First Sugar Show Since 1995! Sugar- Webster Hall, New York, NY, May 2, 2026

Screenshot photo from video (Concerts Hub)

 

Yes, it finally happened, Sugar is back! They played their first show since January 16, 1995, in New York City on May 2nd, for three reunion concerts before heading to Europe for a massive tour (May/June), before bringing the act to the US in August. The American portion includes, three nights in Minneapolis in September and the final show of the tour wraps up in Athens, GA (I think the first ever Sugar show was there) on October 24th. Very exciting news, I would love to go, but with no dates in Canada, I'll have to watch and listen to the shows second-hand, via live audio recordings and YouTube. 

 

I've always felt Bob Mould's strongest material, post-Husker Du was with Sugar. I bought Copper Blue on cassette when I was in Minneapolis (just after it was released) "sight unheard" and popped it in the car tape deck on the drive home and was instantly blown away! The first 4 tracks are killer, hell, it's one of the best debuts from the 90's and I played the hell out of that tape for the next couple of months. The live recording for the first reunion show is thanks to John Loughney who posted it to Dime and also provides some really good video from the show (The Act We Act, Changes, If I Can't Change Your Mind). The sound quality is excellent and though it would have been amazing to be there, I feel like this is a pretty incredible consolation prize. Thank you for sharing!

Enjoy! 

  

Already there are several outstanding videos from the first 2 nights:

Sugar- Full set (Concerts Hub)- May 2, 2026

Sugar- Full set (John Loughney)- May 3, 2026 

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use.

Please share! 

 

Setlist photo by John Loughney

  

SUGAR

Webster Hall

New York, NY 

2026 05 02

Taper: lachtna productions
Location: FOB
Lineage: Schoeps MK4 > BabyNBox > Sony A10 > WAV (24/48) > SoundForge (levels, fades, declick) > CDWAVE (splits) > FLAC > MP3Tag (tags) 

01. She Said She Said [The Beatles] (tape)
02. The Act We Act
03. A Good Idea
04. Changes
05. Company Book
06. After All the Roads Have Led to Nowhere
07. In the Eyes of My Friends
08. Hoover Dam
09. Where Diamonds Are Halos
10. Running Out of Time
11. Gift
12. Your Favorite Thing
13. Clownmaster
14. Frustration
15. House of Dead Memories
16. Long Live Love
17. Panama City Motel
18. Can't Help You Anymore
19. Fortune Teller
20. Anyone
21. Tilted
22. JC Auto
>> Encore:
23. Helpless
24. Gee Angel
25. If I Can't Change Your Mind

Support:
Michael Azerrad (DJ set)

SUGAR- 2026-05-02 Webster Hall, NYC FLAC. rar

Husker Du- Live From The Ritz, October 17, 1987

 

Note: Greg and Bob do NOT play left-handed. The photo is reversed...duh!

 I admit it, I still play CD's. Though I tend to stream music throughout the day when I'm working, I occasionally slip in a silver disc especially when driving or if I'm in the mood for something that's not available on the streaming app. I've started to buy CD's again too, though truthfully I didn't really stop, because nowadays you can get some super cheap deals on used CD's (obsolete? Ha!), but again it's usually something I can't stream or it's nice to own. One downfall is that in the city I live in, potholes are so plentiful and annoying, so car CD skipping is at an all time high. Anyways, I was listening to Husker Du's, The Living End, a live compilation from their final tour that was released shortly after they disbanded. It's a good documentation of their live show with a career spanning song list that will satisfy most Du fans, but I prefer a complete live concert recording, preferably from the same show. I remembered one of their shows I downloaded, it mentioned in the notes this show (see below) was considered for a live posthumous album.

 

Notes from the original post:

The story behind this tape is that it was that Grant Hart compiled this tape (full soundboard tape + audience encore) and wanted Warner Brothers to release this as a posthumous live album.  The label didn't like that it wasn't complete, so the band went back and compiled live tracks from the fall 1987 tour.  I got this tape from someone in the music industry who said it was 2nd gen.  Assuming it was Grant's master tape > tape compiled for WB > copy for me. 

 

The Ritz recording was a good sounding soundboard and the setlist is stellar, so I would highly recommend it. The vocals are a little low in the mix and it's a bit too bass heavy for the first few tracks, but it gets better as it goes on. Unfortunately, the last two songs are from an audience recording, but it sounds fine. This recording has been kicking around for years as a bootleg and I don't think it's been officially released, though track 23 (Keep Holding On) is not including in this file because this version was included on The Living End (I have the CD, so I rip the song if you're a completest). To be honest the sound quality on, The Living End isn't perfect either, it suffers from"larger room sound boom" on some tracks and doesn't have the continuity flow as a single show, but if you can find a copy of the CD, buy it.

Enjoy!

 

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use.

Please share!

 

HUSKER DU

The Ritz

New York City, NY

October 17, 1987 

Lineage: Soundboard Master > 2nd gen tape > Tascam 202MKVII USB out > CDWAV > Audacity (normalization, fades, merges) > CDWAV (splits) > DBPowerAmp (FLAC) [loughney xfer]
*audience recording

1 New Day Rising     
2 The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill  
3 Standing In The Rain    
4 Back From Somewhere    
5 Ice Cold Ice     
6 It's Not Funny Any More    
7 From The Gut     
8 Target      
9 Everytime     
10 She Floated Away   
11 Find Me      
12 Books About UFOs    
13 Chartered Trips   
14 Diane      
15 Hardly Getting Over It    
16 Dead Set On Destruction    
17 Eiffel Tower High    
18 Green Eyes     
19 Divide And Conquer    
20 Actual Condition    
21 Sheena Is A Punk Rocker    
22 Makes No Sense At All   
23 Keep Hanging On [The Living End]
24 Pink Turns To Blue*
25 In A Free Land*

HUSKER DU- 1987-10-17 NYC FLAC. rar

Violent Femmes- New York City 2023, 40th Anniversary of Violent Femmes (1st Album)

 

 It has been 40 years since, the Violent Femmes released their landmark debut album, Violent Femmes. The album was hugely influential for me and I have to say it changed my life, at least musically. Up until 1983, I listened primarily to classic rock (yeah, it was already called that then, pretty much the same music), the Stones, Kinks, Who, Cheap Trick... The sound of the opening bass riff from bass player, Brian Ritchie, on the first track, Blister In The Sun was so new and unique to me, it blew my dumb-stupid mind. The rest of the album was truly fascinating, it opened my mind to alternative sounds far from the commercial radio I soaked in. The song became a hit (yes, a radio hit!) and the album gave the Femmes enough credibility to build their career around this record. It's no wonder the band was back on tour this year to remind us the album is 40 years old...40 freaking years!! I try not to buy into this trend of anniversary records and tours too much, 5 years, 10 years,15 years and so on, but a lot of these bands like to live in the past (it helps financially) and their fans want to be reminded of the band's best works. To be honest, if I saw the Violent Femmes, I would want to hear the early albums rather than the newer songs, it's only natural, right?

Enjoy!

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use.

Please share!

 

Violent Femmes
Webster Hall
New York, NY
October 17, 2023

Source: master audience recording
Taper: larryrulz
Location: balcony
Lineage: CA-11 (cardioid) > Sony A10 (44/24) > Audacity (tracking) > TLH > FLAC 6 > foobar2000 (FLAC tags)

Video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXuAIAzZAO4

01 band entrance
02 Blister in the Sun
03 Kiss Off
04 Please Do Not Go
05 Add It Up
06 Confessions
07 Prove My Love
08 Promise
09 To the Kill
10 Gone Daddy Gone
11 Good Feeling
12 Jesus Walking on the Water
13 Country Death Song
14 I'm Nothing
15 Memory
16 Dance Motherfucker Dance
17 I Held Her in My Arms
18 Black Girls
19 drum solo
20 band intros/end of Black Girls
21 Gimme the Car

Encore:
22 I'm Not Gonna Cry
23 American Music

 

Length: 1:29:43

 

Gordon Gano - vocals, guitar, banjo, violin
Brian Ritchie - bass, xylophone, vocals
John Sparrow - drums

Horns of Dilemma:
John Crew - alto flute
Caspar Zack (?) - orange trombone
Todd Joseph - trumpet
Caspar Zack (?) - little pink trombone
Perry Yung - shakuhachi
Jet Young - shakuhachi
Blaise Garza - saxophones

 

VIOLENT FEMMES- 2023-10-17, Webster Hall, New York, NY, FLAC. rar

Happy Birthday Elvis Costello- WHO CARES Benefit 2013

 

Since I mentioned what would have been Joe Strummer's 68th birthday last post, a very happy birthday to Elvis Costello who turns 66 today. For a guy who has entered senior citizen territory, he still tours endlessly (even live streaming performances during COVID) and still consistently releases new music. His latest upcoming album, Hey Clockface has October 30th as the release date.

Back in 2013, Elvis Costello and the Imposters along with the Who performed an intimate concert, WHO CARES Benefit in New York City to benefit Teen Cancer America and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Elvis and the Imposters blazed through a 45 minute set consisting of a setlist of songs from 1980 and earlier (except, Everyday I Write The Book (1983)). This live recording will be a real treat for fans of Elvis's earlier material as he and the band knock off hit after hit and to top it off they do an incredible cover of the Who's classic, Substitute. It's an amazing concert, definitely among my favourite Elvis shows from the past 30 years or so. Thank you to the taper of the show, the sound quality is decent and there is some crowd noise, but it doesn't distract from the music and performance. Well worth a listen!

Enjoy!

#14yearsoftrouble

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy (except for personal use)

Please share!

 

ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS
The Theater at Madison Square Garden
WHO CARES Benefit
New York, NY
February 28, 2013

AUD Recording
Lineage: CA-14> CA-9100 preamp> Sony M10 (24/44)>
Audacity (tracking only)> TLH> FLAC 6> Foobar (FLAC tags)> rar

01. Intro
02. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
03. High Fidelity
04. Mystery Dance
05. Radio, Radio
06. Everyday I Write The Book
07. Lipstick Vogue
08. Watching The Detectives
09. Alison
10. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
11. Pump It Up
12. (What's So Funny Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?
13. Substitute

 

 ELVIS COSTELLO- 2013-02-28 WHO Cares, NYC, NY FLAC. rar

Liz Phair- Sessions At West 54th

Everyone has those moments, not quite a "life changing" moment, but a realization moment when you discover something, in this case an artist, something so good you can't believe you almost missed out on. Liz Phair was one of those artists I heard about before even listening to her music. Her debut record, Exile In Guyville was getting a lot of attention and buzz (I hate that word!) and for a guy that actually didn't have a lot of female artists in his collection (shamefully), I was curious. I dubbed a cassette copy from a friend and nearly wore out the tape because I played it so much. The songs were fresh, intelligent and oh, so interesting. The blunt, honest sexually open lyrics and Phair's low almost mono-tone vocal style had me hooked. It didn't hurt that she was cute with a tomboy-ish, "one of the guys" look and attitude. I can watch her early (pre-2000) interviews all night, she's that charming. For me, Exile In Guyville is one of the best records from the 90's and Fuck And Run and 6' 1" from the album can be on any of my playlists. In 2018, Liz revisited this album on the 25th anniversary of the original release with a repackaged boxset edition of Guyville called, Girly-Sound To Guyville which included re-mastered versions of the three Girly-Sound tapes. I posted mp3 versions from the original tapes back in 2012 and those unremastered versions are still posted here.

Sorry, for the poor quality. These are screenshots from a video on YouTube.

I'm posting a fantastic live recording from Liz Phair when she appeared on PBS's, Sessions At West 54th. The program aired for three seasons from 1997-2000 and featured live performances from a range of artists from various musical genres. This was performances from good quality, mainly critically acclaimed musicians, so no teeny-pop rubbish or trendy American-Idol wannabees. Liz Phair appeared on the second season to coincide with the release of her third album, Whitechocolatespaceegg and I would say she was at the height of her career (at least musically) at this time. To appear on a program like this confirmed she was a legit talent with much acclaimed credibility. This album had some great songs on it, a few still from her Girlysound recordings, but the consistency of her material was showing cracks. The original version of the record (I posted in 2012) was rejected by the record label, so it was re-recorded and remixed and more (commercially appealing) material was added. Despite it's flaws, it was her last "good" record before she abandoned much of the qualities her original fans came to appreciate about her to seek a more mainstream audience that wasn't there. This sounds really critical (I don't mean it to be), but reflecting back maybe she had bad advice or some of the decisions that were made for her were wrong.

Getting back to Sessions at West 54th, I saw the original broadcast on PBS-TV back in the day. The show is an hour long and Liz's slot was split with John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards, so the televised portion for each artist was half an hour. I VCR-ed the broadcast as well as audio recorded (jacked into the back of the TV) it onto cassette. The sound quality was good and I listened to it a lot, but it broadcast only 5 songs from her set. As luck would have it, I eventually found the complete live audio recording of the performance and that's what's posted below. The sound quality is excellent and Liz's performance is outstanding. There is some dispute of the actually date because on my file it's listed as October 5, 1998 (change the text file if need be), but according to other sources it should be October 15th. (setlists.com lists Oct. 5, she was in Washington)
Enjoy!

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!
Do NOT convert to lossy formats (except for personal use)
Please share!

Video broadcast (televised portion)- YouTube


Liz Phair
October 15th, 1998
New York, NY.
Sessions at West 54th

CDr(trade)->WAV->Flac FrontEnd(level 6)->Flac->You

01 Intro (David Byrne) 00:19
02 Mesmerizing 05:00
03 Johnny Feel Good 04:11
04 Never Said 03:36
05 Support System 03:29
06 WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg 05:31
07 Uncle Alvarez 04:20
08 6' 1" 03:22
09 Dance Of The Seven Veils 04:15
10 Polyester Bride 03:54
11 Supernova 03:31
12 Divorce Song 04:07
13 Perfect Life 05:53
14 Fuck And Run 05:08
15 What Makes You Happy 04:45

LIZ PHAIR- Sessions At West 54th FLAC. rar

Replacements At The Ritz, Feb. 1, 1986

For me, the musical highlight of 2013 was the comeback for one of my all time favourite bands, The Replacements. Beginning the year with the release of a limited edition 10" EP called, Songs For Slim that consisted of the first new recordings by the band (at least Paul and Tommy together) in over 20 years. This EP and subsequent SFS 7" releases by an all-star cast of musicans that donated their time and songs to help raise to date over $200,000 to go towards Slim Dunlop and his family to help with the significant expenses for his long-term care. For more information about about this fundraiser, check out songsforslim.com

The Replacements completed their comeback/reunion with a trio of shows at Riotfest in Toronto, Chicago and Denver. Even though I never made it anywhere close to these three locations, fans like me were fortunate enough to hear live audio and video audience recordings of the shows. Thank you to everyone that recorded the shows and thank you for sharing!

Speaking of live recordings, if you are a die-hard Mats fan like me you should browse the Replacements Live Archive Project for downloads of pretty much every known Replacements show that has been recorded. The mission of the site is "to track down, digitize, share and archive all Replacements and related recordings". I'm sure there are more out there and if you have any shows to contribute, contact them.

Recently, I've begun to digitize my live tapes to a HD (and burn a disc), but also to post to this blog. Most of the Replacements shows I have on tape can be found at the RLAP already, as I probably have some generation from the same masters, but I found one show that hasn't been posted yet or widely circulated. The Replacements at the Ritz (below) is from February 1986, less than a month after their infamous SNL appearance, but not to be confused with a pair of shows at the Ritz in June which ended up being the last shows for Bob Stinson. As usual, a great setlist with some covers and decent sound recorded from the crowd.
Enjoy!

Note: there might be a slight drop in volume after Trouble Boys. This is the tape flip and for some reason to me it doesn't sound as loud. Still good though!

The Replacements
1986-02-01
The Ritz
New York, NY
AUD

Disc One:
01. Rock and Roll All Nite
02. Color Me Impressed
03. Can't Hardly Wait
04. Bastards of Young
05. Fuck School
06. Sixteen Blue
07. Waitress in the Sky
08. Hold My Life
09. Left of the Dial
10. Answering Machine
11. Lay It Down Clown
12. Trouble Boys
13. Go!
14. Unsatisfied
15. I Will Dare
16. Take Me Down to the Hospital

Disc Two:
01. Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out
02. Black Diamond
03. Let It Bleed
04. Galveston
05. Favorite Thing
06. Temptation Eyes
07. Careless
08. Ace of Spades
09. Hey Good Lookin'
10. Stuck in the Middle
11. Shiftless When Idle
12. Eighteen
13. Johnny's Gonna Die
14. God Damn Job
15. My Town

REPLACEMENTS- 1986-02-01 Ritz, NYC, NY FLAC. rar