San Francisco 15-12-1984

Civic Auditorium

San Francisco (California), USA.

15 - December - 1984.

Attendance: 8.472 (sellout) - Support: The Waterboys

Disc 1 (51:11)

01. 4th of July (PA)

02. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock

03. I Will Follow

04. Seconds

05. MLK

06. The Unforgettable Fire

07. Wire

08. Sunday Bloody Sunday

09. Cry / The Electric Co.

10. A Sort of Homecoming

11. Bad

Disc 2 (30:17)

01. October

02. New Year's Day

03. Pride (In the Name of Love)

04. Party Girl

05. Gloria

06. "40"

Recording Equipment - History

Aiwa CM-30 + Sony WM-D6

Taper: JP 

Transfer (by JEMS): Master Cassette > Nakamichi CR-7A > Peak 5.2 (normalize and index only) > FLAC

Additional comments (by JEMS):

About a year and a half ago, I torrented this show here from JP's master which he had transferred and converted to CD using Adobe Audition. But JP himself was never totally happy with the transfer and I remembered the tape being better than the resulting CD.

When JP recorded this he was using a D6 borrowed from the late great Walt Keeler, who taped a lot of Bay Area shows in the '80s, powered by the shockingly good Aiwa CM-30 mic. I don't think there's ever been a mic that retailed for less than $50 and had this kind of low-end response. JP was positioned on the front row of the balcony at the Civic and pretty much nailed the show. There are a couple of very minor glitches and a brief gap to flip during "Bad," otherwise it's all here.

So last week JP gave me the master tape and suggested I give it a fresh spin on the azimuth-adjusting CR-7A. The results are here and I think we've got a significant upgrade. The microphone moves around a bit (which effects the high end) but otherwise this is a very appealing recording that sounds close-up, with little audience noise (save for some clapping and later singing in "Pride") and solid instrument separation. It's a short-ish show but one I always found enjoyable. Terrific versions of "Wire" and "Bad".

Comments

This is an outstanding recording with a pretty powerful and clean upfront sound. As JEMS remarked above, crowd noise is minimal, softly audible between songs. Clarity is quite good, with all instruments and vocals well audible and upfront. Minors include a pair of glitches during 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, and a one-second gap in Bad at 05:55 (due to a tape flip). This version is far superior to other bootlegs in circulation from this concert.