Boston
Alpine Valley Music Theatre
East Troy, WI
August 9, 1987
Soundboard Recording via JEMS

JEMS Transfer: Soundboard cassette master > Nakamichi RX-505 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX10 Advanced and Ozone 9 > FLAC

01 Rock & Roll Band
02 Peace Of Mind
03 Long Time Segue >
04 Guitar Solo > Don't Look Back
05 The Journey
06 More Than A Feeling > Jam
07 Amanda
08 We're Ready
09 The Launch
10 Cool The Engines
11 My Destination
12 A New World
13 To Be A Man
14 I Think I Like It
15 Can'tcha Say (You Believe in Me) > Still in Love
16 Hollyann
17 Foreplay / Long Time
18 Feelin' Satisfied
19 Something About You
20 Used to Bad News (end cut)

Known Faults: Tape flip in the middle of "Cool The Engines"; end of "Used To Bad News," "Let Me Take You Home Tonight" and "Party" which end the show are missing.

It feels like time has been kind to Boston and what might have felt like an inorganic origin story now feels a whole lot more real than most of today's pop music.

For me it was always about the songs, and there's no denying the craft and brilliance of "More Than A Feeling" and "Don't Look Back." This excellent soundboard recording captures Boston on the third night of three at Alpine Valley (not to be confused with a recording of the first night that wouldn't be allowed on DIME) at the height of the band's return to the road on the Third Stage tour.

Sure the line-up had changed, but Tom Scholz and Brad Delp were the ones that started recording the first album together anyway, and the musicians who joined for this tour faithfully recreate the classic Boston sound.

Delp's vocals are truly remarkable here especially after performing three shows in a row. I also can't think of another show where a band plays their most popular song ("More Than A Feeling") as the sixth of the night. The master tape was a 90 minute cassette which explains why the last two and a half songs are MIA. But what did get preserved makes for excellent listening and captures the sound and spirt of Boston's 1987 return. Samples provided.

Thanks to those who helped liberate this recording, Professor Goody who made sure our pitch was right and mjk5510 who handled post production with his usual aplomb.

BK for JEMS