New band was streamed live from the Bowery Ballroom NYC

On Wednesday evening, Daniel Lanois with his new band Black Dub did a live Internet stream from the Bowery Ball Room in NYC.

The addition of a female lead singer, Trixie Whitley, is an interesting and somewhat controversial change. Brian Blade is on drums. Daryl Johnson is on drums.

The online participants, about 680 when the concert started, were mixed on Whitley. Some liked her, some didn’t. She doesn’t have a powerful voice.

With Lanois we can expect something new from time to time. He is an experimental musician. Lanois is also not a big ego. He gives over the vocals to Whitley big time during the concert. It’s clear they are a band.

Whitley is the daughter of Chris Whitley a guitarist and blues singer Lanois promoted in the past. Chris Whitley achieved niche success then died at 45 from cancer.

I’ll reserve judgment whether I think Trixie is a fit. She’s good but is she at the same level of professionalism as Lanois. Whatever.

There were dropout problems with the broadcast. Nomad Knows was the best recording I was able to get. The performance is classic live Lanois – atmospheric, rhythmically driven and improvisational. He’s mesmerizing live.

Sound on the Internet feed was very good if not a little over-driven. I just slapped mild compression -12 dB at 1.86) on it and it sounds pretty good. You can hear everyone in balance and they have some vocal effects on Trixie and Lanois. The drummer and bassist come through well. It’s definitely been mixed. The streamed sound must have come off the sound board and the engineer tried to mix it for some balance or sound.

There as some audience recordings on YouTube and they sound weak and unbalanced but the video is clearer. The live camera recording has proximity effect. I assume the guy/gal had their mic close to the drummer and Lanois’ guitar amp because they are up front. You can fix that balance with EQ on the vocal range around 1K but and then on the bass which is almost non-existent. It takes a lot of work though to fix up a mix like that. I’m struggling through one right now that has taken me weeks off and on because I can’t get it right.

Here’s the audience video.