As I was working on my essay regarding the YesWest legacy as it pertains to audio/video of live performance, I dug deep into my collection of bootlegs and thus an idea for a new series was born, but one which directly relates to my Collector's Corner series, so consider it an offshoot if you care about that sort of thing. My focus for the inaugural entry is Trevor's 1989 club tour.
-Trevor Rabin, at every gig he played in 1989.
Back when the remastered edition of Live In L.A. was released, my review of the album contained historical commentary on the tour as a whole. However, at the time I had compared the official recording with my copy of the Boston show, rather than all the recordings I have, so I missed a few details which I thought would be interesting to mention now. My main point in this entry is: for those fans interested in live recordings, you're not getting the entire experience from Live In L.A. It is certainly the best-quality recording in all aspects and the one which Trevor is satisfied with in terms of presentation, but I would recommend for those who want to hear - and (for those lucky enough to originally attend) relive - the complete set they should seek out a copy of the Boston show; as a radio broadcast it is the best available of those in circulation. And hearing the entire show gives fans a chance to truly experience Trevor as the focus of a performance, which many of us have never known in our long relationship with Trevor's career. It is wall-to-wall guitar goodness - which we at least possess a tangible document of in the form of Live In L.A. - at the arguable peak of his Rock God powers.
In Toronto, Trevor asked the audience if he looked okay in his polka-dot suit.
- Before the entrance music which the band played (the introduction to "Lift Me Up"), a section of "The Cape" was played over the PA. The way in which the Boston show is edited you can't hear it, but I have audience recordings from other dates which include this portion. I'm assuming it was played as the lights went down.
- I find it interesting that the portion of "Birdland" in "Sorrow (Your Heart)" is not noted in the credits of Live In L.A.; one would think that these days, due to the ubiquitous use of sampling/interpolation, that the copyright acknowledgement wouldn't have been overlooked.
- I stated Trevor had the audience sing along with "Owner" at every date, and that's not correct. I tend to think it depended on the audience. It appears he was battling a cold during the entire tour (so we can assume, as noted by Mark Mancina, that Trevor's infamous demand for "More brandy!" was strictly a medicinal request), and makes mention of it several times in the recordings I have, but if the energy level of the audience seemed to be lacking he didn't necessarily encourage them to sing along. Thus I have a couple versions of the song with Trevor singing a step down for his register, which isn't bad, but it seems to me the band as a whole should have tried to get every audience involved. But knowing the Los Angeles show was being recorded I think it was important to Trevor not only to capture the energy of the audience in the recording, but also to avoid straining his voice or doing less than his best - which he acknowledges in the liner notes interview.
- There are backing vocal tapes used - which is something YesWest did for every tour as well - which doesn't detract from his own songs in which they're used: "Cover Up," "Sorrow (Your Heart)," "Eyes Of Love," and "Something To Hold On To" but I can't help but wonder if the budget could have allowed for an extra vocalist. According to at least one interview conducted prior to the club tour, originally Trevor planned to include former bandmate Duncan Faure in his band, who would have provided great harmonies for the songs chosen. I also believe that either a backing vocal tape or an augmented mix was used in "Love Will Find A Way." This practice does not strike me as disingenuous so much as emphasizes how committed Trevor was to presenting the particular sound of the songs even given the vagaries of live performance.
- I would imagine that compared to every other date - even Los Angeles - the Boston audience was insane, chanting Trevor's name at several points, for example. They also performed every audience participatory thing they could. That is another reason why I would recommend this recording, although it's known that Boston audiences are rowdy in general. Their energy level really bolsters the band's mood in my estimation, resulting in a kick-ass gig overall.
- As Trevor notes in the liner notes interview for the reissue of Live In L.A., the version of "Solly's Beard" is not from the performance at The Roxy, and that's a shame because the renditions of his acoustic solo piece were interesting and evolving with each gig. Placed at the mid-point of the setlist, he lengthened it and incorporated various new elements. For example, in San Diego he teased the intro to "Love Will Find A Way." And as I've mentioned previously, his introduction was hilarious.
- Which brings me to my next point: by not including a lot of the stage patter, you really miss out on appreciating Trevor's sense of humor. It tends to be evident in most interviews he gives, but he never really had the chance to show it onstage with YesWest, so it's fun to hear him make quips between songs.
- Speaking of talking, an interesting thing about audience recordings is you usually get to hear random bits of conversation in the crowd, and on the Toronto recording, one of the attendees correctly identified "You Know Something I Don't Know" as a song which had been considered for 90125 but then dropped from the running order. And this was in 1989, proving that the original demos have been in circulation for a very long time.
- I imagine any number of fans have noticed this one...in an interesting act of self-censorship, Trevor altered a line in "Heard You Cry Wolf" (going from "hope to God that no one'll find you" to "hope to goodness") and one wonders if he might have believed invoking the G-word would have been potentially offensive, but given the demographic of attendees I tend to think no one would have minded. The choice of this song - my favorite from Wolf - remains one of the high points of these shows for me, it's so wonderfully performed, illustrating what a great song it is overall in Trevor's solo catalog.
- "On the drums - Buddy Love, the Scheiße Haus, Mr. Lou Molino!" Everyone has their favorite track on Live In L.A, and for me it's "Sludge." As I noted in my essay "Fusion Furor" it's an absolutely audacious performance, and from the versions I have in my collection, the boys managed to bring it every single night. But given the format in which the recording was eventually released, I don't get why Lou's epic three minutes-and-change drum solo was edited down to 30 seconds. I don't believe it would have necessarily impacted the flow of the recording overall, and hey - isn't that what live shows are for?!
In keeping with my ongoing argument/advocacy for further curating and preservation of Trevor's legacy overall, I daresay that - even with a warts-and-all release - allowing fans to have a complete record of this tour is important, and would be a gracious gesture to the fanbase who continue to love this era of Trevor's career and provided positive support as it occurred.
