Max Webster
North York, ON, Canada
A.Y. Jackson Secondary School
September 17, 1976


Previously uncirculated, this is an excellent sounding stereo soundboard tape of Max Webster playing a high school gig - a common occurrence for rock bands in the period, as these shows paid better than bars and you could have a full light show (this school in particular, named after one of the painters of the collective Group of Seven, was once attended by Alex Lifeson).

The 77-minute recording is crystal clear, although clearly missing a few songs (both at the beginning because Lily is the last song of the first set, and at least one after "Context" as evidenced by Kim introducing the next song as a Watkinson composition). At one point Kim openly states how happy they are to be doing a high school instead of a smoky bar - truly a snapshot of a bygone era.

This is the earliest known recording of Rain Child, and it has a noticeably different arrangement from the eventual studio version. The gain level goes up for In Context of the Moon, but is thankfully corrected pretty quickly (note: this has been cleaned up a bit with a simple gain adjustment in iZotope, but the distortion still remains.)

Paul Kersey's solo spot, Sunday Morning Cereal, is also heard here for the last time on recording.

This is the mastered version - a "flat transfer" is also available. Thanks to beyondthemoon for running this through iZotope and doing a fabulous job as usual.


SBD > Master Cassette (TDK SD C-90) > WAV 24/48 (Adobe Audition speed correction, tracking, downsampling, iZotope RX gain adjustment) > FLAC 16/44 level 8

(transfer: Sony TC WE-475 > Scarlett Focusrite interface > Pro Tools)


Lineup:

Kim Mitchell - guitar & lead vocals
Terry Watkinson - keyboards & vocals
Mike Tilka - bass & vocals
Paul Kersey - drums


More info:

https://maxwebsterlive.ca/1976-09-17-toronto


01 Rain Child [cuts in] 4:39
02 Diamonds Diamonds 4:51
03 Lily 9:00
04 Here Among the Cats 3:18
05 Sunday Morning Cereal [cuts in] 5:06
06 In Context of the Moon [cut after song] 5:29
07 Oh War! 4:36
08 America's Veins 4:36
09 Summer's Up [cuts in, tape flip after song] 1:29
10 Only Your Nose Knows 4:55
11 Words to Words 4:55
12 Toronto Tontos 10:47
13 Hangover [cut after song] 9:36
14 High Class in Borrowed Shoes 3:55

Total Time: 1:17:18


Enjoy, and please keep it lossless (and don't bootleg this - particularly rockinconcerts.com; if you are the person who runs that website, you are pure scum).

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

Images for this show: