The Aadam Jacobs Collection puts 10,000 shows online for free.
One Chicago music fan is single-handedly preserving live music history, one dusty tape at a time.
Meet Aadam Jacobs, a devoted archivist who has spent over forty years recording and collecting nearly 10,000 local shows.
His treasure trove, aptly named the Aadam Jacobs Collection, features legendary acts like Nirvana, R.E.M., Pixies, Sonic Youth, and Liz Phair.
Now, with time and tape degrading, Jacobs is uploading everything to the Internet Archive.
“I don’t have enough life left to digitise everything,” he admitted. “It’s best if it gets out of my hands.”
A team of volunteers on two continents helps restore, catalogue, and post the recordings.
The Replacements even used Jacobs’ tapes for their own live album.
With over 2,000 shows already online and years of work remaining, this Sonic Sant” isn’t chasing money, just immortality for Chicago’s stages.
The archive is live now. Go get lost in it.
