« Back to Top Level | Boston

Boston - Party At Stadium 1979 (1979)

Track listing:
  1. Rock & Roll Band 3:43
  2. Help Me 4:00
  3. Peace Of Mind 4:54
  4. Feelin' Satisfied 4:43
  5. Don't Look Back 5:34
  6. The Journey 1:52
  7. More Than A Feeling Instrumenta 9:10
  8. A Man I'll Never Be 6:41
  9. Smokin' Guitar Solo 12:31
  10. This Time 5:15
  11. Foreplay 2:50
  12. Long Time 6:45
  13. Something About You 3:20
  14. Party 4:05

Notes

Live East Rutherford, NJ - Jun.17.1979

Holy crap!! It's true. After all these years we finally have a soundboard from the "Don't Look Back" tour. How did this happen? Where did it come from? Who cares? haha! Party at Stadium 1979 is the first and only soundboard recording to come out of this tour. The sound is the highlight, but there's more to this boot. However, it's not perfect.

The band had been performing together now for several years and they were tight this night. Their performance is energetic yet refined. Like Journey Through the Past, the set on this show is somewhat short. Dang! Why can't the first and only soundboard from this tour have the long set? Oh well. It's understandable since this was a stadium festival. And it does have most of the usual highlights including some unreleased tracks - "Shattered Images", "This Time", and an early version of "Get Organ-ized". Still, my favorite moment in the show is the superb performance of Brad in "A Man I'll Never Be" which is even more enjoyable. But enough about the set, what about the sound?

As expected, the sound quality of this show is awesome. From the first note of that guitar in "Rock & Roll Band" it's obvious that you are listening to something special. In fact, it's like hearing them again for the very first time. You can hear so many more details and nuances that go unnoticed in all the audience recordings. I was blown away by the crisp raw energy of Tom's guitar intro on "Peace of Mind". And the full instrumentation in "A Man I'll Never Be" is just beautiful and crystal clear. You can clearly hear the pop of Fran's bass and the snap of Sib's snare drum, which is usually buried in the audience recordings. But before I go too far, I must warn you that it is not perfect. Something funky is happening with the auto gain circuit and it can at times be distracting. But it's still very enjoyable to listen to. And it's a great mix.

Last thing you'd want with a boot with sound so good is to get cheap, lame-o artwork. Fortunately, the artwork is just about perfect and everything you'd hope for and expect in a quality live bootleg. There are plenty of interesting shots of the band performing live back in the day. Many shots were new to me.

If you've read this far, I would be surprised if you haven't already started looking to buy this boot. I would have gotten as far as "soundboard" before making up my mind. Great artwork, great sound - it's a great all around boot. Not perfect, but close enough, and easily the best boot from the '78/'79 tour.