In 1989 Metro owner Joe Shanahan was in a record store in Manchester, England, when he came across some live bootlegs by a few bands that had been signed to the seminal Factory label. To his surprise, the packaging claimed the shows had been recorded at his club. “I ran into [New Order bassist and Factory co-owner] Peter Hook and he was kind of upset about it,” recalls Shanahan. “Like, ‘I think you and your club owe me some money for these.’ It was kind of embarrassing.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
His first tape was of the legendary British experimental improv collective AMM performing at the Arts Club of Chicago in May 1984. “After that,” he says, “it was a bunch of punk and rock concerts. It went pretty quickly from just being an occasional thing to something I did far too often.” For the two decades since, Jacobs has been talking his way into about 15 gigs a month, setting up his microphones and deck and taping the performances for his private collection. He’d already passed 3,000 volumes when he stopped updating his show log two years ago. The living room of his Ukrainian Village condo is filled floor to ceiling with boxes and cases of tapes.
Back when he was recording onto cassettes, Jacobs would sometimes tape on two decks simultaneously so he could give one copy straight to the band. Since the mid-90s, though, he’s used a DAT recorder; he’s never bought a CD burner (he says most of his money goes toward blank DATs) and has to get a friend to burn copies. But apart from the logistics, he worries that copies of his tapes will resurface as illegal bootlegs like the ones Shanahan found.
In the early 90s Jacobs tried running his own label, Dead Bird, but gave it up after putting out just four singles (by local bands including Red Red Meat and Trenchmouth) in four years. “It gave me a good lesson–learning I wasn’t a businessman,” he says. “I thought by doing it maybe it would give me a reputation outside of being the guy who tapes live shows, but it never did.”
Last fall Jacobs approached Matt Rucins of Schubas and proposed a series of shows early this year to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his taping career; Rucins agreed and started assembling bills from a wish list Jacobs provided of bands and players he’s been recording since the 80s. Experimental-metal vets Cheer-Accident played the first concert earlier this month; the second, with Califone and Rick Rizzo, goes on this Wednesday; and the Slugs will headline a final show tentatively set for May.
