Bitch Magnet (them again): 27 Oct 1989 Enger, Germany!

It appears that August is Bitch Magnet month, with the entirety of posts for this month consisting solely on or about this awesome band from (mostly) North Carolina.

The band, photo became the "Valmead" single.  Photo by Nico Laine

I wish the blogosphere paid more attention to this band.  In many ways they helped set the pace for the indie explosion in the 1990s, for better or for worse.  Ah well, at least with this year's news of the December 2011 reunion and catalog remasters in the fall, the band is starting to get a little belated attention at last.

So it is with thanks to Sir Chunklet (sourcing) and Jon Fine (band approval) that I bring you my latest Bitch Magnet offering, a stellar - and I mean fan-fucking-tastic - gig/recording from Germany in October 1989.  This gig, from the Forum in Enger, Germany, featured the 1989 touring lineup of Sooyoung Park (bass/vocals), Orestes Morfin (drums), Dave Galt (guitar/vocals?) and David Grubbs (guitar - formerly of Squirrel Bait, Bastro, etc.), with assistance from a bevy of friends/crew including Codeine's Steve Immerwahr, who ran sound for the band on this tour.

Note that this is a Jon Fine-free lineup, he of the behemoth interview on this very blog a few weeks back.  So consider this a minor excursion from the classic lineup, with the admittedly awesome Grubbs guitars giving a different feel to the set in combination with Galt's guitar work.  I have no quibbles with the songs, lineup, performance or recording quality here.  I would hazard a guess that what I am posting is perhaps the best audience recording of any Bitch Magnet set, of any lineup.  Chunklet's version (snippeted here) was pretty good in and of itself; I kicked it into high gear.

David Grubbs.  Photo by Nico Laine

The set encores with five covers - Misfits, Nick Drake, T. Rex, David Bowie and Hank Williams Sr.  The Nick Drake track is about an askew of a cover you'll find, I am a *huge* Drake fan and it took me several days to figure it out (Chunklet had it mistitled, no doubt because it's just so odd and un-Drake-like).  I honestly have no idea who the singer is on the Drake, Bowie and Williams tracks; I suspect Dave Galt but it's just a wild-ass guess.

So enough blabbering, onward.

BITCH MAGNET
27 October 1989
Forum, Enger, Germany

audience recording provided by Chunklet
lovingly restored/mastered by the Analog Loyalist

Dave Galt and Sooyoung Park.  Photo by Nico Laine

setlist:

01 Motor
02 Goat-Legged Country God
03 Sea Of Pearls
04 Polio
05 Punch And Judy
06 Americruiser
07 Joyless Street
08 Big Pining
09 Joan Of Arc
10 Navajo Ace
11 Valmead
12 Douglas Leader
- encore begins here -
13 Pea (feat. Steve Immerwahr, vocals)
14 Where Eagles Dare (Misfits)
15 Black Eyed Dog (Nick Drake)
16 Buick Mackane (T. Rex)
17 Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie)
18 Why Don't You Love Me (Hank Williams Sr.)

Grab yer tracks here, lossless FLAC.

enjoy!  Prove me wrong that this is the best sounding Bitch Magnet set out there.