U2 - live at Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall

New York (New York), USA.

03 - December - 1984.

Attendance: 5.874 (sellout) - Support: The Waterboys

Disc 1 (78:22)

01. 4th of July (PA) / 11 O'Clock Tick Tock

02. I Will Follow

03. Seconds

04. MLK / The Unforgettable Fire

05. Wire

06. Sunday Bloody Sunday

07. Cry / The Electric Co.

08. A Sort of Homecoming

09. Bad

10. October / New Year's Day

11. Pride (In the Name of Love)

12. Party Girl

13. Gloria

14. "40"

Recording Equipment - History

Sony handheld cassette recorder > Analog Master > CDR-Master > EAC > WAV > flac

Transfer: Comfortzone

Location: Approx 5th row center

Additional comments (by Comfortzone): This is the first time this show has been mastered from the ORIGINAL MASTER CASSETTE. I was the travelling companion of the taper. He was notorious for losing things, so I made sure this was in my possesion for the future.

The show was unsual in many regards. It was their first "big" show in New York. It was a benefit for Amnesty International. Also there were several disturbances during the show. The crowd was in an absolute frenzy. I had never felt such electricity. Check out "I Will Follow". A fan tries to jump onstage and a scuffle ensues, resulting in Edge's Gibson Explorer being snapped at the neck. They broke his fucking guitar! There were a few more crazy stoppages.

The sound at the show raised the hair on the back of my neck. HUGE...powerful, electric...concert sound today SUCKS!! When the first few notes of "11 O'Clock" hit, I knew I had entered a new realm. The guitar was like a giant reverberated church bell, the bass was throbbing but precise, the drums were snapping and the voice was clear as a trumpet. The record out at the time, "The Unforgettable Fire", had completely absorbed me. But live, oh boy, what an experience. I saw them about 5 more times on the UF tour around NY, but this was the best, apart from front row seats at the Nassau Coliseum in 1985.

I despise audience recordings in general, but I will tolerate it for rare Hendrix or Doors, but this one blows me away. The clarity comes and goes for the first 3 songs, but then it stays big and detailed for the rest.

Comments

This is a good audience recording straight off the master cassette. Sound is clear but somewhat muffled, and crowd noise is certainly audible. However, all instruments and vocals sound powerful and pretty close, with the bass prominent in the final mix.

This tape is not flawless. Firstly, it runs slightly fast to my ears (this is more noticeable in the last bunch of songs), and there is some tiny high-end distortion on occasion as if levels were set slightly hot. The taper can be heard talking to his own recorder a few times. Some little warbling occurs over the final notes of The Unforgettable Fire. There is an edit in The Electric Co. at 4:24 that cuts off a few seconds of the song. Another dropout occurs at 1:19 in A Sort of Homecoming. It seems after this song there is a tape flip, or side flip, that makes Bad to cut in during Bono's speech before the song. Next dropout happens at 1:47 in October. Finally, "40" fades out at 5:54.

The show, that sold out in a venue record of 18 minutes, is awesome, with band and crowd in high spirits. The band played a strong set with great audience participation. Heavy pushing happened on the front rows during I Will Follow, with some fans being mistreated by security men, unable to take control over the situation. The band stopped playing, while Bono claimed for the fans' security ("these are our people"). Then they resumed the song. Heavy pushing occured again during Gloria, with lots of fans climbing onstage to escape from it, and again the song was stopped. Bono asked to move back, while the whole venue sang "move back, move back". The song was resumed, too.