City: | Madison, WI, USA |
Venue: | Dane County Coliseum |
Date: | January 14, 1977 |
Presumed setlist: | A Day At The Races overture, Tie Your Mother Down, Ogre Battle, Sweet Lady, White Queen, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, The Millionaire Waltz, You're My Best Friend, Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Brighton Rock, '39, You Take My Breath Away, White Man, The Prophet's Song, Bohemian Rhapsody, Stone Cold Crazy, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited, Now I'm Here, Big Spender, Jailhouse Rock, God Save The Queen |
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Freddie takes a lot of liberties with the melodies, especially in the first few songs (one of which is Sweet Lady, which would soon be moved to a later spot in the setlist). They haven't yet worked out the harmonies on "I try and I try" in Somebody To Love, and he nails the part on his own. A great version, in only its second performance. Considering how they've said they were nervous doing it the first few times, they sound great here. On some tours they were sloppy the first few nights, but here they're pretty well spotless. Freddie's doesn't have all of his range, but he still sings very confidently and dynamically (although he's a bit conservative in White Man). Not nearly as bad as Richfield a week later. Their front of house tech doesn't have the backing vocals properly dialed in for Killer Queen, but he sorts it out by You're My Best Friend where they blend marvellously. Brian plays some lovely bluesy lines in the heavy section of The Millionaire Waltz. Considering how complex the three new songs to the set are, they're all played well. Freddie introduces Brian after a fantastic and well-paced Brighton Rock solo, and an audience member (as heard on the recording) speaks for the rest of the ten thousand on hand - "fuck yeah!" Also interesting is how Brian gives the same speech for '39 as he did at Hyde Park, but is cool as a cucumber compared to how nervous he was there. Roger sings his line in the middle section about as well as he ever would. Freddie takes requests after The Prophet's Song. "Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke? We gave that up years ago!" Instead they launch into their biggest hit, Bohemian Rhapsody - a wise choice after the ten-minute piece that preceded it. By the last few songs they're into their rhythm and tear the roof off the place. The first six pictures were taken during the opening song for this tour, Tie Your Mother Down. Pictures 4 and 5 particularly were taken during the guitar solo. Here is a review from the next day's Wisconsin Daily Journal. Interesting how one of Brian May's biggest influences, skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan, is mentioned. |
Recording length: | 78 minutes (2 CD, incomplete) | |
Quality: | B+ | |
Source: | Audience | |
Lineage: | AUD > ? > .m4a > WAV (Adobe Audition adjustments) > FLAC level 8 (lossy sourced) | |
Track listing: | A Day At The Races overture, Tie Your Mother Down, Ogre Battle [cut], Sweet Lady, White Queen, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, The Millionaire Waltz, You're My Best Friend, Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Brighton Rock, '39, You Take My Breath Away, White Man [cut], The Prophet's Song, Bohemian Rhapsody, Stone Cold Crazy, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar [cut] | |
The taper let out a lossy copy in 2022, which seems to be a first gen backup as Somebody To Love was cut at the end of side A and then starts again from beginning on side B. There is periodic tape warble. Freddie throws his tambourine into the audience near the end of Keep Yourself Alive, and it lands near the taper. It sounds like a couple audience members fight over it and it ends up being damaged, but the one person relents and says "it's yours." Cheap Trick's opening set was also taped. A few songs in, Robin Zander speaks of his love for the main act: "Queen are better than ever." |