Soundboard 9.3 - The venue is unknown as is the exact date, but here’s what we do know – the show smokes! It captures the imagination, and is what I love about collecting. Do you remember what you were doing in May of 1973? I am sure the band played this gig and quickly forgot about it as they traveled to the next town, but it never ceases to amaze me how here they are in some college town probably, completely engaged and engulfed on this tour, yet manage to produce exemplary performances over and over again like it’s no big deal. Then, move on to whatever is next…it’s almost a little melancholy.

Audience 9.1 - Now, we all know how Zappa felt about bootlegs, so it begs the question – how come there are so many fantastic audience recordings from every tour? Well, here’s yet another one, a very well balanced and clear (and bold!) tape. Love it!

Audience 7.8 - What I like about this tape is that the guitar is not only right up front, but the tone is present, you can hear that lush Les Paul phatness! Not a spectacular mix for the bass and drums but if you want Billy you got him.

Audience 8.3 - Whenever you come across any 70’s ZZ Top, your instantly going to ask “how does it sound”? because we all know how rough most of them are – but this one reveals layers of the band previously lost in a dense fog of distortion and volume – an articulate bass. Billy’s tone is lovely as ever but only his solos soar above the rhythm section who are LOUD but not distorted. One to pick up!

Audience 7.7 - Gives you a pretty good idea of what going to a Roxy Music show would have been like in these early days. Not a super duper crystal clear expertly mixed experience, but not a terrible sounding amateur recording and one can only applaud the tapers for making the effort. Does this help?

Audience 8.9

Audience 8.4 - I’ve heard many tapes from this venue and none of them sounded good, except for this one. It has a very good spectrum, the highs are very intact and it has a solid mid range, is not annoying at all, in fact this recording is satisfying! I think the weakness is maybe it gets a little brittle sometimes but not in any kind of distracting way really.

Audience 9.3 - This is the second night at the Auditorium in Chicago  (3-4-88).