EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER – Long Beach 1974 (1CD)

Audience 8.7 – Loud and brassy, with some distortion on the cymbals at the high end. Taper must have been in the front row on the PA side of the stage. That being said, this is what makes this recording frightening to the ears, a terrifying journey into the unrelenting power and charisma of ELP in their mid 70’s prime. There is nothing sedate about this live concert experience, and because it was recorded on very good equipment, even despite the overwhelming loudness of it, it’s a rather true representation. Side Note: Jerusalem is a song with more mellow passages and here this recording absolutely shines, jumping quickly to a 9.2 rating and actually remaining better even during the loud segments as it starts to even out – this could be due to taper either moving further back, or making some other minor adjustment. Something certainly is changing with the recording as tape noise increases but the distortion lessens, this could mean he lowered the gain, so the volume had to be boosted during the transfer as his recording levels were much lower. Either way, it had a net positive effect. Unfortunately not the complete show.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Long Beach Arena
Long Beach, CA
February 3, 1974

01 Introduction
02 Hoedown
03 Jerusalem
04 Toccata
05 Tarkus