Let's Active - Los Angeles 1989

LOSSLESS REPOST

Club Lingerie

Los Angeles, CA

March 24, 1989

Mitch at a Let's Active show, 1989

audience recording (sound quality: VG; a solid audience recording from the master tape with only a modest amount of crowd noise)
 

ROB SEZ: One of the better late-period L.A. shows in my collection, with a good performance & sound quality. I decided to repost it in FLAC in 2026 after realizing how few of these are available to enjoy.

01 stage entrance, tuning
02 Orpheus In Hades Lounge
03 Night Train
04 Fell
05 Sweepstakes Winner
06 Horizon
07 In Little Ways
08 Too Bad
09 I Feel Funny
10 Mr. Fool
11 Badger
12 Every Word Means No
13 Last Chance Town
14 Every Dog Has His Day
15 Ten Layers Down
 

FLAC

MP3@320

Indianapolis show, 1986

Let’s Active:

Mitch Easter – guitars, vocals
Jon Heames - bass
Eric Marshall – drums
Angie Carlson – keyboards, vocals, additional guitar
 

WORD TO THE WISE: if you poke around a bit, you should find 
a very groovy set of bonus tracks somewhere... 

 

Let's Active - Two More from 84

 1984-04-01 New York, N.Y. (aud - G. Poole)

and

1984-11-21 Detroit, MI (aud - JEMS, 2026 edit)

sound quality: VG to VG+

 
SAMPLE: Room With a View (Nov. 21)

Check out the new site HERE

ROB SEZ: Woke up the other day and realized I hadn't posted anything by this, one of the two bands that originally inspired the blog, in ... forever. Now that you can FINALLY stream Let's Active's officially-released tracks on all the platforms AND download them all in hi-res lossless glory, I think it's time to post at least a few more by Mitch Easter's overlooked musical combo. 1984 was a good year for the band, despite Sara Romweber's departure as drummer in the spring. Sara is heard here on the first, but not the second recording. Before she left, the band completed basic tracks for Cypress, and then embarked on an extensive tour. With Sara out, Mitch recruited Jay Peck on drums and also brought on board Tim Lee (The Windbreakers) on keyboards. Although 1984 would be the last year for Faye Hunter's active involvement, she's heard here on both recordings with her superlative bass playing and singing. I didn't touch the NYC recording from April 1, originally made by Gene Poole and shared by elegymart. The Nov. 21 recording from Detroit was fine (no surprise, since it came from the JEMS crew). Even so, I thought it could use more presence in the middle frequencies, so I created a minor revision using one pass of filter curve EQ and one pass of volume adjustment. 

Do you just love Mitch's metal band hair?? 

FLAC

MP3@320

Let's Active - Boston 1988 (aud)

LOSSLESS REPOST

The Paradise
Boston, MA
Oct. 25, 1988

   

audience recording (sound quality VG+; there are a few momentary glitches here and there and a chatty girl near the taper you can hear from time to time, but the rest of this is smooth sailing, with nice sound from the PA....)

  

Mitch & Co. on location, "In Little Ways" video shoot

01 Every Dog Has His Day

Yes, Virginia — it was a single (at least in the UK)

02 Last Chance Town

03 Talking to Myself

04 I Feel Funny

05 Writing the Book of Last Pages

06 Horizon

07 In Little Ways

08 Sweepstakes Winner

09 Night Train

10 Orpheus In Hades Lounge

11 Bad Machinery

12 Room With a View

13 Mr. Fool

14 Too Bad

15 The Swinging Creeper
    (Ventures cover)

16 Pow R Touch (P. Floyd cover)

17 I Can't Reach You (Who cover)

18 Crows On a Phone Line

19 Ten Layers Down

20 Call Me Animal (MC5 cover)

21 Badger (cuts out)

ROB SEZ: When I acquired this tape, I forgot to make a note re: who to thank, but I'm pretty sure it's dB's Fan (...again!)

FLAC

   

MP3@320

Let's Active:
Mitch  Easter – guitar, vocals

Angie Carlson – keyboards, vocals 

Eric Marshall – drums

Jon Heames - bass
 

Let's Active - Rutger's Univ., N.J. 1986 (aud)

LOSSLESS REPOST

The Rose Room

Rutger's University

New Brunswick, NJ

March 4, 1986

     

audience recording (sound quality: VG; transfer from first-generation tape)

   

He had a hunch that, eventually, I would use

the watermelon photo. Sorry about that, Mitch…
Creem magazine photo

ROB SEZ:  I got an unexpected surprise when I was digitizing dBF’s tape and heard Mitch welcome Gene Holder as part of the show’s live ensemble. I’m guessing the band at this point didn’t have a permanent bassist. Since Gene was living in Hoboken, Mitch called up his old friend to play the gig. Nice little coincidence. Mitch & Co. put the emphasis on tunes from the about-to-be-released Big Plans for Everybody (my favorite Let's Active album). Gotta love those encores, with 3 killer covers in a row! THANK YOU KINDLY to the taper and the usual HUGE THANKS to dB’s Fan for the share.

01 Waters Part

02 Ornamental

The band, circa 1986
Y'all remember "Thing" from The Munsters?
I'm getting a flashback due to this photo...

03 Writing the Book of Last Pages  

04 Leader of Men

05 Talking to Myself

06 Still Dark Out

07 Crows On a Phone Line

08 In Between

09 Every Word Means No

10 Reflecting Pool

11 In Little Ways

12 Won't Go Wrong

13 Last Chance Town

14 Prey

15 Hush (Deep Purple cover)

16 Back of a Car (Big Star cover)

17 He's a Whore (Cheap Trick cover)

TT: 65:37 mins.

FLAC
     
MP3@320

Let's Active:

Mitch Easter – guitars & vocals

Angie Carlson – keyboard & vocals

Eric Marshall – drums

Gene Holder – bass

The dB's - Greensboro, N.C. 1981 (aud)

LOSSLESS REPOST

Friday's
Greensboro, NC
Oct. 20, 1981
   
audience recording (sound quality: VG+)
   

One of my all-time favorite dB's photos. 
I'm guessing 1981 or '82.

About this recording: while working on the original post — featuring a great write-up from fantom, I noticed the recording was a bit chipmunked. I'm guessing the speed problem was due to 1980s-era cassette dubbing. When I obtained dB's Fan's treasure trove of tapes, I discovered a low-gen. copy of this show in his collection. I digitized the tape, slowed it down to the proper speed, and gave it a few other tweaks to improve the sound. BIG THANKS to the taper and ALL PRAISE to dB's Fan for the upgrade.

Outside Friday's one night, long ago
Rusty Moore / LoudFastPhoto

DISC 1
01 banter + (I Thought) 
     You Wanted to Know
02 Bad Reputation
03 Dynamite (cuts out mid-song)

A GROOVY flyer from Friday's

04 Big Brown Eyes (cuts in)
05 I Feel Good Today
06 pH Factor
07 Ups and Downs
08 Nothing Is Wrong
09 The Fight
10 If and When

DISC 2
01 Black and White
02 Big Time
03 Judy
04 Tomorrow Never Knows
05 The Summer Sun
06 Storm Warning
07 Excitement
08 Time Has Come Today
09 We Were Happy There
10 Happenstance
11 Neverland
12 Louie Louie*
13 Death Garage*
14 Let's Live For Today*
    
*Last 3 songs with Mitch Easter on guitar
   
The dB’s:
Chris Stamey – guitar & vocals
Peter Holsapple – guitar, keyboard & vocals
Gene Holder – bass
Will Rigby – drums & backing vocals
  
*Mitch Easter, guitar (as noted above)

FLAC
  
MP3@320
   
  

Balderdash, Ltd. (Mitch Easter) - Charlotte, N.C. 2019

The Evening Muse 
Charlotte, N.C.
March 1, 2019


audience recording (sound quality: VG++; another excellent Batchain recording)

Balderdash, Ltd. is Mitch Easter's new band

Mitch (right) and Balderdash, Ltd. - in 2019 at Mitch's N.C. Music Hall of Fame induction

01 You / Me
02 Rogues*
03 Ode to a Tin Angel (Hearts & Flowers cover)
04 Rock & Roll Love Letter (Bay City Rollers cover) 
05 Hello Susie (The Move cover)
06 Sudden Crown Drop
07 Get Free+
08 Ton of Bricks
09 Psyched-Out (The Ventures cover)
10 Waters Part
  
*Rogues is a song Mitch demoed in the early 1990s, but never officially released
  
+Get Free is a song Mitch wrote that ended up on the Shalini album We Want Jelly Donuts (rel. 2000)
  
ROB SEZ: Thanks to Batchain (aka Larry T.), we can celebrate Mitch's recent induction into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in style. At the induction ceremony last month, Mitch and his band, Balderdash Ltd., played a live set at the Gem Theatre in Kannapolis, N.C. Like Gravel Truck and other Mitch-led band efforts, Balderdash, Ltd. functions as a vehicle to play music from several eras of Mitch's history: Let's Active, solo material, and the obscure-but-choice covers he relishes.

Mitch & Balderdash, Ltd. - Atlanta, GA 2018

(photo by John Boydston; this & other photos from the show included in download)

FLAC
  
MP3@320

Here's a video Batchain shot at the Charlotte show

Let's Active - Chicago 1986

LOSSLESS REPOST

Cabaret Metro

Chicago, IL

July 2, 1986

   

audience recording (sound quality VG; transfer from first-generation tape source; virtually no bothersome crowd noise)
  

This band photo was an hommage to a John Mayall album cover

ROB SEZ: At first, I didn’t consider this show for the blog because it’s one of the more common ones. Silly me. After actually listening to it, I can hear it’s one of the best shows around, combining a great performance and solid sound. Massive thanks to to the taper and to john52il for sharing.

Summer 1986 - a good time
to catch Let's  Active in concert

01 Intro

02 Waters Part

03 Leader of Men

04 Talking to Myself

05 Writing the Book of Last Pages

06 Prey

07 Flags for Everything

08 Fell

09 Won't Go Wrong

10 Reflecting Pool

11 In Little Ways

12 Every Word Means No

13 Whispered News

14 Route 67

15 Back of a Car (Big Star cover)

16 Dancing Days (Led Zep cover)

   

TT: 54:51 mins.

FLAC
  
MP3@320

Let’s  Active:

Angie Carlson – keyboards, backing vocals

Eric Marshall – drums

Dennis Ambrose - bass

Mitch Easter – guitar, vocals

Let's Active - Winston-Salem, N.C. 1985 (sbd)

LOSSLESS RE-POST

Ziggy’s

Mitch at the mic, Einstein a Go-Go, Florida

groovy photo by Allison Durham

Winston-Salem, N.C.

Oct. 12, 1985

soundboard recording (quality VG; multi-generation source tape)

00 intro

01 Ornamental

02 Talking to Myself

03 Still Dark Out

04 Writing the Book of Last Pages

05 Crows On a Phone Line

06 Reflecting Pool

07 Won't Go Wrong

08 Invisible Hills

09 Last Chance Town

10 Leader of Men

11 Room With a View

12 Sunshine of Your Love

TT: 43 mins.

ROB SEZ: Been a good while since I've posted anything from our heroes. But, hey — anytime's a good time for Let's Active, right? Judging by the length of the set, they must've been opening for some other act at the top of the bill. BIG THANKS to dB’s Fan, who must’ve supplied me with this tape, like so many others.

  

The late, great Ziggy's

WAV lossless files
  
MP3@320

  

Let’s Active:

Angie Carlson – keyboard, 

                        additional guitar 

Mitch Easter – guitar, vocals

Faye Hunter – bass, vocals

Rob Ladd - drums
  

CONGRATULATIONS, MITCH!

Last night, Mitch Easter was inducted into the N.C. Music Hall of Fame, along with Big Daddy Kane, Merle Watson and others. It couldn't have happened to a cooler human being or more influential musician in this part of the world.