A taper's private collection of 10,000 shows of indie/underground rock finds a public home

Somewhat old news but I didn't hear about it until now. Pretty insane, he has something like 10,000 recordings from Chicago-area venues and archive.org says it's the single largest collection of music they've received from any individual. They're uploading it on his behalf - and he's been in constant contact with them to provide metadata - and given the enormous size of the collection, it'll take them at least another four years to digitize everything.

Some big names and important gigs, here's a good, brief primer on the collection, but as one person elsewhere commented:

"Aadam is/was great, because while he had an allegiance to certain bands he was also a huge supporter of the Chicago scene in general. A couple of my bands, it was great to play a show at, say, Empty Bottle or Lounge Ax to a handful of people, and yet Aadam would still be there taping, as if the show were actually important."

Here's a direct link to the collection on archive.org:

[archive.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2026 12:25PM by belfast.

I've only ever made it up to Chicago for shows a handful of times, but I see he did get the My Bloody Valentine show I went to in 2018. I was hoping he had Chris Isaak at the Riviera in 1991, and maybe he does - I went cross-eyed from scrolling after a while and had to bail.

Rough estimate is that archive.org has about 15% of his collection uploaded at the moment - I'm not sure how difficult it would be to maintain the pace they're at (for example, I don't think there's a quicker way of digitizing the cassette portion in real-time without degrading the sound quality) but pretty amazing to think it'll be another 4 or 5 years before it's all done.

You can use the archive.org “search” function. I used it to search for Phil ‘n’ the Blanks. No dice, although there is a separate upload of a Phil n the Blanks EP that I didn’t know existed.

Wow. There are bands in here I remember from the late 1980s in Indianapolis and early 1990s in Minnesota that I haven't thought of since... so many Arson Garden shows. The Blue Up? Azalia Snail. Wow.

No Chris Isaak in '91, but he does have a show by the Bishops! The local heroes of Alton, Illinois! Chicago might've been the furthest they got to play from home.

I am pleased to see three sets by the Bats. I was looking for other Flying Nun material; didn't see any other bands yet, but I am currently listening to The Bats Live at Lounge Ax 1992-12-14.

Never heard of this guy, but kudos to him for finding a way to share it with the world. It’s obvious that if his recordings were left in a cardboard box upon his (hopefully far off) passing, they’d never be heard. No one else has these captured I’m sure.

And kudos to Internet Archive for giving him the platform and doing the work required. He kinda ‘killed them with kindness’ on that one!

I quite enjoyed a show by the Replacements from ‘84. It was a pretty together performance for them. Y’know, relatively speaking.

Someone who attended that July 1984 'Mats show wrote this elsewhere:

Quote

I was at this show. All of REM except for Stipe were hanging around since they played at the Aragon Ballroom earlier that evening (see the Reckoning expanded edition for a recording of that show). If I remember right Peter Buck played on I Will Dare. I also had an encounter with Bob in the bathroom. Let's just say, if you encountered Bob on a show night, you had a story to tell.

When asked what that story was, he obliged:

Quote

I had a five minute conversation about Grant "Husker" in the Men's Bathroom at the Cubby Bear with Bob. He chose the topic. Problem was he was taking a dump on the pot while we were talking. This is back when the took the doors off of the men's room stalls. He had no problem talking while going. No shame demonstrated what so ever.

He was wearing a toddler "sun-suit" made in his size. You know the kind with just two buttons attaching the shoulder straps. He just unbuttoned the two buttons, the sun-suit falls to the ground and he shuffled into the stall. Now that floor had been through the Cub's post, day-game crowd and then the Del Fuegoes / Replacements crowd and had not seen a mop in a while. After he was done, he picked up his toddler outfit off the floor, buttoned up and was on stage within 5 minutes.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2026 08:44AM by belfast.

> I also had an encounter with Bob in the bathroom.
> Let's just say, if you encountered Bob on a show night,
> you had a story to tell.

That reminded me of meeting Michael Anthony, Van Halen's bassist, in the men's room at a show they were playing in Pueblo in 1980. It wasn't anywhere near the, ummm, colorful level of that guy's meeting with Bob Stinson ... but he did say hi to me in passing.

Being a teenager, I was kinda stoked about meeting one of the members of Van Halen, and I was going to tell my brother and the others in our crew about it ... until I realized, there's no way to spin any sort of encounter in a men's room without those guys joking about it mercilessly. So I kept my mouth shut about it.

Looking back, I think that was the only time in 1980 that I did something smart.

Perhaps understandably, the bathroom also seems to be a likely setting for two rock stars who normally don't associate socially to finally meet. I always come across stories like that every now and then, and it's always awkward given where they are.

A couple of more memorable ones:

When Keith Richards found himself standing next to Johnny Cash at the urinals, per Johnny, Keith exclaimed "Johnny Cash! Man, someone should take a picture of this!" to which Johnny replied, "NO, Keith. NOBODY needs to see this."


Paul Westerberg would have at least a couple of encounters with Prince during his days with the Replacements, including a memorable one at Paisley Park when the 'Mats' fortunes were starting to turn for the worse, but Bob Mehr wrote about one much earlier, again in the men's room (I think at First Avenue) and again, at the urinals, where a surprised Paul said, "Hey man, what's up?" and Prince's response was simply, "Life."

I once had a chat with Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum in a restroom, although not at the stalls. That would have been too weird.

I once went to the restroom after a talk at a local college by Mark Mothersbaugh and was washing up when he came in. Figuring it was my only chance to speak to him I did when he went to the busy area. No more than 90 seconds. The conversation was about what I'd heard Eno say about the experience of making the DEVO debut album. Mark talked about the recordings that Eno made with him and Bowie sweetening the sound, which were shelved. I quipped that it might be an interesting RSD thing to which he acknowledged. Awkward…? A little, but I wasn't picking up any annoyance in his voice.

Then there was that time I saw Fripp in a restroom [joking]…

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2026 06:41AM by Post-Punk Monk.

I’m so glad you mentioned that to him, it’s exactly I would say if I met him- I’ve always been curious to hear those Eno recordings too. Thanks for asking!