The Cars - The Summit, Houston, TX, 9-11-1984

One of the main purposes of this blog is to help you, the listener, find the gems out of all the bootlegs out there. Tons of them seem good based on their titles, but turn out to have crappy sound quality. This is a case in point. I would have liked to hear a concert by the Cars in 1984, because that was a particularly strong year for the band, with their huge hit album "Heartbeat City." They petered out after that, with a sub-par album in 1987 and then a break up. Anyway, I would have liked to hear a 1984 concert from them, but I never came across an excellent sounding one. 

Until now, that is. This concert recording has to be the best from the 1984. It was professionally recorded and then broadcast for the Westwood One radio network. Later, some songs were released on a DVD, called "Live 1984-1985." Most of this comes from the radio broadcast, but at least one song comes from the DVD.

To be honest, the Cars stayed very close to the studio versions for all the songs here, and there's absolutely no banter between songs whatsoever. But still, one can hear they put on a flawless concert. And this would be a good album to play at a party, because it's hit after hit after hit, pretty much all with a driving beat.

This album is an hour and 14 minutes long.

01 Hello Again (Cars)
02 It's Not the Night (Cars)
03 Touch and Go (Cars)
04 Candy-O (Cars)
05 Good Times Roll (Cars)
06 Jimmy Jimmy (Cars)
07 Moving in Stereo (Cars)
08 Just What I Needed (Cars)
09 A Dream Away (Cars)
10 Cruiser (Cars)
11 Drive (Cars)
12 You Might Think (Cars)
13 My Best Friend's Girl (Cars)
14 Magic (Cars)
15 Let's Go (Cars)
16 Heartbeat City (Cars)
17 You're All I've Got Tonight (Cars)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15998809/TCar_1984_ThSummtHoustnTX__9-11-1984_atse.zip.html

Pretty much the only good photo I could find of the band in concert only features lead singer Ric Ocasek. This photo was taken at East Rutherford, New Jersey, in July 1984. Regarding the text, I was struck by the vivid colors in the photo, so typical of the 1980s. (Think "Miami Vice.") So I tried to keep that up with the font type and colors.