The Jesus And Mary Chain
Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY (USA)
Lollapalooza II
August 4, 1992
Lineage: Maxell XLII90 cassette of unknown generation > Tascam 202MKV > Edirol R09 (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC2020 (level boost/hiss reduction) > CD Wave Editor (track) > flac8
Recorded by: Unknown
Transfer & Tracking: Smores
setlist:
1. Blues From A Gun
2. In A Hole
3. Kill Surf City
4. Far Gone And Out
5. Sidewalking
6. The Living End
7. Teenage Lust
8. April Skies
9. Sugar Ray
10. Head On
11. Reverence
If you have masters that you would like to share, but lack the tools, time, or know-how, please contact SMORES on DIME and I will be happy to discuss them with you. thanks.
---
I made a decision years ago that I would NEVER pay for live tapes. Then, with the arrival of the torrent sites, I haven't needed to. However, always being on the lookout for locally recorded shows, I recently met up with a gentleman that has been recording shows since the 70's in the northeast (including my hometown). I reached out to him to see if he would allow me to digitize some of his masters. Sadly, he was not interested in exploring this option. But, he did make me an offer. He said he was selling his collection. Not copies of his tapes...his actual tapes! His per tape price was way out of my price range (especially for someone who would NEVER buy a live tape). But, he offered me some photos of what kind of shows he had and I was intrigued enough to make the trip out to his house to see what I could learn. The price per tape came down to a more manageable price and I was able to get photos of everything on the table. About 1500 cassettes. I was able to grab a few shows that I had never seen before, as well as alternate sources for shows I already had.
Many of the shows were local, there were masters of shows I was at and never found recordings of. There were also shows I never knew happened. I was like a kid in a candy store going through the tapes in the collection. They weren't all masters, but as you can imagine, since he was an active trader in the 80's, there was some great stuff that I had never come across before and was interested to check out before they got sold to someone else.
I have transferred many of the tapes and tracked them.
So, trying to sort this collection out has been challenging to say the least.
When I asked questions about his recordings, let's just say there were lapses in memory (I am not saying he was being purposefully evasive- he just literally did not remember).
Some of the tapes were marked with an "M" for master, but other known masters had no such notation.
I would then find two cassettes of the same show, one would have the "M", but the other would not.
There are several presumed masters that show up on multiple tapes, like the master was transferred to the end of other shows where they would fit
Some shows have odd gaps in the recordings themselves- like the show arrived on a 90 min tape, with tape flip cuts consisten with 60 min tapes. Were masters recorded on 60's and transferred onto 90's making "masters" at least first generation copies? I can't say.
He knows he used a "Sony Professional deck" at some point, but can't recall the model or when he switched from his first recorders into subsequent recorders.
I was also able to secure some pt 2's of shows, but the pt 1's are not (yet) found (or vice versa)- so there are still some gaps.
I have been able to confirm that some of what I believe to be his masters are circulating. For example, I have a recording of Pearl Jam - Saratoga Springs, NY 8-4-92 in my collection. The sound is pretty bad, but the text file does include "Source: Sony PC-62 > Sony WM-D3 > analog(unknown gen)..." I can confirm his is the same recording, and it is a significant improvement over the already circulating version. But, I don't know who confirmed the recording equipment and the text file does not include a taper's name.
All this being said, I am having a great time listening to these shows and hearing the surprises in what I got from him. I am not confident enough to put much down in regards to known lineage, but I do expect people may be interested in some of these shows regardless of known lineage. I will be as clear as possible in my notations regarding known information, but sadly, getting more concrete info will not be possible.
I am offering these recordings up to those that are more interested in the music than the actual lineage. Some of these may fill gaps in collections- like they did mine.
Of course, if anyone has more info on any of these recordings, please share the info. Also, if anyone has an upgrade to any of these shows, please share the recording. Just because it was new to me, doesn't mean everyone else doesn't already have it :)