Van Halen 1982-12-04 Johnson City, TN

Here is one more of the few uncirculated open-mic recordings, capturing the Van Halen concert in Johnson City during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. This is what could be considered an “official audience recording”, having been recorded with an open-mic right next to the soundboard / mixing desk. Not even an audience recording of this show has circulated previously.

There’s not much to note about the show itself, however it’s interesting to hear the return of Cathedral, after the song had been omitted the night prior in Memphis in favor of an extended Secrets, an omission that will happen again a couple shows following this one.

Roy didn’t record the brief introduction at the beginning of the show, having not started the tape until about 48 seconds into Romeo Delight. Then as usual, he paused the tape during the break where Dave would give an extended talk to the crowd prior to Jamie’s Cryin’. The first side of the 90 minute master tape runs out during Dave’s long interlude of Everybody Wants Some, however the tape seems to have been flipped quickly and didn’t miss much. Then as usual, Roy pauses the tape after Somebody Get Me A Doctor, so does not capture Dave’s acoustic solo, Ice Cream Man, nor Intruder. Roy paused again during the first encore break, as always. However, Roy didn’t start recording again until the second encore, so we’re completely missing the first encore with Bottoms Up, and approx the first minute of You Really Got Me from the second encore. This tape is another one of the few that captures the outro music that would play over the speakers after the band walked off stage, that being Kid Creole’s “Imitation”, followed by Van Halen’s own “Big Bad Bill”.

Track Listing:

01 Romeo Delight (cut) [0:00]
02 Unchained [2:47]
03 Drum Solo [6:23]
04 The Full Bug [9:22]
05 Runnin’ With The Devil [13:06]
06 Jamie’s Cryin’ [16:09]
07 Little Guitars [19:41]
08 Where Have All The Good Times Gone! [24:08]
09 Bass Solo [27:35]
10 Hang ‘Em High [32:28]
11 Cathedral [35:51]
12 Secrets [37:36]
13 Drum Solo II [40:56]
14 Everybody Wants Some!! [43:02]
15 Dave Talks [46:22]
16 Everybody Wants Some!! (Reprise) [51:10]
17 Dance The Night Away [52:50]
18 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I’m So Glad [56:00]
19 Pretty Woman [1:04:10]
20 Guitar Solo [1:07:11]
21 Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love [1:18:01]
22 You Really Got Me (cut) [1:23:26]
23 Happy Trails [1:26:10]
24 You Really Got Me (Reprise) [1:27:25]
25 Outro Music [1:29:39]

Lineage: Maxell UD 90 cassette / Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjustment) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD / Audacity (24 bit – 96 khz) / FLAC 6

Liberating unheard soundboard tapes, and other significantly rare master tapes, is absurdly expensive, and we release everything for free. If you appreciate what we do, any donations will help recoup the massively accumulating expenses of acquiring these tapes.
Donation link: https://ko-fi.com/musi…