Pontiac 1977 (Graf Zeppelin LZSC-430A/B/C)
Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, Michigan, USA – April 30, 1977
Disc 1 (68:19) Introduction, The Song Remains The Same, The Rover Intro / Sick Again, Nobody’s Fault But Mine, In My Time Of Dying, Since I’ve Been Loving You, No Quarter
Disc 2 (47:01) MC, Ten Years Gone, The Battle Of Evermore, Going To California, Black Country Woman, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, White Summer, Black Mountain Side, Kashmir
Disc 3 (64:16) MC, Out On The Tiles / Moby Dick, Guitar Solo, Achilles Last Stand, Stairway To Heaven, Rock And Roll, Trampled Under Foot
In November 2021 The Dogs Of Doom released an upgrade of the famous Pontiac Silverdome April 30, 1977 recording from an unknown generation tape taken from the collection of Bill B. as part of their “Non Liberation Series”. The singular recording from the massive Pontiac gig is a distant yet very atmospheric recording that does capture the event in listenable quality. For many years there was only one release of this recording, Hot Rods In Pontiac (The Diagrams of Led Zeppelin TDOLZ-13) released in 1996 by the excellent TDOLZ label. More recently the Lighthouse and Empress Valley labels have given us Pontiac Silverdome 1977 (No Label) and Sitting On A Goldmine: Pontiac 1977 (Empress Valley Supreme Disc EVSD-1079/1080/1081), both being improvements over the older title. Now with this upgrade a couple more titles have hit the shops, Sitting On A Goldmine (Empress Valley Supreme Disc EVSD-1557/1558/1559), Pontiac Silverdome 1977 Upgrade (No Label) and this new title from Graf Zeppelin all featuring this new upgrade.
This new version of the recording is a very nice upgrade, the hiss level is pretty much the same but the music itself is louder and the frequency range is much improved providing more depth and separation of instruments. When one listens to this new Graf title versus the No Label, I find the No Label to be somewhat thin sounding. This upgraded sound provides a much clearer and cleaner sound that provides a more detailed experience. This version of the tape is also a bit longer, we now have the coda of Bonzo’s Over The Top / Moby Dick solo so about 1:40 of the recording we did not have before, thankfully it is music. This upgrade in sound helps to push this recording up a couple notches, while the recording overall still falls into the good range but at times it now reaches the very good range. Graf Zeppelin also provides a quality transfer and their usual excellent mastering to this set making it the best version on the market.
The packaging is very nice as well. As many fans know, The Dogs of Doom are a multi media outlet, not only do they seek out new and upgraded audio but have also released visual media as well, video and photographic. Just a week after releasing the audio upgrade they released a batch of 219 black and white photographs of the event. These candid shots provide an overview of the day, a group of friends preparing for the concert, some showing the parking lot and pre and post concert shots of the interior as well as a plethora during the concert that give one a completely different perspective of the stage set up. Many of these photos are found within the inserts of this title, the rear tray interior has six of these, there is a two sided insert with an additional 15 shots. The front cover and front interior tray as well as the CD’s all feature the professional photographs from this event. Excellent performance certainly one of the best from 1977, excellent packaging, and upgrade sound. The perfect package.
