Olympiastadion, München, July 17, 1992

Olympiastadion
München, Germany
July 17, 1992
Post-FM
TM Production

Overall:


This is an extremely well-recorded and mixed broadcast from the We Can't Dance tour. It's hard to believe that TM captured this from an FM radio. Sound is balanced and richly detailed. Like most of this tour, some of the songs are too similar to the album versions and the band, at times, doesn't seem able to put the songs over the top. But the crowd makes up for any lack of energy on the band's part, clapping along and cheering throughout. This is possibly a better recording than The Way We Walk.

Sound: * * * * *
Damned near perfect.

Mix: * * * * *
Very well balanced. Every single instrument is audible and well-defined. Perhaps could haved used just a touch of reverb, but that's just a matter of preference.

Performance: * * * *
Some of the songs lack that energy that this lineup was capable of putting behind the songs. Phil has some trouble with his voice in the beginning, but it loosens up a couple songs in. On the whole, though, there is little to complain about here.

Raw Notes:

Disc 1
1.No Son of Mine - Excellent mix and sound quality. Tony's Wavestation keys are crystal clear. Echo effect on "to find a way out..way out.. way out". Phil might be having some trouble with his voice on the high notes. Definitely one of the best sounding boots. Mike's guitar solo cuts through nicely in the right channel. Phil chats in German (and a bit of English). I do recognize "We have some new songs and some old, old, old songs." Introduces "Driving The Last Spike".

2. Driving The Last Spike - Opens very much like the album. Chester's drums are bright and clear. Even Phil tambourine comes through. Phil's voice is warming up and stretching out a bit. Not quite the intensity of the album version as we get to "We worked, how we worked" section. Daryl's bass comes to the front. Mike's rhythm guitar is a bit low in the mix at end, keeping the song from quite reaching it's heights. Still a damned good performance.

3. Throwing It All Away - De Da Day... Zee Da Lay. Tony's "piano" sounds quite nice here. Performances of this song tend to sound the same to me. Pleasant enough. Crowd loves it! Phil intro's Old Medley in German. Says "Mr. Rutherford" like on the TWWW CD.

4. Old Medley - "Dance On A Volcano". Tony's choir sound is nice here. His replacement for the analog synth lead stands out, but is interesting. Into the Lamb. Why did Phil change the lyrics to "Ocean winds blowing off the land"? Was it a mistake that no one ever corrected? "Tonight, tonight, tonight, they say the lights are always bright". Into "Musical Box". Applause. Wow... major reverb when Phil sings "She is mine!". Chester's kick drum punches through clearly toward the end. Into "Firth of Fifth"... a lot of folks don't like Daryl's interpretation of Hackett's solo, but it's an amazing piece of guitar pyrotechnics. Tony has a nice Mellotron-like sound going on the strings. Was this the Wavestation? Into "I Know What I Like..." Phil could still do the Tambourine Dance '92. Crowd really into it! "That's All" snippet. "Illegal Alien" following the TWWW performance pretty closely. "Stagnation" teaser. Good performance overall, but perhaps lacking just a bit of energy.

5. Hold On My Heart - This song is so mechanical that it's hard to image performances differing much from night to night over the tour, assuming Phil's voice holds out. Yep, very adequate. Phil does a bit of ad-lib at the end that I don't remember on TWWW.

Disc 2
1. Jesus He Knows Me - Phil tells the crowd about American televangelists in German. "Do any kind of bullshit you've got to do, but get me that 18 million dollars by the weekend." Sounds somewhat different from the album. Daryl's bass chugging along nicely. Interesting. Daryl takes a nice guitar solo at the end which makes me wonder if Mike is playing bass.

2. Fading Lights - Great song. Almost identical to the album version in first half. Good intensity going into Tony's solo. The keys have some white noise mingled with a choir which is a bit too loud. Tony nails the solo. This is probably the best performance of the evening up to this point. Crowd cheers as we enter the final verse. Crowd loved it!

3. I Can't Dance - Crowd is thrilled to hear this one as well. Guess it hadn't been over-played yet. Extended intro compared to album. Nearly identical to TWWW version.

4. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight - The encore. I was always curious why the band never played this whole song, even on the IT tour. "Just try to shake shit loose, cut it free".

5. Invisible Touch - "Ask me, I know" instead of "Now I know". Other than that, not much variation from the other live versions of this one. "she will fuck up your life". Ad libs a bit differently at the end. Ending has a nice crescendo... strange for such a lightweight pop song. Crowd is ecstatic.

6. Turn It On Again - Crowd claps along... then shifts to double-time! Phil says goodbye to the crowd. "We've got to go to bed!" Introduces the band. Good build up toward outro. And the crowd goes wild! Good night!