Milwaukee 31 August 1970. Great show and decent recording. Too bad we're missing the last half of the show.

San Diego 03 September 1970 "Missing Sailor". I passed on this Immigrant title at a CD show 20 years ago and always regretted it, and enjoyed the opportunity to finally hear the show that preceded "Blueberry Hill". Not the best recording, but a good, spirited show.

Copenhagen 24 July 1979. I really like the '79 shows and at times wish they'd ended there and went out on a high point at Knebworth instead of with the 1980 European tour. Had they gone on to the US I suspect that the shows would have improved, especially in the usual places; New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, etc. Terrific recordings and atmosphere at the Copenhagen shows. I'm not sure how big the actual venue is, but they have a small club atmosphere. Yes. Cleveland/Cincinnati always get me.

Cincinnati 27 April 1977. Probably one of the first dozen or so shows I ever heard. I remember I had a big 4LP black box with "Destroyer" stamped on it. Still one of my favorites even if the show isn't considered one of the best.

New Haven 15 August 1970. I really like the 1970 tour. It's not as raw as the 1969 shows, but they've developed into a fine-tuned machine and the songs from the first two albums really shine. As the songs from the third album are added into the setlist the variety of the material makes for a really exciting concert. The party around the taper really gives you a sense of how much concerts have changed in 40 years. Wish I was there with them.

That explains why it kept improving in sound and then fading. I thought it was my ears adjusting. I've noticed that tapers of prog bands tended to not record Zeppelin. Over on the east coast, Dan Lampinski made dozens of excellent tapes in the Boston area during the 70s, but never did a Zep show. Did some nice Pink Floyd, Tull, and Yes though...

It took me several days to get through Atlanta '77, so I followed it up with Montreux 07 March 1970, the Empress Valley "Intimidator" version. In a perfect world, this would have been released as a legitimate live album in the summer or fall of 1970.

Atlanta 23 April 1977. Another borderline fair/poor audience recording. An excellent show in need of an upgrade.

I'll have to look for that one. I have the Jabe version and it's a substantial improvement over "Dixie". It is a good performance once you can hear it.

Birmingham 18 May 1977. Dixie "Revisited". Supposed to be a great performance, but it's hard to tell with the echo and distance on the tape.

I must have the "Rawhide" source. I played it again last night, and though it had a rough start, was pretty good. The acoustic set came out really nice. Great soundscape; you can hear the band off to the left while the crowd and fireworks are all around. I'll have to find the "Artie" source just to hear No Quarter.

It's starts out pretty bad, but improves as it goes along. It would be hard to work with.

New York City 07 June 1977. I have the audience tape, apparently there is a soundboard out there. On edit: I do have the soundboard. Totally different experience. The chaos of the audience is lost while the performance itself shines through. I wouldn't mind a matrix of this one.

Chicago 06 April 1977. Sloppy second show of the '77 tour. The band hasn't really worked out the arrangements for the new songs yet. Do people throw fireworks at concerts anymore? I can't think of any I've been too where the audience was as chaotic as they are in this show.

Seattle 17 July 1977. Finally, a local show. The Kingdome was an awful venue until they blew it up 13 years ago. Previous shows in Seattle were at the far more intimate Arena, which is shuttered these days. Great soundboard. Good show. Wishing I could have been there, but I was too young at the time.

Inglewood 27 June 1977. The final Los Angeles show and final Millard tape. Another great recording, but a show where I continually go "Huh?!" whenever Page takes a solo. After a lengthy warm-up, the rest of the band does a great show, but Page is on another planet entirely.

Cincinnati 20 April 1977. Not the best recording, but listenable.

Yes, I love what Millard did. The band ought to buy up the masters and release them legitimately.

Los Angeles, 25 June 1977, from the Millard master (?). Great stuff.

Chatenay-Malabry 1969. Great performance that bridges the rawer shows from 1969 with the more professional ones from 1970 on wards.

Gonzaga '68. Since this is prior to the release of the first album, I'd love to know why the show was recorded and what the audience thought. I'd only heard the old Capricorn release before now, and the newer one is much better; still overloaded when the volume goes up, but the quieter portions are quite good and clear.

Copenhagen, 23 July 1979. Great show and great recording. I like the warm-up shows better than the Knebworth gigs. I'm not sure of the venue size, but the smaller audience than Knebworth makes for a more intimate show. In general, I like the concept of the 79-80 shows better than the execution; shorter, tighter arrangements of older songs. Unfortunately, the new material just doesn't work well in a live setting. Had they gone into the 1980's, I could easily see an additional bass/guitar player added to the live lineup to fill in the sound a bit, especially with the keyboard heavy songs from ITTOD.

Montreal 6/7/1972. I love the tapers and their accents on this one; "When Whole Lotta Love plays, I wanna see 'em, because I wanna see how he makes that sound!" Who would have thought that 40 years later, we'd still be listening to these guys talk. Probably creep them out if they knew!

New Orleans '73. Picked it at random. Good, solid '73 show. I'm a bit burned out on the setlist, but this would be a good one to play for someone that had only heard TSRTS and wanted to hear a complete show from the same era.

Paris, April 1, 1973. Tried to get to it yesterday, but couldn't fit it in. Not the best of recordings, but still (barely) audible. Sounds like it was recorded from next door to the venue at the beginning, but gets enjoyable as it goes along.