Ever since I got their Black Sabbath release, I have been on the lookout for more records by AVA Editions. I didn’t see anything interesting until a couple months ago when a pre-order started popping up for Live at the Kezar Stadium, and I knew I had to pick it up. I kept putting off pre-ordering it, though, and finally bought one the day of the release. I’m pretty sure this is another one of those licensed unofficial recordings, because a lot more mainstream record stores than usual are seeming to have this one in stock. In essence, this would mean the release of an audio recording that was paid for, but not an official entry into the bands catalogue.
Part of the reason I didn’t pre-order this one right away was because the price seemed to keep fluctuating, and the release date kept being pushed back. On the day it finally did come out, some retailers started charging double for a while. Then, inexplicably, the prices started to come back down again. I ended up ordering mine from a well-known dealer in the UK, and I got it with lightning speed. It’s been a while since I have reviewed Zeppelin on here, so I was pretty excited to give this a listen.
Right away, I noticed that what came in the package was kind of different from the advertisement photos. In the ads, the records themselves were kind of sky blue (specifically advertised as “light blue”, as I recall) and they looked very cool. What we ended up with is a standard dark blue, transparent record. They still look nice, but I have to admit the difference was a little disappointing. Otherwise, these are nice heavy LP’s. Mine came flat with no visible issues. The labels are full color and have the track listing on one side and a photo on the other. I did notice that “Misty Mountain Hop” is incorrectly titled as “Misty Mountain Hope”, but didn’t catch any other typos.
The packaging itself is pretty cool and is of good quality. I’d say it’s consistent with the Black Sabbath release they did earlier this year. This set comes in a tri-fold sleeve with high quality printing and hype-sticker. Readers may have noticed that in most of my photos, I’m one of those people who tend to keep the shrink wrap on my records. This keeps them nice and lets you keep the hype sticker intact, but it also prevents you from opening gatefolds all the way. In this case, the way the jacket is folded requires you to remove all the wrap to get the discs out. Luckily, the hype sticker came off easily and I was able to transfer it to the new storage sleeve.
This is a hand-numbered edition, though I can’t find any information on how many were made in total. By looking at some numbers other people got, and taking an educated guess, I would say the actual number is probably 1,000 copies. As a cool extra, we get a reproduction poster from the actual show. I thought this was a nice touch, and it adds some value to the overall package. If typical bootleggers were to put something like this out, it would be two to three times the price compared to what AVA Editions is charging. I imagine being a semi-legitimate company makes it easier for these guys to put out higher quality releases than we normally see in a market like this, and at pretty decent prices.
As far as the audio goes, there seems to be some major disagreements about where the source actually comes from. According to the back of the jacket, this was “originally broadcast on KMPX-FM, the full set is presented here in excellent fidelity, together with background notes and images.” The part about the background notes and images checks out, but the other two claims are dubious at best. This is, as far as I can tell, the “full set” (more on that in a moment). However, I’m very skeptical about this being a radio broadcast. Either it’s a fairly decent audience recording, or a fairly terrible FM broadcast. Either way, I would not call this “high fidelity”.
Whatever it is, this recording is quite low volume, and the tape hum can be heard plainly in a lot of places. I feel like this could have been fairly easily cleaned up without sacrificing much, if any quality, but they just didn’t do it. Another thing worth mentioning is that the edits between sides are very abrupt. When one side is over, the song just cuts out, which is a little shocking if you’ve gotten into the show. Once again, I feel like this could have been smoothened out a little bit with little to no effort.
I’ve been reading some short reviews that have been left for this set, and it seems like a lot of people are disappointed. Apparently, some people have been buying this under the impression that since the cover looks nice, that this must be some sort of long lost official live recording. I can assure you that it is not. I think that AVA could have been a little more transparent with the fact that this is (probably) an audience recording. Also, claiming it was “high-fidelity” was a guarantee that more than a few people were going to end up disappointed.
Live Recording – Kezar Stadium – San Francisco, CA USA – 2nd June, 1973
A1 Hashish Commercial – KMPX Intro – Rock And Roll
A2 Celebration Day
A3 Black Dog
A4 Over The Hills And Far Away
A5 Misty Mountain Hop
B1 Since I’ve Been Loving You
B2 No Quarter
B3 The Song Remains The Same
C1 The Rain Song
C2 Dazed And Confused – Guitar Solo
D1 Dazed And Confused – Reprise
D2 Stairway To Heaven
E1 Moby Dick – Drum Solo – Reprise
F1 Heartbreaker
F2 Whole Lotta Love – Medley – Reprise
F3 Communication Breakdown
F4 The Ocean
The set starts out with a radio commercial, apparently from KPMX, warning people not to smoke hash. We then get into the record, which is interrupted repeatedly throughout the show for radio station identification. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen in the middle of the music, but it’s still very annoying. Despite this fact, this really, really sounds like an audience recording to me. It’s a perfectly acceptable listen, but it’s not up to FM radio standards. Even though I can’t explain why they’d do it, I guess it’s possible that someone added the radio bits in separately. In any case, the consensus is that there are way better versions of this show out there. The Godfather Records CD would be a good place to start if you want to track one down, and several other sources are available on YouTube as well.
So, what about the show? I’m going to be honest here and just tell you right up front that this is not one of my favorites Led Zeppelin performances. The set list is good, but I would say the performance on this occasion is just okay. It certainly doesn’t stick out to me as a “legendary” show by any means. I can also say that it’s a prime example of why I don’t mind edited shows, and sometime prefer them. One of the first questions I always see asked is whether or not a release is a full show, and then if it’s not, many people automatically discount it. I certainly get the appeal of wanting the full experience, but only when the show deserves it. For me, this just wasn’t the case here.
When I hear a performance like Live at the Kezar Stadium, it really makes me wonder what Robert Plant, and sometimes even Jimmy Page, was doing for half of the show. This is a very long set, and for up to a literal half hour at a time, there are no vocals happening. I can only assume that Page and Plant left the stage during “Moby Dick”, which clocks in at over thirty minutes in length. I imagine some people probably disagree, but anything over three minutes is way too long for a drum solo. Even if you are John Bonham or Keith Moon. Additionally, this particular 30-minute drum solo (which takes up an entire side of an LP by the way), just isn’t very good. Partially, that’s because no matter how talented you are, being interesting solo on the drums for 30 minutes is pretty much an impossible task. The most shocking part was that the audience was quiet through the entire thing. Listening to “Moby Dick” definitely made me feel that everyone understood that a certain portion of the show was going to be filler.
Speaking of filler, I kind of got the same feeling during “Dazed and Confused”. The song is so long in this instance, that it’s separated into two tracks. I love hearing Jimmy Page play guitar solos, but once again, it’s really hard to be interesting as a solo player for such an extended period of time. When they band is actually playing recognizable portions of songs, it’s a good listen. There are better versions of the songs and better all around shows out there, but even this performance has its good moments.
Even with all its problems, I would say this is still worth picking up. It’s a nice package and a good value. Overall, I think it’s worth listening to at least once. I enjoyed parts of it, but I don’t think I’ll be going back to it, myself. For the Zeppelin collector, I think this is something you’ll definitely want to have. If you are mainly looking for the best quality version of this particular show you can find though, I think you might be better off looking for a CD or the FLAC files. Probably from another source. All of this stuff is out there, you just have to look for it.
Packing and presentation-wise, I would give Live at the Kezar Stadium an 8/10. I think AVA should have been a little clearer about where the audio source is from, and probably should have displayed that info on the hype sticker. I am also deducting some points since the discs were a different color than what was stated in the advertisement. Even with this being the case, the pressing itself is a solid 10/10. My copy is flat and silent. As far as that portion goes, I’d have to say well done. Whether or not this will be a good addition to your collection is going to come down to personal preference. At this price, I think it’s worth the risk to check it out.