The Jayhawks
The Vic
Chicago, Illinois
February 17, 2012

Source: Church Audio CA-11 cards => UGLY pre-amp => Tascam DR-2D (24/48)
Transfer: DR-2D => WAV => Audition 1.5 (dither to 16-bit) => WAV => Magix Audio Cleaning Lab => WAV => FLAC
(level 8) 

Location: Balcony, 3rd row, left of center

Disc one (49:17): 

intro (1:48)
Wichita (5:18)
Cinnamon Love (4:30)
Red's Song (3:56)
Pray For Me (3:55)
Closer To Your Side (3:40)
Take Me With You (When You Go) (5:30)
She Walks In So Many Ways (2:41)
Blue (4:11)
Tiny Arrows (6:21)
I'd Run Away (3:45)
Clifton Bridge (3:37) *

Disc two (46:02): 

Angelyne (4:00)
Black Eyed Susan (5:39)
Two Hearts (3:13)
Miss Williams' Guitar (3:29)
Clouds (4:04)
Settled Down Like Rain (3:19)
Up Above My Head (3:16)
Encore break (2:28)
Tampa to Tulsa (4:24)
How Can I Send Tonight (3:57)
Waiting For The Sun (4:41)
If You Really Want Me To, I'll Go (3:25) ***

Md5 signature file is included. Sorry, no artwork (feel free to make some) 

*  Mark Olsen solo track
** Mark Olsen & The Creekdippers track
*** Waylon Jennings cover

Comments: 

Final Chicago stop on the Jayhawks' 2011-2012 reunion tour, second-to-last U.S. date before heading overseas for
the final leg. The band came through here no less than four times in the last year -- the two-night stand at the
start of the tour (which featured their two classic albums in their entirety), a headlining free summertime show at
Taste of Chicago, a return with the DMB caravan a few weeks later, and finally this date which featured a heavy
dose of "Mockingbird Time" material (the album was not released on their previous show here).

I saw them in Milwaukee at the start of this leg of the tour in November, and left sorely disappointed. Though the
setlist here is very similar to the fall dates, the quality of the performance was light-years better -- the band
seemed animated and happy, Gary's vocals were more impassioned, and Mark did not have a look of distaste on his
face when performing post-1995 Jayhawks songs. ;-)  At 95 minutes, the show was still unacceptably short for a band
with this much great material, but it was an enjoyable performance.

The band closed with an entertaining cover song I wasn't familiar with -- based on a Google search, I think it's
Waylon Jennings' "If You Really Want Me To, I'll Go." Great way to end the show.

(A bonus for me last night was that I randomly happened to find myself seated next to "igaines," who was taping the
show with his R-09. Great meeting him and chatting during the set break about our common musical interests.
Considering the number of artists we share an interest in, I suppose it was only a matter of time.)

In terms of the recording quality, I was happy with how this one came out, though it may feel distant to those who
prefer stealth recordings done from the front of the floor. For Vic shows, I've had the best results targeting a
front-balcony location -- sound tends to be very good and you tend to be away from the most chatty audience
members, but the trade-off is that the sound is less immediate. I was very happy with the recording overall; those
who downloaded my January 2011 shows will find this to have a little more clarity and fidelity due to change in
mics during the last year.

I tweaked this recording more than I usually would, because I had an extremely loud clapper to my right. Even
though he was respectful and pretty much only clapped/cheered between songs, his loud clapping oversaturated my
recorder. To compensate, I boosted the other channel in Audio Cleaning Lab significantly and then narrowed the
stereo separation to place most of the emphasis on the left mic ... I did an pre-/post- comparison and found that
the sound of the music wasn't really affected by making this change (I was sitting pretty far left and wasn't
getting much stereo effect anyway), but it dropped the clapper way down in the overall mix. Anyone who would rather
take the other route of meticulously removing the hand-claps is welcome to drop me a line and I'll be happy to
share the raw 24-bit recording; I don't have the time, tools, or skills for that kind of editing.

Hope Jayhawks fans like this recording, and I hope that this isn't the last we've seen of the original line-up.