Royal Trux European Tour Recordings

royal trux live in 1996 was life changing

i was just being a dick with my post. i was at the chicago reunion show and yeah it kind of sank or swam based on how engaged jennifer was in each song, though the whole thing was still enjoyable in the abstract. i think the live album (based on just one listen) is pretty interesting in dealing with a career's worth of varied-sounding songs with one sound/style; obviously it doesn't all work but it's a cool experiment.

"Jennifer remembered. When they pulled into Austin to play Emo’s around that time, the duo took the stage with a primitive drum machine mixed at twice the volume of Herrema’s vocals and Hagerty replaced his guitar with a screeching violin. “Neil wanted to do something different and that was his vision for the tour, playing with the violin,” Herrema said. For fans expecting to hear the band’s best material to date, it was obdurate and punishing, and it remains one of the biggest ‘fuck you’ shows I’ve ever seen. But that particular incarnation of Royal Trux was never recorded..."

Now THAT would be an incredible recording to hear

Saw them at Primavera Porto last week, in the sunshine. They're still great.

ha i saw them on that violin and drum machine tour, neil was playing some triggers for the drum machine or maybe bass notes w his feet too iirc

@lag∞n is there any more information you can give on this show? That's an amazing sight to see. Did they still set out to play the songs in full/normal arrangements just w/diff instruments? or were they warped versions? Was it just the two of them? Did he still sing while doing all this? any other info that comes to your mind i'm interested in hearing :)

it was a long time ago but iirc, downstairs at the middle east in cambridge ma, it was just the two of them, the songs were pretty unrecognizable, it was very noisy