Techniques Berlin CD Reissue

[synthman78]

Hi all,

Bombshelter Productions is proud to announce the release of Techniques Berlin’s Live at the Bombshelter CD at www.cafepress.com/bombshelter.

The unfinished basement at 17 Rendale, also known as The Bombshelter, served not only as our makeshift studio, but also as a venue for parties, usually involving some sort of live performance. It started with the annual Bombshelter BBQ where we would be grilling for a dozen or so friends, and then play live. It ended years later, once it had gotten so big that event was moved into the back yard and the police shut us down during the second song, leaving a lot of people very disappointed. This cd captures the atmosphere in that very basement on the evening of November 17th, 1990, one week before Dave’s 24th Birthday. It was a good opportunity for us to practice in front of an audience and get ready for some up coming shows. As usual, the PA was much bigger than it needed to be. Kris Helstrom was our unofficial 4th member since he had done a lot of the drum programming for shows. This evening he was behind the mixing desk, doing our sound and recording the show. Dave’s mom supplied enormous amounts of food and enjoyed mingling with the guests. Digital Poodle came down from Toronto to open for us that night. By the time the Legendary Dave Lake introduced us around 40 people had shown up. We had a blast playing, in spite of the fact that we were melting in out suits. We were a bit rusty, a little drunk and made plenty of mistakes. I think we were the only band I ever knew of that had friends who heckled. That even included Kris. At the end of the show, a girl in the audience gave Dale some home made peanut butter cookies. As people were leaving to go clubbing I was a little disappointed though. I had invited a whole pile of people from college that hadn’t come. But just as the place was starting to get empty, my new acquaintances began showing up. By 1 am the place was so packed again that we played a second set. Needless to say we were totally impressed when we saw a lot of the same faces at our Toronto gig the following weekend.

The last three tracks were recorded on July 6th, 1991 at a booze can in St. Catharines. Unfortunately none of us can remember what the place was called, but we did manage to include a review of the evening. Kris did the sound again, and he recorded the show as well. These are the only cuts from that show that have survived the years, which is unfortunate since it is by far the best recording that we have. Luckily the surviving tracks complete the set list, typical of the shows we did in the 1990 to 1991 time period. And I hope it makes up for all of the mistakes from the first part of the CD. At least I believe that the CD succeeds in accurately conveying what it was like to be at one of our shows, and for me it brings back fond memories of all the time spent with Dave, Dale and Kris, and of course our audience.

I would like to thank all of our friends and fans, with whom we shared our successes, our disappointments, but most importantly our dreams. For that you will always be in our hearts.


So check out the clips available at www.cafepress.com/bombshelter.