Avalon Ballroom San Francisco 1966 1

'Classic' Live QMS 1966

Of the thousands of CD`s I own this is perhaps the worst. The recording quality is so poor it is painful to listen to. Don`t waste your money on this disservice to a fine old group. JT

Sound quality for this unreleased vintage live Quicksilver Messenger Service CD definitely could've been better - but considering the age of this live recording, I thought that 'Live At The Avalon Ballroom' deserved a three-and-a-half star rating. Thoroughly enjoyed the jamming - their (apparently) live standard "Mona" as well as the interesting-sounding "If You Live, Your Time Will Come", "Dandelion", the wailing "Codeine" and the show's closer "Pride Of Man". Line-up: Gary Duncan - guitar, David Freiberg - bass & vocals, John Cipollina - guitar, Jim Murray - guitar & vocals and Greg Elmore - drums. Others have commented that this specific QMS live offering is like a good quality bootleg. I would go with that.

Since Amazon has both the October and November shows reviews merged, I've written reviews for both by date which are sold separately. 9-9-66: First, about the sound quality: it's on par with an audience recording for the time but a fairly good one as everything sounds fairly balanced. If you're expecting a professional recording or a soundboard, you're going to be very disappointed but if you've listened to a lot of boots, then the quality won't shock you too much and the performance is good. The band line up at this time was: John, Gary, David and Greg with Jim Murray who left shortly before the band recorded it's first album. The disc itself starts out with a radio spot advertising who's going to be playing at the Avalon Ballroom that weekend. the show starts with Stand By Me which is NOT the Ben E. King song but a song written by Dino Valenti. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You sounds like one of the better versions and Hamilton Camp's Pride Of Man is very strong. Howlin' Wolf's Smokestack Lightning is delivered in fine fashion as is Buffy Sainte-Marie's Codeine. Gold And Silver is cut short here but the disc ends with a nice Hoochie Coochie Man. Combined with the radio ad, this release actually comes across a bit more successful as a historical document. Listen to the radio ad and then imagine yourself at the Avalon Ballroom that weekend. 10-28-66: This show has somewhat better sound quality as it is a soundboard although it does also have problems and isn't what you'd call "pristine". The show opens with a band introduction as the band jumps into a smoking version of Mona that has some knockout playing. Jim takes over for a take on Mose Allison's If You Live Your Time Will Come. The following Smokestack Lightning is it's usual powerful self. Dandelion and a cover of Del Shannon's Runaway are pleasant surprises while Buffy Sainte-Marie's Codeine and Hamilton Camp's Pride of Man are both very well done.

don't waste any money on this, the sound quality is so poor,that even as a real lover of the messenger service I can't listen to this. since the playing time is short enough they could easily put 2 on one CD,(as far as part one concerns)altough the playing of the QMS is not that bad this is just an attempt to cash in on old San Francisco nostalgia. Very disappointing.

Though historically interesting, these pretty low-fi live recordings won't bring you much listening pleasure I'm afraid!

sorry, ich gebe allen Tonträgern von Quicksilver Messenger Service 5 Sterne. Die Tonqualität ist in diesem Fall nicht das gelbe vom Ei, muss ich allen zustimmen. Ich sehe diese Band immer noch durch die "Rosarote" Brille und bin immer sehr Froh wenn wieder mal eine Aufnahme von QMS auftaucht. trotzdem viel Spass

Well, he asked to be corrected, and his analysis deserves it. The cd sound is excellent, again on a Hot Wacks standard. And the band plays good, and listening is a pleasure. Everyone can enjoy this cd. No Valenti here. The cd time is short, just a little more than 32 minutes. By the way, the last five songs on this cd were previously issued in 1987 on the QMS bootleg from Living Legend, "Live In San Francisco". Surprisingly, the bootleg's songs sound brighter despite advertised remastering on the "Live at the Avalon, September..." cd.

Leider eine sehr miese Überspielung von ursprünglich sehr interessanten Aufnahmen aus dem Avalon Ballroom. Meine alten privaten Aufnahmen von diesem gig sind merklich bessere Qualität und näher am master: Also Finger weg von dieser qualitativ fragwürdigen Veröffentlichung!