U2start.com | Shows | 1987-04-02 - Tempe, Arizona - Arizona State University Activity Center

Help! Which recording should I choose? How do I play this? How can I convert these files to MP3? Answers to all your questions and a lot of general information, we have documented it all on our help and info pages.

"KeithM master via JEMS"

Origins: Audience microphone
Credits: JEMS (Recording transferer), KeithM (Audio Taper)
Equipment: Sony ECM-939 (Microphone), Sony WM-D6C (Audio recording device)
Lineage: [analogue master] > Nakamichi CR-7A > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 2.0 > iZotope RX6 & Ozone 6 > Peak Pro 6 > xACT 2.37 > .flac [ > fre:ac > mp3]
Quality based on reviews:
Downloads: 273

View info file

First 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 cassette > 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 Promoter Barry Fey Reads Governor Mecham Statement
02 Where The Streets Have No Name
03 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
04 Gloria
05 I Will Follow
06 Bullet The Blue Sky
07 Running To Stand Still
08 Exit
09 In God’s Country
10 A Sort Of Homecoming
11 Sunday Bloody Sunday
12 Maggie’s Farm (Bob Dylan cover)
13 Bad
14 October
15 New Year’s Day
16 Pride
17 People Get Ready
18 40

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 genorisity of KeithM.

All nine shows will be posted in two formats:
16/44.1 mastered by JEMS
24/96 unmastered raw transfer

Tempe, April 2
The infamous opening night of the tour, when Bono’s voice was shot. I must admit I had never played this show before, knowing the circumstances, and it isn’t an easy listen. At times Bono is straining so hard that you actually sense the pain he is no doubt experiencing as he tries to soldier on. And he is off right from the start, struggling to pull off “Where The Streets Have No Name.”

There are moments in the show when his voice grows a little stronger and the set isn’t as much of a disaster as I had come to believe, but you do wind up feeling incredible sympathy for him and how difficult that performance must have been.

But that’s all hindsight. I asked KeithM for his point of view having experienced the show in person and his take is fascinating:

“I have to say, the 4/2/87 show is one of my favorite U2 shows, because of Bono's voice. The reason I love it so much, aside from how unique it is - for any performer - is how the crowd carried the show. The album had only been out for a few weeks, but more than half of the audience already knew all of the words and sang them as loudly as any U.S. audience I have ever heard. I can only imagine the discussion that took place before he decided he was going to perform. Did people try to talk him out of it? What did he think of the show afterwards? Not enough to play the 4/3/87 date, but I always assumed that was because he stressed out his vocal cords on 4/2/87.”

KeithM captures the heroic struggle in high-fidelity, with a fine recording that includes Barry Fey’s introduction reading a statement from the band about Governor Evan Mecham’s attempts to block the MLK holiday.

Levels are a tad rocky at the start, but then the capture settles in nicely. There are a few moments where the levels run too hot and you might notice a tiny bit of distortion in one channel, but nothing the distract materially. Samples provided as well as artwork for the 16/44.1 version included.

Beyond Bono’s vocals, the band is still finding its way this night as well, not surprising for opening night. There are some missed cues, but as noted above, its not a bad performance, just a difficult one.

I’d like to express my personal gratitude to KeithM for loaning us his precious master tapes and allowing us to share his work. You should express your gratitude to him as well in the comments. 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

Audio / MP3

Bit rate: 224, bit depth: 16, sample rate: 44100, channels: 2

Download via Mega.nz

Download this recording

Audio / FLAC

Bit depth: 16, sample rate: 44100, channels: 2

Download via Mega.nz

Download this recording

Audio samples

"Dream Beneath A Desert Sky aka We've Missed You"

Origins: Audience microphone
Equipment: Exact Audio Copy EAC (Sound Editor)
Lineage: Analog first generation tape > Maxisound Home Studio Pro 64 >Wav > CD Master >EAC Secure >SHN > CDR > FLAC > MP3 (Lame, 192 kbps)
Quality based on reviews:
Downloads: 1113

View info file

"Dream Beneath a Desert Sky" AKA "We've Missed You"

Disc 1:
1. Barry Fey's Statement on Behalf of U2 Regarding Gov. Meacham
2. Where the Streets Have no Name
3. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
4. Exodus
5. Gloria
6. I Will Follow
7. Bullet the Blue Sky
8. Running to Stand Still
9. Exit
10. In God's Country
11. A Sort of Homecoming

Disc 2:
1. Sunday Bloody Sunday
2. Maggie's Farm
3. Bad
4. October
5. New Year's Day
6. Pride
7. People Get Ready
8. "40"

Source:
April 2, 1987, Tempe, Arizona. ASU Activity Center

History of this set: Analog first generation tape > Maxisound Home Studio Pro 64 >Wav > CD Master >EAC Secure >SHN > CDR > FLAC

Sound Quality:
A-/A Audience

Comments (by Javi Dieguez, Justin Cook, and me):

Javi's Comments: First night of the JT tour with a cracked Bono on vocals, short show. This set's not excellent, but still good... it has bass, treble, sounds fairly close. But it has also a bit of hiss and clarity could be better. Anyway, taking into account how bad versions out there for this show are, this is a nice 2 CD set. I put this on CDR from a 1st generation XLII90 using my pro64 soundcard, no processing done besides normalization and smoothing of breaks. I could seamlessly join the beginning of SBS at end of side A of the tape with the entire song at side B.

Justin's Comments: Sound quality is infinitely better than "The Tour Begins". This recording is not quite on the same level as "Back In the Desert" (a bootleg documenting the next night's concert), but it's still very good. There is very little crowd noise and it is relegated entirely to the background. Bono's vocals (if you can call them that) feature prominently in the mix. There is a bit of background noise, but it certainly shouldn't cause much concern.

Bono was suffering from throat problems after practicing for much of the previous week in the dry desert air of Arizona. He croaks "Hello!" during the intro to "Streets" and his singing during the first verse of the song makes you realize that what was arguably U2's best tour started out rather terribly. By the second verse of "Streets", Edge is obviously singing more than just back up vocals, and the performance improves as a result. Bono's voice continues to deteriorate throughout the show, but despite the rough vocals it is very interesting to hear some of U2's greatest hits performed live for the first time ever and sounding very raw.

The opening track is features Barry Fey, speaking on behalf of the band, unleashing a scathing criticism of Arizona's Governor Meacham, who refused to make Martin Luther King Day a state holiday.

My comments (Mike): I took Justin's/Javi's comments right from Justin's web site.
They are for the title "We've Missed You," which is the same thing as this. "Dream Beneath a Desert Sky" was my title, as I got this show in the format of WAV files directly from Javi himself, and this recording was otherwise unavailable at the time. So know that this is the same as "We've Missed You." About the show I have not much to add. I have a feeling this was the same taper as "Back in the Desert," but is lesser sound quality because "Back in the Desert" appears to have been remastered. A very nice recording nevertheless. Despite the problems with Bono's voice, I think this was a great show, and things certainly went up from here.

Audio / MP3

Bit rate: 192, bit depth: 16, sample rate: 44100, channels: 2

Download via Mega.nz

Download this recording

Audio samples

"The Tour Begins"

Origins: Audience microphone
Lineage: [unknown recording device & transfer] > CD-R > FLAC > fre:ac (mp3)
Downloads: 23

View info file

Audio / MP3

Bit rate: 192, bit depth: 16, sample rate: 44100, channels: 2

Download via Mega.nz

Download this recording

Audio samples

"LDB Special Series #88"

Origins: Audience microphone
Credits: LDB (Recording transferer)
Lineage: Unknown recording device > n generation copy > Aiwa Tape Deck AD-WX828 > Audigy Soundblaster > HD > SoundForge 7.0 > CD Wave >FLAC Frontend (level 6)

View info file

LDB Special Series #88

Out of my 7,000+ shows and radio broadcasts, I have many concerts that were special for some reasons: the setlist, the
musicians, the venue or unexpected events. These are the ones I'd like to propose you. Most of these come from my
cassettes collection, so they will be released at a slower pace than my Master Series! But you won't be disappointed!
I will try to gather the most unusual things I have in my collection and, as always, your feedback and comments will be my
reward for all the work involved in this project.

DO NOT share this music on mp3, just convert it for your own use. Sharing mp3's is the right way to make me stop sharing
music at DIME.

U2
Tempe, Arizona State University Activity Center
April 2, 1987
1st show (out of 109) of the Joshua Tree tour

01. Where The Streets Have No Name
02. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Exodus (snippet) / Three Little Birds (snippet)
03. Gloria
04. I Will Follow
05. Bullet The Blue Sky
06. Running To Stand Still
07. Exit
08. In God's Country
09. A Sort Of Homecoming
10. Sunday Bloody Sunday (fades out)
11. Maggie's Farm / School's Out (snippet) / Cold Turkey (snippet)
12. Bad / Oh Holy Day (snippet) / Walk On The Wild Side (snippet)
13. October
14. New Year's Day
15. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
16. People Get Ready
17. 40

Lineage: Unknown recording device > n generation copy > Aiwa Tape Deck AD-WX828 > Audigy Soundblaster > HD >
SoundForge 7.0 > CD Wave >FLAC Frontend (level 6)

Bono - vocals, guitar
The Edge - guitar, piano, backing vocals
Adam Clayton - bass
Larry Mullen Jr. - drums

This is the very first show from the JT tour, and probably the most unfortunate tour starter of the band's career. Bono's
vocal chords were heavily damaged in addition with already difficult conditions (hot and humid) in Arizona, made his voice
barely listenable right from the beginning of the show. So vocalwide the performance is very poor. As a result of this,
following day's show in the same venue was cancelled and postponed on the 4th. So this is the full 85 minutes set, where
most of the encores, including With or Without You were cut from the setlist. Probably as a thank for the patience during
these two very difficult shows, the band decided to close the JT world tour with two dates in Tempe in december 1987.
Interesting setlist, though.

Soundwise this is good and listenable, although not the best of the quality. My tape was running far too fast, so I tried
to adjust speed according to my ear. I did not touch anything more since I felt that the sound was good enough. I haven't
seen this one circulating, so please enjoy the starter of one of the best tour U2 has ever performed.

ldb

We do not have any download links available for this source. Submit if you do!

Audio samples

Here you can find and post reviews of this show. We encourage everyone that either attended or listened to this show to write a review. Currently we have 11 reviews for you to read.

review by 2UToo

6 months ago

Performance

This is by far the worst vocal performance I have ever heard by any professional singer ever! Bono sounds awful from the start and still manages to get worse. His soft tone is completely gone as is his entire middle range, sometimes leading to stronger A4s than lower notes but "stronger" is a big word as they still suck. He then tries to compensate by sometimes embellishing lines which backfires even more - while the band is trying the absolute best they can, even they start losing it here and there and while no major fuck-ups happen, it's clear they soon start losing hope that Bono will improve.

Additionally, the whole setlist is quite strange with some really weird song placements and choices. At one point, Bono asks the audience to sing for him to then immediately do a completely different part of the song himself - why? The number of times he refuses to just let the crowd or Edge to some singing is frustrating. The only TINY highlight is the great ending of 'Exit' that features a unique harmonica solo and lick.

Sound

Great recording for an anything but great show!
Recording: "KeithM master via JEMS" - 4 stars

Audience

The audience is the highlight of this show! You can't hear them booing or complaining for a single second; instead they're helping out Bono as much as they can and as often as they can! 'Bad', 'New Year's Day', 'Pride' and '40' are the most obvious examples of them singing along as loud as they can.

Overall

Adding back half a star for the audience being this amazing - otherwise, there is nothing worth hearing from this show as it's just a singer at his absolute lowpoint and being able to do his job at all.

Highlights: None
Lowlights: Everything

all reviews

show	performance	audience	sound	overall
beau99
patou2
MattG
mem7777
fleavox
cesar_garza01
spid
john2314241432
DanielLikeAlbum
InvoluteIsTaken
2UToo

1987-04-02 - Tempe, Arizona - Arizona State University Activity Center

setlist

songs per album

best song performances

show attendees: 10

review by 2UToo

all reviews

useful links

contribute

support us

"KeithM master via JEMS"

Audio / MP3

Download via Mega.nz

Audio / FLAC

Download via Mega.nz

Audio samples

"Dream Beneath A Desert Sky aka We've Missed You"

Audio / MP3

Download via Mega.nz

Audio samples

"The Tour Begins"

Audio / MP3

Download via Mega.nz

Audio samples

"LDB Special Series #88"

Audio samples

what they said

did you know

you

U2start

1987-04-02 - Tempe, Arizona - Arizona State University Activity Center

setlist

songs per album

best song performances

show attendees: 10

review by 2UToo

all reviews

useful links

contribute

support us

"KeithM master via JEMS"

Info file

Audio / MP3

Download via Mega.nz

Audio / FLAC

Download via Mega.nz

Audio samples

"Dream Beneath A Desert Sky aka We've Missed You"

Info file

Audio / MP3

Download via Mega.nz

Audio samples

"The Tour Begins"

Info file

Audio / MP3

Download via Mega.nz

Audio samples

"LDB Special Series #88"

Info file

Audio samples

what they said

did you know

you

U2start