Something Old Something Blue (Dog N Cat DAC-002)
Candlestick Park, San Francisco, CA – October 18th, 1981
Disc 1: Take The A Train, Under My Thumb, When The Whip Comes Down, Let’s Spend The Night Together, Shattered, Neighbors, Black Limousine, Just My Imagination, Twenty Flight Rock, Let Me Go, Time Is On My Side, Beast Of Burden, Waiting On A Friend, Let It Bleed
Disc 2: You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Little T & A, Tumbling Dice, Band introductions, She’s So Cold, All Down The Line, Hang Fire, Star Star, Miss You, Start Me Up, Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar, Jumping Jack Flash, Satisfaction (with Tower of Power)
When VGP announced last August that they were closing down the label, it was stated that they were merely reorganizing themselves and will come back as another label. The past couple of weeks we’ve seen the results of this with the new Dog N Cat label. The first couple of releases focus upon soundboards of the Tattoo You 1981 tour that have been circulating thanks to a collector who has thankfully opened his vaults. It has also been claimed that the collector has stopped releasing the soundboards because of VGP (although only the second Philadelphia soundboard was released). Perhaps these releases are the source of the concern?
Politics aside the DAC label picks up right where VGP left off. The quality artwork, the printing and layout are all the same as before. What we have here on Something Old Something Blue is another very good to excellent soundboard. All of the instruments are nice and clear with the audience sounding distant. Mick plays MC keeping the show going at a brisk pace and having fun with the audience. He reminds the crowd that Candlestick Park was the site of the last Beatles concert, calling it useless trivia under his breath. The performance is very good building up to the finale with an astonishing string of classics. The encore “Satisfaction” comes from a mediocre sounding audience recording.
As good as this release is I’m not completely happy with it. Unlike Empress Valley’s Seattle Supersonic, Dog N Cat has used some mastering on the tape. It sounds more compressed and there is a slight metallic sound in the background more apparent in the quieter moments. Further there is slight radio interference in the mix at certain points. Probably security at the venue. Overall this is a nice release. The mastering job done on the tape isn’t enough to detract from the music, and certainly isn’t as bad as other releases I’ve listened to. This is an auspicious beginning for this new Stones label and let’s hope they produce more quality releases in the future.
