— Leave a Comment

Operation Ivy- 924 Gilman, Berkeley Ca. 5/6/88 xfer from soundboard cassette master Audio Only

OK, I am stretching the rules of the Sac Music Archive a bit. I did not tape this, it is not a sacramento based band, but there is a story behind it…

There are a couple of events that really motivated me to save for 5 MONTHS (working for $6 an hour) to buy a video camera. One was borrowing a rented video camera from Attitude to film RKL at Gilman on 1/16/88. The other one was seeing Operation Ivy and Isocracy on new years 1988(12/31/87). Op ivy instantly became my favorite band.

So on a Friday, I get off work with my $650 and go to Montgomery Ward to buy a video camera. The sales guy tells me that the Aiwa that I picked out can film for “about 2 hours” on a battery pack. So I charge the battery and shoot down to Gilman to film Op Ivy’s return show, from their US tour in Mar-Apr 1988.
I film one of the opening bands- Neighborhood Watch, then I turn on my camera to film op ivy. The battery is dead. I plug my camera in from the back of the venue and did not like filming from back there, so I shut it off. So, no video of this show but here is a nice sbd. This is probably a better quality version than the bootlegs that surfaced of this show.
Lineage: Radley Hirsch’s Hifi VHS master-“Anonymous” cassette, xfer with Nakamichi Dragon.

Live Concert Video
— Leave a Comment

Neighborhood Watch- 924 Gilman, Berkeley Ca. 5/6/88 xfer from master videotape Operation Ivy

This one has a story. I saw the 12/31/87 show with Isocracy, Operation Ivy and others and decided that I needed to buy a video camera and document the scene. Then RKL played Gilman on 1/16/88 and I borrowed Wayne Vanderkuil’s rental camera and used it to film RKL. From that point on, I saved every penny I had, making $5 or 6 an hour, to buy a video camera. It took 4 months to save up, but on 5/6/88 I went to Montgomery Ward and bought an Aiwa CV-80. The picture quality was far super than any others at that price ($600). Little did I know that the camera sucked in low light and the picture would be grainy as hell. Oh well.
The camera came with 1 battery pack. I ask the Ward’s salesguy how long I can film on 1 battery. “About 2 hours, I think”. So I go home, charge the battery and head to Gilman to film Operation Ivy’s homecoming show from their US tour. Since the battery was good for 2 hours, I decided to film one of the openers- Neighborhood watch. It turned out pretty good!
Operation ivy comes up and I power on my camera… and the battery is dead. I go to the back of the warehouse to plug it in but I could not get a good angle.
So that’s the story of why there is a neighborhood watch video and no op ivy video from this date.

Recorded by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Aiwa CV-80 and stock mic

Transfer equipment: Sony DCRTRV270(I think)- firewire into PC

Live Concert Video
— Leave a Comment

Los Lobos– Laurie Aud, Trinity University, San Antonio Tx 5/5/88 Spanish Tour f/1st gen audio Tape

NEW COLLECTION- last week, my old friend Craig Hilmer visited California from his home in Minnesota. We traded tapes in the 80s and 90s, and got to be pretty good friends. I even shipped out the Marantz PMD430 so he could record a concert that he promoted- Yo La Tengo at Beerland in Austin (he lived there at the time). It had been about 35 years since we hung out, so I made the 3 hour drive to SF. It was nice meeting his wife (Lori) and family friend.

The part that you might care about is that Craig brought a shopping bag full of his master recordings. He taped so many early alternative bands- the one pile I pulled so far has this, The Pogues, 4 R.E.M. shows, Lawrence McMurtry, and Camper Van Beethoven– all from 1988-1989. So this is going to be fun!

When I pulled this one to digitize, I figured it would be one of those echoey college auditorium types of things. Nope, this sounds fantastic! I didn’t need to do much of anything to make it sound better. I pushed the bass a little. That was it.

EDIT: D’oh! This is riddled with errors! Craig promoted a show with YLT at Tacoland in San Antonio, not Beerland in Austin. Also, this is one of 2 or 3 tapes that Craig sent that he did not tape. It was an acquaintance from San Antonio who used a Sony WMD6C.

Thanks Craig!

Recorded by: Craig Hilmer’s friend with a Sony WMD6C
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
EQ in Sony Soundforge 10

Audio Live Concert