Artist: U2
Date: 1992-08-22
Location: Foxboro, MA - Foxboro Stadium
Medium: SHN
Equipment / Source: Aiwa CM-30 / Sony WM-D3
Infofile:
U2
August 22, 1992
Foxboro, MA
Foxboro Stadium
Taper: Brother KM, in association with JEMS
History: Aiwa CM-30 mic > Sony WM-D3 analog recorder > Maxell XL-II Master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A playback (azimuth adjust) > Peak 5.2 .wavs > DVD > Goldwave (file join, speed fix, fade in/out at beginning/end of show, file split) > FLAC
1. [George Bush Rap Intro]
2. Zoo Station
3. The Fly
4. Even Better Than the Real Thing
5. Mysterious Ways
6. One
7. She's a Mystery to Me
8. Until the End of the World
9. New Year's Day
10. Wild Rover [sung by Larry]
11. Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
12. Angel of Harlem/
13. Dancing Queen
14. When Love Comes to Town
15. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/
16. Stand by Me
17. So Cruel [Bono solo]
18. Sunday Bloody Sunday
19. Bullet the Blue Sky/The Battle Hymn of the Republic
20. Running to Stand Still
21. Where the Streets Have No Name
22. Pride (In the Name of Love)
23. Desire/Not Fade Away
24. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
25. My Way/With or Without You
26. Love is Blindness
Butterking's Comments:
Calling this tape "the lost master" might be going a little too far, but suffice it to say Brother KM's Foxboro recording had certainly been lost to history. If memory serves this is the last time KM taped U2 himself (he has seen many many shows since then, right up through Honolulu, but after Foxboro he left the chores to myself and JH), and upon his return from the Boston area to Seattle almost 15 years ago, this tape was deemed to have too much audience chatter to be considered one of our/his best. We did a lot of masters along the Zoo TV tour and this one was prematurely viewed as a lesser effort and confined to a shelf at KM's house never to be thought of again.
But newly motivated by this tracker, I've been rounding up all our masters anew, and on a visit to KM's house in February, I pulled this tape out and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Sure it is a little distant, and sure there's more chatter than I'd like, but not half bad. So I took the masters home with me and a couple of weeks ago I did a fresh transfer on the newly tuned up Nakamichi CR-7A. Brother KM used the same set up he had since Tempe 4/4/87: the shockingly decent Aiwa CM-30 mic and the trusty Sony Walkman WM-D3 (on Maxell XL-II cassettes if you must know).
I transfered three cassette sides to three .wav files and given a recent focus on checking speed/pitch accuracy, I sent the three files to Mike Duchek on a DVD to correct them before converting to FLAC and posting. He has done so graciously as ever and I thank him once again.
Dedicated to Alexis, Brother KM's daughter of just 5 weeks who has absolutely no idea how many great tapes her dad contributed to U2 collectors over the last 20 years.
Butterking for JEMS
Mike's Comments (somewhat repetitive):
This came on a DVD in three WAV files, corresponding to three sides of the master cassettes. I joined the three parts together, deleted unnecessary silence, added a couple of tiny fades, and adjusted the speed, which was too fast, before splitting the file and converting to FLAC level 8. This recording is otherwise unaltered, and I would reccomend maybe turning up the treble a little bit when listening; the bass is just fine.
I received this from Butterking of JEMS, though this was not a JEMS recording. This was taped by Brother KM, who on other occasions taped using their DAT equipment, but did this one on his own with analog equipment. I think it turned out quite nicely. Although not as crisp as you might like, I think it is an excellent recording, with one small break after "Tryin'" (no music cut) and the other only sacrificing time between the main and encore sets. Although it's maybe not quite as close and sharp, I'd compare this to the analog master of 9/18/92 Chicago posted on U2Torrents.com a while back (no clipping on this one though!). Based on what I'd heard about the Boston crowd, I was expecting a ton of audience noise, but this was not really the case, and although it is loud at times (there are individual talkers, but they don't really sing, which is good, and I found them easy to tune out), it never drowns out the music as far as I'm concerned.
Other recordings do exist of this show, though I have not heard them. I know T. Driver taped this show, and hopefully that recording will be uploaded some day from an analog 1st or master. Other sites mention various cassette transfers, but it is unclear who the taper is for any of those recordings, so I would say that for sure at least 2 persons taped this show, and maybe more.
This is a nice show and they clearly seem to be having fun in Masachusetts. That said, the one really notable thing about this show is the inclusion of "So Cruel." Bono had done a snippet at the end of "Bad" in Milan some months earlier, but this was the first time he did a free-standing performance in a concert, although it was only up to the first refrain. Supposedly, the song was performed, in full, two times after this performance. For both of those shows, however, there is no known complete audience recording, and so I don't know if anyone can actually verify that this is true beyond what is in Pimm's book and fan recollections (both of which have proved to sometimes be inaccurate). Nonetheless, it's nice while it lasts.*
The Edge seems to have technical difficulties with the keyboard during "New Year's Day," but it is otherwise a mostly usual show. The band still has a coordination issue here or there as it was early in this leg, and Bono throws the Edge of maybe a couple times, but there are no major screw ups.
Finally, most setlist sites, which I assume use Pimm's book as a starting point, have "Can't Help Falling in Love" listed as ending this show. After "Love is Blindness" in this recording there is something that sounds like it is a loose mic that could have been a break in the recording, but then you hear the Elvis recording over the PA. Why would KM have stopped the recording, only to pick it up exactly where the Elvis version began? In addition, other recordings of this show all list "Love is Blindness" as the last song. So I am left to believe that "Can't Help Falling in Love" was not played, although it was pretty much played every night after this night (there are a few notable exceptions) on the ZOO TV tour. I believe this has been confirmed based on a listen to the other recording(s).
So, overall, this is a nice recording of a nice show, and I'd reccomend it. Thanks to Butterking of JEMS for acquiring this one and of course the taper for giving us a rare recording of "So Cruel" along with the rest of the show.
*This information comes from U2setlists.com (accessed April 22, 2007), which also notes that Bono had inteded to do "So Cruel" in Madison, but changed his mind for some reason. U2tours.com (also accessed April 22, 2007) also has a review from September 9, 1992 from an attendee named Miles, who remembers "So Cruel" being played by Bono acoustically, though not noting whether it was the full song. The only review on that site for the other show where "So Cruel" was supposedly played, Chicago on September 15, apparently uploaded his review for the wrong date, as he appears to reference the show from the 18th. Needless to say, if anyone reading this knows of recordings from either date (September 9 or 15), U2 fans all over would greatly appreciate it.
"So Cruel" was also soundchecked extensively on 8/22/92, and also a little on 8/20. There were also the rehearsal performances in Hershey, for which a mediocre, but still very much appreciated, recording exists.
Comment:
Archived on ICY1.
No cover available for this show.