Van Halen - 1982-10-22 - Worcester, MA (SBD/FLAC) 24bit

Van Halen

22 October 1982

Venue: The Centrum

Location: Worcester, Massachusetts

Source: Soundboard (Master)

Lineage: Maxell UDXL-II C-90 cassette > Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjustment) > Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD > Audacity (24-96) > FLAC 6

01 Intro

02 Romeo Delight

03 Unchained

04 Drum Solo

05 The Full Bug

06 Runnin' With The Devil

07 Jamie's Cryin'

08 Little Guitars

09 Where Have All The Good Times Gone!

10 Bass Solo

11 Hang 'Em High

12 Cathedral

13 Secrets

14 Drum Solo II

15 Everybody Wants Some!! (cut)

16 Dave Talks

17 Everybody Wants Some!! (Reprise)

18 Dance The Night Away

19 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I'm So Glad

20 Dave Acoustic Solo

21 Pretty Woman

22 Guitar Solo

23 Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love

24 You Really Got Me (cut)

Notes:

Here we have a totally unheard, uncirculated soundboard recording of Van Halen during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. This is the first of three consecutive nights Van Halen played at the Worcester Centrum in 1982. It appears that not even an audience recording of these Worcester shows have circulated previously.

Only two other soundboard recordings from their 1982 tour have ever circulated: a quite muffled-sounding tape source of the first Dallas show, and the audio from the Largo proshot house feed.

The first side of the 90 minute master tape runs out during Everybody Wants Some, but is flipped in time to capture Dave's banter and storytime that followed. On the second side, the tape was deliberately stopped again following Dave's acoustic guitar and singing bit, so we're missing Ice Cream Man and Intruder, but the tape is started again right as Pretty Woman starts. The tape was likely stopped right here to be able to capture more of the end of the show. Still, the second side of the 90 minute master tape ends right before the band would've done the Happy Trails a cappella and the reprise of You Really Got Me.

This is essentially the raw transfer, since I overall prefer doing as little editing as possible. Besides, I am not the right person to be doing any sort of worthwhile mastering work. The manual azimuth adjustment was done by briefly listening to the tape playing into a mono feed, with stereo headphones.

Enjoy the music and be grateful we are able hear these special recordings. If you have uncirculated tapes, please consider sharing them before they end up forever lost to time.