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adorup's Collection

R.E.M.   08/31/1985

Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY
Media FLAC
J-Card Comment R.E.M. Reconstruction tour northeast - 20th anniversary series, Volume 6. The Grand Finale.

August 31, 1985 – Radio City Music Hall, NY

Sony TCD-6M/Nacamichi CM-300 > Audience cassette master > Cassette > Cassette > CDR > dBpowerAMP > WAV > FLAC Frontend > Flac files

Artwork included.

OK, this is the one. I obviously like all of the August ’85 R.E.M. shows, but Radio City is my favorite. I attended this, and the night before in NJ as well, so maybe I’m demonstrating a little bias. But the combination of a great show and the superior recording makes this one the best of the bunch.

David O. Thomas taped this from 10th row center, as indicated by hatnham, who was with him that night. The recording has a different quality to it, which might be due to the acoustics of Radio City. The mix is just right, with all of the instruments coming through very clearly. If I did not know the source,
I would think this was a soundboard. I have to give this an A.

One minor note – the last few songs are from a different source. There is actually one less analog generation, but the recording as not as good.

A glance at the setlist does not indicate any real surprises. They mostly avoid the odd covers that highlighted the encores from some of the previous shows. The band was a bit overwhelmed by the size of the venue, and there are many funny comments acknowledging this throughout the night. Somehow I think this inspired them, because it is a very high energy performance.

Due to the wonders of technology and the way it makes our world smaller, Dave recently became aware that I was posting his recordings all these years later, and he is now on Dime. Hopefully he can post his comments and share a bit about what it was like to tape all of these shows.

So, this brings the August ’85 anniversary series to a close. I will probably return with a 20th anniversary post of a show or two from the fall ’85 southeast tour. For now, though, I’m going to turn my attention to a few different artists, and eventually some other R.E.M. stuff from my collection.


Disc 1: Set
01. audience noise
02. Feeling Gravitys Pull
03. Harborcoat
04. Green Grow The Rushes
05. Skip A Rope
06. Hyena
07. Maps And Legends
08. Fall On Me
09. Driver 8
10. So. Central Rain
11. Have You Ever Seen The Rain
12. Pills
13. Can't Get There From Here
14. Seven Chinese Brothers
15. Auctioneer (Another Engine)
16. Old Man Kensey
17. Little America
18. Pretty Persuasion
19. Life And How To Live It

Disc 2: Encores
01. Second Guessing
02. (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
03. Behind Closed Doors
04. See No Evil
05. Two Steps Onward
06. Sitting Still
07. Time After Time
08. Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)
09. Moon River
10. Windout
Trades Allowed Yes
Lists Live Music Collection
Owned by adorup · Last Updated May 23, 2023