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Look at macr0w's pic....
FRANK ZAPPA AND THE MOTHERS Dallas, TX 1974
band: FZ, George Duke, Bruce Fowler, Chester Thompson, Ralph Humphries, Ruth Underwood (pretty much the Roxie and Elsewhere lineup.)
I had just graduated from highschool which made the whole world mighty sweet, but they also played to half of Memorial Auditorium. The stage was set in the middle of the arena floor and they played to half of the seating. For 1974 it was stellar sounding. I can recall it being FZ's blue Tychobrae cabs and a Tychobrae console. The F.O.H. position was against the back wall of the arena floor, so I could look down and see what they had. I recall seeing Frank's Sculley 4 track running and recording it all.
V.S.O.P. TOUR UC Berkeley at the Hurst bandshell
band: Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams
The vibe was electric and while standing at my usual spot near the F.O.H. position I looked over to see Carlos Santana standing next to me. He was just walking throught the crowd and stopped right next to where I was standing... I was cool... didn't say a word. I also recall getting to peep into the Record Plant's recording truck. I asked, "Can I just look inside?" Interestingly enough the Shpere mic pre/EQ racked pair sitting right in front of me this very moment has QuadEight output trannys that probebly came from that same console!
LORD TRACY at the Stage Stop Fraser (Memphis), Tennessee June 12th 2004
This was the band that I toured with and recorded with for six yerars from 1986 until 1992. They were on MCA and only had one album release (CDs and an LP!) but they could rock better than any band I've ever seen or heard... plus they are my musical soulmates.
After THIRTEEN years everyone decided to play a few gigs again and the club where they spawned the whole thing was the perfect spot. It was a sold out crowd in a smallish, stinking, beer-joint/rock-n-roll club ( one of the best ever and I am an expert on this subject by default!) The stacks and racks were twenty year old JBLs and Crown, but they brought in a 40 channel Soundcraft M2 series. It was loud and I only run a 120 msec. and 224 msec. DDL on the vocals for FX, so.....
The crowd was half local and half 30 to 40-ish ex-fans who had treked to see them again. Everything kicked off and it was perfect. During about the third song the whole band, the crowd and myself experienced a transcendental moment. Suddenly everything was 1990. It was sppoky. Time is relevent!
The band played one of their best sets ever (same material and set list!)
It was like they had been playing night after night and they were still hungry.
One of the reasons that they still sounded so good was because they believed and lived what they played. Nothing was contrived. This is also why they only had one release on a major label! Pure fun rock-n-roll played for the hell of it is hard to market these days without a gimmick!
Danny Brown
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