10.04.1989
USA, New York, Madison Square Garden
Stonecutter Archive #20
vg / exc. Aud.

01. applause [0:52]
02. Pop Song '89 [3:08]
03. Exhuming McCarthy [3:32]
04. Welcome to the Occupation [2:44]
05. Cuyahoga [4:22]
06. Turn You Inside-Out [4:27]
07. Disturbance at the Heron House [5:01]
08. Orange Crush [3:58]
09. Sitting Still [3:18]
10. Feeling Gravity's Pull [6:59]
11. Time After Time [3:43]
12. We Live As We Dream Alone (Gang of Four)/World Leader Pretend [5:18]
13. Begin the Begin [3:54]
14. Pretty Persuasion [4:38]
15. Go Daniel/Tired of Singing Trouble [1:06]
16. I Believe [4:14]
17. Get Up [2:36]
18. Auctioneer (Another Engine) [3:08]
19. It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) [4:29]
20. encore [0:34]
21. Stand [3:24]
22. Fall On Me [3:28]
23. You Are The Everything [4:08]
24. second encore [0:42]
25. Finest Worksong [4:08]
26. King of Birds [5:19]
27. Belong [4:26]
28. See No Evil (Television) [2:53]
29. third encore [1:59]
30. Swan Swan H [2:53]
31. Summertime (George Gershwin) [5:31]
32. Crazy [3:20]
33. Perfect Circle [3:48]
34. After Hours (Velvet Underground) [2:07]

Total Running Time: [:]

Stonecutter Archive #20

AUD > Sony 929 > Sony D6 > cassette (master) > Tascam 424 Mk II > Sony PCM-M10 (Line In, 24/48) > WAV > SoundStudio > FLAC (16/44)
Recorded by Rich B.
Transferred and digitally mastered by neil d

Rich B., aka Stonecutter, recorded hundreds of shows in New York in the '80s and '90s, and traded for hundreds more. Until recently, many of these have been stacked up in trays and trays of DATs and cassettes in his basement, never shared beyond a relative handful of tape trades back in the day. Through his generosity, a few of us are helping to digitize and share these hidden gems. No one can say how many of these there will be, as we haven't hit bottom yet.

This Stonecutter master tape was sitting in the box for a while, as I kept picking it up and thinking, “This is great, but I wish it were from the show on the Green tour where I saw R.E.M. a few months later.” Then in transferring it recently, I heard Michael Stipe thank the Indigo Girls for opening, and realized, this is the show I was at. My only time seeing R.E.M. live, and I totally failed to recognize it, even with the venue and date staring me in the face.

While most of the blame has to be place on my crappy memory, a small share has to go to the Garden itself: The sound was so bad from my seats (in the auxiliary press box just below the “blue seats” in the top ring of the Garden) and the view was so distant that I missed the opening band’s name and spent the start of their set thinking they were members of a male hair-metal band doing acoustic ballads. R.E.M. sounded marginally better from my vantage, though the entire experience was still enough to turn me off from going to arena shows for the next two decades.

Anyway, none of these problems beset Stonecutter’s recording, which, though it’s clearly from a large venue, is clear and enjoyable. This was a great show on a great tour, and I’m glad to be able to relive it, this time more audibly.

Dimeadozen.org: Torrent 544756 (by nulldogmas)