1. bean.

This post is sort of about the Trey Anastasio Band show I saw with Dr. Yohe, Boo and some other good folks on Friday night. I had a great time with those guys, and we saw an ungodly show.

But a big highlight for me was meeting someone I had hoped to run into at a show for years.

When I’m looking for tapes of a Pittsburgh show, there’s one taper whose stuff I always look for first. We’re lucky to have a good group of tapers here in town, but this one guy — he goes by Bean, or diskobean — is head and shoulders above the rest.

I know I have older Bean auds in my collection, but the first time I really noticed the guy was after I attended my one and only Disco Biscuits show, at Mr. Small’s in 2006. His tape was probably the first one up — it was the first one I saw, anyway — and I was stunned at the sound quality. I was stunned further a few days later, when I downloaded the soundboard recorded by the band and found that Bean’s aud sounded better.

Since then I go out of my way to find his tapes, and I haven’t been let down yet. I’ve also gone out of my way to find the guy at shows, but I’ve never been able to track him down.

As soon as we got inside on Friday, I wandered over to the back rail of the floor at Stage AE and asked a couple of tapers if Bean was around. I must’ve looked harmless; they looked concerned, but they said I should check back later on.

As soon as we got to the set break, I walked back over and was directed to a wide-eyed guy who looked a little startled that I was asking for him.

It’s nice to be able to thank someone, especially someone’s who’s done something to make your life a little bit better. Again, he seemed a little surprised, but also genuinely pleased that I took a second to shake his hand and thank him for his work. I hope it’s something he’ll keep with him for a while; I know I’ll be listening to his tapes for years to come.

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If you’re handy with torrents, you’ll find Bean’s copy of Friday’s excellent Trey show here. As I said before: the show was spectacular, and of course, the sound quality of the recording is superb.