)
Mastered in Spectralayers 12 Tracked in CDWav 1.98.
Taped and Transferred by Scott Bernstein
Flac2444 +2496 FOB Audience
Neumann TLM170s (cardoids center sweet spot of main floor, about 15 ft. from the stage) -> Sound Devices 722 (first 3 tracks are @24/44.1; rest of the show is @24/96)
Mastered in Spectralayers 12 Tracked in CDWav 1.98.
Taped and Transferred by Scott Bernstein
Other Sources
The Rhythm Devils
BB King’s
New York, NY
9/1/2010
Recording source: Neumann TLM170s (cardoids center sweet spot of main floor, about 15 ft. from the stage) -> Sound Devices 722 (first 3 tracks are @24/44.1; rest of the show is @24/96)
Mastered in Spectralayers 12 -- using unmix functionality to wipe away an annoying guy named Abe who was purposely yelling (and clapping) into my mics. Tracked in CDWav 1.98.
Set 1
1. Scarlet Begonias ->
2. Fire on the Mountain ->
3. Friend of the Devil
4. Fountains of Wood
5. This One Hour
6. Cold Rain & Snow ->
7. Cumberland Blues ->
8. Uncle John's Band
Extra tracks:
9. Isolated sample of Abe ranting into my mics 1
10. Isolated sample of Abe ranting into my mics 2
Set 2 was not recorded
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Mickey Hart – drums, percussion
Davy Knowles – guitar, vocals
Tim Bluhm - guitar, pedal steel guitar (during Uncle John's Band), possibly vocals
Andy Hess – bass
Sikiru Adepoju – percussion
Taper notes:
As a taper, whenever you go out and plan to record a show, you never know what you're going to run into. As you can imagine with the number of shows I've seen, I've run into pretty much everything you can experience at a show.
This recording was one of "those" nights -- unforgettable, and not in a good way. Let's start with the venue -- BB King's Blues Club in Times Square was a pretty decent place to see a show -- intimate, good sound, good sightlines, friendly staff. You couldn't ask for more. I would usually set up near the back of the main floor (as opposed to the raised up area) where there would be some VIP booths, but just in front of those booths. Really, the best sounding spot in the room.
This night started just like any other show there -- myself along with 2 other taper buddies Tony and Bill. Tapers work together as a team to protect our gear and shoo people away from it.
On this occasion, starting about half an hour into the show (after Friend of the Devil), there was a guy who I found out was named Abe. And Abe just decided to be a complete asshole to us. Normal people, when confronted with the fact that someone has a microphone stand set up near them and are asked to be aware of of the stand and not walk into it, or to be quiet around it understand what you're trying to do (preserve the music) and are also empathetic to the cause, because they want to hear the recording to relive the experience later.
Well, in this case Abe just decided to make himself a nuisance. After being told to quiet down near the mics and to find a spot ANYWHERE else in the room (this place held 800 people, mind you) got in my face and started insisting that my microphone stand was in HIS way (this despite the fact that I had gotten there to claim the space well in advance of his being there) and that I should move it so he could stand exactly where it was. Then, once I explained that I was recording from the best sounding spot to make the best recording possible, caused him to respond with "Well, I'm entitled to be in the best sounding spot too!". After which Bill, Tony, and I proceeded to physically push him out of our area. This made him even more upset and he started ranting into the microphones. And clapping into them. For a long time.
Well, we never do this, but by the time the first set had ended, Bill and I had decided that we'd had enough and since that jerk had already prevented us from enjoying the first set...and since the recording was "ruined", we just packed up and left. So we didn't get to see or hear any of the 2nd set at all.
At that point, I filed the recording away on a hard disk and never did anything with it at all.
Who would have thought that 16 years later in 2026 we'd have tools that make it a breeze to wipe away Abe's annoying rants from the recording (thanks to Spectralayers) -- I was able to use "unmix" technology to separate out the different instruments into their own individual channels...which was a godsend in this case, as the Rhythm Devils music has a lot of long instrumental passages with no vocals. During those passages, I was able to wipe away Abe (who was isolated in the vocal channel) -- plus other random crowd chatter and yells -- cleanly, as if he/they were never there. There was only one short instance of his ranting overlapping with some actual vocals during "Cold Rain & Snow", which required a little bit more precision to separate out his ranting from the vocals.
Now that I was able to listen to the recording sans the presence of Annoying Abe and his ranting, I can hear that this was a truly spectacular show! The performance of the drummers was spot on, the guitar interplay between young Davy Knowles (who I'd not heard of before or since, but man was he good!) and Tim Bluhm (the Mother Hips) was spot on, and the always-amazing Andy Hess was holding down the low-end perfectly. The opening trio of Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain > Friend of the Devil are a thrill ride from the get-go. Fountains of Wood is a KILLER Rhythm Devils original, and This One Hour is a very touching ballad (both with Robert Hunter lyrics). And the set closing trio of Cold Rain>Cumberland>Uncle John's is also hot hot hot. There is a pedal or lap steel being played during Uncle John's Band -- I believe by Tim Bluhm.
I hope that you enjoy this recording and the fact that I was able to rescue it from the junk heap 15+ years later! I do not believe that there were any tapers present for the 2nd set.
As a postscript, Tony did not leave when Bill & I did, and he told me that Abe got kicked out by security during the set break because he was being a jerk to other people too.
Note that during this time I was typically bringing my Nikon SLR camera+300mm zoom lens to shows, but I don't seem to have any photos from this one - perhaps because I was distracted.
Also note: yes it is odd that the first 3 tracks are recorded at 44.1khz and the rest are recorded at 96khz sampling rate. I always recorded at 24/96 on my Sound Devices 722. Well, apparently someone had borrowed it from me just before this show and returned it to me set at 24/44.1 without telling me and without me noticing before I started recording. Apparently I noticed at some point during the first 3 songs and took the opportunity between Friend of the Devil and Fountains of Wood to stop the recording briefly, change the sampling rate back to 96khz, and then start the recording again.
Enjoy!
Recorded, mastered, tracked, tagged, and posted to The Internet Archive 1/14-23/2026 by Scott Bernstein
BB King’s
New York, NY
9/1/2010
Recording source: Neumann TLM170s (cardoids center sweet spot of main floor, about 15 ft. from the stage) -> Sound Devices 722 (first 3 tracks are @24/44.1; rest of the show is @24/96)
Mastered in Spectralayers 12 -- using unmix functionality to wipe away an annoying guy named Abe who was purposely yelling (and clapping) into my mics. Tracked in CDWav 1.98.
Set 1
1. Scarlet Begonias ->
2. Fire on the Mountain ->
3. Friend of the Devil
4. Fountains of Wood
5. This One Hour
6. Cold Rain & Snow ->
7. Cumberland Blues ->
8. Uncle John's Band
Extra tracks:
9. Isolated sample of Abe ranting into my mics 1
10. Isolated sample of Abe ranting into my mics 2
Set 2 was not recorded
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Mickey Hart – drums, percussion
Davy Knowles – guitar, vocals
Tim Bluhm - guitar, pedal steel guitar (during Uncle John's Band), possibly vocals
Andy Hess – bass
Sikiru Adepoju – percussion
Taper notes:
As a taper, whenever you go out and plan to record a show, you never know what you're going to run into. As you can imagine with the number of shows I've seen, I've run into pretty much everything you can experience at a show.
This recording was one of "those" nights -- unforgettable, and not in a good way. Let's start with the venue -- BB King's Blues Club in Times Square was a pretty decent place to see a show -- intimate, good sound, good sightlines, friendly staff. You couldn't ask for more. I would usually set up near the back of the main floor (as opposed to the raised up area) where there would be some VIP booths, but just in front of those booths. Really, the best sounding spot in the room.
This night started just like any other show there -- myself along with 2 other taper buddies Tony and Bill. Tapers work together as a team to protect our gear and shoo people away from it.
On this occasion, starting about half an hour into the show (after Friend of the Devil), there was a guy who I found out was named Abe. And Abe just decided to be a complete asshole to us. Normal people, when confronted with the fact that someone has a microphone stand set up near them and are asked to be aware of of the stand and not walk into it, or to be quiet around it understand what you're trying to do (preserve the music) and are also empathetic to the cause, because they want to hear the recording to relive the experience later.
Well, in this case Abe just decided to make himself a nuisance. After being told to quiet down near the mics and to find a spot ANYWHERE else in the room (this place held 800 people, mind you) got in my face and started insisting that my microphone stand was in HIS way (this despite the fact that I had gotten there to claim the space well in advance of his being there) and that I should move it so he could stand exactly where it was. Then, once I explained that I was recording from the best sounding spot to make the best recording possible, caused him to respond with "Well, I'm entitled to be in the best sounding spot too!". After which Bill, Tony, and I proceeded to physically push him out of our area. This made him even more upset and he started ranting into the microphones. And clapping into them. For a long time.
Well, we never do this, but by the time the first set had ended, Bill and I had decided that we'd had enough and since that jerk had already prevented us from enjoying the first set...and since the recording was "ruined", we just packed up and left. So we didn't get to see or hear any of the 2nd set at all.
At that point, I filed the recording away on a hard disk and never did anything with it at all.
Who would have thought that 16 years later in 2026 we'd have tools that make it a breeze to wipe away Abe's annoying rants from the recording (thanks to Spectralayers) -- I was able to use "unmix" technology to separate out the different instruments into their own individual channels...which was a godsend in this case, as the Rhythm Devils music has a lot of long instrumental passages with no vocals. During those passages, I was able to wipe away Abe (who was isolated in the vocal channel) -- plus other random crowd chatter and yells -- cleanly, as if he/they were never there. There was only one short instance of his ranting overlapping with some actual vocals during "Cold Rain & Snow", which required a little bit more precision to separate out his ranting from the vocals.
Now that I was able to listen to the recording sans the presence of Annoying Abe and his ranting, I can hear that this was a truly spectacular show! The performance of the drummers was spot on, the guitar interplay between young Davy Knowles (who I'd not heard of before or since, but man was he good!) and Tim Bluhm (the Mother Hips) was spot on, and the always-amazing Andy Hess was holding down the low-end perfectly. The opening trio of Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain > Friend of the Devil are a thrill ride from the get-go. Fountains of Wood is a KILLER Rhythm Devils original, and This One Hour is a very touching ballad (both with Robert Hunter lyrics). And the set closing trio of Cold Rain>Cumberland>Uncle John's is also hot hot hot. There is a pedal or lap steel being played during Uncle John's Band -- I believe by Tim Bluhm.
I hope that you enjoy this recording and the fact that I was able to rescue it from the junk heap 15+ years later! I do not believe that there were any tapers present for the 2nd set.
As a postscript, Tony did not leave when Bill & I did, and he told me that Abe got kicked out by security during the set break because he was being a jerk to other people too.
Note that during this time I was typically bringing my Nikon SLR camera+300mm zoom lens to shows, but I don't seem to have any photos from this one - perhaps because I was distracted.
Also note: yes it is odd that the first 3 tracks are recorded at 44.1khz and the rest are recorded at 96khz sampling rate. I always recorded at 24/96 on my Sound Devices 722. Well, apparently someone had borrowed it from me just before this show and returned it to me set at 24/44.1 without telling me and without me noticing before I started recording. Apparently I noticed at some point during the first 3 songs and took the opportunity between Friend of the Devil and Fountains of Wood to stop the recording briefly, change the sampling rate back to 96khz, and then start the recording again.
Enjoy!
Recorded, mastered, tracked, tagged, and posted to The Internet Archive 1/14-23/2026 by Scott Bernstein
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