Pacific National Exhibition (Misterclaudel mccd-032)
Venue : Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA – August 21, 1964
Venue : Empire Stadium, Vancouver, BC, Canada – August 22, 1964
Review:
Empire Stadium, Vancouver, Canada – August 22nd, 1964: Introduction, Twist & Shout, You Can’t Do That, All My Loving, She Loves You, Things We Said Today, Roll Over Beethoven, Can’t Buy Me Love, If I Fell, Boys, A Hard Day’s Night, Long Tall Sally
Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA – August 21st, 1964: Introduction, Twist & Shout, You Can’t Do That, All My Loving, She Loves You, Things We Said Today, Roll Over Beethoven, Can’t Buy Me Love, If I Fell, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Boys, A Hard Day’s Night, Long Tall Sally
Pacific National Exhibition presents two Beatles concerts from the very beginning of their first proper US tour in 1964. The trek began on August 19th in San Francisco and these two shows are the fourth and fifth. The previous stops have not been taped (so far as we know), so these tapes are the earliest documents available for this important point in Beatlemainia.
The Vancouver tape comes from an inline soundboard recording that is of good quality. The instruments are very distorted and disturbing and there are volume fluctuations throughout. By the middle of the set the tape becomes noticeably clearer, but the distortion is always present. The band sound a bit stiff in the opening numbers, but warm up with “She Loves You” with several giggles from John by the end. The new, more subdued song “Things We Said To Today” is received well and “Roll Over Beethoven” causes such a reaction that an mc interrupts the show to tell the crowd that two people have ready been crushed and to move back or else the show will be canceled.
The show continues with Paul introducing “Can’t Buy Me Love”. George changes guitars for “If I Fell” which almost falls apart in the middle with the band singing out of tune and laughing throughout. The mc interrupts John before “Hard Day’s Night” to again tell the crowd to move back or the show will be canceled. The show proceeds smoothly from there on out and despite the slow start this is a very good concert with fun Little Richard impersonations in “Long Tall Sally”.
The second show on this release is from the previous evening in Seattle. Like most live tapes of the Beatles live it is a more accurate representation of Beatlemainia rather than the Beatles. The band is barely audible on the tape. But that’s okay because they were barely audible at the venue too. The taper is far from the stage and captures a lot of crowd reactions and screaming girls. Their reactions are so random, it seems, that I wonder exactly what they are reacting to. The set list is the same as Vancouver with the exception of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and this release is commended because the complete show is present. Older versions of the tape cut out after four seconds of “Boys” but Misterclaudel have the entire track plus “Hard Day’s Night” and “Long Tall Sally”. An interesting article about this show can be found here. Pacific National Exhibition is tastefully packaged as usual for this label and is worth having for the Vancouver show at least. (GS)
