Blondie
Tramps
New York City, NY
July 17, 1998
(Two Of Us Master Series Volume 288)

Recording: Shure Mic > Sony WM-D6C

Transfer: Master Cassettes > Nakamichi DR-01 (azimuth adjusted) > USB Sound Devices > Audacity > iZotope RX 10 / ozone 9 (mastered) > xACT 2.50 > FLAC

Dreaming (not recorded)
X-Offender (not recorded)
01 Rapture
02 Rip Her To Shreds
03 Hanging On The Telephone
04 One Way Or Another

Known Faults:
-Missing first two songs
-Rapture: joined in progress

Between 1983 and 2002 there were no tapers more active than the "Two Of Us", not only capturing live shows in their own neck of the woods but traveling the world recording their favorite artists. For the better part of two decades they taped over 250 artists with an array being taped multiple times.

If you collect Springsteen then you are already familiar with some of their work, "fmcleanboots" has posted a half dozen or so of their "Tunnel Of Love" tour shows but has decided to pass the baton.

What you don't know is their passion was not just for Springsteen but for music and that passion runs deep. It is astonishing how many artists they taped.

They followed tours taping club shows, theater shows, arena shows, big artists, mid-level artists and local artists.

If they were following a tour and the tour had an off night they'd see who else was playing that night to tape. Always focused on enjoyment of the show as the priority,
tickets were for the most part acquired outside of the venue as they worked to obtain the best possible seats, continually trading up until the correct seats were acquired.

The results of this were the captures are uniformly excellent but on occasion the start of the show was sacrificed as a trade-off for the seats.

The heavy lifting was done by the Sony WM-D6C and an external Shure Mic before moving to DAT for the last couple of years. None of their masters have ever been circulated and
have been safely stored for the past three to four decades in a climate controlled environment. Tapes are in pristine condition.

Though we may do some mini releases of a series of shows in date order for one portion of a tour, for the most part shows will not be released in order, there are just too many of them.

This will be a very exciting series and we hope along the way we upgrade existing circulating audio and offer up shows that do not have any circulating audio, enjoy the ride, this is definitely not a dark ride.

******************************************************************************

Blondie @ Tramps - New York City, NY July 17, 1998

After re-forming in 1997 and doing a limited number of performances a more formal tour was planned in late 1998. On July 17th they made a surprise appearance at Tramps at "Joey Ramone's Cyber-Bash '98" playing a 6 song set. The complete set can be found on youtube as an average audience capture, I don't think that capture has appeared here or at least does not populate in the bot archives.

The Two Of Us capture is a major upgrade to that capture though it does miss the first two songs and "Rapture" is joined in progress. The almost 20 minutes that are here is great fun.

Thanks to Goody for his continued masterful pitch work on all our historical releases.

Thanks to "Two Of Us" for their dedication to capturing all these legendary performers and shows many heard hear for the first time, the HOURS and HOURS spent waiting in line, traveling, money on tickets as well as trusting me to be the caretaker of their life's work, our little community is indebted to you both. Also, a big thank you to my friend "fmcleanboots" for putting me in touch and laying the groundwork that has resulted in all these great releases...we've barely scratched the surface. The amount of completely uncirculated shows they taped and continue to get into my hands for release is staggering.

Artwork is included.

mjk5510 & Two Of Us

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show: