Having Fun Offstage with Elvis

I realized this morning that two recent albums–Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and Wonderlick’s Topless at the Arco Arena–have something unusual in common. Their titles include the names of concert venues despite not being live records. Can anybody think of any others?

(The MPP is a Gehry-designed shed in Maryland; Jackson Browne recorded “The Load-Out/Stay” there. The Arco Arena is in Sacramento; Wonderlick is Tim Quirk and Jay Blumenfield, formerly of Too Much Joy.)

posted 6 August 2009 in Tasty Bits and tagged , , . 4 comments

4 Comments on Having Fun Offstage with Elvis

  1. Chris M. Says:

    Does this count? John Hiatt released a 1994 live album called Hiatt Comes Alive at Budokan? that wasn’t actually performed/recorded at the titular venue, or in Japan at all.

    (I’m sorta surprised more bands don’t make joking Budokan references.)

  2. Gavin Says:

    I think there’s another category for “live albums not recorded at the venue in the title,” of which that is the cornerstone.

    #2 would be Bob Dylan, The Royal Albert Hall Concert.

  3. Tom Nawrocki Says:

    Dusty Springfield didn’t record “Dusty in Memphis” in Memphis, which is sort of similar.

  4. Gavin Says:

    I didn’t know that! Did she use the Memphis musicians?

    (Smokey Robinson on the Elvis Costello show said that a lot of classic Motown records were cut in whatever studio was nearby where the artists were touring; it wasn’t clear whether the Motown house band would fly to London for a session.)

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