Part of a series of live recordings unearthed after 40 years, this album is said to present an appearance by
Quicksilver Messenger Service at
the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco on April 4, 1968, a month before the release of the group's self-titled debut album. Although earlier shows presented in the series demonstrated that
QMS certainly were ready to record years before they did, this performance is recognizably one by the band that made the first album and its follow-up,
Happy Trails, a group comfortable improvising for 12 or 13 minutes at a time on
"Who Do You Love" and
"The Fool." In fact, the second disc contains a formless jam lasting nearly 42 minutes that presses the point a bit too far. The jam includes a flute and an organ, not instruments that were part of the
QMS lineup (there is also a flute on
"Light Your Windows"), so some unnamed guests seem to be present. Although this recording is a valuable document in the history of
QMS and the San Francisco scene in general, it has been treated shoddily in this packaging. Guitarist
John Cipollina and bassist
David Freiberg's names are misspelled in the skimpy liner notes, which mistakenly bear the title of another album in the series. For that matter, the April 4, 1968, performance by
QMS actually occurred at
the Fillmore Auditorium, not
the Carousel. (It wasn't until July 1968 that promoter
Bill Graham took over
the Carousel and renamed it
the Fillmore West.) That is assuming this concert even took place on April 4, 1968. On the recording, someone comments that it's Easter Sunday; April 4, 1968, was a Thursday. Easter Sunday 1968 occurred on April 14.
QMS did not play a show on April 14, 1968, but they did play at
the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on the night of Saturday, April 13; maybe this is actually that show. ~ William Ruhlmann