James Gang - Allen Theater Cleveland Ohio (2001-02-26) SBD or FM

This recording sounds like a soundboard or FM source, likely ripped from disc at some point, a clean and well balanced mix. Audience recordings of the previous two nights have previously been seeded, but this is apparently new to DIME. Set list is similar to the other two, but includes Albert King's "Personal Manager" instead of "You're Gonna Need Me".

The files as I acquired them generally had cuts in the applause at the end of each song, followed by a gap of a few dozen milliseconds, then about 4 seconds of lower level crowd noise that would *almost* splice cleanly into the beginning of the next track. I converted the cuts to brief fades, and spliced the quiet bits onto the beginning of the next tune where the match was sufficiently close. Other than this editing, I did no signal processing of any kind. Oh yeah, at the very end, some prerecorded piano music appeared, so I faded the final applause before that point.

As mentioned earliewr, this sounds like a very clean soundboard or FM source. There *is* signal content above 15 kHz (the FM broadcast limit), but frequency analysis shows some suspicious discontinuities between 8 and 9 kHz, as if someone generated harmonics of lower frequencies and mixed them in above 8kHz to brighten a source tape deficient in highs. You can easily spot this in the spectral view of certain areas, and see a definite +6 dB step at 8.4 kHz in frequency analysis. (It's easier to notice with a Linear frequency axis than Logarithmic.) At what point this signal processing occurred, and by whom, is a mystery, but to be absolutely fair, the recording sounds really good, and not at all "unnatural" to my ears. A sample is appended.

Moreover, the performance is excellent. Full marks to Joe, Dale & Jimmy for pulling off the classic James Gang material with minimal assistance from backing musicians. I fully understand why mature musicians hire additional backup singers, guitarists, keyboardists, wind and persussion players to present classic repertoire effectively, but it's great to hear a trio, the original band, deliver the goods with aplomb, and sound like they're having fun doing it. (Really, the keyboard parts are minimal and non-obtrusive.)

01 - Walk Away (4:27)
02 - Midnight Man (3:36)
03 - Take A Look Around (6:06)
04 - Asshton Park (2:45)
05 - The Bomber (7:38) *Closet Queen/Bolero/Cast Your Fate To The Wind*
06 - Garden Gate (3:56)
07 - Collage (4:36)
08 - Ashes The Rain And I (3:31)
09 - Tend My Garden (7:13)
10 - Stop (4:22)
11 - Personal Manager (5:39) (Albert King)
12 - Lost Woman (9:45) (Yardbirds)
13 - Funk #49 (4:46)
14 - Rocky Mountain Way (6:21)

Joe Walsh - Guitars & Vocals
Dale Peters - Bass & Vocals
Jimmy Fox - Drums & Vocals

Mark Avsec - Keyboards


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