BRAND X (Jones, Pert, Robinson, Burgi) 1978-08-02 Paradise Rock Club, Boston, USA (reseed)

BRAND X
(Jones, Pert, Robinson, Burgi)
1978-08-02
(aug 2, 1978)
Paradise Rock Club
Boston, MA, USA

"MASQUES" - tour

source:
audience recording
Sony TC48 mono cassette deck (auto leveling) > TDK-AD cassettes > Soundforge 4.5 > flac
(I think there was an external mike used, not a very good one)

setlist, 2 shows:

cd1 - set1 79:16
01. Access To Data 26:16
02. The Ghost Of Mayfield Lodge 20:36
03. Deadly Nightshade (incl. perc solo & duet) 25:45
04. The Poke 6:38

cd2 - set2 72:09
01. The Ghost Of Mayfield Lodge > Earth Dance > The Ghost Of Mayfield Lodge 46:02
02. Deadly Nightshade [distorted] 26:07

total time 151:25 min.

lineup "The Bare Bones Quartet in Paradise":
Percy Jones - bass
Morris Pert - percussion (� 27 April 2010)
Peter Robinson - keyboards
Chuck Burgi - drums

cover artwork inside

comments:
This was my first time seeing Brand X live, except there was a problem, actually a few problems that made me almost never listen to this show. The most disturbing of
all (by far) is there's no guitar in this show at all, which is kinda like going to see Mahavishnu Orchestra and finding out, oh, John McLaughlin couldn't make it here
tonight. (I never had that happen) the John in Brand X (Goodsall) is almost as important to my interest in this band, and he was suffering too much from tendonitis to play at
all in these shows. (Boston would later get 2 more unusual Brand X 78 shows, both with guitar, more on that to come...). This was still a good performance, it's just really
weird hearing Brand X without a guitar in it, seems like something's missing. I've mentioned (in other torrent notes) who my 4 favorite drummers are- Percy Jones is one
of my 4 favorite bassists (Jonas Hellborg, Rick Laird and Jack Bruce are the 3 others) as far as knowing how to play. Morris Pert is always very good on percussion. This was
my 1st time seeing Mike Clark, who would turn up at several shows I saw later with various company. He's good, but when I was hoping to see Kenwood Dennard... well, that's
just plain unfair. (Brand X's 1977 Boston show was canned completely, the reasons I heard were that both the Paradise and Berklee P.C. stages were too small to fit the 1977 Brand
X stage set, I can believe that since they used a ton of percussion/equipment that year, far more than 78, and both those stages are not very big, but what a shame, Brand X
w/ Kenwood Dennard never made it to Boston, because somebody didn't bother to plan in advance with normal use of human brain function. Not for lack of interest, you can be sure!)
If not for all that I'd enjoy this show alot more. Most of the recording is clear, the 1st track of 2nd show is 2 long songs that run into each other. They do Ghost Of Mayfield Lodge in
1st show and Deadly Nightshade in both (that's the distorted one in 2nd show) and everything comes through well, but the last side of tape (last 25 min. aprx. of 2nd set) is distorted
in the loud parts, (still listenable, Pert's solo sounds as clear as anything in here, but the end of show sounds so bad it's comical, maybe from low batteries. Good thing there was no encore) .
The auto-leveller couldn't handle the loud parts in the last song. There should be no cuts at all but I fell asleep at the deck on this one- the flip cut is just seconds into track 3 in the
1st show, and I did flip for the second one but missed the 1st few seconds of deadly nightshade.
Trying to rewind the tape was probably a mistake with such low batteries, not to mention missing the beginning of the last song, even though it wasn't very far at all to rewind to the end of the
side. (I did this partly to help avoid the tape jamming in the deck after flipping.) When batteries are low one move like that can screw up the rest of the recording, which I discovered while making
this recording. The speed remains constant through the whole show. Not all decks are that kind with low batteries. (Sony rocks.) I've reduced most of the shuffling noises in this recording (mostly
in beginning before 1st song begins) but they still reveal the pure cheesiness of my microphone. (In the 1st 2 or 3 years I recorded shows, it was anybody's guess what mikes I would have available.
Sometimes good ones, sometimes whatever someone got with a cheap tape recorder and had no use for, which is what kind of mike was used for this. Maybe the lousiest mike I've ever used, but it did
a decent job (for a $2 no-name plastic microphone which is what I'd guess it went for). Decent enough for a Brand X fan/friend in Canada to say he thought this was an enjoyable recording.
Unless Brand X played a nude show somewhere, this has got to be the most stripped down Brand X show ever. No Phil. No Kenwood. No Goodsall, and no Mike Miller. Good thing Percy & Morris made it.
Bare bones equipment, bare bones Brand X concert. It all fit together, sort of. This is the 1st of 3 different versions of Brand X Boston got in 1978, to TRY and make up for 77 FIASCO. None
are the regular lineup, but both the others have guitar. (one has 2 guitars!). They're all coming. the original name I was going to give this concert was "Goodsalless and Coping" (groping just didn't
sound quite right) but who knows if anybody could cope with that in Brand X? I couldn't at the time. So it's the Bare Bones Quartet. It's not Brand X. Not really. Just kinda sorta. Half a Brand X,
recorded by a rookie recorder. (this was just past a year for me recording shows). rlouk and a few others have been patiently waiting for me to win router wrestling round so I can
share my Brand X shows. There are a few others along with my Boston 78 trilogy. 78 Brand X shows are rather rare, but for awhile there, it was all I ever got to hear. T
he waiting was the hardest part. Here they come, finally.

discography:
1977: 'Livestock' (#1+#5 were 77-Aug-5, #4 was 76-Sept , #2+#3 were 76-Sept, 77-Apr-23, or a studio recording )
1978: 'Masques'
1979: 'Product'
1980: 'Do They Hurt?'
1982: 'Is There Anything About?'
1992: 'X-Communication'
1996: 'Live at the Roxy L.A' (Los Angeles 1979-09-23)
1997: 'Manifest Destiny'
2000: 'Timeline' Chicago (1977-11-16 + New York 1993-06-21)
2003: 'Trilogy' (New York 1979-09-27)

links:
http://www.edensongs.com/recordings/BrandX_Performances.html
http://calyx.perso.neuf.fr/bands/chrono/brandx.html
http://planetgong.altervista.org/Brand_X.htm

more of BRAND X at
http://www.molvaer.de/best-of-the-rest.htm#B

last seed by KINEBEE on 2010-08-10 as torrent #316983
re-seeded by FBAUER 2015-10-04

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

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