Blind Melon: 1994-03-17 Kirksville, MO (FLAC_SB_1 CD)

I've been wanting to upload this excellent sounding Blind Melon show from 1994 for some time.  But like many other times, things have gotten in the way and I've kept putting it off to the side for a little longer (and longer).  But today, it is getting done.

Blind Melon was a short lived band with the singer Shannon Hoon unfortunately.  They were/are a bunch of talented musicians that had a really classic rock meets modern day sound in their music.  I saw their second from last show in October of 1995 (nobody knowing the end was around the corner for many years to come) from the front row and was blown away by their performance.

Unfortunately, the singer Shannon Hoon died a few days later while the band was in New Orleans for that concert.  Shannon's drug addiction got the best of him and he passed away on the tour bus thus ending their skyrocketing career they had started.

The band continues on today.  I've even seem some 2014 shows out there.  After they found a new singer and gave it another try in the 2000's they tried to make a comeback.  However, and not that they were sounding bad either, the dynamics had changed and the shows I have heard just were not carrying the same energy and sound.  I believe they've gone through two and possibly three singers up to this point after Hoon's death.  But trying to replace the angst that Hoon had and that led to so many incredible songs was something the new singers could not replace.  I'd still go see them in a heartbeat if I knew they were coming to town because the rest of the band was so talented they still could carry the show and it would be very enjoyable to see them.

LINEAGE:
Unknown/none given > SHN > 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: March 17th, 1994
Location: Kirksville, Missouri
Venue: NE Missouri State University - Pershing Arena
Title: None
Label: None
Source: SB
Format: FLAC
CD's: 1
Artwork: No
Size: 217 MB
Length: 34:05:70

SETLIST:
01. Time
02. Dear Ol' Dad
03. Deserted
04. Wooh D.O.G.
05. Change
06. No Rain
07. Seed To A Tree

LINK:
(1) 1994-03-17 Kirksville, MO (SB)

The waveform has no clipping (or maybe one spike into the red really) but it does show some brickwalling.  But the audio really sounds excellent-to-superb and there is a very nice mix in it so I don't hear any need to really work on the audio.  But if you wanted to you would have to deal with the brickwalling.

This show cannot be the complete show I am guessing.  There are only seven songs and one of Blind Melon's shows would have been longer than that in a normal show.  Even if they were an opening band they would have played more.  I'm guessing this is about half of the show or possibly even less.

If you've never heard this band I recommend giving them a listen.  And please do not base your opinion of the overplayed song "No Rain" that we likely all got tired of hearing on the radio and MTV back in the mid 1990's.  Personally, while it is a good enough song, it is one on my least favorite songs the band ever made.  It's too bad they don't have songs like "I Wonder", "Holy Man", or "Mouthful of Cavities" to name just a few great songs in this show.  But like it has been for decades now, the radio only played (or plays) two or three songs over the air from most bands and the real gems go unheard many times unless you buy the CD's and find them yourself.

Just listening to this show now I am wanting to try and find some more of the shows I know exist out there (some I only have in mp3 formats).  A lot of the lossless shows I have are very bad, some are great, and a few like this one are really excellent and superb.  But the band sounds superb as far as their performances go in just about any show up through Hoon's passing in October 1995.

I hope you enjoy the show...

Bootradr

SPECIAL NOTICE TO ALL!!!

THESE DOWNLOADS ARE FOR FREE ONLY!  NEVER BUY OR SELL ANY LEGALLY RECORDED BUT ILLEGAL TO SELL SHOWS LIKE THIS ONE.  THIS IS FOR FANS AND FUTURE FANS WHO WANT TO HEAR THE ARTIST'S MUSIC RAW & LIVE BUT NOT OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE OR RELEASED.

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO SUPPORT THE ARTISTS BY BUYING THEIR OFFICIALLY RELEASED MATERIAL TOO.

KEEP IT FREE, KEEP IT AVAILABLE, AND MOST OF ALL; KEEP IT LEGAL!!!

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

SPECIAL NOTICE TO ALL!!!

THESE DOWNLOADS ARE FOR FREE ONLY!  NEVER BUY OR SELL ANY LEGALLY RECORDED BUT ILLEGAL TO SELL SHOWS LIKE THIS ONE.  THIS IS FOR FANS AND FUTURE FANS WHO WANT TO HEAR THE ARTIST'S MUSIC RAW & LIVE BUT NOT OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE OR RELEASED.

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO SUPPORT THE ARTISTS BY BUYING THEIR OFFICIALLY RELEASED MATERIAL TOO.

KEEP IT FREE, KEEP IT AVAILABLE, AND MOST OF ALL; KEEP IT LEGAL!!!