Southwest Sunset (Marshall 009A/B)
Veterans Memorial Complex, Phoenix, AZ – December 7th, 1971
Disc 1 (64:32): I Can’t Explain, Substitute, Summertime Blues, My Wife, Baba O’Riley, Bargain, Behind Blue Eyes, Won’t Get Fooled Again, Baby Don’t You Do It
Disc 2 (44:01): Magic Bus, Tommy, Pinball Wizard, See Me Feel Me Touch Me, Heal Me
The Who’s second ever show in Phoenix, Arizona, and first in four years, occurred two weeks into their second tour of the US in 1971. Southwest Sunset utilizes a very good to almost excellent audience recording of the show. It’s a tiny bit flat in dynamics, but very clear.
Unfortunately Marshall didn’t fix the speed on the tape, which runs extremely slow. Also, it’s incomplete, missing the final three songs “My Generation,” “Love is Coming Down” and “Naked Eye.”
A fan produced CDR called Phoenix Sunset was released in 2008 which corrects the speed and utilizes an alternate, albeit inferior, tape source for the latter three songs. A good silver label ought to reissue that production, or perhaps even improve upon it, because this is a fantastic and worthy gig.
Southwest Sunset is one to avoid. The off-pitch music makes this a real chore to listen to. Hopefully the no-label Who people, who have been quiet of late, will press onto silver the edited version of this concert and produce the definitive release of what sounds like a fantastic, devastating Who performance in Phoenix.
