Last Updated on December 18, 2025 by Black Sunshine Media
Discovery of the Week is a weekly series that digs through a box of 40 well-traveled CDs I’ve carried across the ocean for nearly two decades. Each disc has its own history—where I found it, why I kept it, and what it means to me. Some are classics, others are obscure relics, but all survived the endless purges and border crossings that come with long-term expat life. Through these records, I’m tracing the soundtrack of a life spent in motion, and in a way, trying to explain how music, memory, and geography blur together when “home” is always somewhere else. Hüsker Dü at the Ritz Theater, NYC, 10/17/87, is one of the few records that survived thousands of miles and countless reinventions.
Hey, You Like Hüsker Dü?
Sometime in 2005, during my off-kilter bachelor period in San Francisco, one of my drinking buddies from Pittsburgh’s Pub gave me this live bootleg of Hüsker Dü at the Ritz Theater, NYC, 10/17/87. It wasn’t a big deal. He said, “Hey, you like Hüsker Dü?” and I said, “I love them.” The next night, he gave me the disc. We never spoke of it again.
From the day I bought Zen Arcade in 1984, Hüsker Dü has been one of my musical comfort foods. I’m always in the mood for the legendary hardcore punk power pop trio from Minneapolis, MN. They’re like Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I’ve never turned ‘em down. Happy, sad, angry, hungry, bloated, excited, melancholy—Hüsker Dü is a band for all occasions (as far as I’m concerned), and my favorite band between 1986 and 1987.
I saw them once (on acid) at Foellinger Auditorium, Urbana, IL, in March 1987. They played Warehouse: Songs and Stories (1987) from start to finish and a handful of other songs like “Eight Miles High”. It was, at the time, the greatest rock show of my life. Bob Mould and Grant Hart were songwriters on par with Difford and Tilbrook. Mould was the macaroni, and Hart was the cheese. Greg Norton was the butter and sauce packet.
Bootlegger’s Delight
To my surprise and delight, Hüsker Dü was one of the more bootlegged indie rock bands of the 1980s. The bootleg CD track list is similar to The Living End, a live album recorded during October 1987 on the band’s final tour (but not released until 1994). The bootleg recording itself most likely comes from a soundboard or monitor mix. It’s an inside job, for sure. One track (“Keep Hanging On”) from the Ritz Theater show appears on The Living End, which spans the entirety of the band’s recorded outputs, from the debut to the final album (excluding their debut EP).
The song selection on the bootleg is great, but Zen Arcade is sorely underrepresented.
At the opening, Bob Mould says, “How ’bout them, Twins, huh?”
He’s referring to the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball, who had won Game 1 of the 1987 World Series versus the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Set List
| Hüsker Dü at the Ritz Theater, NYC – October 17, 1987 | |
| Track | Original Release |
| New Day Rising | New Day Rising (1985) |
| The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill | New Day Rising |
| Standing in the Rain | Warehouse: Songs and Stories (1987) |
| Back From Somewhere | Warehouse: Songs and Stories |
| Ice Cold Ice | Warehouse: Songs and Stories |
| It’s Not Funny Anymore | Metal Circus (1983) |
| From the Gut | Everything Falls Apart (1983) |
| Target | Everything Falls Apart |
| Everytime | B-side to “Could You Be the One?” |
| She Floated Away | Warehouse: Songs and Stories |
| Find Me | Flip Your Wig (1985) |
| Books About UFOs | New Day Rising |
| Chartered Trips | Zen Arcade (1984) |
| Diane | Metal Circus |
| Hardly Getting Over It | Candy Apple Grey (1986) |
| Dead Set on Destruction | Candy Apple Grey |
| Eiffel Tower High | Candy Apple Grey |
| Green Eyes | Flip Your Wig |
| Divide and Conquer | Flip Your Wig |
| Actual Condition | Warehouse: Songs and Stories |
| Encore: | |
| Sheena Is a Punk Rocker | Ramones cover |
| Makes No Sense at All | Flip Your Wig |
| Keep Hanging On | Flip Your Wig |
| Encore 2: | |
| Pink Turns to Blue | Zen Arcade |
| In a Free Land | Everything Falls Apart |
I don’t remember exactly how it wound up in Taipei, but I’ll assume it was swept up in the handful of CDs from an early return visit to S.F. (circa 2008)
It’s been in my iTunes ever since.
