Blind Melon: 1995-09-12 Vancouver, BC, Canada + Bonuses (FLAC_SB_1 CD)

I wanted to get this show uploaded the last couple of years on its anniversary, and since I missed it again a few days ago on its 20th anniversary, I'm uploading it early this morning before I get some sleep.

I have been a big fan of Blind Melon's music since I heard it and went and saw their second from last concert in Dallas.  After this show, being up front in the very first row (standing room only) and pressed against the security gate by a few thousand fans behind us, the band left Dallas for Houston and then New Orleans.  Just as they were leaving the stage at the Dallas show we were at my buddy Mark stuck his hand out and Shannon Hoon slapped it in a "thanks for coming" kind of way as he walked off stage.

I believe it was three days later when Mark called me telling me Shannon Hoon had died in New Orleans of a drug overdose.  He'd been battling narcotic problems for some time and it was a well known fact.  But he lost the fight, some theorizing on purpose, and that was the last time Blind Melon was in their best form with their original members.

They have regrouped in recent years, and really without any publicity and under the radar, to carry on with a new singer.  And he sounded a lot like Shannon Hoon.  But half of what made Hoon's vocals and lyrics so great was the battles he was fighting with his drug addiction.  It's just too bad he didn't break that depressive state of mind he was in and get himself clean and sober.  He was fighting a depression and abuse problem that he couldn't win by himself and he left this world with nothing but his legacy and one that was rising high as the band had put out two albums prior to his death and a third of unreleased songs and songs they'd been working on in the studio with Hoon not too long after he passed away.

LINEAGE:
No lineage given > FLAC > me > TLH > WAV (to test for lossiness) > Audacity (to view waveform, embed metadata/track titles & info, and then to re-encode) > FLAC 8 > TLH (to check for SBE's and create and verify new ffp & md5 files) > you

DETAILS:
Artist: Blind Melon
Date: September 12th, 1995
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Venue: Commodore Ballroom
Title: Much Music & Even More
Label: None
Source: SB
Format: FLAC
CD's: 1
Artwork: No
Size: 504 MB
Length: 73:32:52

SETLIST:
01. 2X4
02. Toes Across The Floor
03. Tones Of Home
04. Wilt
05. Vernie
06. No Rain
07. Walk
08. Lemonade
09. Time
10. St. Andrew's Fall
11. Skinned
12. Change
13. Soup
14. The Duke
15. Galaxie
16. Car Seat
17. Galaxie (1995-09-17 London BBC Sessions)
18. Walk (1995-09-17 London BBC Sessions)
19. Change (1993-11-10 Hilversum, Holland, The Netherlands)
20. No Rain (1993-11-10 Hilversum, Holland, The Netherlands)

LINK:
(1) 1995-09-12 Vancouver, BC, Canada (SB)

This recording is an superb recording of the Canadian TV program "Much Music" and the last or second from  last video of their shows made before Hoon's death.  Even in the video for this show, you can see he was higher than a kite.  But Hollywood and the music industry doesn't care how much a person is tearing themselves up as long as the cash inflow is coming in.

The waveform in this recording has no audio clipping at all.  I wondered if this might be a rip of the video but the source sharing it states it is a liberated soundboard of the show and it does have that sound to it too.

The last four tracks are bonus tracks added to make a full CD.  I didn't add them either but they sound just as excellent as the primary 1995-09-12 concert does.  Tracks 17 and 18 were recorded on 1995-09-17, five days after this concert, in London, England for the BBC Sessions.  And the final two tracks were recorded earlier on 1993-11-10 in Hilversum, Holland, The Netherlands.

Blind Melon had some of the most talented musicians of the 1990's and each was superb in their playing skills.  Seeing them live in Dallas on (I need to look at my ticket but I think it was) 1995-10-18, it was superb.  But the following show on 1995-10-20 in Houston, Texas was reportedly a huge disappointment from reviews of it.  They were scheduled to play the following night in New Orleans and that was when Shannon Hoon, found on the tour bus after arriving in New Orleans, died.  He had gone on a drug binge according to newspaper articles after the Houston show, even with a drug counselor touring with them to help him, and he went to sleep and never woke up.  So there was no New Orleans show and the Dallas and Houston shows were the very last two.

The band had their own sound and it had some heavy Led Zeppelin influences in many songs.  I'd say it had a lot of Led Zeppelin III in the musical/instrumental playing style.  There are other influences in their music that sound similar to other bands of the classic rock era of music too.  But they were not copycats and they had their own sound and talented musicians in the band.  And they played and made their own music too.

Ironically, the song that made them famous and got the most acclaim was the song "No Rain".  This was one of my least favorite songs from the band too.  I always loved the song "I Wonder" and "Mouth Full of Cavities" but it's too bad these songs weren't included on this night being shared now.  One of these days I will upload the DVD of the show.

I wish there was more excellent recordings of the band available but many are not very good or maybe great at the best in their sound (recording).  There are some other excellent and superb recordings too though.  And I'll be uploading those in the future.  I actually have a few silver CD's of both studio recordings and live performances I need to do EAC rips on and scan the artwork on so I can share them here too.

If you've never heard Blind Melon, I definitely recommend trying out this show and seeing what you think.  I think their best music was the earlier stuff off of the first two albums.  The songs in this show are great but most of them aren't some of their very best songs.

If you get this download, listen to all of the instruments being played and the vocals Hoon sings.  This was a band with a bright future but it was cut short by the drug addiction and dying of the lead singer.  And truthfully, in reality Hoon could not be replaced even by others who could sound like him.  The singer that I mentioned earlier, and I learned recently left the band, has been replaced and they are reportedly touring now.  I have not yet tried to confirm this.  But it makes sense.  But the heart and soulfulness of Shannon Hoon is something that I don't see the band ever being able to replace.  To me, it's like Journey trying to replace Steve Perry.  They have and it is still good and fun to see the shows.  But there is no replacement for him and there isn't one for Hoon either.

I hope you enjoy the show...
 
Bootradr

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