Audience 8.6 to 9.3 - From different sources and a great collection!

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.

CD 1 - Soundboard 9.0  /  CD 2 - Soundboard 8.8

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.

Audience 8.8 - Captured live at his home away from home, Fitzgerald’s Club in Houston, this is perhaps one of the very best small club gigs ever recorded. It has a certain vibe, perhaps that is why this show has a very special place in the hearts of SRV collectors.

Audience 8.8 - Very well recorded, superb atmosphere!

Audience 9.0 - High quality microphones placed in the right spot yield terrific results like this. Bravo!

Audience 8.8 - Fantastic capture that gives the sound a really spacey and breathing feel, like it is wrapping around your ears and not just coming straight at you.

Audience 9.5 - Interesting recording, it’s very clear and present and you might assume it is a board tape, but it sounds like mic capture to my ears. Very bright and clear, a MUST have!

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.

Audience 7.8 - Great guitar, decent and clear!

Audience 7.8 - Loud and clear pretty much. The recording is very respectable and you can sink your teeth into this set because the guitar is prominent, loud, in the middle and RIPPING. If I could just get one CD of only the solos I would listen to it every day.

Audience 8.6 - Very clear, but has a slightly odd balance that eventually does resolve itself somewhat. It’s as if taper is trying to find the best spot, so I can’t fault them.

Soundboard 9.5

Soundboard 9.2 - Pleasant, airy, well balanced but it does lean toward thin sounding to me. Still, it’s not exactly a heavy band anyway, so that leaves the listener with much more stuff to hear in the high range, keys, percussion, etc. Sounds very decent.

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.

Soundboard 8.6

Audience 8.0

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.

Audience 8.5 - A steady, reliable recording that delivers a very live, natural sound but lacking just a little separation of instruments. Still a VERY good one!

Audience 9.0 - Fantastic recording really, in fact I can only try and be real nitpicky to try to find anything outright bad about it. It’s close up, warm, atmospheric (I don’t mean echo or reverb either), and pretty good separation of instruments. Kick drum is even present, so it is also detailed. Good One!

Audience 9.2 - Hard to imagine someone not absolutely loving this, but there are still a few people who think just because a microphone placed somewhere in the audience was used to capture the sound, it can’t be good. Play them this. Wowsers!

Audience 8.7 - Very good! Much wider stereo sound field with some hall dynamics present, and just a little less definition with Pete in the mix but it's actually got a great live feel to it. Highly enjoyable.

Audience 8.4 - Not bad but has a lack of meat to it, and though Pete's guitar sounds more evil here, it's the lack of punch in the bass and drums that detract overall.