Audio: Galaxie 500 in Germany in 1989

A few weeks back Frank got in touch with me regarding a recording he had of Galaxie 500 playing in Berlin in 1989 that wasn’t in my database labeled B.I.D. - the first German show I had was from their tour with Straitjacket Fits in December 1989 but this one was dated the end of October. The band had been over in September to play a secret show in a London pub, and then at the ICA in London, but their first tour was booked for a little later in the year.

Galaxie 500 - BID cassette

A little research revealed that the first date of that tour wasn’t in the UK but at a festival/showcase in Berlin called Berlin Independence Days which ran for four nights and featured 70 bands. Galaxie 500 played on a bill with American Music Club, and a band from Detroit called Viv Akauldren - a news clipping announcing the show can be found on the Berliner Rockwiki.

Dean actually mentions the show in Black Postcards:

Our first gig was in Berlin, at the German equivalent of the New Music Seminar. We arrived at Flughafen Berlin-Tegel and hopped two taxis to the Ecstasy in Schöneberg. As we rode into town, I thought about the months that I had spent in Berlin in 1986

[...]

The Ecstasy club in Berlin was run by young people, with a little funding from the government. They had bedrooms for bands to stay in so they didn't have to spend money on hotels. Rough Trade Germany had arranged an afternoon of interviews for us, with Zitty magazine and the SFB radio station

[...]

We had barely slept at all on the Lufthansa flight, and were beyond tired.

We finally took the stage at 3:00 A.M., right after American Music Club. The club was still jumping-there must have been four hundred people there to see us. They called out for "Oblivious" and "Parking Lot." We couldn't believe that they actually knew our songs. Vivicauldron[sic] hit the stage after us, all the way from Detroit. They had smoke machines and were not afraid to use them. They were pissed off about having to play at four in the morning, but that didn't deter them from playing a ninety-minute set. It was difficult to get to sleep in our bunks with Vivicauldron kicking out the jams downstairs, but the music stopped at 5:30 and sleep finally came.

We slept till one that afternoon and rushed over to the Hauptbahnhof Zoologischer Garten, to catch the night train to Paris.

Dean Wareham - Black Postcards

This show has now just been shared on Bittorrent site Dimeadozen and is well worth a download:

Galaxie 500 - 10-31-1989 Berlin - Ecstasy - The Frenzman Collection

Thanks so much to Frank for finding this, helping to identify the show, and for sharing it. Keep an eye on DIME because he’s going through a “box of 300+ cassettes” so who knows what other gems he’ll come across! Frank previously shared his recording of Galaxie 500’s show in Heidelberg in 1989.