M Duchek notes
I received this show on a DVD of four WAV files from Butterking, which apparently corresponded to two sides of two cassettes. They overlapped, so I joined the files to create one big file. I then sped the entire file down, as it played just a little too fast. I then deleted the silence at the beggining and end and added tiny fades at the beginning and end of the show.
Erik received this directly from the taper and told this was the master, but upon looking at the files it was clear that there were additional breaks besides the ones between the files. I pestered Erik for a while to try to clear this up to no avail. So, I am going to say that this is almost surely a 1st gen. cassette transfer from the analog master.
Sound quality is pretty good. Definitely a solid EX audience on Justin's scale, but probably not much better than that. The audience gets very loud in a few parts (much of "Satellite of Love" is drowned out by screamers, and a guy sings along off key to a few songs), I am guessing when Bono moved toward where the taper was standing (causing people to scream), but for the rest of the show is in the background. Sound is close, all vocals and instruments come through pretty well. Channels do appear to shift from time to time, maybe as the taper moved around, as the sound for parts of the show appears to move around (it sounds like he was down near the band).
Things I noticed:
A few pops in "Mysterious Ways" that sound like someone touched the mic or something.
The show begins at the immediate beginning of "Zoo Station," so while the intro is missing, the music does not cut in. The taper appears to be adjusting the recording level at this point. The end of "Tryin'" is cut off after just over the 45 minute mark, and part of "Stand By Me" is lost. The taper again sounds like he is adjusting the recording level at the beginning of "Sunday Bloody Sunday," probably in response to the crowd's loud cheers at that point as the song interrupts the relatively quiet song that preceded it.
For those that haven't heard this show, it is not notable for its set, about as ordinary as it gets for this leg, but for a couple other reasons: first, it is Halloween, and in what you might call a very ZOO TV moment, Elvira makes an appearance, I assume on the video screens. For those in Europe, or even in the USA, who don't know who Elvira is, look her up on Wikipedia (I added a note about her appearance here to the page, and noticed that she made the same bad joke about running for President in 2006 that she did here in 1992). In any event, it's a little exchange that makes you groan when you hear it, but it's one of those things that is so bad it's funny. This is also Larry's birthday, and Elvira has the crowd sing "Happy Birthday" to him. Larry makes the same joke he did nine years later, that he felt like he knew everyone in the crowd well enough to borrow money from them.
Bono messes up the words to "Tryin'" a little, and does the same with "Angel of Harlem." He then does an early rendition of "Redemption Song," and it comes out sounding a bit awkward; the two performances of it that followed this show (in my opinion) were, however, brilliant.
Otherwise a great era for the ZOO TV tour, with some of the best performances of "Until the End of the World." |
