This was my second time seeing AMC in an intimate setting, captured on a borrowed mini-boombox – built-in mics, auto-level recording, ambient traffic sounds and audience chatter notwithstanding.
• • • •
2007 digitizing notes:
This was the first AMC set I actually recorded myself, although it was a bit impromptu, and the “gear” as it were, consisted of nothing more than a mini-boombox – built-in mics, auto-level recording and all – that I borrowed from my job, so I could run next door on a break and record the AMC set. I slightly “re-mastered” it as they say, to the flip side of the cassette on which I had copied the the ’87 in-store set. My mastering efforts amounted to little more than gentle fades at the beginning and end of each track, so the applause and general store sounds wouldn’t be overwhelming. I might have tried to boost the volume slightly for a couple of the quieter songs, but not very much, as there was already a good deal of tape hiss present. Still, better than nothing, I would think. In some ways, not sonically as good as the ’87 in-store, but the overall fidelity of the recording sounds a bit more intact, probably helped in this transfer by the Azimuth process. And of course, there are a few tunes you don’t generally see on a lot of AMC set lists. Enjoy!
2021 addendum:
Peter Jesperson stopped in to buy something at the store I managed, and mentioned that AMC was doing an in-store that day, which was the first I had heard about it. Since I was at work, I had no chance to fetch any decent recording gear from home, so I planned a late lunch at the band’s designated set time, and grabbed the boom box from work to record their set. As with the ’87 in-store recording, when I made this transfer, I applied fade-in/fade-out for each song, to minimize ambient traffic sounds and audience chatter. This transfer, made in December 2007, is also relegated for all eternity to a 16/44.1 fileset, as I hadn’t yet started working in 24-bit, and felt at the time it was no longer necessary to keep the cassette. C’est la vie!
American Music Club
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Garage D’Or Records
19 March 1988
acoustic in-store
(00:32:05)
Recorded / Digitized by J.Free
[01] Nightwatchman (4:48)
[02] Yvonne Gets Dumped (3:24)
[03] Highway 5 (4:22)
[04] Dreamers Of The Dream (2:59)
[05] Room Above The Club (4:05)
[06] Gary’s Song (3:24)
[07] Cathleen (2:07)
[08] Lonely (3:33)
[09] Firefly (3:17)
unknown model mini-boombox > 1st-gen cassette “re-master” > analog transfer to HD via CDWav (tracking) > SoundForge (DC offset) > flac transfer via Traders Little Helper