The Clash at Shea Stadium gets the remastered treatment
For two cold and rainy nights in 1982, The Clash, accurately billed as the only band that ever mattered, played in support of The Who before 72,000 fans at Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York. This seminal performance, although coming at the heels of the release of their most commercially successful album, unofficially drew close to The Clash as they were known.
Drummer Topper Headon was long gone and buried beneath a severe heroin addiction, and Joe Strummer and Mick Jones were at each other’s throats over creative differences. But despite all of the internal discourse, the band managed to pull itself together to perform one of its tightest, brightest, and most energized sets ever documented on record.
The long-bootlegged and duplicated Shea Stadium performance was finally given a formal release last week with soundboard quality audio and never-before-seen photos in tact. The album marks the first time that a Clash performance has been released fully intact.
The recordings, from the second night’s performance, plays like a fifteen-song string of hits, briefly touching on the later singles off of Combat Rock and Sandinista! and a couple off of their second album Give ‘Em Enough Rope. What is alarming about this set, though played at the twilight of the band’s career, is the lack of songs from their debut. It’s easily forgivable, however, as this album features some of the best renditions of some of the best London Calling tracks to ever surface.
The performance of “Spanish Bombs” may very well be the best recording of anything recorded ever. The guitars are absolutely monster. The same goes for “Clampdown”, whose transitions from bridge to chorus may very well kill you if heard at high volume. And it’s not like it’s hard to make “Train in Vain” sound good, but holy shit, so good. So clean, so accurate and precisely timed, densely layered, and flawlessly sung by Jones.
Live at Shea Stadium would certainly make for a great introduction to The Clash, but really, you should have already owned all of their albums by now.
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