Numero Group has announced a new live album from Hüsker Dü. 1985: The Miracle Year is a 4xLP box set that captures the Minneapolis punk band onstage at First Avenue during its fiery SST era. It’s out November 7, but several selections have already been released online. Below, listen to excerpts from a November show in Salt Lake City and a January concert at First Avenue.
1985: The Miracle Year centers on an entire Hüsker Dü set from January 30, 1985, as restored by Beau Sorenson. It also includes 20 extra live tracks from the same year, as well as a deluxe booklet outlining the year of work that went into the tour.
The live performances captured on these recordings are a snapshot of the band at the height of its power; Hüsker Dü had released Zen Arcade the year prior, and followed it with New Day Rising in January 1985. Both albums are punk classics. The fact these tapes survived the 2011 house fire that destroyed a portion of the Hüsker Dü archive heightens the rarity of this collection.
This isn’t Numero Group’s first time archiving material from Hüsker Dü. In 2017, the Chicago-based reissue label released Savage Young Dü, a box set of the band’s early recordings and live tapes from their first three years. That year, the trio’s drummer and co-founder Grant Hart died of cancer.
Revisit the interview “The Story of Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart, in His Own Words.”
