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Audience 9.6 - A beautiful, lush and atmospheric document. I love the stereo separation here, it’s a sound field that envelopes you in a way that makes you feel you are sitting in the first row staring up at the band. This is a must have without question! Frank Zappa Leroy Theatre Pawtucket, RI 23 October 1977 Early show Disc 1 01 -Intro 02 -Peaches En Regalia 03 -The Torture Never Stops 04 -Tryin' To Grow A Chin 05 -City Of Tiny Lights 06 -A Pound For A Brown 07 -Bobby Brown 08 -Conehead 09 -Flakes 10 -Big Leg Emma 11 -Envelopes 12 -Disco Boy Disc 2 13 -I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth 14 -Wild Love 15 -Titties 'n Beer 16 -The Black Page 17 -Jones Crusher 18 -Broken Hearts Are For Assholes 19 -Punky's Whips 20 -Camarillo Brillo 21 -Muffin Man -
Audience 9.2 (Early show) -
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 9.4 - I love these open-air recordings that really shine, capturing not just the music but the entire vibe of the event…and so realistically! This to me is what collecting is about, basically it is about reliving a musical event from the past. This one does that in spades. Frank Zappa Maples Pavilion Stanford University Stanford, CA 1980 04 03 Disc 1 1. -Mo 'N Herb's Vacation - Opening solo (Pound For A Brown vamp) 2. -Teenage Wind 3. -Harder Than Your Husband 4. -Bamboozled By Love 5. -Pick Me I'm Clean (q: Mo 'N Herb's Vacation) 6. -Society Pages 7. -I'm A Beautiful Guy 8. -Beauty Knows No Pain 9. -Charlie's Enormous Mouth 10. -Any Downers? 11. -Conehead 12. -Easy Meat (q: Thirteen) 13. -Mudd Club Disc 2 14. -The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing 15. -Heavenly Bank Account 16. -Suicide Chump 17. -Jumbo Go Away 18. -If Only She Woulda (q: Mo 'N Herb's Vacation) 19. -I Don't Wanna Get Drafted 20. -Joe's Garage 21. -Why Does It Hurt When I Pee? 22. -Dinah-Moe Humm 23. -Dancin' Fool 24. -Bobby Brown 25. -Black Napkins (q: Mo 'N Herb's Vacation) 26. -Chunga's Revenge (q: The Radio Is Broken) -
Audience 9.2 - The final performance of the 4 night Halloween Marathon at the Palladium in NYC 1978. Also part of the FZ Halloween Canister, also being offered. -
Audience 9.2 - Frank only played 4 shows in Japan. This was the second of four and a fine show it is! -
Audience 8.2 -
Audience 7.3 - Hissy, compressed leaning towards bottom end side and vocals are drowned out. Somewhere in the middle is where all the music is and you can actually discern pretty much all of it, mainly bass, keys, and some drums in there too (drums in the stew). -
Audience / Soundboard / FM - This is a very special Halloween Marathon from 1981, with perfect clarity and sound balance. Another outstanding performance in NYC. -
Audience 8.4 - A somewhat narrow sound field but a thoroughly enjoyable 1973 performance nonetheless. There are one of two tape flips and a little audience conversation (in Norwegian) but that is to be expected. -
Stage Recording 8.7 - These kind of recordings are in a unique category – they are technically “audience” type recordings but the signal is sent straight to the recording deck or into a sub-mixer under the control of an engineer. A “professional audience recording” I suppose. So, you do not always have absolute control over the sound mix but this can be a good thing if you get lucky enough with ideal mic placement and ambience, and other things like that. In this case, well, it’s a fine recording limited perhaps by the mic and tape deck quality or ability to capture in high fidelity. It’s a great reference, a decent recording, and there’s plenty of interesting stuff here to make you want to find out what Zappa does next. -
SDBRD 9.2/Audience 8.8 - Two sources comprise this offering, with the first (and thankfully the bulk of the recording) being very good quality, I would say excellent more precisely. Being a soundboard it does come off a little on the dry side, and by contrast the audience taped portion (the last 1/3 of the show) is very good, and lively, which wakes up certain instruments giving them more accuracy as far as what they actually sounded like coming through the at the show. The guitar in particular has a different attack and dynamic from the audience tape, in a good way. This is almost the perfect example of what kind of differences there are, both positive and negative, between a board and an audience tape source.
Frank Zappa Hemmerleinhalle Neunkirchen am Brand, West Germany 25-Feb 1978, Disc 1 01 The Purple Lagoon 02 Dancin' Fool 03 Peaches En Regalia 04 The Torture Never Stops 05 Tryin' To Grow A Chin 06 City Of Tiny Lights 07 Baby Snakes 08 Pound For A Brown 09 Is That Guy Kidding Or What 10 I Have Been In You Disc 2 11 Flakes 12 Broken Hearts Are For Assholes 13 King Kong (incl White Person, YCDTOSA 6) 14 Wild Love 15 Yo Mama 16 San Berdino 17 Watermelon In Easter Hay 18 Dinah Moe Humm 19 Black Napkins -
Soundboard 9.1 and Audience 8.5 - Beautifully mixed, with some tiny over-sizzle on crash cymbals at times, which seems to get worked out on the mix, but more problems with vocals getting distorted, mostly is the “ssss’s” which isn’t a deal breaker because the problems are not a large percentage of the music. The second show is an audience recording that sounds a little distant until the guitars begin and then it sounds practically right next to you! Strange. -
Audience 9.4 - A real good one this is! Like a sharp dressed man entering a room and commanding attention, this show does the same. Frank sounds great, and I like his guitar tone here. Frank Zappa Cirkus Krone Bau Munich (Muenchen), WG 1984-10-04 Early Show Disc 1 01 -Zoot Allures 02 -Tinsel Town Rebellion 03 -Trouble Every Day 04 -Penguin In Bondage 05 -Hot Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel 06 -The Evil Prince 07 -Cocaine Decisions 08 -Nig Biz 09 -Willie The Pimp 10 -He's So Gay 11 -Bobby Brown Disc 2 12 -Keep It Greasey 13 -Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me? 14 -Carol You Fool 15 -Chana In De Bushwop 16 -Let's Move To Cleveland 17 -Sharleena 18 -Dinah-Moe Humm 19 -Whipping Post Band: Frank Zappa - Vocals, Guitars, Conducting Ike Willis - Vocals, Guitar Ray White - Vocals, Guitar Scott Thunes - Bass Chad Wackerman - Drums Allan Zavod - Keyboards Bobby Martin - Keyboards, Saxophone, Vocals -
Audience 9.6 - This one is loaded with razor sharp guitar, a gem of a show. -
Soundboard 9.4 - (Early and Late Show) - Both sets are predominately 9.4 Soundboards with occasional audience sources patched in for completeness. Both shows are highly enjoyable too. Good guitar tone, and good mix!