Muses of Bedlam existed briefly, and did not record anything in the studio.  This is the only concert performance that was recorded professionally.  The guitarist, my long time friend and collaborator, Wallace, reached out for a link to the show online, but I hadn’t ever uploaded it.  And the hard drive it was stored on had been lost.  I realized my only copy was on an old DVD.  He also had a DVD, but no one else did.  It was that close to being lost to the wind, so I put it at the top of the list.  However, the only computer system I could find that read the DVD was a beaten up PC laptop, nearly 20 years old.  

The conversion process was a struggle – but lead to a happy accident that changed my view of the show.  Something went wrong, and heavy distortion and pixellation appeared only on one app I viewed it in.  It reminded me of early experiments by filmmakers like Stan Brakhage who would scratch and hand paint individual frames of film.  I loved it.  I had shelved the project initially because the stage lighting had been so flat and unchanging.  This glitch, though, gave it what it needed, in my mind.  I recorded the screen of the pc, and dubbed sections of it into the now digitally enhanced master file.  

So, I’m kicking off a restoration project with a video that I intentionally degraded the visuals for.  Makes sense to me.  

SETLIST:

00:00 – 4:15:05 Happy Hour

4:15:05 – 8:32:04 Flowers of Evil

8:32:04 – 12:14:17 Swarm of Bees

12:14:17 – 16:31:21 Quoth The Reaper

16:31:21 – 21:00:00 Birthday Cakes & Sweet Diamond Rings

21:00:00 – 25:44:00 Funny How Dreams Go