Lou Reed - Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, 9-25-1984

I think Lou Reed's music from the early 1980s is underrated. He'd had a lot of drug addiction problems in the mid to late 1970s, and I think that negatively affected his musical output. But he cleaned up in the early 1980s, and I suspect that had a positive impact. I especially like his 1984 album "New Sensations." Maybe it's not so popular with some fans because it's rather upbeat and poppy compared to most of his other stuff, and his music isn't known for being upbeat and poppy. But new wave music was a big trend at the time, and he definitely joined that movement for a while.

This is a great concert from the 1984 tour to support "New Sensations." I count six songs from that album, which isn't that many, given that this is a fairly long concert. But he also did songs from earlier in his career, going all the way back to his Velvet Underground days, and generally did them in more of the new wave style he was favoring at the time. For instance, "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "There She Goes Again" sound different from their Velvet Underground versions.

This is unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent, like an official live album. There's no official live album of his 1984 tour. However, there is a very good one of his 1983 tour, called "Live in Italy." Personally, I like this much better. For one, it has the "New Sensations" songs. It's also a lot longer. And both of them feature the lead guitarist Robert Quine. Quine played with Reed in the early 1980s, and was Reed's favorite lead guitarist. By the time of "New Sensations," they were butting heads a lot, and Quine's playing wasn't featured on that album at all. However, Quine still did play on this tour, before permanently parting ways with Reed after it ended.

Another nice bonus about this concert is that musician Jim Carroll joined the concert near the end and basically briefly took over to sing his one minor hit, "People Who Died." He also sang backing vocals on the one song played after that one, "Rock and Roll." But you can hardly tell. I only know that for sure because there's a video of this concert on YouTube, and I saw him singing on that song.

This album is two hours and four minutes long.

01 talk (Lou Reed)
02 Sweet Jane (Lou Reed)
03 talk (Lou Reed)
04 I'm Waiting for the Man (Lou Reed)
05 talk (Lou Reed)
06 Martial Law (Lou Reed)
07 ta;l (Lou Reed)
08 Down at the Arcade (Lou Reed)
09 talk (Lou Reed)
10 Legendary Hearts (Lou Reed)
11 talk (Lou Reed)
12 There She Goes Again (Lou Reed)
13 Turn Out the Light (Lou Reed)
14 talk (Lou Reed)
15 My Red Joystick (Lou Reed)
16 talk (Lou Reed)
17 Average Guy (Lou Reed)
18 talk (Lou Reed)
19 Street Hassle (Lou Reed)
20 talk (Lou Reed)
21 Sally Can't Dance (Lou Reed)
22 Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed)
23 talk (Lou Reed)
24 Satellite of Love (Lou Reed)
25 talk (Lou Reed)
26 New Sensations (Lou Reed)
27 A Gift (Lou Reed)
28 Doin' the Things that We Want To (Lou Reed)
29 talk (Lou Reed)
30 Waves of Fear (Lou Reed)
31 I Love You, Suzanne (Lou Reed)
32 talk (Lou Reed)
33 White Light-White Heat (Lou Reed)
34 Turn to Me (Lou Reed)
35 talk (Lou Reed)
36 Kill Your Sons (Lou Reed)
37 Coney Island Baby (Lou Reed)
38 talk (Jim Carroll & Lou Reed)
39 People Who Died (Jim Carroll & Lou Reed)
40 talk (Lou Reed with Jim Carroll)
41 Rock and Roll (Lou Reed with Jim Carroll)

https://www.imagenetz.de/hX3sD

The cover photo was taken in Chicago in September 1984, just three days after this concert.