This perception of Page being sloppy was created by the post Van Halen era guitarists from the 1980s who all thought that they could become the Mozart of the guitar. Speed picking, scalloped fretboards, pointless sweep picking, pinch harmonics, quoting Paganini, etc. And yet, every single one of them cited players like Page as a huge influence. The trouble was that instead of being influenced by the phrasing or feel of the music (as embodied by players like Page, Hendrix, Beck, and Green), you instead had decades of guys who dissected the playing of their influences as if it was a recipe for making a cake. Add one part excessive solo + hair + stupid raunchy guitar face + horrible outfit. This is why the guitar playing from the 1980s is largely soul-less, because you had guys who thought it could be done like a formula. Just sad. That's where the "sloppy" comments came from, because that's exactly what a hack would say when they can copy everything else yet still not get it to sound "right". And this is why pretty much any stranger on the street can recall something that Jimmy Page played on the guitar while nobody has even heard of the likes of Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, or Yngwie Malmsteen.

2/12/75 was the first board, and the next one after that was Orlando 8/31/71. Then, Dallas 3/4/75, Earls Court 5/24 and 5/25, St Louis 2/16/75, Houston 5/21/77, Vancouver 3/19/75, Dallas 3/5/75, Landover 5/28/77, etc. Not sure how you are seeing a pattern there. They've been releasing boards mainly from Feb-March 1975, just as they have been for years, with some 1977 scattered in there. No surprise there. The 1971 Orlando board was a one-off, along with other shows that circulated online, like Southampton 1973. They get the boards either from a former Showco employee, a person close to the band (like Ross Halfin), members/family of the band themselves (Jason Bonham), or from people who managed to get copies from the aforementioned. Unless you are one of those people, nobody knows what they still have. Don't know why this is always such a mystery. It's not as if the tapes have been smuggled out of a bank vault. Every time someone says "there are no more boards out there" another one shows up which proves everyone wrong. If there are any boards from January 1975, the only ones worth hearing would be the last night in Chicago (audience recording already exists), Detroit (another which the audience already exists for), or the unheard Pittsburgh show from 2/1. Hearing the tour opener, from 1/18, is probably the last thing that anyone really wants to hear, even though they might say they do. Plant's voice is trashed, Page has a broken finger, and who knows what shape the performance was in. I'd much rather have something from February or March instead. We already have audience recordings of Levee live, and you can see why the band dropped the number. Give me Long Beach 3/12, San Diego 3/10, Philadelphia 2/8, Landover 2/10, Seattle 3/21, even Houston 2/27 or New York 2/3. Those are the remaining 1975 boards really worth hearing. Everything else is either too rough of voice, broken finger, or under-rehearsed. The LA shows are already covered by the Millard recordings.

The Badgeholders soundboard snippet sounded a lot like the sound on the New York 6/7 board. Kind of thin. Hopefully if/when the full version comes out it has a bit more depth to it. Although, honestly, I'd take it any way I could get it.

I seemed to recall really liking 5/26 because Plant sounded particularly into it, and Bonham's drumming is nice and clear on that one. For the Landover run, there are moments where a particular song actually works better on one night versus another, so a lot of it is pick and choose I think. The 5/30 show doesn't do much for me (the band sound kind of tired), but the performance of Since I've Been Loving You is great. I really like Houston for Bonham's playing, but don't really have the same preference for Fort Worth. The first New York soundboard I was kind of shocked to find how little I was into that show, even after having enjoyed the audience source for so long.