|  | To the left of the entrance of Symphony Hall in Boston, across from the Christian Science Mother Church and diagonal from the highly respected Jordan Hall (where, believe it or not, Lou Reed and The Tots rocked out in the early 1970s), Jim Morrison caused mayhem at the Boston Arena (which is now Matthews Arena, the oldest ice hockey rink in the world! See Wikipedia for details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthews_Arena ) Now this particular album, a beautiful and quite deluxe 3 CD set, has had its critics and gets slammed quite a bit, but those heretics don't know what they are talking about, The Doors At The Boston Arena is a truly exquisite document of a great rock band in all its ragged glory. | Playback's Kevin O'Hare notes that " Boston authorities finally cut the power at the end of the second show", which I sort of kind of remember hearing about (which is why I scouted the info out on the web) and you can hear nine minutes and fifteen seconds of just audience (something Yoko Ono would intentionally put on one of her records is added to this to make it a pure document of the event) - and for archivists that like to explore their favorite groups, heck, this is just what the doctor ordered. "Light My Fire" has Jim performing Gershwin (by way of his friend Janis Joplin) with renditions of "Summertime" and "Fever" (take that Peggy Lee...and The McCoys) and though he is allegedly hammered out of his mind, these are subtle readings with Robbie Kriegers essential "Light My Fire" guitar lines dripping within and without - getting into Jim's act somewhat by also playing some phrases from The Sound of Music's "My Favorite Things". The sixteen page booklet is gorgeous with photos of the poster, a ticket stub, the tape boxes and commentary from Bruce Botnick (who produced, recorded and mixed it all) as well as Krieger & Manzarek with a line from Densmore too. Years after Paul Rothchild helped established the band with his production style and Botnick picked up the slack by helping to craft the masterpiece that is L.A. Woman, these live performances give the fans the music they crave. "Been Down So Long" is a revelation because the immaculate recording on L.A. Woman is deconstructed here to marvelous effect. This review is just of disc three, the rest of the album is drawn out and lovely as well and is an essential piece of the Doors puzzle...damn the critics who just didn't get it. Joe Viglione 5:32 PM Tuesday April 21, 2009 |
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 | Please note. Because so many discs are flying into the mailbox I'm going to be logging them here in no particular order for March & April of 2009. The "Top 40" is now published on http://www.gemmzine.com Gemm Magazine - so go there also for the monthly listings.
Thanks JV |
| Scott Couper (Bass, Guitar, Vocals) and Jay Couper (Production, engineering, drums) have been a formidable duo ever since Richard Nolan of Third Rail discovered them back in the early 1 |  |
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