Seattle 1975 – The Hammer Of The Gods (Eat A Peach EAT 200/1/2/3)
Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA – March 21, 1975
Disc 1 (58:47) Introduction, Rock And Roll, Sick Again, Over The Hills And Far Away, In My Time Of Dying, The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song, Kashmir
Disc 2 (47:34) No Quarter, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Trampled Under Foot / Gallows Pole
Disc 3 (69:32) Moby Dick, Dazed And Confused / For What It’s Worth / Woodstock / I Shot The Sheriff
Disc 4 (45:17) Stairway To Heaven, Whole Lotta Love / The Crunge, Black Dog, Communication Breakdown, Heartbreaker
Certainly one of the highlights of 2017 was the release of the soundboard recording from Led Zeppelin’s beloved Seattle March 21, 1975 concert. The release by Empress Valley was dubbed Deus Ex Machina (Empress Valley Supreme Disc EVSD 999-1006) and came in three different multi CD sets containing both SB and audience sources, a great way to celebrate 15 years of their incredible “Soundboard Revolution” series. The soundboard portion was copied, as usual, as Deus Ex Machina (Eelgrass 20265-268) and gave collectors the ability to get the soundboard portion of the show at a reasonable price.
The Empress Valley and Eelgrass sets both contain the soundboard only, now the Eat A Peach label jumps into the fray and offer an amalgamation of both soundboard and audience sources to provide a more complete version of the historic concert. First off let’s evaluate the soundboard portion of the show. When compared to Empress Valley, the new Peach title is just a bit lower in volume, the cymbals are not as harsh sounding and the bass has also been toned back slightly, this is a very nice sounding version.
Eat A Peach has completely re tracked the soundboard so the overlapping from disc to disc is not perfect but much better. The audience patches start with a two source edit for the introduction. I like the intro, no lighted material, no smoking and all you people who can’t see, plenty of good seats behind the stage. The intro is mainly the first source with just a bit of the second for “The American Return”, sadly the label did not address the cut in Moby Dick. The next gap is 18 seconds after Dazed at the end of the third disc as well as the first 28 seconds of the fourth disc. Finally there is 25 seconds between Stairway and Whole Lotta Love and 22 seconds after Heartbreaker, the splices are seamless and well handled. Overall a very nice version of this concert, the mastering and packaging is up to the typically high Peach standards.
The packaging is mini LP jacket with a classic shot of Page and Plant superimposed over shot of the Seattle Center Coliseum, very nice picture that also shows the shoreline waterfront. Each disc has its own sleeve and all are adorned with various shots of the band from the 1975 tour and the CD’s have the cover picture of the venue on them, each one has a different color hue though. There is an insert with liner notes from The Rover as well, typically nice packaging as one expects from the label. As I write this I see that EV has released a deluxe box set of the Vancouver shows with their version of the Seattle show with the audience sources edited in. For all those who want a great and affordable version of this concert, this release by Eat A Peach is a great one to own.
10 Comments
Thanks very much for this helpful review. I only have just the Eelgrass version of this show, and I’ve been considering possibly upgrading to the inexpensive Moonchild version, which I’m not sure but apparently could be pretty much an identical copy of this Godfather version, but it may not be much of an upgrade, and thus not worth it. This review makes it seem that the Eelgrass version is missing very little, if any at all, actual music, but just a couple or few minutes or so of mostly audience noise, etc. in between songs…correct? Could anybody please either confirm or refute?
Anyone feel this release lacks the dynamic range of the original EV release?
This release does not lack anything, it’s just not as loud as EV.
Compared to Night of the Long Knives this release has more warmth to the sound, not much difference though. The sound quality is outstanding even for outstanding 1975 releases. Just about as in your face and raw as you are likely to hear Led Zeppelin. Outstanding show, outstanding sound, outstandingly outstanding in its overall outstandingness.
This sounds like a MONO soundboard to me. Was the EV/Eelgrass really in STEREO?
No, every sbd is in mono or, to be more precise, every sbd is a narrow-stereo mix that can be heard only when theramin battle in Whole Lotta Love and/or tympani solo in Moby Dick. These sbd’s are from so called PA systems so what you hear is exactly of what people were listen while being on the show.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_address_system
It differs from multi-tracks, where each track is separately mixed up and, in the way of favor each other, or not, may be either more exposed in the mix.
I meant Trampled Underfoot, my bad !
Gallows Pole is the typical lyrical tease during In My Time Of Dying, a common occurrence during the 1975 tour
Gallows Pole on Seattle 3/21/75 Eat a Peach label setlist ?
Moby Dick isn’t cut, it’s an interference.