September 11, 1987, Uniondale, New York. Nassau Coliseum
History:
Aiwa mic > Unknown gen. analog tape > CD-R (Scott) > CD-R (Chris) > CD-R (Mike) > EAC Secure > Goldwave (speed fix, re-index) > FLAC
Comments:
I received both of these shows from Chris Wolf a while ago, who has told me they were from Scott Zumsteg.
For reference, I think Chris named both of these: the first one "Rockin' in the L.I.E." and the second titled "Running to Where the Streets Have No Name." He subsequently changed the name of the second one on his site to match Justin's, "Run Like a River," even though Justin's recordings are apparently each missing the last 2 songs. So these were/are not the ones Justin has, and are complete.
While the first night required a lot of work because different parts of the show played at different speeds, this one was even worse, as certain parts of the show had one channel much louder than the other. So I had to adjust the speed, as well as use Goldwave's pan function and some volume adjustments. For sure, I didn't get it perfect, but some of this would be hard to fix without really messing with the sound, so I tried to just pan it where one channel just seemed unnaturally louder and not have any part of the show too much louder or softer than the rest. It doesn't sound perfect, but it sounds better than it was.
This show also required several speed fixes, again because there are several cuts in the show, probably the results of tape flips and other tape transfers over the years. I also think these might have had non-linear speed issues, which would mean that as the show goes on, the speed changes, and the low quality of the recording, the various cuts (resulting in different speeds), the difficulty for me in matching up certain songs and the wear of age and tape transfers all made it difficult. I enlisted the help of Jeff Shirkey, who helped me compare various tracks, but I tried to fine tune it as best I could. I also edited out various periods of silence and added a fades where appropriate.
This was probably done by the same taper as the previous night. This recording is probably a tad more distant, with more crowd noise (screamers) but less distortion and clipping (although there is still some of that for sure). The bass again comes through nicely, but is not as loud as the first night (probably again maybe a bit more distant). The one exception is the final song, "40," which has a much different sound leading me to believe that the taper had gotten up to leave and was recording from much further back or that it was somehow from a different recording. Like the first night, this is not quite on the level of "completists only" and it is listenable, but it is far from the best recording you'll have ever heard . So, it's not the best, but these are rather overlooked as far as shows go, and better recordings don't seem to have ever shown up.
The show also has a persistent thumping that sounds like maybe it comes from the tape or something. It's not too distracting and mostly unnoticeable, but it can be heard at times, especially in quiet parts.
This is the second of two nights in Uniodale, NY, where U2 opened leg 3 of the Joshua Tree Tour. The setlist was the same as the next night's, with Jimi Hendrix's "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" to open the show. Following that, the Edge ripped right into "Where the Streets Have No Name." This night they did it a tad different than the previous night, with the sequencer playing and a bit of the intro before they began, but it again started off shaky as the band members got their timing together, but they again pulled it off (though they did not try this again). The rest of the set was the same as the previous night. Bono's voice, however, had more troubles this night, and he struggles in "The Unforgettable Fire" and cracks during "Silver and Gold." In fact, he mentions seeing a doctor about his voice before "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Bono has some little kid up during "Party Girl" to sing (it's kind of funny), but I can't tell why from the recording.
"I Will Follow" has a small edit. Before it cuts out for a few seconds, you can hear someone saying something, so maybe something happened to cause the taper to shut off the recorder for a few seconds. Other than that, there are just various edits, mostly sacrificing crowd noise only or just talking between tracks.
