Long time readers will know that I'm a big fan of Michael Runion. I've had the opportunity to see him a few times over the last few years and his show's are as heartfelt and honest as anything I've ever seen. It also doesn't hurt that he's a phenomenal singer-songwriter, writing songs that tell stories and pull you in from the first line.

Last year, I had a chance to see Michael in Austin in July. He was good enough to play a short acoustic set for us on the streets of downtown Austin, in 103 degree weather, before his scheduled stop, a full on rocking electric set that night at Lamberts BBQ. Check out the acoustic set, and read more about that day, here. We were fortunate enough to get to record both sets - and actually got to try something new during the Lamberts BBQ set.

Lamberts had their soundboard hooked up to a Mac running ProTools, and captured every instrument and vocal as individual discrete tracks which allows true multi track mixing. The sound guy did a great job setting levels during the show, but being able to remix and master the recording after the fact gave a lot more latitude in tweaking the show to really emphasis different parts as needed (example, bringing up lead guitars during solos, increasing and decreasing vocals to make them stand out over the music.)

All in all, this made a great show an even better recording - the set was solid, Michael and his backing band, the Royal Family, tore through 9 songs - mixing between some older recordings from his early EPs, tracks from his brilliant full length "Our Time Will Come" and a couple of tracks from his TOUR EP (get them all at his online store here. The set also alternated nicely between slow, fast, and hard songs - never get boring by changing up the tempo. Be sure to check out "The Daylight" - it's the male/female "duet" version from the TOUR EP, with Michael's cousin, Sarah Sinclair, providing the female part... I've got to admit, I love the EP version with Z Berg from The Like, but I think I like this version even better. Sarah's vocals are like honey.

Enjoy the set and if you are in Los Angeles or the surrounding area, you can catch Michael later today at the Echo.

Last - you can also check out a couple of acoustic tracks from a set we captured in Houston, in 2006, here.

Live MP3 MP3s:
Intro
Til We Have To
Lemon Grove
Red Pony
No Friend
Maxine
S.L.S
Intro to...
Keep It To Yourself
The Daylight
Intro to...
Back and Forth
Outro

Labels: austin, indie, lamberts bbq, live mp3s, michael runion, soundboard mp3s