Joe Walsh
Borgata Event Center
Atlantic City, NJ, USA
August 4, 2007

Taper: Lou
Location: Section C, Row U, Seat 8 (dead center, approx. 50 feet back from soundboard)

Lineage: AT8533x mics>beyerdynamic MV 100 preamp>Edirol R-09>WAV @ 24 bit/48 Khz>Goldwave volume boost (+4.5dB left, +7.0dB right)> WAV @ 24 bit/48 Khz>CDWave & WaveCat>WAV@ 24 bit/48 Khz>dBpowerAmp>FLAC(level 8)
File Size: 983 MB

Quality: A-
Total Time: 83:43

1. A Life Of Illusion 5:04
2. Indian Summer 4:27
3. Pretty Maids All In A Row 5:05
4. Welcome To The Club 6:34
5. Ordinary Average Guy 5:48
6. In The City 5:20
7. Meadows 3:02
8. At The Station 2:18
9. Meadows (reprise) 2:31
10. The Bomber 8:07
11. Walk Away 4:22
12. Turn To Stone 9:01
13. Bruce Willis Intro 1:49
14. Funk #49 4:13
15. Life's Been Good 9:06
16. Rocky Mountain Way 6:57

Notes:
Pretty good audience recording, and much better than the Rush show I recorded on 07/06/07 thanks to borrowed external mics and pre-amp. The Borgata is a hassle-free place to see a show, so there were no worries bringing in the gear. The raw wave files were a little quiet, with the right channel being softer than the left, so I increased the volume on both sides as loud as possible without clipping, except for a few claps by audience members. There was a little too much talking around me for my liking, especially in the beginning, but there's nothing you can do about that.

In my opinion, this was an excellent show but for the fact it was too damn short. For that reason, I have to dock it some points. It seemed like the show was practically over after "Turn To Stone." The performance was impeccable. Joe sounded great. His backing band--which consisted of a rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, two drummers, a keyboardist and one male and two female backup singers--were at an equally high level. The sound was very warm and rich. All it needed was one more song to get an A-, and two more songs to get an A. I would have liked to hear "Over and Over" somewhere in there, and "All Night Long" as a second encore. But oh well.

The show started out great with lots of surprises. The first two songs featured Joe on acoustic guitar, with his rhythm guitarist taking over electric guitar lead. I certainly did not expect such an introduction. Die-hards were rewarded with a superb rendition of "Indian Summer." Joe then played keyboard lead for "Pretty Maids All In A Row," and again his rhythm guitarist took electric guitar lead. While I don't care for that song, it's still cool that he did a deep Eagles cut like that, to fill out a very unorthodox start to the show.

Then came the "electric part of the show" as Joe put it. "Welcome to the Club" was a treat after a very long hiatus from his setlists. Then came three standards for his solo shows--the always hilarious "Ordinary Average Guy," "In The City" and "Meadows." "Meadows" featured a huge surprise with the song abruptly transitioning into the deep solo cut "At The Station," and then transitioned back into the last verse of "Meadows." After that came two standard James Gang cuts, and then the solo setlist staple "Turn to Stone."

The last surprise was Joe calling out Bruce Willis, whose band opened, to perform the harmonica during "Funk #49." That was definitely a unique moment, seeing Joe Walsh and Bruce Willis jamming on stage. Once "Funk #49" was played, I knew it was only radio hits until the end. And I was right, with the predictable, though great songs, "Life's Been Good" and "Rocky Mountain Way." "Life's Been Good" featured the funny variation "I watch the Lakers, they stink without Shaq" in lieu of "I lock the doors in case I'm attacked." "Rocky Mountain Way" featured the line change "bases are loaded and Bush is at bat," which he also did last year on the James Gang reunion tour. I really did think Joe would come out again and perform "All Night Long," a song he has closed with many times, but not this night. C'mon Joe, ten more minutes!

I'd also just like to mention that the average age of this crowd was about 50. Too bad that younger generations aren't into Joe Walsh, unlike other classic rockers such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd which attract all generations. Joe Walsh is the most underrated classic rock and roll artist EVER.

FFP, shntool results, and scan of my ticket are included.

Oh yeah, PLEASE SHARE ANY JOE WALSH YOU HAVE!!!!!

Credits:
Thanks to K.D. for lending me the mics and pre-amp.