U2
Cow Palace
Daly City, CA
April 24, 1987
Fifteenth Night of the Joshua Tree Tour
KeithM Master via JEMS
1644 Edition
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 > iZotope RX6 and Ozone 8 mastering >
[post production] > iZotope RX7 (Mbit+) > .wav (16/44) > Adobe Audition CC
(edit & track split) > .wav > Frontend FLAC (7) > .flac
Track listing:
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 (In The Name Of Love)
[encore break (fades)]
16. With Or Without You
17. Gloria
[encore break]
18. "40"
Known Issues:
- Streets: first 2 minutes and right at the very end
- between IWF and ISHFWILF (bad tape)
Tape flip 1 between SBS and Exit (spliced);
tape flip 2 in encore break after Gloria (spliced)
BIGGIRL
APRIL 2020
----------
Introduction To The KeithM Masters
JEMS is pleased to present the outstanding work of KeithM to fans the world over and
resume our series from the original 1987 Joshua Tree arena tour. 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 quite good to excellent and offer a
striking balance in that they capture the extraordinary excitement of the crowd, with
limited 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, 33 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.
Cow Palace, April 24
After a memorable five-night stand in Los Angeles, the Joshua Tree moves north to the
Cow Palace just south of San Francisco for two shows that would wrap the western leg of
the tour. Because the routing didn't include the Pacific Northwest, members of JEMS and
a few friends drove to the Bay Area for these shows. Jared was living in San Fran at the
time and played host. If memory serves, tickets for the shows were sold via mail order
lottery. I believe we had eight people in our party, Jared got four tickets for night one
through the lottery and we had no tickets in hand at all for night two. In other words,
we were 12 tickets short.
Ticket demand for the two Cow Palace shows was like nothing I ever experienced before.
There were zero tickets available on the secondary market and it seemed everyone in the
Bay Area was looking for tickets. Outside the venue several hours before the first show
I saw hundreds of people seeking and literally no one selling. Things were looking dire
for us, until we heard an interesting story from from one of Jared's friends who had
received a call from the Cow Palace box office that afternoon informing him additional
seats were released and they were going to hold tickets for him and others who had been
shut out.
Apparently, Bill Graham Presents, the promoter, had kept some kind of waiting list of
people who had mailed in for tickets and didn't receive them. The folks who ran the box
office were then placing calls to locals in order of the list. I asked Jared's friend Mark
if he remembered the name of the woman who called. Mark said it sounded like a kindly older
woman who we will call for the sake of this story Mrs. Johnson.
Armed with that name and the back story, we went to the Cow Palace box office and said we
had sent in for tickets, didn't get them, but I had received a call that tickets were held
for us. The person helping us said she didn't see my name on the list, to which I replied,
"But Mrs. Johnson said she was taking care of me." I know it seems far-fetched in this day
and age that our plan would work, but low and behold the person helping me said, "Well, you
did get a message from Mrs. Johnson... How many tickets do you need?"
My memory of the exact specifics from 33 years ago are fuzzy now, but I know for a fact we
got eight tickets behind the stage for the second night and I'm pretty sure four for the
first night using the Mrs. Johnson message story a couple of times. It truly felt like a
miracle. I don't think there's any chance we get into the Cow Palace any other way.
My anticipation for these shows was extraordinarily high and the first night did not
disappoint. I sat about halfway up, halfway back on the side, and I can still remember the
exhiliration I felt as the band took the stage and that incredible build began with the
first synthesizer notes of "Where The Streets Have No Name." There's never been a better
opening song to any show, ever. It was my first U2 show (the band also skipped the Northwest
in 1984-85) and I was totally blown away. The new material could not have translated any better.
I had already heard a live recording from earlier in the tour, so I knew the basic run of show.
Brother KM (who recorded Tempe and a couple of the LA shows) told me the show was stunning and
he was right. The ticket incident from earlier in the day just made it all the sweeter.
KeithM was clearly sitting closer than we were. His recording is superior to JEMS' master from
4/24 and it is at least as good as Persic's well-known recording. The sound is close, clear,
full, and as was his approach, rides that edge of crispiness from running his levels pretty hot.
I wouldn't say there's any material distortion, but there are moments where the sound and
especially the vocals are right on the edge. Curiously that edge is part of the appeal of this
recording as it truly captures the electricity in the air. Samples provided.
Unlike other recordings he made, KeithM's Cow Palace tapes appear to be among his least traveled.
Hopefully they will offer a fresh take on these two outstanding shows.
I'd like to express my personal gratitude to KeithM for loaning us his precious master tapes and
allowing us to share his work. Apologies for taking so long to get to these two shows—I couldn't
let another anniversary pass without putting them out. KeithM is enjoying reading your comments
so please keep them coming. Special thanks to DIME member bitrate for helping me connect to KeithM
and remaining persistent as the months (and years) went by before we finally got things going with
the tapes. Lastly, our new friend and ally BigGIRL has helped rekindle my U2 enthusiasm. Thanks to
her for handling the post-production on the Cow Palace recordings.
BK for JEMS