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Sale!Audience 7.5 - A tape that struggles to get better, like you keep expecting it to suddenly open up because it isn’t bad once the taper gets his levels set. It maybe hovers too close to the bottom, but you get the sounds of everything on stage, maybe vocals a little behind the mix but so what? It’s Gentle Giant, you want the music parts mainly. I think fans can appreciate this early gig.
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Disc 1: The Bronx 1971 - Audience 8.3 - A huge upgrade to the old tape we know and love. It has been carefully remastered, speed corrected as well, and now is better than ever. Disc 2: Birmingham 1972 - Audience 7.1 - A rare find, but not the best quality. This too has been remastered and is now listenable and worth the price of admission for the very rare inclusion of the track After Forever.
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Audience 8.6 - This is a guitar-fest right here, the sound mix allows Jeff’s sound to cut through the bass which, if you have been collecting much BBA, you know bass is almost always WAY too loud! Well, it is understandable I guess, but this show features a more democratic mix and you will REALLY enjoy it for that reason alone. Besides for that, it’s a good show, the band sounds like they might not be beating the shit out of each other backstage…ahem.
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Audience 7.7 - Ever wonder what the opening act was like? OK, so this is a great example of that – a band that opened for Jethro Tull in 1970 and someone recorded them. Are they good? They are very competent and it’s easy to see why they got the slot. The recording is kind of one-dimensional but sufficient to allow you to hear it all, with clarity, just not a lot of dynamics. This is probably the only existing live recording of them so it’s worth grabbing.
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Audience 8.4 - This is a recording that is hard to figure out because on the one hand it could also be taped in a television studio which is my hunch. The tapers and those around them can be heard between songs but settle down once the music starts, it kind of adds a lot to the atmosphere. That being said, this is still pretty good, and what a gig, really, I mean amazing!
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Audience 8.4 - Tapers sitting kind of close it seems, and the recorder admirably managed to prevent too much over-saturation although there is a touch of it and the instrumentation gets cluttered up in the middle a bit at full volume. Overall this is simply a wonderful document of a band that seems to be very comfortable with the material (obviously) and firing on all cylinders.
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Audience 7.8 - A recording that slowly gets a little better after the first song or two but I have to tell you – for historical purposes this recording is the first time Brian Johnson appears on tape with the band (live, not studio). I think he does a fine job filling the spot too, but that’s up to every fan to decide.