Washington 11-12-1981

Ontario Theatre

Washington (District of Columbia), USA.

11 - December - 1981.

Support: Bow Wow Wow

Disc 1 (65:48)

01. Gloria

02. Another Time, Another Place

03. I Threw A Brick Through A Window

04. An Cat Dubh / Into the Heart

05. With a Shout

06. Rejoice

07. Cry / The Electric Co.

08. I Fall Down

09. October

10. I Will Follow

11. Twilight

12. Out of Control

13. Out of Control   (cont.)

14. Fire

15. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock / The Ocean

Recording Equipment - History

Sony ECM-16 condenser microphone + Sony TC-1100T > Analog Master (Maxell UD)

Taper: bpthree

Transfer: Maxell UD (master cassette) > Teac A-550RX cassette playback > Tascam CDRW-700 > CDR > EAC (secure mode) > WAV > Trader's Little Helper > FLAC level 6 (align on sector boundaries)

Additional notes (by the taper): The "Ontario Theatre" was located in the Adams-Morgan section of town, which at the time, was what we would call a "transitional" neighborhood. I think it's quite a trendy place today, but I could be wrong on that. During the few shows I saw there, sometimes the locals would come out and hassle the people waiting in line to see the show. The place held about a thousand people.

There weren't too many "new wave" bands that I liked at the time, save some of the ones that had interesting guitar work like The Church, The Police and U2. This was U2's 2nd appearance in Washington, DC, having 1st played at "The Bayou". From Bono's comments, I guess it wasn't that well attended. This one sold out quickly. Bow Wow Wow opened. I wasn't too impressed with them musically, but man, could that Annabella Lwin dance and motor around the stage! I'm sure she was still jailbait at the time!

I've always hated seeing music in large venues, so I generally stuck to clubs or small theatres. You know, the old "I'll catch them on the way up, or the way down". I don't think I'll be seeing these guys in my local dive bar anytime soon! A great show, in my opinion. They came out blasting, very little breaks between songs, and did 14 songs in about 65 minutes. Bono was a great front man even then. I remember him grabbing this gorgeous girl out the audience. She just went limp, and he pulled her onstage as "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" ended. They walked off together at the end of the show. By the next album, War, they progressed to huge venues, and I never saw them again.

Comments

Energetic performance by the band with nice crowd participation. This is a solid recording that features a very powerful and crisp sound, with all instruments clearly audible. Anyway, some high-end clipping is audible in the louder parts of the gig, so it makes the tape to sound slightly raw. There is some crowd interference, but only between songs. Out of Control was splitted into two different tracks due to a tape flip.