R.E.M.
October 2, 1986
EMU Ballroom
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
WG Master Recording / JEMS 2020 transfer + remaster
Recording gear: 929 stereo mic > Sony D-6
JEMS 2020 Transfer: WG Maxell XL-II S master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 2.4.2 (24/96 capture to .wav) > iZotope RX and Ozone > 16/44 resample FLAC > tracking and finishing with Audacity and TLH
Musicians:
Bill Berry (drums, vocals)
Peter Buck (guitar)
Mike Mills (bass, vocals)
Michael Stipe (lead vocals, harmonica)
With Buren Fowler (guitar)
01_These Days
02_Harborcoat
03_Pilgrimage
04_The One I Love
05_Shaking Through
06_Feeling Gravity’s Pull
07_Driver 8
08_Underneath the Bunker
09_The Flowers of Guatemala
10_I Believe
11_Swan Swan H
12_Superman
13_Can't Get There From Here
14_Old Man Kensey
15_Pretty Persuasion
16_Auctioneer (Another Engine)
17_Little America
18_Second Guessing
19_Fall on Me
20_Paint It Black
21_Sweet Jane
22_Strange
23_Harpers
24_Begin the Begin
25_Cuyahoga
26_Toys in the Attic
27_Funtime
By dint of organic growth and a more accessible sound, 1986 found R.E.M. gaining in popularity. Just a year before, I saw them at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley; now, in a stroke of luck, they played in a university ballroom that held perhaps a tenth as many people. I was there, and I should have taped it. Our longtime ally WG was there too, and he did.
This file set features a fresh, azimuth-adjusted playback and transfer of his master tapes. With a new sonic once-over, this version serves as a material upgrade. Save for bits missing from two songs (“These Days,” “I Believe”) and another (“Second Guessing”) marred due to tape misalignment, the capture is terrific.
Like other '86 recordings, October 2 is a helping of high-grade, mission-critical stuff. It was a great rock show, with an edgy vibe that occasionally felt spooky. A couple of times, it felt dangerous: I've never seen a performer put himself out there the way Michael Stipe did in Eugene.
At the first chorus of “The One I Love” — in 1986, more of a deep-seated, primal exhortation than the single-word refrain to a Top 10 single, as it would be just a year later — Stipe grabbed the mic stand and thrashed: in that instant, I thought that he'd been electrocuted. It was a jolt that ran through the set and a moment that haunts me today. In the R.E.M. shows I saw after Eugene, nothing like that ever recurred. (Stipe alluded to some of this the next night, aware that he may have frightened people in Eugene.)
Over the years, I've been wary about listening to this: it's a fine document, but could anything recreate this gig the way I remember it? What I hear now is an instance of a young band playing exceptionally well. The can't-miss setlist — most of Lifes Rich Pageant, and a trove of covers that was as realized as it was imaginative — is part of the story, too. The band is in great form, and despite their repeated requests for everyone to move back, good humor abounds.
No complete Pageantry tour soundboard recording has ever circulated, and I’d wager that no ’86 date was professionally recorded to multi-track. Like Bruce Springsteen’s 1977 tour, terrific audience recordings are the rule, and from places one might not expect. Whatever search happened at the EMU was likely for something other than taping equipment.
Needless to say, I regret not taping this show. AMorg and I stood fairly close to the stage; though jostling persisted throughout, the setting was suitably dark and the floor was spacious enough (there were no seats) to remain in line with the PA.
BK provides WG’s recording — a solid one in the first place — with a very nice enhancement. (BK ran point on JEMS masters in ’86 for R.E.M. shows in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC; Jared did the honors in Santa Barbara and Oakland — collect ’em all!)
If I could pick a point in time for the musical wayback machine to transport me, right up there with The Who in 1970, The Grateful Dead in 1977, and Bruce Springsteen in Los Angeles in 1981, I’d strongly consider October 2, 1986. With a recorder (and a camera). But of course, I was there already.
Thanks again to WG and BK.
Share it freely, and for free!
- slipkid68
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Notes:
-MM gives the 'back up' request and tells someone their friend is hurt and where to meet them after Harborcoat. MS repeats the "back up' request after Driver 8, the says "The band is going to play an insturmental, I'm going to (?)".
-I Believe has a gap and the two ends have been shoved back together.
-MS riffs over an extended intro to Auctioneer, some is new some is not.
-After Second Guessing, MS "I still can't recommend drinking the water here. It's foul." (boos) He goes on to thank Guadacanal Diary for lending him some suspenders and the promoter for offering to take him to buy a bus ticket. Then he asks if there is anyone from White (?) [I'm guessing some kind of store] "because we would like a really good deal. I don't make very much money doing this". At this point PB gets on the mic and starts asking if anyone has some kind of stamp (Republican?) [guessing that it carries some sort of discount]. MS comes back to announce "I have no idea what's next...You look like a bunch of guppies. I can't hear a word you're saying." he then stammers "This is kind of a new standard..." several times nd PB thinks MS is done during one pause and hits the opening notes to Fall On Me. But he's not, and PB quickly aborts. Again MS stammers "This is kind of a new standard..." someone in the audience finally yells "WHAT?" To which MS replies, "I'm thinking, OK? It's very important that I do this right. This is the new standard in generic rebellion songs, you can apply it to any cause that you wish'. After Fall On Me, MM says "We are trying to remember if we know any more songs". MS launches into fever and the reat of the band start playing Paint It Black. It makes for an interesting version until they get on the same page and MS starts singing Paint It Black. After this track there are more pleas to move back, followed by MS saying "Here are some rock standards nobody wants to hear anymore". He goes on to describe a dream (too long to go into). He eventually starts saying the lyrics to Sweet Jane, which causes the band to come in. Much of the lyrics are improvised over the music, many have to do with the rigors of life on the road. Best version ever.
-PB does a killer intro to Begin The Begin, but the track does have a skip.
-MS bails or drops out of Funtime before the end, band carries on without him.
-CD skipped a couple tracks, played them hen I went back, so ?
Grade: