U2
San Diego Sports Arena
San Diego, CA
April 14, 1987
Ninth Night of the Joshua Tree Tour
16/44.1 Mastered Edition
KeithM Master via JEMS
Recording Gear: Sony ECM-939 Stereo Microphone > Sony Walkman D6C
JEMS 2017 Transfer: master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 2.0 (24/96 capture to .wav) > iZotope RX6 and Ozone 6 mastering > iZotope MBIT+ resample and dither to 16/44.1 > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.37 > FLAC
01 Where The Streets Have No Name
02 I Will Follow
03 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
04 MLK
05 The Unforgettable Fire
06 Bullet The Blue Sky
07 Running To Stand Still
08 A Sort Of Homecoming
09 Sunday Bloody Sunday
10 Exit
11 In God’s Country
12 Bad
13 October
14 New Year’s Day
15 Pride
16 With Or Without You
17 Gloria
18 I Shall Be Released
19 Mothers Of The Disappeared
Introduction To The KeithM Masters
JEMS could not be more pleased to present the outstanding work of KeithM to U2 fans the world over.
KeithM recorded hundreds of concerts in, around and beyond Southern California starting in the early ‘80s, including what can only be described as a series of essential recordings from April 1987, the start of the Joshua Tree tour. Of the tour’s first 16 performances, incredibly KeithM recorded nine of them using a Sony ECM-939 stereo microphone and Walkman D6C. In my opinion, they range from really good to excellent and offer a striking balance in that they capture the extraordinary excitement of the crowd, but somehow little to no up-close chatter or talking.
Some of KeithM’s recordings have circulated before (though perhaps not all?) and the lineage of what is around ranges from an analog generation or two removed to “unknown.”
This series presents the first proper digital transfers ever made from KeithM’s metal master tapes and as such we believe each and every one of them represents a substantial upgrade to circulating copies of these nine incredible shows. In other words, 30 years later, we get to hear some of the formative shows of the original Joshua Tree tour in best-ever quality thanks to the remarkable preservation and generosity of KeithM.
All nine shows will be posted in two formats:
16/44.1 mastered by JEMS
24/96 unmastered raw transfer
San Diego, April 14
The second of two nights in San Diego which were some of the toughest tickets on the entire tour. Bono mentions the city breaking some kind of “world record” in terms of how many people tried for and how fast tickets sold out.
Though we’re nine shows in at this point, the setlist is still being tweaked and tightened. Tonight, Gloria moves out of the main set and into the encore, while “The Unforgettable Fire” gets off to a rocky start with some missed cues, though that’s a minor quibble to what is otherwise another strong outing.
The big news this night beyond a second straight performance of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” is the world premiere, “for the first time anywhere” says Bono, of “Mothers Of The Disappeared” which closes the show. It is a stately, well-rehearsed version which the crowd greets with appropriate reverence. A lovely way to wrap the show and a welcome change from “40.”
KeithM appears to be in a very similar position to night one based on the sound and the shows are comparable in quality with another fine capture that’s delivers plenty of audience excitement but also clear music. Samples provided. Like night one, based on internet research, the current best circulating copy of this show appears to be a rip of a CD-R made from first generation cassette, so this should again serve as a welcome upgrade.
I’d like to express my personal gratitude to KeithM for loaning us his precious master tapes and allowing us to share his work. He is enjoying reading your comments so please keep them coming. Special credit goes to DIME member bitrate for helping me connect to KeithM and remaining persistent as the months went by before we finally got things going with the tapes. Lastly, there’s no one JEMS trusts more to handle post-production of this series than our esteemed colleague mjk5510. Thanks to him for his continued critical support of our efforts.
BK for JEMS
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