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Soundboard 8.5 - It’s really hard to tell but I think it’s a board because of the way the sound is mixed. Vocals are way up front, and then they get pushed a little back, and there’s a lack of surrounding noise. There is some tape noise present. The audience noise you do hear sounds like it is picked up from one of the stage mics.
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Audience 8.1 - Not that bad, but vocals a little back, and some tape distortion in the mid band somewhere that does not bother but it is there lurking. The Mellotron adds a nice sweeping atmosphere. Bonus disc - Audience 7.0 - Presents occasional tape flaws, so is something for collectors only. Spirit My Father's Place Old Roslyn, New York August 8th 1976, 1st and 2nd shows Disc 1 1st Show 01. Nature's Way 02. Veruska 03. Little Time To Fly 04. Like A Rolling Stone 05. Farther Along 06. Mr Skin 07. Stoney Night 08. Fresh Garbage 09. World Eat World Dog 10. 1984 11. It's All The Same 12. I Got A Line On You 13. Animal Zoo 14, Hey Joe Disc 2 2nd Show 01. Prelude - Nothing To Hide 02. Nature's Way 03. Like A Rolling Stone 04. World Eat World Dog 05. Mr Skin 06. Farther Along 07. Stoney Night 08. Mega Star 09. I Got A Line On You 10. Reelin' In The Night 11. Dark Eyed Woman 12. 1984 Original reunion with Neil Young, Santa Monica, Ca., August 28 1976 13. Just Like Thumb's Blues 14. Like A Rolling Stone
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Audience 8.4 - Some tape hiss present, and recorded from maybe midway back in the hall but if you turn up the volume a bit, this actually is very decent quality. Having relatively low recording levels means, essentially, they were conscience of overloading and distortion so they protected against that. You can turn the volume up as loud as you can stand, and it sounds better and better!
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Soundboard 9.0 - For those who want to know what Bruce Springsteen was about before he went all FM friendly singer songwriter, look no further than this hard and heavy hard rock jam fest from 1971. I do not like Bruce, I think he’s kind of a big douche, but damn you have to give him props because he is a rock and roll survivor and this early stuff smokes.
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CD 1 - Soundboard 9.0 and Audience 8.7 - The Sparrow show is great, amazing that such an early document was captured so well (by a radio station no less). The Dallas material comes after and is also very good, and at first it may seem it could even be a board tape but closer inspection suggests otherwise but it’s pretty decent. The Baltimore material filling out the 2nd half of Disc 2 is the worst of this collection at an 8.3 Audience rating which is not bad at all really. John Kay sounds very prominent in the mix, guitar and bass pretty heavy sounding, keys and drums kind of washed out a bit, but you hear pretty much all of it nonetheless.
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Audience 7.8 - Thin to win, well yeah it’s kinda like that because though it is not exactly booming hi fi, it does allow one to appreciate this man’s guitar wizardry at a time in his career where you can literally hear him transitioning out of hard psyche rock into blues rock. Not a lot of Taste live recordings out there, this is a complete show, it’s worth having.
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Audience 8.0 - A utilitarian tape that captures the action on stage where you clearly get each instrument without much separation or dynamics. The selling point of this show is the set list, some seldom performed numbers including Crossroads which is played with aplomb. Energetic, fresh, all that without any hiccups but lacking clarity and dynamic range.
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Audience 8.6 - It’s easy to find board tapes from most of their tours so I can understand why one might take a pass on an audience tape but you do get a different perspective here, it’s a “bouncier” sound, a more kinetic feel to the happenings and you know, the Cure sometimes drones on a bit so I like having a recording that helps keep things moving.
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Audience 8.3 - A fine recording all things considered. It’s a big hall, recording comes from somewhere in the middle of the arena but the capture is reasonable albeit without a good definition and some mild boominess. Overall you can be happy with this recording and of course the band has a fine repertoire.
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Soundboard 9.0 and Audience 8.6 - This is a very interesting document of a period of time in the band’s history where they lost a key member of the band in guitarist Randy Bachman. That did not stop them, as these shows attest. Quality varies but is consistently good across all shows with the first part being Soundboard and the rest very clear and reasonably dynamic Audiences.