John Cale 1979-03-08 Phase III, Pittsburgh, PA 97m VG+

[schnittstelle]

John Cale 1979-03-08 Phase III, Pittsburgh, PA 97m VG+ (Audience "master")

John Cale

Phase III
Pittsburgh, PA (Swissvale)
3/8/79

1-01 bass solo
1-02 Mercenaries (Ready For War)
1-03 Baby You Know
1-04 Casey at the Bat
1-05 Don't Know Why She Came
1-06 Ripple in the Blue Danube
1-07 Evidence
1-08 I'm Waiting For The Man (cut)

2-01 Fear Is A Man's Best Friend
2-02 Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
2-03 Dirty Ass Rock And Roll
2-04 Leaving It Up To You
2-05 Heartbreak Hotel
2-06 Encore Break
2-07 Chorale (aborted - Cale berates soundman and walks off)
2-08 Crowd
2-09 Pablo Picasso

Total time - 97 minutes (CD 1 = Side A of the cassette, CD 2 = Side B plus the rest of the show from cassette 2)

Quality - VG/VG+

Lineage - master cassette (Panasonic stereo recorder, TDK D-90s) > speed-corrected dub (original recorder to TEAC deck, AGFA c-90s) > SOundforge > TLH

While this is not technically from the master cassette, it's from the lowest generation possible. I found out later that the Panasonic recorder I'd borrowed to tape the show ran noticably faster than my TEAC cassette deck (and others that I tried it on), so I re-borrowed the recorder and copied all of them at the correct speed for my gear. In the process, I used a stand-alone graphic equalizer to take some of the mid-range out and brighten up the sound. Needless to say if I had been able to see 30 years into the future I would have kept all of the original tapes unaltered. And if I hadn't been a poor college student I would have been able to buy more blanks and I wouldn't have felt the need to record over the originals. Oh well. So this is as close as it gets to the master recording of this show.

The p.a. was supplied by the opening act Resistance, a very good local hard rock bar band (heavy on the AC/DC). They probably weren't the best band to open for Cale by a long shot, but they did have the best p.a. available. It sounds like Cale struggles with the monitors on and off throughout the show and things finally come to a head during the first attempt at an encore - no doubt frustrated by the terribly offkey vocals and blaming the monitors, he aborts the song, chews out the soundman (very colorfully, I might add) and storms off the stage. After a couple of minutes of confusion and calls to "Kill the soundman!" Cale returns with an apology and plays a scorching "Pablo Picasso". I left after that, assuming he was done, but I was told that he came back later and played another encore. As far as I know, this is the only recording of the show that has turned up. The review from a local fanzine mentions that he played "Guts" - maybe that was the additional encore that
I missed.

MK 0012


at DaD