Amanda Palmer
Swyer Theatre @ The Egg, Albany, NY (USA)
November 10, 2016

Lineage: Church Audio CAFS mics > CA-9200 > Edirol R05 (24/48) > Adobe Audition 5.5 (level boost) > CD Waveditor (track) > flac8
Taped & Tracked: Smores

setlist:
1. -Amanda enters and give thoughts on the November 8 presidential election-
2. Goodnight Moon reading #1
3. In My Mind (ukelele without mic, on stage and walking through audience)
4. -giving Ani DiFranco a private concert/comparison to Donald Trump-
5. Do You Swear To Tell The Truth The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth So Help Your Black Ass
6. "I'm a pacifist who gets angry"
7. The Killing Type
8. -The Bed Song intro-
9. The Bed Song
10. Goodnight Moon reading #2
11. -taking audience requests-
12. Lost
13. Delilah
14. -Amanda gets the news that Leonard Cohen has passed away from an audience member-
15. Goodnight Moon reading #3 by Neil Gaiman
16. -Amanda reacts to the death of Leonard Cohen-
17. My I.Q. [Ani Difranco] (spoken)
18. -Planned Parenthood PSA-
19. -NYCLU PSA-
20. "you've subscribed to a human being"
21. Vegemite (The Black Death)
22. -intro to Neil Gaiman birthday present-
23. Neil Gaiman serenaded by HONK! with David Bowie medley [Life On Mars/Space Oddity/Starman]
24. Happy Birthday to Neil Gaiman
25. Map Of Tasmania (ukelele without mic, on stage)
26. -intro to Bigger On The Inside-
27. Bigger On The Inside (ukelele without mic, on stage)
28. -"housekeeping"-
29. Coin-Operated Boy
30. Half Jack
31. -intro to Glacier-
32. Glacier [John Grant]
33. Ukulele Anthem (ukelele without mic, on stage)
34. Hallelujah [Leonard Cohen]

notes: well, this was certainly a convergence of significant events that turned this show into a unique experience. Two days earlier, Donald Trump had won the U.S. presidential election, and as expected, her disappointment shaped the first part of the show. The Swyer Theatre is a much smaller than the Hart Theatre, which is in the same building. A small theatre, where people sitting in their seats can easily be heard by a performer. And once the audience feels comfortable speaking to Amanda, they turn into the show, at parts. The issue with this theatre, is that although it sounds very good for piano and mic'd vocals, in a sold out crowd, it can be difficult to pull off the ukelele/spoken parts without a microphone. Because of the crowd applause and piano parts, I could only boost my levels so high and try to boost the quietest parts in post. I did the best I could with the time that I have. Just be aware, that there are some quite low parts of the show (about half of the show) that sound way better on headphones than they would in a car, perhaps. For example, the second reading of Goodnight Moon was practically whispered without a mic and my microphones had a difficult time picking up any of the sound. Also, wow, one of the absolutely most annoying audience members sits about 4 seats from me. From talking out of turn, laughing at inappropriate times, clapping (or snapping) by himself during quiet songs, and just being a general douche. Sadly, in the sold out room I could not move and had to endure. The guy behind me whispers to his date a lot and it is mildly irritating, but the guy in front of us took the cake as king of the dipshits.