Piper Club 2000, Viareggio, August 20, 1972

Piper Club 2000 Viareggio, Italy August 20, 1972
Early Show

Overall:

This is a mostly terrible sounding audience recording from the Foxtrot tour. Lots of hiss and distortion which is a shame, because the band sound in great form. The tape is also heavily edited, missing large swaths of Watcher of the Skies, Return of the Giant Hogweed, and The Knife. On the good side, there are rare perfmances of Can-Utility and the Coastliners and Harold The Barrel. From the genesis-movement's database, it looks like other recordings of this show exist. I would love to hear it.

Sound: * * 1/2
As mentioned above, there is a lot of hiss and distortion, particularly in the loud passages. I'm guessing the taper had weak batteries.

Mix: * * * *
Sometimes it can be hard to tell a good mix when the overall sound quaility is bad, but not here. During the best parts of the recording, it's easy to tell that there was a good, balanced mix going. Steve is especially audible here.

Performance: * * * * *
There's no doubt that the band were having a good night. It would be great if a better recording of this night were to surface.

Raw Notes:

1. Watcher of the Skies - Loud hiss. Recording starts late, at the last verse. Some distortion. Sounds like it was a good performance based on these last few minutes. Good crowd response. Then some considerable chatter. Peter introduces a song from the new LP called Foxtrot.

2. Can-utility and the Coastliners - "A translation of which is impossible". Long pause. This is a rare live recording of this song. Sings "All bent their knee" in higher register than on the album. Tony's Mellotron is in a good mood this night... sounds nice even over all the recording hiss. Curious glitch toward the end... sounds like about a half second of the tape was recorded over by another song. Very strong performance. Tony plays a brief organ riff from Salmacis before Pete introduces it. Crowd applauds mention of Nursery Cryme.

3. Fountain of Salmacis - Someone shushes the chatty crowd around the taper before the first notes. Mike's bass is very evident here. Another strong performance. The band were having a good night. Steve nails his riff going into "Away from me cold blooded woman". He can be heard quite well here. Good balanced mix. Pete still sings "ever still beneath the lake... somewhere." Crowd cheers! Man predicts Musical Box to his mates. Pete intro's Twilight Alehouse and translates the title into Italian. Introduces "Phillip Collins and his world famous triangle."

4. Twilight Alehouse - Crowd chats during quiet intro. Pete's vocal nearly disappears during the chorus. Perhaps his famous microphone technique? The distortion gets quite loud in this one. Gets a bit better in the long instrumental section. Picks up tempo a bit. Tony rocks on his pitch-bending organ in the finale. "Another from Foxtrot..."

5. Get 'Em Out By Friday - Another long pause. Peter hasn't started in with the stories yet. Extreme distortion for a moment. Guessing auto-levels picked in to save it. Good performance, but rough sound here. Crowd is fairly quiet during the "Genetic Control" section. Sings "Here is announcement...". Very different from the album. Hiss increases. Seems to be dodging the high notes. Batteries fading on the tape recorder.... music fades., then stops and jumps to.

6. Return of The Giant Hogweed - Last minute or so only. Shame, the band sounds like they were nailing it. Crowd starts to chant "Knife... Knife..."

7. The Knife - We get the intro, but gets cut off and goes to to quiet "Wanting freedom" section. More shredding from Steve audible above the din of distortion. Crowd is into it.

8. Harold the Barrel - Another rare performance. It's a shame the quality is so bad. Hiss increases again... music barely audible. Band does a little riff at the end instead of holding out "take a running juuuuuummp." Tape ends abruptly.