The Midnight Trail

Another concert remembrance from 20 years ago, this time regarding everyone's favorite German electronic act.

Tangerine Dream
September 7, 1988, at Radio City Music Hall.

Going away to college greatly expanded the boundaries of my musical taste beyond the steady diet of rock & roll I'd grown up on in the suburbs. I was already a fan of the world of music, but I had no idea just how expansive that world was until I began bumping up against people whose tastes were distinctly different from my own. It was at college that I really began to delve into jazz, rap, folk, punk, and--most significantly--electronica and ambient. My entrance into these last two categories, which now dominate my musical preferences above all the others, is due solely to my exposure to Tangerine Dream.

I can still remember the pivotal event in late 1986/early 1987 that set me down the path. My friend John and I were in the basement of the dormitory, playing a game of some sort, waiting for our laundry. John had brought down his portable cassette player. John was a big fan of instrumental music, and had even made his own mixed tape of non-vocal bits from such acts as Van Halen and Prince. His girlfriend back home, who knew that he liked that sort of stuff, had recorded Phaedra on one side of a cassette and Tangram on the other, and that's what we were listening to.

As the cassette played, I became more and more fascinated with what I was hearing. I had not heard anything like it in the entirety of my young life, and the more I heard, the greater my interest became. Over the course of the next few months, I raided the local records shops for as many cut-out albums as I could find, and managed to pick up the vast majority of their catalog.

I remember that Tyger was the first album of theirs I bought upon its release--on CD, no less! While devouring the liner notes of the album as I listened to it for the first time (a mixed bag, by the way, on account of the vocals), I noticed an address for an international fan club. One membership fee later, I was fan #320 in the band's first official club in its history. In the days before the instant availability of the 'net, the occasional fan club newsletters were an informational lifeline. It was through that vehicle that I learned about the the band's next two albums (Live Miles and Optical Race), and that there would be a US tour behind the latter! Bliss!

The membership also paid dividends in other ways. A couple days before the show, I get a call up in my room that there's a visitor waiting for me in the lobby of my dorm. Confused, I go down to find a guy who had travelled to NYC from the Netherlands (IIRC) to see the show, had kept my address from the club listing, and wanted to know if I wanted to grab a beer? Wacky. While we were at the bar, he made me a proposition: he was going to be taping the show, so if I bought him a couple brews he'd send me a copy. Done...and done. Over those drinks, I got to hear some of the history of the band from someone whose knowledge far surpassed my own, got some info on past members whose music was worth checking out, and got just a taste of how dedicated some TD fans could be.

What am I forgetting? Oh yeah, the concert!

By the late 80s, TD had largely forgone the long improvisations that had made their 70s concerts legendary. I neither knew this (their boots were pretty tough to come by at that point) nor do I think I would have cared all that much had I known. They played a fair amount of material that hadn't yet been released along with plenty of their recent material and a smattering of "classics" that had been somewhat retooled (little did I know what a thing that would become). We had pretty decent seats, and by the time the encores came around, we hopscotched far enough up that we were within 20 rows of the stage. An absolute blast. Of course, I bought a t-shirt.

The only bummer was the after concert. As a fan club member, I was supposedly going to be able to get backstage. Due to some snafu, this didn't happen. You can be sure that I contacted the club, like only a 20-year-old who feels slighted can do. I'm sure I'd be embarrassed were I able to see it now.

And that gent from the Netherlands? He was as good as his word. A month or so after the show, I got a package with two cassettes inside. I probably still have them somewhere.