INXS - Live In San Diego - 1988

And then there was this....

For my thoughts on INXS and KICK and this tour, please read THIS and THIS.  Especially that second one.  That's about the night I went to see the show.

As for this particular recording, it's pretty good.  It's from an FM Broadcast, so you have the limitations of the recording, there.  A tad muffled and it honestly doesn't sound like a soundboard, but it probably is.  It's the best live recording I can find from this fantastic tour....

The cover was nigh impossible.  This graphic was from the concert poster and T-shirt.  I could not find one good solid quality high def pic of it.  I had to cut and paste, retrace, recolor, re-everything.  But, the finished product is absolutely perfect.  I love this cover.

INXS - Live In San Diego - 1988

 

INXS - Kick - the Remixes - 1988

My original post for the Kick album can be found way back HERE.  You can read that to find out exactly what that album means to me when I listen to it.  A pure teen-angst melodrama that left it's marks on my soul for life.  After reading all my posts about loves lost, I begin to wonder if my whole life has been one continuous chain of longing and pining for women that left me hanging due to my own inability to act on my feelings.  I let them come and go without so much as a fight.  It's a wonder how I ever found my wife and kept her long enough to marry me....  But, I digress.

I saw these guys the summer of 1988 in Chicago with a bunch of friends from work.  It was an indoor show, but still packed out about 20-30,000 screaming people.  It was the second time in my sheltered life that I saw (and smelled) people smoking pot in public, and I was more surprised to see that no one cared about it, too. (The first time was the Def Leppard concert, but I was too ignorant to know what it was, what it smelled like.  I thought it was just cigarettes...)

It was a great show, although I didn't know half the songs because I only knew this album.  I had a blast, anyway.  I had been to Def Leppard's Hysteria tour earlier that summer, but this time was probably the best.  The kids I was with were hyped, and the crowd seemed really upbeat, compared with the headbangers at the Leppard concert.  Everyone was having a great time.

After the show, we tried to go downtown and eat at Ed Debevic's Restaurant, but by the time we made it there, the place had closed, as it was shortly after midnight.  Big dummies that we were, we fucked around downtown until about 230am before the cops chased us down and threatened to bring us in for breaking curfew.  We were lucky no one tried to jump us being young and foolish in a big city.

I don't think we actually got back to my friend's house until about 430 or 5am.  Fortunately, his parents weren't as strict and controlling as mine, so staying out all night wasn't a big deal to them.  I had told my parents I was spending the night at his house after the show, had they known I was out so late in the city, they would've flipped out.

That next week I sported my kick-ass (no pun intended) concert t-shirt.  I loved that shirt so much.  I still own it today, and would love to wear it.  Alas, I weigh about 100lbs more now than I did then, so I look like a big, misshapen bag of mashed potatoes if I try and wear it.  And, I don't want to stretch it out and ruin it.  I've seen it on ebay a couple times going for about 200.00, but I don't think I could ever part with it.

Not all the mixes are on here.  I filled up one disc, and pitched the worst.  If you're looking for any that aren't on this set, let me know, and I'll see if I can get them to you.

In March I'm planning to do a "Live Week", and I have a recording of one of their shows from this album.  I'll be posting that, then....

INXS - Kick - the Remixes - 1988

INXS - Listen Like Thieves - 1985

The second concert I ever went to was INXS Calling All Nations Tour.  I loved them to death, and even have romantic ties to the Kick album (previous post).  Whenever you discover a new group, it's the norm to check out their back catalog and find more great stuff to listen to.  As it is, I worked my way back to Listen Like Thieves.  I feel that this is the album where they abandoned their Punk/New Wave sound and headed straight into Rock territory.  They'd found their sound and were rolling with it.  THIS is their definitive album, not Kick.  Kick is the album that the record company and the radios promoted and pushed, but they were more than Kick, and this album proves it.

Mind you , some people will disagree with me and point to earlier work as definitive.  That's fine, there's no factual basis here, just my opinion on what I saw while growing up and reflecting back.  In my personal opinion, in fact, everything that came before this album, pretty much sucked.  I mean, the Swing?!  What a turd.

Anyway, I stuck around for X and flinched....  Then I got Welcome To Wherever You Are and said "alright, now.  that's enough..."  and that was it.  I heard Elegantly Wasted on the radio and wasn't even interested.

It's unfortunate that Michael is gone.  It's always sad to immortal artists go before their time.  Seems to be the nature of the business.

Played her straight here.  Album, b-sides and a few extended mixes to fill up the 80 minutes.  I am rather pleased with myself on that cover, though.  Totally different feel to it.  Let me know what you think

Let it shine, Mike...

INXS - Listen Like Thieves - 1985

INXS - Kick - 1987

We had a two week bowling segment in gym class in Chicago during my sophomore year.  The teachers would load 50 students on a bus and haul us down to the local bowling alley and we'd waste 30 minutes pretending that we cared about it, when in reality we spent most of our time screwing around with our friends or trying to make it with the girls.  Of course, I had no idea how to talk to a girl, so I spent most of that time with my headphones on, trying to be cool.

On day two, Julie Jensen walked up to me and asked me what I was listening to.  To this day, I can't remember what it was.  She seemed un-impressed, and asked me if she could listen to a new tape that she just got, Kick by INXS.  Well, having a girl talk to me was more than I could ever hope for, so, of course!  She took my walkman and played the tape for most of the class, while I sat with her, quietly, and waited.  It's all I really needed, honestly.  Her and I sitting side by side on a bench at the bowling alley.

As we got our stuff together to get back on the bus, she gave me the walkman back.  I asked her if the tape was any good, and she said it was great.  She asked me if I wanted to borrow it, as I could make a copy of it for myself.  Great!

The next day, she came back, looking for her tape, and looking for my walkman.  I had made a copy of the album and had it in the walkman waiting for her.  Again, she sat by my side and listened to that tape.  Again, I sat with her, in seventh heaven.

On the fourth day, she asked me what I had in the walkman, and, of course, I said I had INXS in there.  Her exact words to me  -   "Geez.  Don't you listen to anything else?  How boring."  And she turned around and walked back to her group of friends.

Now, I would like to say that after that, Julie and I were still friends, if you could call it that.  She hung out with the people that I hung out with at the time.  But, we never had another time when I could have tried to ask her out, or impress her, or even just talk to her.  I sort of missed it.

In hindsight, I would have done things differently, but wouldn't we all.

This is simply the album with all of the b-sides demos and unreleased tracks mixed in.  The album itself was a great album, and I feel that including all of the extra materiel may have spoiled it, making it too long and dragging it out.  You be the judge.  Regardless, I miss Michael's voice.

INXS - Kick - 1987