Faith No More played 5 songs from their recent Maida Vale session on the BBC Radio 1 Rock Show on Sunday night.
Here is the full show:
The show featured:
Superhero
Separation Anxiety
Sunny Side Up
This Guy’s in Love with You
Matador
Here’s Superhero
Watch the full performance here
(UK only)
@Evilwolf – Ah, the 30 second mark… I did notice initially that the note did waver, did not think that one note could be the reason for all this discussion so assumed everyone was talking about the notes prior as well – where I don’t hear anything wrong. Now that you point out those later notes, I hear the flat ones (I was only listening for flat notes in the beginning and only found the one). You have a good ear, for sure. I’m still not convinced they would leave out Matador for those few off key notes. We can only speculate after all. But it’s possible. Thanks for the response/clarification.
“I think the supposed off key notes some people are talking about in the beginning of the song are intentional; unless my ears really suck”.
Your ears not necessarily suck, but as I’m sound engineer, maybe I’m just more qualified to judge?
He’s definitely off-key several times, that’s no artistic choice for sure (especially: farewell SO LONG at 0:30, we will RISE, at every chorus, what more can we GET at 5:15).
Just listen again to the interview that goes with the session, and listen carefully for what Mike says about the recording.
Mike is still the best rock singer hands down, but he’s still human.
No video yet, but the audio for Matador is available on youtube now for those who don’t want to download the zip file. I’d have to agree with Godthroat, that people are assuming too much. I think the supposed off key notes some people are talking about in the beginning of the song are intentional; unless my ears really suck, they’re definitely not flat. Seems to me he’s playing with the song as per usual. The variation sounds great to my ears, anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojoVfQPOc_M
Evilwolf, I’m not disputing you as such, just interested to hear the direct quotes from Patton. From memory, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him complain in that way. I fully accept I may be wrong, though!
I still think BBC timing issues have come into play as well. Often when they’ve rebroadcast sessions in the past, a song or two has been dropped. Ditto whenever they cover festival shows, something always gets the chop.
Here’s an idea. Why not release this version of SSU as faux video? That way they shoot two birds with one stone type thing. Or even better, the monster that is Seperation anxiety? Add the two cuts roddy mentioned as B sides and we got a winner! I certainly would spend my hard earned on something like that.
“There was certainly little wrong with the version the band played. I doubt Patton gives a shit about a perceived rough performance, anyway. When has he ever in the past?”
Mike doesn’t like live recordings, mostly because he doesn’t like to hear him. He sounds very critical about his performances. That’s why they are not so much official live abums with him. He’s got great ears (that’s why he sings so well on the BBC1, with good monitoring), so like most great musicians, he focuses on any imperfection (and they are easilly noticeable on Matador, especially on the beginning).
I have to make clear, the Matador version is still great, but definitly not as musically perfect as the other songs.
People are reading far too much into this… it’s pretty common for the UK to truncate shows and broadcasts purely for timing reasons. Bear in mind that it’s not the band’s decision as this footage is owned by the BBC. Matador would’ve pushed the session well over the 20 minute mark so it’s more than likely to have been removed simply to make for a more concise set.
There was certainly little wrong with the version the band played. I doubt Patton gives a shit about a perceived rough performance, anyway. When has he ever in the past?
I can’t imagine the band being unhappy with it, I would bet more on them saving it for some other kind of release, which would be great!
As a fan, I surely don’t have the same criteria as the band, so I don’t understand why they dropped Matador. I love the Maida Vale Matador a lot, it’s got the inner fire of a live performance, the crisp clarity of a studio session and it reminds me how they played this beauty the night after and I was there…
Thanks so much Just A Fan !
Such a great job. I was ashamed I didn’t take the time to do it myself when I realized the video was no longer available…
Oh man, I so want a new album already.
The full show is no longer on youtube… I would like to watch it outside of UK…
Thanks for the audio Just A Fan. Matador performance is not as good as the other songs, I guess this is why they didn’t include it on the “menu”. Mike is sometimes a bit off-key, I’m 100% sure he was not happy with his take.
Formica, I’ve also always liked that Argentina version of Matador best…Patton’s final note. I also love the Poland 2012 and Melbourne 2015 versions. In this version, I could mistaking a ring tone for the piano, but with just a few seconds to go there are a few high piano notes that match my Tmobile ring and that I’ve never heard as part of the song before.
I hope Billy gets his wish and there will be more touring, but I wish more that they would go back and work on the other songs they wrote and put out another album or EP. I want to hear Roddy’s other 2 songs that he mentioned. I really wish they would put out another official live album, or better yet a giant retrospective of all the times they played a certain venue Warfield would be best since there are good recordings from every tour going back to 1986.
Thanks for the audio extract JAF!
Such a bummer Matador didn’t make the final cut. The other performances were some of the best I’ve ever heard from them. I guess my old ass ears aren’t good enough to hear the ringtone that benrun identified 🙂 Great camera work on the video, and the mix is very, very good. I could hear Roddy’s keys on SA much better than on the album or live.
It’s still funny to me how much I consider the first bootleg of Matador the definitive version of the song. I love the noodling at the beginning, always have; gives me chills errytime.
Now I have to decide if I’m going to pay $120 for a festival I don’t care about to see a short set 😛 (October in Sacramento)
Just a Fan – you’re just a legend
Yes! Very much appreciated! Thanks for doing the work on this one!
If anyone’s interested, I extracted the audio of the BBC Radio 1 Rock Show and chopped the WAV into individual files (Matador is included as the final track):
http://www.mediafire.com/download/qvabfsmykc0wa6b/2015-07-12_Maida_Vale_Studios,_London,_England.zip
Whoa!….I’m starting to sound like the one kid from Blossom, sorry about that. How many people are brave enough to admit they get that reference?
Whoa…I think I just figured out why they maybe didn’t show Matador…in the last few seconds you can hear someone’s Tmobile ringing and maybe they didn’t want to show someone’s reaction or the scramble to silence the phone! I kept wondering why I though I heard my phone ringing when I was listening to it!
Whoa….good observation Bobby! I forgot all about that! I hope they play it sometime.
Ok, mystery solved. I just read an interview with Roddy on the finally re activated FNM blog and he said that one of the songs that didn’t make the album sounded like Kashmir. That was the name of the song on the setlist that didn’t get played at that one concert…way before matador was first played.
Amazing performance! The songs are really elevated in this environment.
KingCol
I do know what you mean regarding the similarities to Desert Search, it’s something that’s occured to me as well when contemplating how protracted the ending of Superhero is. Like many others after seeing the live version it seemed a waste that it would have such a long outtro using such a basic repetitive chord progression (Emin to Dmin) but on hearing the studio version it all made sense as each go-through has its own subtleties that change throughout. Truth be told I could now listen to the coda of Superhero forever, much like with Desert Search. Also Epic, when you think about it, has a similarly protracted outtro only using two chords, a more radio-friendly Emin to Cmaj).
As well as leading with Emin, another major similarity with Desert Search is the use of the double harmonic scale (the slightly Arabic sounding melodies you also hear in Smaller & Smaller, Ars Moriendi, Mouth to Mouth etc) when it comes to the keyboards.
On a separate note, having been amongst the many who disliked the production of the Superhero studio version I have to say it sounds wonderful on vinyl, though digitally it’s still a little ‘meh’. This live version sounds way closer to what I’d imagined it turning out like in my head, especially with Mike’s vocals so clean and largely unfiltered.
WONDERFUL! Love the Matador version. I do seem to like the well executed live versions of this song more than the album. I like the “I’ll awake you…” in the higher pitch – plus a few other subtle vocal variations
Thanks Ben M….I didn’t realize you could replay the show. I listened live but I’ll be listening to this page a lot for the next 27 days to hear the live Matador!!!
Hi. Was automatically blocked so assume Allah triggered it
For those of you who missed the radio broadcast, the full session including Matador is on iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b061pfzs
Excellent!!
I mean…just…wow. Un-fucking-real !!
My comments not accepted ?? Any reason ?
Oh please tell me someone recorded the audio for Matador and is putting it on youtube!!! Would love to hear a live version in this super quality.
Ps : “this guys in love” is played slightly quick for me
Prefer it when they played it on MTV recording live
Amazing – 5th time today watching this.
Does the end of ‘superhero’ remind anyone of ‘desert search for techno Allah’. From the guitar solo onwards. (Especially the guitar solo)
This is so intense! That’s why I love this band so much.
Wow!!! Mike patton is a monster with that voice !! Needs a E.p release or something. It’s too good to be just on YouTube archives FfS. This ha only further advanced my love for SSU and SA !! What brilliant pair of tunes. It’s criminal how mainstream radio has ignored SSU. Maybe make q video .
Wow that was phenomenal. Holy shit they sounded on point. Wish we had Matador.
Matador was played on the radio but not aired on iPlayer
Well, that was amazing. But no Matador?
Did they not air Matador?
Yo,
The tracklist is actually – Superhero, Sunny Side up , This guys in love with you and Separation Anxiety. No Matador..
Use a proxy server or the Hola extension for your browser.
Can’t watch the whole thing outside of UK.
Superhero was sick, however. Patton looked so focused, almost nervous. But it was damn near perfect.