flac

2

100 minutes

Equipment\lineage:
Sound Professionals SP-CMC-25 external Super Cardiod mics (croakies mounted on eyeglasses) > Sound Professionals SP-SPSB-10 microphone power supply > Tascam DR-05 Recorder (wav) > PC > Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (editing\amplifying) & CD Wave Editor (track splitting) > TLH flac level 8
Settings: Medium mic sensitivity (Medium Gain)

This was our first Lana Del Rey concert and only my second time in this venue. The new name for it is Talking Stick Resort Arena, formerly America West Arena in downtown Phoenix. I saw Roger Waters perform THE WALL here in 2010. This is where the Phoenix Suns play their home basketball games.

First of all, let me say that it's not possible to record a Lana Del Rey concert without some degree of crowd noise. I chose our seats to try and minimize this. We were in the second row of the upper level with a good direct line to the speakers. The crowd, as expected, was very active and animated. Good to see a hardcore following. There was LOUD cheering at the beginnings and ends of songs and really for almost anything that Lana did or said. Also some singing along by the crowd but this was mainly down in the standing room section on the floor (hardcores) and not so much in our section. However, there was a screamer somewhere close behind us but she doesn't mar the recording too badly. (Super Cardiod Directional microphones used) I had to do a fair amount of editing, almost all of it lowering the amplitude of the cheering to a manageable level.

The arena was not sold out (capacity for basketball games: 18,422) but a good crowd was present on this Tuesday, the night before Valentine's Day. Lana seemed up for the show, thanking the crowd more than once for being there, doing some chatting between songs and overall seemed in a good and friendly mood. She mixed in a good amount of her earlier great tunes but it was the haunting sounds of the newer songs that really had me mesmerized. Like White Mustang, 13 Beaches, Cherry, Pretty When You cry, Ultraviolence, Lust For Life and especially When The World Was At War We Kept Dancing. These are amazing songs and each has their own "hook". Check out the sound samples and hopefully you Lana Del Rey fans will enjoy this. After Ultraviolence Lana did her thing and walked down to the front of the crowd for about 6 or 7 minutes of autographs, selfies and gift acceptance before finishing the show.

B+

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