Who,The Who/WA,USA 1976 Upgrade

The Who’s 1976 US tour is not only the period when JEMS is best at excavating, but also the last live tour when Keith Moon was alive, and above all, the year when The Who reached the peak of their popularity in the US. In the past few years, JEMS has released the Largo 2 and Jacksonville performances online, respectively as “LARGO 1976” and “JACKSONVILLE 1976”, the latter of which is especially fresh in our memory. However, less than half a year after Jacksonville, JEMS released a new 1976 US recording. This time it was in Seattle on March 25th. Moreover, the venue was the Seattle Center Coliseum, which is well known for ZEP. It seemed that JEMS’ recent excavations had been focused on the August leg, but it’s been a long time since the release of an item from the March leg, which was the starting point of the 1976 US tour. Speaking of items capturing the stage in March, there is the Anaheim performance of “WHO’S ON FIRST”, which was reprinted with a meticulous remaster of the famous analog at the show a few days before Seattle, and “BOSTON 1976” recorded by Dan Lampinski, which has been sold out for a long time now, and since then, this is the first release of the March tour sound source. As for the Seattle sound source this time, B-class sound quality audience recordings have been circulating among traders, and it has not attracted much attention. It is only because JEMS has excavated it this time, and it is a new source that boasts excellent quality despite being a mono recording, and although the sound quality tends to have an atmosphere similar to Jacksonville, it boasts a more direct texture and a closer sound image. The most attractive thing about this recording is that it captures the drumming of Keith Moon, who is in top form, with a powerful texture. It is not just the level of backing for the performance, but the drumming that fills the space of that space resonates in the Center Coliseum, which is a masterpiece. In fact, the original sound source had a tendency to blur the overall sound image due to John’s bass being mixed in, but as a result of applying equalization to suppress that, the power of Keith’s drumming was preserved while the performance and Roger’s vocals were made to stand out more. And yet, the finish maintains a very clear sound quality and naturalness, guaranteeing an absolute listening comfort. Not only that, the original sound source was low and the pitch fluctuations, which were seen everywhere, were perfectly adjusted. By the way, in Jacksonville, there was a negative point that the recording ended immediately after the start of the finale “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, but this time the tape ended in the second half of “See Me Feel Me”, “Summertime Blues” was not included, and recording started again from the second half of “My Generation Blues”. However, the best performance content throughout the day is more than enough to ignore such deficiencies. While the previous Anaheim concert was rated as a “Nice Show” by the mania site “BABA O’RILEY’S BOOTLEG SITE,” this Seattle Center Coliseum concert was rated as a “Great Show.” The secret to this is, of course, Keith’s excellent drumming throughout the entire show, as mentioned earlier. The March tour also started with a major blunder in Boston, where he got drunk on the first day of the tour and fainted after just two songs. That’s why Keith’s drumming here is as sharp as if he had woken up. The first peak of the day, which further proves his great form, is John’s song “My Wife.” In the interlude, Pete encourages Keith with a different chord cutting solo than usual, and Keith responds to it, and the scene where the two of them climb up the passage together and then return to singing is so good that it gives you goosebumps. Another factor that made the show great that day was the wonderful performance of the shortened “TOMMY” set, a specialty from 1975 to 1976. “TOMMY”, which was originally very popular in the United States, was revived the previous year as a shortened version following the screening and hit of the movie version. The good thing about the March tour is that this shortened “TOMMY” set was carefully performed. In Jacksonville and Largo, which were the sound sources from the August leg of the “Whirlwind Tour”, which only had four performances, it was clear that Pete, the author, was starting to get tired of having to play “TOMMY” again. For example, the parts he sings in “Acid Queen” are sung much more seriously this time, and at the end of “I’m Free” on the first day of Largo, Pete even stumbled (he said the line “How can we follow?” in an unreliable voice). It was Keith who further enlivened the shortened “TOMMY” set in Seattle, which was full of such spirit and vitality. Perhaps he was too engrossed in the drums, but it’s interesting to hear his unusual performance of not going wild much on “Fiddle About” that day. Although it’s a mono recording and can’t match the stereo Lampinski quality, the heavy and solid sound quality vividly conveys the high-voltage performance of the Who, including Keith, making it a superb audience recording. Without a doubt, a new masterpiece of the 1976 tour has been born here. And yet, the performance is just amazing (Roger seemed to have a bad cold, but he sang with no sign of it at all), and this is a masterpiece without exaggeration! Live at Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA. USA 25th March 1976 Disc 1 (45:24) 1. Intro 2. I Can’t Explain 3. Substitute 4. My Wife 5. Baba O’Riley 6. Squeeze Box 7. Behind Blue Eyes 8. Dreaming From the Waist 9. Magic Bus Disc 2 (39:36) 1. MC 2. Amazing Journey 3. Sparks 4. The Acid Queen 5. Fiddle About 6. Pinball Wizard 7. I’m Free 8. Tommy’s Holiday Camp 9. We’re Not Gonna Take It 10. See Me, Feel Me 11. My Generation 12. Won’t Get Fooled Again ★Fixed slow and randomly out-of-tune pitches.