U2 .... December 11, 1981 (10:38 PM)
Ontario Theater, Washington, DC, USA
Bono - lead vocals & guitar
The Edge - guitar & keyboard
Adam Clayton - bass
Larry Mullen, Jr. - drums
Taper: bpthree
Taping Gear: Sony TC-1100T with Sony ECM-16 condenser microphone.
Lineage: Maxell UD master cassette> Teac A-550RX cassette playback> TASCAM CDRW-700> Trade CD-R (wav) EAC (secure mode)> (flac) Trader's Little Helper level 6 (align on sector boundaries)
Quality: vg/vg+
Length: 65:55 minutes
Artwork: none.
Samples: none, no mp3's (lossy!) here.
Set List:
01. Gloria
02. Another Time, Another Place
03. I Threw A Brick Through A Window
04. An Cat Dubh/Into The Heart
05. With A Shout
06. Rejoice
07. Cry-The Electric Co.
08. I Fall Down
09. October
10. I Will Follow
11. Twilight
12. Out Of Control*
13. Fire
14. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock / The Ocean
*spliced
Comments:
The "Ontario Theatre" was located in the Adams-Morgan section of town, which at the
time, was what we would call a "transitional" neighborhood. I think it's quite a trendy
place today, but I could be wrong on that. During the few shows I saw there, sometimes
the locals would come out and hassle the people waiting in line to see the show. The
place held about a thousand people.
There weren't too many "new wave" bands that I liked at the time, save some of the ones
that had interesting guitar work like THE CHURCH, THE POLICE, and U2. This was U2's 2nd
appearance in Washington, DC, having 1st played at "The Bayou". From Bono's comments, I
guess it wasn't that well attended. This one sold out quickly. BOW WOW WOW opened.
I wasn't too impressed with them musically, but man, could that Annabella Lwin dance and
motor around the stage! I'm sure she was still jailbait at the time!
I've always hated seeing music in large venues, so I generally stuck to clubs or small
theatres. You know, the old "I'll catch them on the way up, or the way down". I don't
think I'll be seeing these guys in my local dive bar anytime soon! A great show, in my
opinion. They came out blasting, very little breaks between songs, and did 14 songs in
about 65 minutes. Bono was a great front man even then. I remember him grabbing this
gorgeous girl out the audience. She just went limp, and he pulled her onstage as "11
O'Clock Tick Tock" ended. They walked off together at the end of the show. By the
next album, WAR, they progressed to huge venues, and I never saw them again.
bpthree