Audience 9.2 - Sweet “in the pocket” sound makes this a great listen!

Audience 9.4 - Lively, crisp, detailed sound make this a MUST have for this tour.

Audience 7.9 - This is NOT a hi-fidelity tape at all, but for what it is you will find yourself diving in with all ears. Why? It is an INTIMATE capture, with a great warm bass sound, and just a real closeness and immediacy that overcomes what are some obvious tape limitations. The BEST average audience tape you will ever hear!

Soundboard 9.2

Audience 7.6 - Reasonably clear tape, with a touch of that bass drum and bass guitar boom for a large hall but it does not intrude on guitar which comes through it all.

Audience 8.3 - Not too bad, with some telltale big hall boom (not that much) and maybe recorded from somewhere in the middle of the hall. It’s a welcome tape though, not that many decent 76 shows to choose from.

Audience 7.7 - Thin sound but guitar and vocals very present. Not all that bad really. Can enjoy this one.

Audience 7.2 - Crowded in the middle, with more definition contained in the upper frequencies, but too much clutter for me on this one. Good for the serious collector, as most people know the band really hit their stride on the European leg of this tour.

Soundboard 8.6 - Needs a wider and brighter sound spectrum EQ job but it’s still a great listen, perfect for someone to remaster.

Audience 8.7 - Very clean, levels a little low so turn it up. Very nice, and the band is great.

Audience 8.4 - A very good 8.4! So what I mean is, as any die hard Yes collector will probably agree with me on, is that the 1978 and 1979 period of Yes is perhaps their absolute zenith. This performance here is right up there with the best of the best, and the rating might be misleading because while it is maybe on the “average” side, it is still a good representation, giving you pretty good stage sound balance but maybe missing a little separation of instruments (drums get a little buried)- but overall this one should be thoroughly enjoyed by the Yes fan as it’s all here, and reasonably good too!

Audience 7.8 - Interesting recording, seems like it was done from the keyboard side of the stage for sure as they come through clear and loud, followed by guitar. The rhythm section is somewhat indistinct and vocals, while pretty front and center too, are fighting for the space that the keyboards occupy causing a bandwidth battle. What you have is a fight to control the mid-band range, so while I think this recording is good and clear, it’s too much happening in the middle. One thing you may also notice, the feeling you might get is that this is still the 70’s, even though it is the end of the decade, the music and atmosphere here is still firmly planted in the 70’s.

Audience 8.7 - If you took any audience tape from 1983 with an 8.7 rating, this show would still sound better because for some reason, I guess maybe it’s the microphones or something, but recordings made in the 70’s have more of a warmth, a more natural texture and quality to the sound.

Audience 8.5 - A legendary vinyl boot back in the day, this comes from a tape source and features a good recording capturing all the action in reasonable clarity and fidelity. A really fine set too!

Audience 9.8 - Complete 2 hr show with some killer guitar from the master himself. This is a must have for any collector (one of my fav's) with classic song selections at the Performing Arts Centre in New York.

Soundboard 9.5 - 4 Disc Set, 2 Shows (Early and Late show) It doesn't get better than this one  (in my top 10)  Killer! Also listed both shows (individually) under "Upper Darby" 1980.  

Audience 8.5 - Slightly more echoey than the early show but otherwise about the same.     (Late Show)

Audience 8.2 - This is an unmastered 1st generation audience tape. Could be immensely improved if mastered, right now it is pretty clear although lacking real bottom end.

Audience 8.2 - I’m probably being overly critical, I find this tape on the “harsh” side, meaning it is strong in the higher end, almost brittle. The good news is that having all your highs intact you can add filters and EQ and season to taste without losing anything in the process.

This set contains both shows recorded on Halloween night at the Felt Forum in NYC back in 1974. Early Show - Audience 8.5 - Right in the middle of the road, its good, not great. Late Show - Audience 8.9 - The only way I can explain this tape is that it starts off similar to the early show and at some point the taper moves to a hotter spot and the tape explodes with Frank’s amazing guitar right in your face. Even Frank himself makes a comment about his incendiary guitar work, I won’t spoil it though.  

Audience 8.4

Soundboard 8.5 and Soundboard 8.2 - One half of the show is much clearer than the other for some reason. Both have been remastered but one can only do so much. Still, this can be appreciated and being a board tape, it is pretty easy to hear each instrument.

Audience 7.9 - This tape shows its age but the master source for this CD is actually an old vinyl boot long since lost to the mists of time. Glad to have it, although I think only hard core collectors will really see the value here. That is not to say its dogshit either, because at times its actually very decent, but it fluctuates also back to mediocre, and that may be due to the tapers having to move or hide their equipment. I still like this one, and I think most Sabbath collectors will appreciate it.

Audience 8.6 - A tape that starts off pretty rough and then gets better and better until it is quite good and clear, especially nice when you consider that it has taken the better part of 40 years to start getting half decent ZZ Top live recordings.