Sugar
40 Watt Club, Athens GA
1992/02/20

Complete recording of the very first live performance by Sugar, the band consisting of Bob Mould, David Barbe & Malcolm Travis. During their debut performance they blast through all of the songs that would end up on the debut album, Copper Blue; 4 songs from the follow-up mini-album, Beaster; a couple of outtakes; and a slew of cover songs at the end of the gig proper. To wit:

1. The Act We Act
2. A Good Idea
3. Changes
4. Running Out Of Time
5. (band intro)
6. Helpless
7. If I Can't Change Your Mind
8. Fortune Teller
9. Slick
10. Hoover Dam
11. Clownmaster
12. The Right Words
13. Come Around
14. Tilted
15. The Judas Cradle
16. JC Auto
17. The Slim
18. The Door Into Summer (The Monkees)
19. Armenia City In The Sky (The Who)
20. Dum Dum Boys (Iggy Pop)
21. Helter Skelter (The Beatles)/encore break
22. (return to the stage)
23. (encore) Man On The Moon

Total time: 90 minutes.

Here's a description of the recording from the Hüsker Dü database at http://world.std.com/~thirdave/hd_discog/05_live_audio.html:

"DAT audience tape. Soundstage migrates back and forth annoyingly. The guitar is too low in the mix."

While this description fits the contents of the incomplete bootleg CD, "Whatever Makes You Happy", I find that this tape recording is much more enjoyable and has less of the flaws that make the bootleg such a pain to listen to. Having said that, my copy is a couple of generations removed from the master tape; tape hiss is evident, but not too intrusive. Check out the sample.

Finally, some information about the original recording as given at http://world.std.com/~thirdave/hd_discog/03_boot_audio.html about the aforementioned bootleg CD: "(...) the audience tape Chuck Erb recorded on his DAT Walkman, complete with shifting soundstage and somewhat brittle midrange. The guitar is very low in the mix, but that was the fault of the soundboard guy." The latter is true, certainly during the first part of the gig, as can be heard from comments shouted to the band during a quiet moment.

Still, enjoy!