Audience 9.3 - This is, to my ears, sort of a return to the edgy hard rock of Taste. The distorted guitar (wonderful tone!) and punchy rhythms really hint more to his very early period and are ideally suited for the mid 80’s where maybe pure, raw blues was not as widely consumed as before. This show, and recording, really highlight the gut punch effect where straight forward guitar/bass/drums is the formula that works.

Rory Gallagher Oldenwaldring, Schaafheim Germany 18. Juli 1987 Disc 1 01. -Announcement            0:41 02. -Ansage - Moonchild            7:04 03. -Double Vision            7:37 04. -I Wonder Who            12:09 05. -Nadine                9:58 06. -Walkin' Blues            6:04 07. -Continental Op            9:57 08. -I Ain't No Saint            8:25 Disc 2 09. -Out On The Western Plain        6:08 10. -Want Ad Blues            5:34 11. -Tattoo'd Lady            5:50 12. -When My Baby She Left Me        7:23 13. -Shadow Play            7:15 14. -Bad Penny                4:28 15. -Bullfrog Blues - Dizzy Miss Lizzy    7:57 16. -Messin' With The Kid        4:50 17. -Knock On Wood - La Bamba        8:02 18. -Long Tall Sally            4:30 19. -Don't Start Me Talkin'        3:35 Track 01 - 18 Schaafheim Track 19 Mainz, Sendezentrum "Tele Illustrierte" 13. November 1987 1.Gen/TV (He plays live in the show)

Gamma Phoenix Theater Petaluma,CA 30-Nov-1980 01 Ready For Action 6:08 02 Thunder and Lightning 5:39 03 Razor King 11:59 04 Rock the Nation 3:47 05 I Got the Fire 3:56 06 Four Horsemen 7:11 07 No Tears 12:32 Davey Pattison: Vocals Ronnie Montrose: Guitars Jim Alcivar:  Keyboards Glenn Letsch: Bass Denny Carmassi: Drums

Stereo Soundboard 9.6 - A fantastic and interesting tape, the live mix sometimes pans in stereo giving it a unique flavor. The drums and keyboards are placed superbly in the mix, vocals very strong, but it does lack some low end, not that it is thin or too bright, that is not the problem here at all it’s just that I think the bass may have been so loud through the P.A. that it didn’t need to pass through the board feed so you do hear it but it’s not super deep. Still, a great one for the collection and certainly if you like hard psychedelic rock but the kicker here is the appearance on 4 tracks by John Cipollina.

Man Keystone Berkeley, CA August 9, 1976 Disc 1 01. -Let The Good Times Roll 02. -7171-551 03. -A Hard Way To Die 04. -The Welsh Connection 05. -Something Is Happening 06. -The Ride And The View 07. -You Are Out Of Your Head 08. -Born With A Future Disc 2 09. -C'Mon 10. -Many Are Called But Few Get Up 11. -Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You* 12. -A Hard Way To Live* 13. -Romain* 14. -Bananas* * with John Cipollina

Soundboard 9.7 - All excellent, all must haves imho. What you get sound-wise is a rich, deep tone, the Berlin tape in particular which features emphasis on the bass which is massive but detailed. The music here is more progressive than Samba, and Carlos does sometimes resort to familiar guitar runs but he also flashes a lot of other tricks and convinces the listener that he’s not a one-trick pony at all. Best I can tell here is that Devadip Ochestra is a decent attempt to take what Mahavishnu Orchestra did and accent it in different ways. Well done Carlos!

The Devadip Orchestra Disc 1 Deutschlandhalle Berlin, Germany November 8, 1978 01 Swapan Tari 02 Ocean Floor 03 Arise Awake 04 Light Versus Darkness 05 Jim Jeannie 06 Gardenia 07 Jharna Kala Ekeberghallen Oslo, Norway November 13, 1978 08 Swapan Tari 09 Ocean Floor 10 Arise Awake 11 Light Versus Darkness 12 Jim Jeannie 13 Gardenia 14 Jharna Kala Disc 2 Groenoordhal Leiden, Holland November 17, 1978 01 Swapan Tari 02 Arise Awake 03 Light Versus Darkness 04 Jim Jeannie 05 Gardenia 06 Oneness 07 Jharna Kala Carlos Santana: guitar/percussion David Margen: bass Graham Lear: drums Chris Rhyne: keyboards Russell Tubbs: flute/sax

Neunkirchen Audience 8.8 - A large sound, almost feel the sound pressure against your chest on this one! The bass is huge and guitars sit slightly behind creating a sensation of dread, and thankfully the vocals are really placed very nicely in the live sound mix. Definitely the better of the two in this set.

Boblingen 1983 Audience 8.6 The overall sound here is somewhat average but it's actually slightly clearer than the Neunkirchen show albeit more distant and hollow sounding. It really could use some mid-range boost to bring up the guitars but if you have a good system you can attenuate this to dial in your desired EQ. It's not bad, it's just not quite up to prime time and you'll get more satisfaction from the Neunkirchen show in this set.

Audience 8.7 - It's not the clearest, deepest of recordings but it is not boomy, muddy, irritating, or ruined by shouting morons either. It gets the job done, and what's more it's one of those shows where another guitar legend just happens to be there and just happens to get on stage and jam at the end...this guitar legend is none other than Jeff Beck so there is that.

Audience 9.2 - After the first two songs things really smooth out and it's just a wonderful sounding tape that delivers the essential elements - dynamics, clarity, and atmosphere. Well done!

Audience 9.4 - I really found this to be a real gem. First, I think it starts with a respectful but enthusiastic Japananese audience and then because of the immaculate source tape. The recording, while maybe light on bottom end just a touch, is crisp and clean and features a flawless midrange. Drums have an extremely "live" feel, you almost just kind of look off to your left and right to make sure a drummer isn't there in your living room!