<
https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/04/10/from-early-nirvana-to-phish-a-chicago-fans-secret-recordings-of-10000-shows-are-now-online/>
"HERMOSA — On July 8, 1989, a young music fan named Aadam Jacobs, with a
compact Sony cassette recorder in his pocket, went to see an up-and-coming rock
band from Washington for their debut show in Chicago.
After a blast of guitar feedback, 22-year-old Kurt Cobain politely announced to
the crowd at the small club called Dreamerz: “Hello, we’re Nirvana. We’re from
Seattle.” With that, the band, then a quartet, launched into the riff-heavy
first song, “School.”
Jacobs surreptitiously recorded the performance, documenting the fledgling band
in raw, fiery form more than two years before Nirvana’s global breakthrough
with the album “Nevermind.”
Jacobs went on to record more than 10,000 concerts, with increasingly
sophisticated equipment, over four decades in Chicago and other cities. Now a
group of devoted volunteers in the U.S. and Europe is methodically cataloging,
digitizing and uploading them one by one.
The growing
Aadam Jacobs Collection is an internet treasure trove for music
lovers, especially for fans of indie and punk rock during the 1980s through the
early 2000s, when the scene blossomed and became mainstream. The collection
features early-in-their-career performances from alternative and experimental
artists like R.E.M., The Cure, The Pixies, The Replacements, Depeche Mode,
Stereolab, Sonic Youth and Björk.
There’s also a smattering of hip-hop, including a 1988 concert by rap pioneers
Boogie Down Productions. Devotees of Phish were thrilled to discover that a
previously uncirculated 1990 show by the jam band is included. And there are
hundreds of sets by smaller artists who are unlikely to be known to even fans
with the most obscure tastes.
All of it is slowly becoming available for streaming and free download at the
nonprofit online repository Internet Archive, including that nascent Nirvana
show recording, with the audio from Jacobs’ cassette recorder cleaned up."
Via
Garbage Day: Was Justin Bieber’s Coachella set good?
https://www.garbageday.email/p/was-justin-bieber-s-coachella-set-good
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
