Pink Floyd
Date: 1972-04-28
Location: The Auditorium Chicago, IL
CD Bootleg: Chicago 1972
Quality: VG+/EX-
FLAC
Disc: 1 CHICAGO 1972
01 Speak To Me 1:04
02 Breathe In The Air 3:14
03 The Travel Sequence 5:11
04 Time 5:52
04 Breathe In The Air (reprise) 1:05
06 The Mortality Sequence 3:44
07 Money 7:34
08 Us And Them 7:19
09 Any Colour You Like 6:24
10 Brain Damage 3:48
11 Eclipse 1:53
Disc: 2 CHICAGO 1972
01 One Of These Days 8:53
02 Careful With That Axe, Eugene 12:20
03 Echoes 24:17
04 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun 13:28
Band:
David Gilmour
Rick Wright
Nick Mason
Roger Waters
Recorded Live at The Auditorium Chicago, IL 1972-04-28
Original Comments:
There are two tape sources in circulation for Pink Floyd’s Chicago show in 1972. The first tape was utilised by Highland on The Great Gig (Highland HL561/562) released several years ago. The sound quality is fair to good and is acceptable in lieu of anything else. But the second tape source surfaced in April 2004 and is used by Siréne on this release is a phenomenal upgrade. This was recorded on a reel-to-reel very close to the stage and picks up the concert in astonishing detail. The only negative about this recording is the loud bass being a bit too high in the mix. It never overpowers the other instruments and one can make the claim this is the best recorded show from the 1972 spring tour. There is a cut after “Money” and at 1:22 in “Us & Them”, between each of the tracks during the second half and a cut and fade between 19:15 to 19:18 in “Echoes”.
The first transfers of this tape were missing “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”, but the final song of the show is present from the newer tape source and is complete on this release. The first half of the show is devoted to the material from Eclipse which wouldn’t be familiar with the audience for another year when it would be released on Dark Side Of The Moon. The tape begins right at the opening heartbeats and the audience cheers along with the synthesizer effects before the band crash into “Breathe”, sounding very close to the final version. The following “Travel Section” is the Wright/Gilmour jam section they would play all year. Some collectors argue that this fits the atmosphere of the suite much better than ”On The Run”. The jam session is a lot of fun to listen to, but the organised chaos of the VCS3 in an innovative classic that expresses more movement than conventional instruments are able to. “Time” is missing the giant buzzing clocks and Wright’s singing on the “lying supine in the sunshine” interludes are very clear.
The tape of Malcom Muggeridge is very loud during ”The Mortality Sequence” while Wright plays chord progressions similar to “Celestial Voices” from “A Saucerful Of Secrets”. The coin sounds are different at the beginning of “Money” and the band have a hard time synching up with it properly. They make an attempt, but eventually just turn the sound effects off. Gilmour sings the melody line similar to how Waters sings it on the acoustic demo (”Get a good job with more pay and you’re okay” in particular). Wright plays a keyboard solo in place of the saxophone in later versions. “Us & Them” is particularly slow and majestic in this recording and the band follow with the finale of the suite. “Any Colour You Like” (or “Scat” as it was called at this time) is a six minute Gilmour driven piece.
During “Eclipse” someone banging on a wooden block is audible in the mix and there is audience applause after the line “rearrange me ’till I’m sane”. Overall it is an effective if slightly tired performance of the piece by the band. The second half of the show features two songs from their latest album Meddle and two older numbers. The first song is one of the heavier versions of ”One Of These Days” on tape. This one almost brings down the roof. “Echoes” is the second Meddle song played and received the loudest ovation of the evening. During the seabirds section someone keep shouting out “Pink Floyd … Pink Floyd” for some strange reason. Before the encore Waters says: ”…come next time. Thank you all for coming” before introducing “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”. Thirteen minutes of pure psychedelic explorations close the evening. Chicago 1972 is a great release on the Siréne label and one of their best overall.
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Pink Floyd
Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL
1972-04-28
Superb DSOTM from Low-Gen Reel to Reel 16 bit
FLAC
Original Notes:
This is perhaps the nicest early performance this guy has ever had the pleasure to hear. As I think this tops both the Hollywood Bowl and Rainbow concerts from the same year, why do I say that? This show is so good it makes you float. The boys are relaxed and into it - I mean *really* into it, and it shows from beginning to end. The recording is also almost as good as it gets for an audience tape.
Dark Side Of The Moon (47:37)
Speak To Me
Breathe
On The Run
Time
The Great Gig In The Sky
Money
Us And Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse
Lineage:
BASF reel ->Sound Forge ->(-)16.7 cents speed correction ->gap repairs (hopefully all done) ->track splitup ->Flac via Flac Frontend, level 6, sectors aligned and verified
Enjoy!
Many thanks to Doinker for uploading this marvellous 'Dark Side' performance.
It is a huge sonic improvement on the original Harvested release (RevA includes the entire concert),
In listening I thought there were a few things in the recording I wanted to adjust for myself, including:
i) A stereo image consistently off to the left, which I found distracting, especially on headphones.
It probably reflects the positioning of the taper within the hall. I reckon he was seated to the left side, close to the stage. Thus he would naturally have swivelled slightly right to face the stage. When he did, he'd have the audience around him and in front, but more weighted to the right. He'd also have the closest main speaker stacks above his left side and the Floyd's surround-sound stacks behind and to the right. I think he aimed his stereo mic towards the visual focus, the stage, and thus captured the left-dominant stereo field we hear on this recording.
Changing this is an aesthetic matter. The taper's positioning was not ideal, and no adjustment will make it so. However by simply shifting the phase alignment of the channels, I have duplicated what this recording would have sounded like if the taper had pointed his mic at the acoustic focus, the primary speaker stacks, and captured the music stereo centre. It does shift the audience a bit off to the right, and some of the multi-channel speakers too, but for me, this actually brings out the 'surround' feel of the tape effects a little better. You can certainly discern the tape effects from what comes from the musicians play on stage (eg: Speak To Me).
Note also at the end of 'Money', when (I'm guessing) it sounds as though the front PA dies, leaving audio coming from the stage itself and the surround stacks.
ii) Balancing the equalisation to lift the lower frequencies, adding 'body' to the sound and a bit more punch in the bass.
iii) Repairing numerous small dropouts and some larger glitches. No critique of Doinker, who may have corrected even worse problems (and said 'hopefully all done'), but there were quite a few in 'Breathe' and from 'Brain Damage' on, including some bad clunks in 'Eclipse'.
There were a few comments on Doinker's torrent suggesting these improvements would be appreciated, so having prepared this remaster for myself, I thought I would offer up the results for others. Here it is now, with Doinker's approval.
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