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Audience 9.0 - Nicely done! A good solid punchy middle, with enough headroom to allow the guitars to soar high above the audience landing onto your ear drums in the best of ways. -
Soundboard 9.6 - A must for every Kinks collector! The band was REALLY cooking on this tour, here’s some proof. -
Soundboard 8.8 - The live mix settles in during the first song and sounds pretty good, and manages to capture some of the hall atmosphere too, which is nice. -
Soundboard 9.5 - Excellent in just about every way, including the performance itself. Great stuff! -
Audience 8.8 - This tape takes a minute to find a sweet spot, but when it does, it’s quite enjoyable with exceptional detail in the highs – and a good “thwacking” kick drum that anchors the whole thing. A good ‘un! -
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. -
Audience 7.8 - A little bit rough but its incredible nonetheless…see, truth be told it took me 10 years to finally acquire this show. I have a special interest in it. I will say that, actual audio fidelity, while not hi-fi, is not lo-fi either – it has some power to it (without distortion!) and I LOVE the audience reactions throughout. A fiery gig! -
Soundboard 9.4 - Professionally mixed, and it shows. -
Audience 8.4 - This is a very rare glimpse at a short lived incarnation of Johnny Winter’s band, mainly the addition of his brother Edgar. So it’s an interesting tape, sounds VERY close to the main P.A. system and consequently has some upper mid crowding which makes for a strange mixture of a tape that is both clear and bright, and overcrowded in the upper mid band. It’s good sounding but does not give you much separation of instruments. For collectors this has to be considered a very important tape though. -
Audience 9.4 - This is just one of those very lucky evenings where all the elements came together for a great result – good taper location, excellent house sound, excellent music performed. Each instrument is articulate and exists within its own frequency so there’s no overcrowding, it’s a joy to listen to! -
Soundboard 8.8 - A great time period for the band, a fantastic set list has been worked up and the playing is more adventurous now, with some good inspired guitar work throughout. -
Soundboard 9.3 - Wonderful guitar tone is the highlight here, the magical guitar interplay throughout. Seriously, it’s as if Lou’s delivery is just a setup for the band to do their thing. One of the best I have heard, right here. -
Audience 8.6 - A great job by taper to get center mic placement and not too distant from the stage. Good presence, good atmosphere, good tight show. -
Audience 8.8 - Another great tape made by someone obviously knowing what they were doing. There are a couple of cuts here and there, not deal breakers by any means but full disclosure. Anyway, a solid, in the pocket recording of a sizzling gig with great interplay between Jobson and Beck. -
Audience 8.4 - Not super dynamic but pretty clear, a decent ’74 tape where you can hear and enjoy everything (including the crowd) quite clearly but without a wide palate of audio spectrum. Not saying it is thin, not saying it is one-dimensional either, just that from highs to lows you aren’t going to have much depth although you can EQ and probably adjust to your specific needs. A good tape. -
Audience 8.5 - A real surprise this old tape, it sounds pretty darn good! The sound is warm, rounded, and has great atmosphere without losing the immediate punch of the music. Even at full tilt volume, the tape manages to hang together and not get overly saturated. Good job early tapers! -
Audience 8.6 - A “crisp” sounding tape, emphasis on drummer and vocals in the mix but you also can really hear the background keys which is nice. Not saying Joe is buried, just that this house mix seems very democratic in allowing all players to have a presence. I appreciate hearing how much the piano and keys helped shape this material. The audience is very respectful, and they love their Joe, that’s for sure. -
FM Broadcast 9.2 - A professionally recorded and mixed production that does not seem to have much in the way of compression so it has a good spaciousness to it, it is crankable. -
Audience 8.6 - A gem of a show, and a recording that thankfully is pretty decent although it does highlight Halford at the expense of the rest of the band. That actually works well here because Rob is just killing it, hitting every high note and wowing the audience. The musicianship is as always a cut above the rest, hence the reason this band lives on to this day. A keeper! -
Audience 8.8 - One of those recordings where the taper must be right in front of the house P.A. system but he knows how to adjust the levels and so gets a super high energy recording with minimal audience interference. This is one that just goes right to your brain, it’s super exciting and heavy! -
Audience 8.7 - a good recording with some signs of age, and a minor buzz that occurs only occasionally which is not related to the stage sound. Thankfully it’s not prominent during the actual music. The show itself is very tight, Beck is in good form. Very worthwhile! -
Audience 8.1 - A tape new to circulation and it is decent sounding. It has some force behind it, although lacks some definition but with only a very few ’73 era Barnstorm tapes out there, this is a most welcome find. -
Audience 8.9 - A very bright and lively recording with plenty of electric atmosphere. The band is “tight but loose” and quite frankly I don’t hear the weariness in Steven Tyler at all, in fact the whole band seems very comfortable here. A really really good one! -
Audience 8.4 - This is the August ’72 show and the sound is pretty decent with clarity, average depth and dynamics but regardless it’s a very enjoyable listen. Perhaps it could be said this is one of the better ’72 tapes in circulation. -
Audience 8.3 - Do not let the “average” sound rating prevent you from selecting this AMAZING rarity. I could write paragraphs on why this is a must have for any self-respecting Priest fan, but suffice it to say that this is why I even collect live music. The details of the recording are but one small part of the equation, but I will note that the tape suffers from two main problems – it’s a little muffled and it’s a little hissy. There is also an unfortunate cut where the solo begins in Victim of Changes (could it not have happened on any other song?), I think this is the tape flip. The quality worsens a bit after that, but there’s also good news to report: The tape has been remastered, revealing much more music that was probably buried under muck and noise for decades. What you end up with is a very intense show, and an audience absolutely being blown to smithereens. I can imagine after having to deal with mediocre top 40 and disco music, new wave, etc. having a band like Judas Priest I mean, that had to be like a sledgehammer to the skull because let’s face it, for 1979 these guys were way heavy, and not in a punkish Motorhead heavy but a very competent, sinister kind of heavy. That does come through on this tape. Without a remastering it would have been tough to listen to it, but it’s actually not hurtful on the ears, the actual frequency range is comfortable, and there are times where it is even very decent. Overall it is simply one of those you really have to just get and appreciate for what it is because it quite simply is DEVASTATING. -
Audience 8.3 - A pretty clear recording that would benefit from some boosting here and there but that’s not to say you can’t just crank this one up a little. Very worthwhile! -
Audience 8.8 - A great, atmospheric and electrically charged show! Not a lot of heaviness to the bottom, but there is a roundness there, a pleasant to the ears mid rangy kind of sound with a lot of articulation on the high end (not shrill!) which causes the slide work from Duane to fill the hall and make for tons of electricity. Collectors will love this one. Now, one small thing to report, there is sometimes some minor static on the tape (barely noticeable) but it’s no bother. Get this! -
Pro FM 9.1 -
FM Radio 9.4 - Pretty slammin’ stuff here. The band is pretty hot around this time, very confident, with a good set list. Occasional static does make a presence on this tape, but it kind of lurks behind the music rather than over the top of it. -
Audience 9.0 - This band is certainly an acquired taste for many, but every ear can agree to the quality of this recording. Airy but right there in a very comfortable mid range with very detailed high end and a smooth, round bass. Terrific! -
Audience 9.4 - For the uninitiated, well all I can say is be careful because you are diving into the deep end of the pool with this one! Bristling with improvisational madness at times magnificent and other times lost in the woods but always right on the ragged edge. Very daring music, which if played today would be met with blank staring faces but here the audience is in total rapture. -
Audience 8.6 - The recording here leans toward the bright and trebly side but that lends an excellent opportunity to hear specifically what the guitar is doing, and the bass now has articulation so it’s not just a loud, dull rumble like most recordings tend to be with these blasting grunge bands. Chris sounds brilliant, and he’s maybe the clearest instrument on the stage too. Once you get used to the general timbre of the sound, it’s a fun, wild ride.