1st generation cassette
This was recorded when Television were on a reunion tour in support of their eponymous third record. The band was Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd (guitars), Fred Smith (bass) and Billy Ficca (drums).
Below is a review of this show from the Hartford Courant.
Television gets small audience, but songs, new and old, are riveting
By Roger Catlin
Hartford Courant
Just a couple hundred people turned out for the Televison show at Toad's Place in New Haven Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1992. And it looked like every one of them was in a band.
That would have made sense: the influence of the legendary mid-'70s guitar band from New York has cast its shadows well into the '90s. Although initially pegged as part of the proto-punk movement that spawned Patti Smith Group and Blondie and the Ramones, Television worked in more of the poetic electric tendencies of the Velvet Underground, fueled by the psychedelic possibilities of the West Coast.
After calling it quits in 1978 after two albums, the band reunited this year for an album and concert tour so consistent with its past, it's almost as if it never left.
This was great news for longtime fans, who could never have imagined they'd get a chance to see a group that scarcely toured in its heyday, and whose status has only grown in its absence.
Who would imagine finally hearing, 15 years after their release and 14 years after the band's breakup, live versions of such sturdy epics as "Marquee Moon," "Prove It" and "Venus" by the originators?
Amid all this reverence for the past, the surprise was that the bulk of the show, focused on the new album simply called "Television," was just as riveting.
Tom Verlaine's dreamy lyrics played over the interplay between his own stinging, Ventures-like lead guitar and the melodic rhythmic flair of Richard Lloyd, every bit his equal. It made for a dynamism that was multiplied by the booming rhythm section of Billy Ficca on drums and Fred Smith on bass.
They entered, typically, without fanfare, blending the drone of their own incessant tuning up to the pre-show recorded music of drones.
When the noise stopped, they kicked in the efficient opener from the album, "1880 or So."
There was an occasional problem with the sound; the drums were too booming; there was unintended feedback on Verlaine's guitar.
And, other than an occasional mumbled thanks, the band never spoke to the crowd, to the extreme irritation of some audience members.
But the band's music did the speaking quite eloquently.
While some things like the can't-miss "Marquee Moon" were terrific, new songs such as "Call Mr. Lee" with its alluring guitar figure, or the mysterious riffing of "No Glamour for Willi" stood triumphantly.
As serious and frankly nerdy as the band members appeared, it was surprising they didn't use any of the new electronic geegaws developed since the band's demise.
They relied on instinct and taste to build their songs, which will reverberate in its few listeners long after the band is gone.