THE GO-GO'S

Wednesday, 14 December 1994

Beacon Theatre
2124 Broadway
New York, New York 10023
USA


FLAC master, 11 December 2017, by elegymart:
Analog audience recording (stereo) {recorded by Stonecutter}: probably Sony ECM-939LT condenser mic > Sony WM-D6C Walkman Professional recorder > analog audio cassette master > 1992-96 US Maxell XLII-S 90 and XLII-S 100 (Type II CrO2) analog audio cassettes {from the Stonecutter Archives} > Sony TC-WE435 (azimuth adjustment) > Roland R05 (24/96) > Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (audio cleanup, convert to 16/44) > SHNtool (fixed SBE) > CD Wave (track splits) > TLH (WAV > FLAC8).
Created this text file.


Total running time [19:00]
-----------------------------------------------
01 Vacation [3:57]
02 Cool Jerk [4:18]
03 Our Lips Are Sealed [4:12]
04 The Whole World Lost Its Head [3:04]
05 We Got the Beat [3:27]


Band line-up:
Belinda Carlisle - lead vocals
Charlotte Caffey - lead guitar
Jane Wiedlin - rhythm guitar
Kathy Valentine - bass
Gina Schock - drums


Notes:

Courtesy of the Stonecutter Archives is this set from the WDRE Acoustic Christmas, which was a benefit concert for the music industry's AIDS organization Lifebeat. This was over the course of two nights, and it featured not quite unplugged sets from several bands and musicians. Stonecutter and company may have the majority of these sets, but what has been passed along to transfer are first gen tapes of a few select sets.

Tickets were $32.50 a pop for each evening. Stonecutter recorded one of these shows in the balcony and another against the railing. What has been reported is that these shows were not sold out -- surprising in consideration of the star-studded affairs that they were.

Part of that may have just been concertgoers' fatigue with these X'mas concerts. By 1994, Top 40 stations had gotten into the act of prying away the most attractive roster they could obtain for their X'mas shows from modern rock stations. KROQ in Los Angeles was really the station that started it all a few years before, but WDRE had gained a foothold with a similar concert format on the East Coast. However, the holiday concert wars were now raging in New York City, as WHTZ (Z100) staged their own "Acoustic Christmas," which took place on December 5th at Madison Square Garden. Z100 had popular and hot-selling artists of the day such as Green Day, Sheryl Crow, Hole, Bon Jovi and Weezer, whereas WDRE was stuck with... well, you'll partially see as we put these up over the next 48 hours.

This wasn't just happening in New York City, but all across the U.S. in various markets, like Philadelphia, Boston, Albany, San Francisco, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, San Diego, Seattle, Minneapolis -- you name it, any city with a modern-rock or Top 40 station was holding an "Acoustic Christmas" concert, and they were every bit as aggressive as shoppers stampeding through a mall on a Black Friday morning. To beat back some of the competition, WDRE jokingly referred this event its "75th Annual Acoustic Christmas" when in reality it was in its fourth year.

It's unclear chronologically how these sets happened, but here's the Go-Go's set from the second night. I prefer the set from the first night, but who cares what I think. Grab both and decide for yourself.

Enjoy,
elegymart