Hüsker Dü
Variety Arts Center
Los Angeles, California
April 25, 1987
RG Master Cassette via JEMS
New Wave LA Series Vol. 39

Recording equipment: unknown stereo microphone and unknown cassette deck

JEMS 2020 Transfer: RG Master Cassette > Nakamichi RX-505 (azimuth adjustment) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture > iZotope RX6 > iZotope Ozone 6 > CD Wave > ffmpeg > FLAC

01 These Important Years
02 Charity, Chastity, Prudence and Hope
03 Standing in the Rain
04 Back From Somewhere
05 Ice Cold Ice
06 You're a Soldier
07 Could You Be the One
08 Too Much Spice
09 Everytime
10 Chartered Trips
11 She Floated Away
12 Bed of Nails
13 Tell You Why Tomorrow
14 What's Going On
15 (cuts in) unknown
16 It's Not Peculiar
17 Terms of Psychic Warfare
18 Turn It Around
19 You Can Live at Home
20 Actual Condition
21 Gotta Lotta
22 Pink Turns to Blue
23 Love Is All Around

JEMS is pleased to extend a series of historic recordings made by our longtime friend and diehard music collector RG. He was on the scene in LA as a teenager, began recording shows in 1977 and continued on well into the 2000s. Our series will focus on tapes he made between 1977 and 1987.

What sort of music was he into? Well, one simple way to put it is KROQ music, meaning the bands that LA’s “world famous” new wave radio station was playing were the bands he saw and recorded. First wave if you will, with forays into indie and punk(ish) artists. The early years are dominated by UK artists breaking in the US. Over time his work expands to US bands in the second wave. Some of the artists RG taped include:

Siouxsie & the Banshees (Vol. 4)
Madness (Vol. 8)
The Specials (Vol. 6)
OMD (Vol. 10)
The Damned (Vol. 25)
The Stranglers (Vol. 1)
Public Image Limited (Vol. 3)
John Cale (Vol. 9, Vol. 30)
Magazine (Vol. 21)
The Buzzcocks (Vol. 7)
Orange Juice (Vol. 13)
U2 (Vol. 28)
Wreckless Eric (Vol. 27)
The Cramps (Vol. 22)
Johnny Thunders (Vol. 18)
Talking Heads (Vol. 24)
Iggy Pop
XTC (Vol. 2)
The Jam (Vol. 31)
The Only Ones (Vol. 19)
The Undertones (Vol. 17)
Boomtown Rats (Vol. 5)
The Birthday Party (Vol. 15)
Penetration (Vol. 26)
The Bluebells (Vol. 12)
The Plimsouls (Vol. 11)
Athletico Spizz '80 (Vol. 29)
Killing Joke (Vol. 14)
Jonathan Richman (Vol. 16)
The Records (Vol. 20)
Robert Fripp (Vol. 23)
Bram Tchaikovsky (Vol. 32)
Peter Gabriel (Vol. 33)
R.E.M. (Vol. 34)
Elvis Costello (Vol. 35)
Hüsker Dü (Vol. 36 and Vol. 39)
Alex Chilton (Vol. 37)
Style Council (Vol. 38)

Later on he caught The Smiths, R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, The Replacements and many more.

RG used good, not Millard-level recording gear, which means his tapes are mostly solid and listenable, with the occasional very good one and also sorta crappy one. What makes his tapes compelling is that RG was recording in a particularly vital window of time. In many instances these were the first or second times these acts played Los Angeles. Some never did proper US tours, only playing select dates in key markets like LA or NYC. Also, for many of these gigs, RG was the only taper. He grabbed a few local radio broadcasts along the way, too. 

Because these shows were almost exclusively at clubs like The Whisky and The Roxy, the sets are generally short, 45 to 60 minutes because that's what you did at The Whisky. On occasion, RG would copy his own masters to save tape and we have done our best to distinguish what’s a true master and what’s a first generation copy. If there’s a doubt, we will note it. Regardless, the series will offer the lowest generation copies available of his recordings, digitized directly for the first time from RG’s tapes which had been stored in boxes for the last 15+ years.

New Wave LA doubles down on Hüsker Dü with a performance in downtown LA that would prove to be their last in the city, supporting the double album, Warehouse: Songs and Stories. That material dominates the set with a few exceptions including the set-closing run of "Actual Condition," "Gotta Lotta," "Pink Turns To Blue" and their cover of "Love Is All Around."

The Variety Arts Center is an old theater near what is now known as LA Live. I saw a Bob Mould solo show there a few years later. It is not an acoustic marvel, at least not for a sonically charged trio like the Dü. The vocals are a little low here, but RG's recording is otherwise pretty good all things considered. Samples provided.

We could only find a set list for the prior night, so perhaps RG's tape is uncirculated or even this show. You tell us.

We’re so grateful to RG for letting JEMS dig through his tape boxes and pull out the assets for this series. He witnessed amazing SoCal music history. Tip of the hat as well to cpscps who volunteered to handle post-production on our series which is a huge help to us and makes it possible to get more music in your hands. Stay tuned for more New Wave in LA.

BK for JEMS