Pat Metheny Group
Fox Theater
Detroit, Michigan
1986-11-09

Pat Metheny-Electric and Acoustic Guitars, guitar synthesizers
Lyle Mays-Piano, keys
Steve Rodby-Bass
Paul Wertico-Drums, percussion
David Blamires, vocals, guitar, percussion, mellophone, flugelhorn, melodica, recorder, vibraphone,
marimba, glockenspiel, autoharp
Nana Vasconcelos-vocals & Percussion

jswetch source/lineage-2011 DIME share of aud recording (lineage for that is pasted in below)> EAC> Audacity> TLH> DIME
ledwhofloyd lineage- speed correction using matlab, (as detailed in text below)

01-Phase Dance 7:21
02-Naked Moon 5:08
03-Tell It All 9:03
04-James 4:53
05-Change Of Heart 6:39
06-Daulton Lee 5:59
07-The First Circle (tape flip) 8:40
08-Pat speaks 2:39
09-Scrap Metal 8:51
10-Farmer's Trust 5:55
11-Goodbye 6:53
12-Straight On Red 9:51
13-Are You Going With Me? (tape change) 10:03
14-The Fields, The Sky 4:46
15-Chris 3:49
16-Letter From Home 2:43
17-Untitled ** 14:52
18-Jaco 3:53
19-...Pat band outros (tape flip) 2:17
20-San Lorenzo 15:00
21-American Garage 3:35

"** A long, melody-less, spacey, sound effects-laden tone poem, from which some sounds
(clocks ticking, etc.) would be taken for use in "Half-Life Of Absolution" later on.


The Pat Metheny Group only played shows during 1986 in the months of October and November. The PMG had toured quite extensively for some time behind the First Circle recording up to the end of 1985. Pat had devoted much of 1986 to other playing formats including 2 trios, a "Special" Quartet with Ernie Watts, and the Song X group with Ornette Coleman. According to Marc Morvan's PMDB, there are only 4 recordings that have circulated from the 1986 PMG shows, and here's one of them. This was recorded by Rob Mullen, and he'd shared it here over 15 years ago for its only run. Thanks to Rob for recording the show, and for that share, which is now getting some new life via this 2026 remaster.
Nana Vasconcelos was back onstage with the group during these 1986 shows for the first time since 1982, and these shows marked the first appearances by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist David Blamires, who would continue to work with Pat up through the Secret Story album. The material performed in these shows includes a few things from then current PMG albums, First Circle and the soundtrack to Falcon and the Snowman. A few other things looked farther back to when Nana was a regular, and there are also a few pieces that would appear on future Metheny Group albums, but, interestingly, nothing from Still Life (Talking), which would be the next Group project.
Rob Mullen had indicated in his notes that this was his first recording with a particular recorder and mics. The dynamics in most of Pat's shows can be quite extreme, and Rob admitted to changing his levels during the show. That had generally meant that sections of the songs from Phase Dance up through Scrap Metal were often a bit overdriven. In prepping this new share, efforts were made using tools in Audacity to mitigate those issues, but that section of the show will still occasionally sound a bit rough. Small amounts of music are also missing around the tape flips indicated above. That said, much of the show still presents a fine opportunity to enjoy hearing this particular, short-lived version of the PMG. Be sure to check the samples below to get a realistic sense of what you'll be hearing.
Ross (ledwhofloyd) stepped in to help with the pitch/speed side of things using matlab, as he usually does for such tasks. In his message accompanying the files coming back to me, he said:

"There were 3 tape cuts and I found the speed within the 4 sections to be constant enough to use constant adjustment factors, so it was pretty simple to fix. Tracks 1-6 were 1.8% fast, tracks 7-12 were 2.05% fast, tracks 13-18 were 2.05% fast and tracks 19-21 were 2.0% fast. (I) also phase corrected the channel alignment by 3-4 samples."

Finally, I also just found that I do have a 2nd show from this 1986 PMG tour. It's from 2 days prior to this in Oshkosh, WI. That too hasn't run in quite some time, and it didn't suffer from some of the sonic irregularities that affect parts of this show. If there's interest in that show too, let me know in a comment or PM. Many thanks to Ross for his help with this, and to goody who also helpfully weighed in with some thoughts and info along the way. Thanks again to Rob Mullen for recording and sharing this in the first place, and for being open to the new work being done to his original work.

Rob's source info and some notes are pasted in below:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Recorded & Transferred By: Robert Mullen (lvrwm)
Source: Master Audience Cassettes
Equipment/Lineage: 2 Dak 5245 Mics>Sony D6C Portable Stereo Cassette Recorder>Master
Cassettes (TDK SA-X90's)>Yamaha Natural Sound Cassette Deck K-902>CD Wave Editor(tracking)>
Traders Little Helper(flac level 8).

Comments: Here is my first recording with my Sony D6C Recorder and Dak 5245 Mics. I did
not use the Dolby B or C encoding for this recording. We were sitting, with 3-4 empty rows
in front of us, directly behind the soundboard. When Pat and the Band came out from the
public entrance and marched up to the stage from the theater aisles, I wasn't sure what
was going on, and did not begin recording until they started "Phase Dance" on stage...
thus missing "Forward March". Crowd noise was very minimal and the music sounded great
from this location. The recording came out well, with the first few tracks being a little
"hot" at times during the very loud points. I corrected this as the show progressed.
This show features an interesting early (untitled) versions of Change Of Heart and Scrap
Metal. Enjoy!