Aadam Jacobs Collection

In case you've never heard of him, Aadam Jacobs is a Chicago area taper who is one of the most prolific of all time, recording at least 10,000 sets of music over more than 30 years. Some have made it online, but most of his masters were uncirculated and been heard by no one before (probably even by himself).

He and his vast collection got more widely known a few years ago, when a 70 minute documentary was released, called "Melomaniac" (person with an exaggerated, excessive, or abnormal passion for music) https://letterboxd.com/film/melomaniac-2023/

This prompted efforts to back up his recordings and to make most of them available on the Internet Archive, which became the "Aadam Jacobs Collection". We have just reached 3,000 sets uploaded and a few of us will be making some of the recordings available on DIME, in hopes of getting the word out to more listeners, and of finding a few more people who are willing to work on the editing / tracking of the recordings. And thanks to robgronotte for writing this comprehensive information, which I shamelessly edited to use here!

You can read more about the project here:
https://aadamjacobscollection.org/

And you can browse the full archive (available to stream or download) here:
https://archive.org/details/aadamjacobs

If you would like to volunteer to help with the project, send a friendly email to;
aadam.jacobs.collection AT gmail DOT com.

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
October 24, 1986
Cabaret Metro
Chicago, Illinois

Recording generously loaned from the Aadam Jacobs Audio Archive.

Source: Aiwa CM-30A Stereo Mic > Marantz PMD 420 > Cassette (M)
Transfer: Yamaha KX-200U - Tascam DR-40
Mastering: .FLAC > FFmpeg > .WAV > Adobe Audition 2025 [normalize, compression, fades] > CDWave [tracking] > Metaflac.exe > .FLAC > Metaflac.exe [tagging]

Recorded by: Aadam Jacobs
Transfer by: Brain E.
Mastered by: Popmarter

Setlist:
01 I'm Gonna Kill That Woman (John Lee Hooker cover)
02 From Her to Eternity
03 Sad Waters
04 Long Time Man (Tim Rose cover)
05 Train Long-Suffering
06 Knockin' on Joe
07 Jack's Shadow
08 Your Funeral... My Trial
09 Wanted Man (Johnny Cash cover)
10 By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Jimmy Webb cover)
11 Stranger Than Kindness
12 All Tomorrow's Parties (The Velvet Underground cover)
13 The Carnival Is Over

Recording 02568 from the Aadam Jacobs Collection Project
Coordinated by the Live Music Archive at the Internet Archive
Contact info: aadam.jacobs.project AT gmail DOT com

The Aadam Jacobs Collection on the Live Music Archive is a growing online archive of live concert recordings made by Aadam Jacobs, a longtime Chicago music taper who documented thousands of shows over more than three decades. His recordings include live performances by local and touring artists across a wide range of genres and eras, from the 1980s through the 2010s.

Aadam’s archive - encompassing well over 10,000 individual live recordings - is being digitized, annotated, and uploaded to the Internet Archive so that fans, researchers, and the public can discover and enjoy these historic performances. The project is a major preservation effort, involving cataloging, transfer from original tapes, metadata creation, mastering, and upload of shows spanning the length of his collecting career. Jon Langford of the Mekons once described the prospect of carrying out all this work as a "mad undertaking"; the dozens of volunteers who make up the project are committed to completing it nonetheless, with a credo of "no tape left behind."

Recordings in the collection range from early local acts and indie rock bands to notable performances by influential groups, now made accessible as digital downloads and streams. Examples include shows by Phish, Fugazi, Guided By Voices, and many others, each originally recorded by Jacobs and coordinated through the Live Music Archive project.
The collection not only preserves rare and previously unavailable material, but also celebrates Aadam Jacobs’ role in documenting live music culture, offering a rich window into concert history for listeners everywhere. You can browse the entire collection here: https://archive.org/details/aadamjacobs.

If you have questions or are interested in joining the project as a contributor, please reach out to us at aadam.jacobs.collection AT gmail DOT com.