MGMT Channels the Grateful Dead — The Tapers’ Section at the Barclays Center

In 1984, the Grateful Dead officially made room for the bootleggers that had been recording their shows since their first performances in the mid-1960s by giving them their own space, the aptly named “tapers’ section.”

MGMT is bringing another element to the live experience at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on December 13.

Instead of outlawing microphones or simply looking the other way, the band embraced the growing faction of tapers — the name given to the groupie-esque, gonzo recording engineers who came to prominence in the late ’60s and early ’70s (notably at Dead shows) for using unconventional methods and bizarre tactics to record live sound, such as placing standing microphones amidst concert-goers or directly plugging into bands’ soundboards — giving these gritty music lovers a safe, acoustically sweet spot to work.

The band was sharing their music with the audience, and they knew it. “Once we’re done with it,” Garcia said, “it’s theirs.”

By that point in the band’s career, they had already released 10 studio albums and seven live records, and garnered a famously loyal fan base who traveled with them from show to show. Additionally, Jerry Garcia had become an American icon. Taper recordings from Dead shows have been duplicated, collected and traded among fans for nearly half a century, with a few choice favorites existing amidst the thousands (one of my personal favorites being May 7, 1977).

Today, a new group of psychedelic rebels are following suit, inviting their audience to capture the action. Brooklyn-based experimental rock band MGMT, comprised of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, will be inviting fans into their very own tapers’ section at select stops throughout their winter 2013-14 tour.

The section debuted in November at shows in Chicago and Atlanta, and will continue when the duo makes a return to their old stomping grounds with a performance at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on December 13.

Having switched up their set list every night of the tour thus far, it makes sense that MGMT would shift their focus to taper recordings of their live performances — if not as a throwback to sing the Grateful Dead’s praises, then to simply ensure that testaments to their eccentric genius are uniquely documented and distributed.

Taping tools of the trade (MGMT sez: one microphone only please!)

But will the tapers be there? While the Grateful Dead had recognized tapers who were already deeply immersed in their new art form, MGMT are playfully instigating the taper from within.

According to the band’s website, fans who have purchased tickets will be able to register for entry into the section online, and tapers won’t be allowed to take a feed from the soundboard or use multiple microphones.

If VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser are hoping their tapes will have a similar destiny as the Grateful Dead’s famed audience recordings, they have a long way to go — but we’re rooting for the young movers and shakers. More than 2,000 audience recordings of Grateful Dead shows are currently available online, and who’s to say it would be a far cry for MGMT to someday accrue a Dead-sized tape vault of their own? One thing’s for certain — and we all know that the legendary Garcia would concur — it’s usually best to keep an open mind.

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