Masonic Temple (Wardour-068)
Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI – July 3rd, 1976 (late show)
Disc 1 (43:12): Sister Andrea, Oh Yeah?, Country And Eastern Music, Darkness – Earth In Search Of A Sun, You Know What I Mean, Scatterbrain
Disc 2 (40:40): Freeway Jam, Earth (Still Our Only Home), Diamond Dust, Full Moon Boogie, Sophie, Led Boots
Masonic Temple documents the Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group’s show at the Masonic Temple over the Bicentennial weekend. Wardour released the July 3rd early show several years ago on Sophie (Wardour-054) and this new release serves as a companion piece. The tape is an excellent sounding atmospheric and very enjoyable audience recording taped very close to the state. There is cut at 3:25 in “Freeway Jam” for a tape change, but otherwise the entire show is present.
Since this the July 4th weekend of the Bicentennial, the audience are fully of energy and are too happy to throw fireworks around he venue. At the beginning of the tape Jan Hammer comes onstage saying: “Good people of Detroit, it’s good to be back.” A loud explosion interrupts him and he responds: “I know it’s the fourth of July but this is ridiculous. Someone could get hurt. Listen, I know you’re all ready for Jeff. He’s gonna join us in a short while but in the meantime we’ve got some boogie for you.”
Starting with a gorgeous “Sister Andrea,” Jan Hammer plays four of his songs with his band. Detroit responds loudly for “Oh Yeah?” and the melodic “Country And Eastern Music.” Beck comes onstage during “Darkness – Earth In Search Of A Sun” and there is a tremendous applause and it leads into “You Know What I Mean.” Beck says: “Happy Birthday America….It’s your party.” Before leading them into a schizophrenic version of “Scatterbrain,” one of his more adventurous pieces which they are able to pull off live.
The second half of the show runs along smoothly with one of the better versions of “Diamond Dust” captured live. There is a funny exchange afterwards while Beck is introducing the next song. “This is a tune entitled ‘Full Moon Boogie.’ Rod Stewart? You’ve come to the wrong place. He’s not here tonight. I don’t think he is anyway, I can’t smell the perfume.” “Sophie” closes the set and a quick, heavy run through of “Led Boots” is the only encore. There are requests for “Going Down” shouted throughout the show but they were ignored. Masonic Templeis packaged in a slimline jewel case with excellent graphics duplicating the officially Live album released from this tour. Given the sound quality, this is another great Wardour release.
