Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

I have a fairly healthy collection of shows but nothing much from '73 apart from the official releases. Can anyone suggest a few killer '73 shows? Am looking for a balance between great performance and great recording as I find lousy recordings a bit difficult to listen to.

Any suggestions much appreciated. Thanks for a great Forum.

Posted

3/16/73 from Vienna and 3/17/73 from Munich are worth mentioning as well. Both are available as very good AUD tapes, and there's even a soundboard snippet of 3/16 out there as well (about 60 minutes or so). Any of the European shows from March and early April of '73 are worth having(although of course quality varies soundwise)- it was a small window in time when the band were playing on a ridiculously high level, with Page and Bonham at their absolute best. The versions of Dazed And Confused from that tour were amazing!!

Posted

3/16/73 from Vienna and 3/17/73 from Munich are worth mentioning as well. Both are available as very good AUD tapes, and there's even a soundboard snippet of 3/16 out there as well (about 60 minutes or so). Any of the European shows from March and early April of '73 are worth having(although of course quality varies soundwise)- it was a small window in time when the band were playing on a ridiculously high level, with Page and Bonham at their absolute best. The versions of Dazed And Confused from that tour were amazing!!

Exactly right, March '73 found them playing insanely well, their best ever performances. You can't go wrong with any of those shows. The soundboard tracks from Hamburg are crazy good.

Posted

Exactly right, March '73 found them playing insanely well, their best ever performances. You can't go wrong with any of those shows. The soundboard tracks from Hamburg are crazy good.

Hamburg is my favorite of the "snippet boards." It has a brighter sound than the others and the playing is just outrageous! Cheers, Mattmc1973 - great to see a fellow Zeppelin freak who knows the deal (not a dig on anyone else, by the way).

Posted (edited)

Throw in San Diego 73,Fort Worth 73,Mobile Alabama 73 and Chicago 73.

Edited by hwkn
Posted

Ooh, I forgot Mobile 5/13/73!! What a scorcher that show is. I love No Quarter on that one - it has a unique jazzy little jam in it. Bonzo's drumming is so inventive, too. It's obvious he had some ideas in his head and was exercising them in different ways in different songs. Good call, hwkn. I have to drag that show out now!

Posted (edited)

Great picks by pretty much everyone in this thread.

I'd say Mobile 5-13 is perhaps the most underrated (or, more accurately, overlooked) - the SBD is very good and the band are super-tight. [A certain fan's] remaster of this is definitive IMHO.

Also, [a certain label] has a boot called A Soundboard Platter that contains all the soundboard fragments from March '73 Europe (plus one SBD fragment from Jan). If you just want the SBDs, this release is excellent - everything in one place, and the best or second-best sounding version of every show (some fan remasters of some of the shows arguably sound slightly better).

Finally, I'd have to say 3-24 Offenburg is probably the very best of the AUD-only shows (and for some folks this is the best of all the '73 shows - though I sometimes wonder if there isn't a certain romance among some folks for the AUD shows, esp. since they tend not to reveal the "warts" that a SBD can).

And I'd bet the house that some hoarder has the SBD of Offenburg.

Edited by tmtomh
Posted

Great picks by pretty much everyone in this thread.

I'd say Mobile 5-13 is perhaps the most underrated (or, more accurately, overlooked) - the SBD is very good and the band are super-tight. [A certain fan's] remaster of this is definitive IMHO.

Also, [a certain label] has a boot called A Soundboard Platter that contains all the soundboard fragments from March '73 Europe (plus one SBD fragment from Jan). If you just want the SBDs, this release is excellent - everything in one place, and the best or second-best sounding version of every show (some fan remasters of some of the shows arguably sound slightly better).

Finally, I'd have to say 3-24 Offenburg is probably the very best of the AUD-only shows (and for some folks this is the best of all the '73 shows - though I sometimes wonder if there isn't a certain romance among some folks for the AUD shows, esp. since they tend not to reveal the "warts" that a SBD can).

And I'd bet the house that some hoarder has the SBD of Offenburg.

Yeah, you have to wonder about the SBD of Offenburg. Given that quite a few other shows seem to have been recorded on that tour, it seems likely it (as well as the others missing) exists. I'd love to see some actual full shows from that tour surface as boards. And I agree that it is definitely the best of the AUD-only shows, especially if you can get your hands on the low-gen to DAT version that's out there. The sound quality is great and the playing is unbelievable!! And as far as the "Soundboard Platter", I just recently got that and I agree that it is a great thing to have all of those partial boards in one place (plus you get the 3/19/73 snippet, which doesn't seem to be circulating quite as much as the others). And finally, you are spot-on about Mobile 5/13/73. I think it's easily one of the best shows from 1973, and thankfully most of it is preserved in a beautiful soundboard tape. It a tight performance, and Plant's voice is still pretty fresh and energized....but it's Bonham's drumming on this show that's the real clincher. Anybody ever notice he has this one drum fill that he keeps playing in different songs in different tempos, yet it's always the same fill? Absolutely brilliant!

Posted

6/2/73 at Kezar in SF is a great show, as is the next day in LA (AUD/SB mix). Page was playing really well (as he did the whole tour really), but really smoked in those shows. The band really stepped it up when in California.

Stoke 1/15/73 was mentioned above. That was the first boot I ever owned. It was 1991 and I had just graduated high school. There was a used CD store that also had some boots. I couldn't afford the CD, so the owner offered to record it to a cassette for me for $10. It was only a partial show since it was a 60 min tape, so I got a selection of songs. I wore that tape out! And besides, it's a great soundboard of a great show.

Posted

@Mattmc1973 - good point about Kezar. I was off Kezar for a while, but just listened to it again yesterday - man, what a great show!

@S. Flavius - indeed, Stoke is killer too! The more I listen to Zep boots, the more I see the point of view of those who are always pointing to just how essential Bonham was to the entire enterprise.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...