R.E.M.
i&i
Athens, GA
Tuesday 3 August 1982
Support: Squalls
Lineage: Soundboard cassette master -> CDR -> CDR -> EAC -> WAV -> Flac (level 8)
Recorded by Pat 'The Wiz' Biddle
Track List:
01 - Gardening At Night
02 - 9-9
03 - Shaking Through
04 - We Walk
05 - September Sang
06 - Pilgrimage
07 - Wolves, Lower
08 - Laughing
09 - Romance
10 - Sitting Still
11 - 1,000,000
12 - Catapult
13 - West Of The Fields
14 - Radio Free Europe
Encore 1
15 - Last Date (Floyd Cramer cover)
16 - Moral Kiosk
17 - Carnival Of Sorts (Box Cars)
Encore 2
18 - Ages Of You
19 - Stumble
Michael Stipe - Vocals
Peter Buck - Guitar
Mike Mills - Bass, vocals
Bill Berry - Drums, vocals
Show notes: This show occurred 3 months after the band had signed their record deal with IRS and 'Chronic Town' was still 3 weeks away from release. This would be their final hometown show until the end of October, embarking on their first journey to the West Coast, stopping off in Texas, then a planned show in Albuquerque, New Mexico at a 'Hot Legs' contest that never happened because the venue owner was nervous the crowd wouldn't appreciate them (they still got paid!) and then on to California. They gave the hometown crowd a great send off, playing all of Chronic Town, including 'Stumble' which was rarely played once the EP was released, as well as some new songs like Pilgrimage. There was even brand new song that we've arbitrarily titled 'September Sang', which was potentially only in setlists for a few weeks. A recording from Nashville on 16 July 1982 that surfaced in 2021 also features this song, but it doesn't appear to have survived beyond this time, and was never recorded in a studio. By the time we have the next full setlist when they were headlining in Minneapolis on 22 September it had been dropped. Something very special to be captured on tape.
This is a stellar performance, with a mix that not only puts Michael's vocals up front in the mix, but Mike and Bill's vocals can also be heard nice and clear. Not only did all of the yet to be released Chronic Town get an airing, but 10 songs from Murmur were played which hadn't even been recorded yet. An incredible feat for a band that to this point only had released 1 single! If you were in the audience on this night you must have known this band was destined for bigger things. As the paper 'The Red and the Black' modestly wrote on October 22 promoting their hometown return to the i&i "There's nothing left to be said about these guys. They're good" and "I've said it once and I'll say it again - get there early".
For the Athens history buffs, i&i was located at 286 Oconee Street. The area was originally an oil refinery built in 1906, and this particular building was known as the B&L Warehouse, which was the name of the venue R.E.M. played in April 1981 when they supported XTC. Its name changed to i&i in 1982 after Tyrone's burned down. The building still exists, and is now the site of the University of Georgia's administrative offices for public affairs, publications, and news services, real estate department, and police. From there it was a short walk down the hill to St. Mary's Episcopal Church at 394 Oconee Street, the site of the first ever R.E.M. show (though not under that name) on 5 April 1980. By 1982 though the church had long been abandoned.
Recording Notes: This recording comes courtesy of Pat 'The Wiz' Biddle who was the sound man for many R.E.M. shows in the early years, as well as the sound man at the 40 Watt Club for much of the 1980's. He even gets a shoutout from Michael during the set for fixing the sound in his monitor - 'Let's hear it for Pat!'.
Pat's notes for this show were extremely apologetic of the sound quality, writing "Recorded using the only available equipment, which was a very poor quality house cassette deck. Also, there were changes made to the equipment settings by the house engineer that severely compromised the show in several parameters. It was extremely difficult to restore those parameters during the show, unfortunately. This was the worst show in terms of actual sound reinforcement that it was my sad duty to work with. I can only apologize for the resultant detriment exerted by circumstances beyond my control."
So while Pat isn't exactly proud of this recording, for a show from 1982 recorded on sub standard equipment, it still sounds pretty good to my ears. Thank you Pat for leaving us with an incredible repository of not only R.E.M. recordings, but a whole host of Athens bands, and bands visiting Athens. A hall of fame legend in Athens music history. Please visit his website at https://www.patthewiz.com/
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Grade: B
-slightly muffled, tape seems to suffer from mild wow & flutterat beginning but didn't notice it further on