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Shotmaker – Curve
Wil-Mar Center
Madison, WI
7/30/94
The audio quality on this clip isn’t the greatest, but the song is one of my favorite Shotmaker tracks, so I had to post it. I knew they were something special the first time I saw them in ’93. I made sure to pick up their “Little Kid” 7″ which got quite a bit of play on my turntable that summer.
Download: Shotmaker – Curve (Live Video)
I always loved Shotmaker – they did what they did better than anybody else before or since. Does that make sense? I remember the band I was in driving up to Detroit to play a festival with them just to play a show on the same bill, but they didn’t show up, citing a flat tire but later found out they had broken up. Bummer.
They really did do it better than anyone else. I saw them a handful of times and unlike a lot of bands, I vividly remember each distinct time I saw them. It’s unfortunate that the discography cd that was put out has such crap recordings of some of their songs.
Yes – I remember Mike Simonetti putting that out and getting a lot of complaints as some of the records were transferred from the vinyl and not off DAT tapes, and I believe some other songs were left out. I guess he was just trying to do his best, as so many bands on this level never keep their DATs and run into a big problem when it comes time to reissue the material. I love all their records, though. Even Mouse Ear (Forget Me Not), which seemed like an afterthought at the time.
Tracking down the DATS or cassettes is a pain for these releases, but some of the recordings transferred from vinyl are awful. A little work reducing the hiss and clicks/pops in Audition would have done wonders. Bummer they didn’t take the time to do a stellar job for a band that really deserved it.