Shoreline ’97 (4DF) 2CD

Shoreline ’97 2CD

Fearless / 4DaFunk
Catalog # 4DF
Release Year 2009
2CD Length 59:24 / 67:03
Date/Venue Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View 10th October 1997
Source Audience Recording
Quality EX-

Rating 4.5/5.0

Track Listing
Jam Of The Year Tour
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View 10th October 1997
Disc 1
1. DAT Intro 2. Jam Of The Year 3. Talkin’ Loud And Sayin’ Nothing 4. Let’s Work 5. Rock N’ Roll Is Alive (outro) 6. Purple Rain 7. Little Red Corvette 8. Get Yo Groove On (including Six) 9. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World 10. Face Down 11. A Case Of You 12. When You Were Mine 13. The Cross 14. One Of Us

Disc 2
1. Do Me, Baby (including Adore – Insatiable – Scandalous – How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore) 2. Sexy MF 3. If I Was Your Girlfriend 4. How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore (intro) 5. Diamonds And Pearls 6. The Beautiful Ones 7. Darling Nikki 8.Condition Of The Heart 9. Girls And Boys 10. How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore 11. Take Me With U 12. Raspberry Beret 13. Mr. Happy (outro) 14. Interlude 15. Soul Sacrifice (w/ Carlos Santana) 16. Sleep Around 17. Take The A-Train 18. Jam – (Eye Like) Funky Music 19. Baby I’m A Star 20. 1999

Comments
Fink's Comments (rates this release 4.5/5.0)
This show has been circulating for over a decade now on Sabotage's excellent 'Mountain View' release, so it's fairly familiar to anyone with an interest in this particular live period. This release is sourced from a completely different audience recording, and it's every bit as excellent as the Sabotage recording - even more so. As good as Sab's release was, a few vocal females close to the person recording made their presence known throughout. Thankfully there are no such problems on here and what we have is a more complete (the opening 'DAT Intro' on Sab's release was incomplete, along with a few minor edits during the show), more impressive audience recording.

The audience throughout are at a complete minimum, and the only time they begin to slightly overpower the recording is during 'Darling Nikki' when they roar their approval of Prince teasing the song, however it is 1 minute max and doesn't detract from the recordings overall excellence. Likewise, the opening few songs are excellent and impressive, but the recordings power really kicks up a notch during 'Rock N' Roll Is Alive' and it's from this point on that it's an almost flawless EX recording up until the encore. The guitar level during Santana's stint is maxed out and excessively loud, and during '(Eye Like) Funky Music, there is also a problem with the sound on stage being far too powerful.

Those small critiques aside, the main chunk of this is as excellent a recording as you'll hear from this tour, and my grading of EX- is very harsh. On to the content of the show. For the most part, this is a fairly straightforward show from the Jam Of The Year tour with only a few unusual choices in the set-list (the appearance of Carlos Santana aside, obviously). 'A Case Of You' inserted into the solo guitar section is a slight oddity, as is the appearance of 'Condition Of The Heart' during the piano segment. As always the highlight of the show (IMO, as always) is the sheer funk of 'Face Down', this time stretched out to a little over 10 minutes and including a "Free The Slave" chant. The encore section begins with Prince and Carlos Santana duelling on 'Soul Sacrifice' and is one of the better moments of the entire 6 month tour.

Overall, a very impressive release simply because the recording is an improvement over the previously available release, and if the sound quality is your main attraction when hunting down shows, then I'd rate this over the Sabotage release without question. Add to that the fact the recording is more complete, and you have the best document of an interesting show. It may have a few minor niggles, but I am more than happy to live with them when the overall quality is taken into consideration - and the lack of screaming females in your earholes is a major plus.