Jethro Tull
Ian Anderson- flute and vocals
Martin Barre- guitar
John Evan- keyboards
Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond- bass
Barriemore Barlow- drums
Springfield Civic Center
Springfield, Mass. U.S.A.
September 27, 1973
performance quality: A-
recording quality: B (not bad for this era)
source: audience tape 1st gen.
a tullnut production.
runtime: 101:59
setlist:
disc 1: 71:14

1: a passion play (part I) 28:26
2: the hare who lost his spectacles 4:04
3: a passion play (part II) 1:24
4: my god (cuts in) 5:21 (some flaws in source recording, just in this track)
5: short keyboard solo > a passion play (part III) 15:50
6: thick as a brick (end cuts neat end) 14:12
7: thick as a brick (tail end) 1:54

disc 2: 30:45

8: cross-eyed Mary 3:46
9: no rehearsal > 1:28
10: thick as a brick (part 2) >
drum solo 9:47
8: jam > 218 babies 6:25
9: aqualung 9:17
(this is a seamless recording which also means gapless)

comments:
I was having (yet another) jones for some passion in my stereo
and happened upon this one which isn't quite as "high-fi" as
the Seattle one but it sounded better thasn I remembered. I
haven't played the tape much, it does have a bit of a problem
in "my god" but some of the good things about this recording
are what it doesn't have. Not much crowd noise, not much tape noise
and no cuts in the Passion Play parts at all. (My hats off to any taper
who can do that.). there isn't alot of fidelity either, not a great
mike for this but it's a pretty clean recording, just a few seconds
of the beginning of my god are cut and that's the only track with
any noticable flaws in the recording, not too bad. there is also a
tape flip cut during thick as a brick, near the end of track 6. If
you prefer a better time balance of discs, you could start disc 2
with track 6, that would work fine as a disc break point too.
noteworthy in this show, is during a quiet part near the beginning
of the Passion Play later part (track 5 here) someone hollers out
"Speed it up" and Ian hollers out I'll speed it up when I'm f*ckin
ready to speed it up!" (and gets a nice round of applause for that)
and manage to maintain the flow of this magnificent piece of music.
This was the second to last stop on the Passion Play U.S. 73 tour.
Apparently this wasn't a full length show (maybe there was an opening
act for this?) because there is no locomotive medley finale. Unless that
is missing from the recording, this is pretty close to the whole show.
Both my faded memory and other accounts say they played 2 shows in Boston.
I had thought those were on the 27th and 28th, but I got this from
a taper in that area (Western Mass.) and he was sure it is from Springfield.
I am pretty sure he's right about date/venue/city on this one. They only
played 1 Springfield show. So either they played 2 in Boston on the 28th and 29th,
or just one on the 28th. I'm pretty sure the one I saw was the last show of
the tour, and they played two shows in Boston on the TAAB tour, and every
time after that until at least 1977 (maybe 78 too?). Save for the one prick,
the crowd was pretty well behaved at this show, there's a few comments and
occassional change of clarity from people passing in front of the mikes
but nothing drastic. It's not a great, but I would say a decent Passion Play
recording, so here it is. If you want to say thanks, and have a Passion Play show
of comparable or better sound, please post it. this is one of my favorite tours,
and just a day or 2 before one of the greatest concerts I ever saw. (by anyone).
Do not sell this recording.
real passion cannot be bought or sold.
(not even in Springfield, Mass.)
Trade freely and losslessly.
Share the passion.
we've been deprived of it long enough.

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