Carl Sylvester asked me to digitize this one a few months back, and it finally got to the top of the list. I traded with a really cool and dependable guy named George Norton (not sure if my FB friend is the same guy). He taped a ton of city gardens & NYC punk/hardcore shows.
He taped Danzig’s first show at City Gardens and sent me a copy pretty much immediately. We listened to it about 50 times before the debut LP came out 4 months later. Good times. Note the track listing on the cassette J-card, we didn’t even know the name of most of the new songs yet.
Recorded by: George Norton
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon/Audiophile 2496 card
I wasn’t planning to post this today, but Randy Now (legendary booking agent of City Gardens) asked me for it. We all owe people like Randy and Sacramento’s own Stewart Katz a huge debt of gratitude. They were the promoters who found venues and booked punk bands into those venues back when no one else would, which “trailblazed” a circuit of clubs that allowed bands like Black Flag, D.O.A., DKs and others to tour the United States in the very early 1980’s. And Randy did all of this on top of being a mail carrier during the day! In this interview, Randy mentions that Glenn had not done an interview for a long time. I assume this is the first interview as the band Danzig. Randy also booked Danzig(the band)’s first show ever at City Gardens the next month, in May of 1988. You can find that City Gardens set on sacramento music archive as well. Now, if Glenn would just pick up the damned phone…
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card De-static in Izotope RX8 (it still has some static)
Let’s take another swing at the On This Date in History post for today! I am pretty confident that this one isn’t out there- I am almost certain that George Norton taped this one and I got it from him. It took a lot of tweaking to make it this listenable. Well, I think it’s listenable- you can judge for yourself, haha. AOD was opening for 7 Seconds on this night. Here is an excerpt from the No Stage Diving, Slam Dancing, Spikes book from DiWulf Publishing:
“Bruce George Wingate (Adrenalin OD): I remember this show clearly because it was the largest crowd of people I ever puked in front of. We had played in Philly the night before and had to be in Trenton by noon, since it was an all-ages matinee. We had been up all night drinking beer with our buddies in Flag of Democracy. Right before we left Philly, I bought a forty-ouncer for the ride, on the theory that maintaining my buzz would keep a hangover at bay. When we got to City Gardens, I kept up a slow and steady intake all afternoon until it was our turn to play. The place was packed with kids, we went over well, and I still felt okay. The last song of our set was a cover of “Down in Flames” by the Dead Boys. It was my job to scream the three lines right before the song ended. As soon as I did, I felt all the color leave my face and my vision started flickering like a strobe light. I hit the last chord, took off my guitar, leaned over my amp, and puked my guts out. Then I managed to compose myself enough to walk across the stage, where I leaned over the side and promptly puked on a drum set belonging to our friends in the band Dirge.
Recorded by: George Norton (I think) Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card EQ’d (hard) in Sony Sound Forge 10 Rebalance in Izotope Rx8: Vocals +3, Drums +2, Guitar +2
The biggest Venom fan I have ever met(virtually or otherwise), Joseph Reinsbach, messaged me and introduced himself in late February. He let me know that this Venom show was uncirculated, which was surprising. So he waited for 3 months, through my shoulder surgery and other projects, and I was finally able to lift and pull the trays off the shelf and digitize the tapes for him. It was split over 3 tapes and I am not sure if this is the complete show of what was circulating at the time. Here is the background on this recording: On April 2nd 1986 Venom played a gig together with Black Flag at City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey. Legend has it that Black Flag roadie Joe Cole recorded the entire show and cut all the songs out of Venom’s set except for a few seconds of intros and outros, leaving behind the between-song stage banter of Venom’s frontman Cronos. In 1991 Ecstatic Peace released the result on a 7”. This is 45min of that show. Joe and Henry were best friends. So if the above is true, this is probably a 2nd gen from master tape or 3rd if Rollins had a copy of Joe’s tape.
PS: $6.66 at the door. HAHA! I hope Randy Now had 34 cents times about 500 ready.
Recorded by: Joe Cole? Digitized by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon Cassette Deck, M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card Enhanced in Izotope Rx7 (boost vocal, guitar, bass, drop the drums)
