Review by Geoffrey McDonnell
Listening to this CD, I was somewhat surprised to hear the opening 2001 theme (’Also Sprach Zarathustra’) and ‘C.C. Rider’ coming from the Spokane show! Elvis is sounding like he's in pretty good form and clear. Unfortunately, we are then transported back five days to his Omaha April 22 1976 show and a quite annoying sound mix (actually worse than the Charlie Hodge Omaha sound from one year later!).
‘I Got a Woman’ is simply ruined by the Sweet Inspirations, and Kathy Westmoreland's screams, not only dominating in the mix, are also out of tune!
‘Love Me’ is fair but again mixed badly, yet the worst sounding track of the entire concert is up next. ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ is so unbearable that I feel here having to steal a line from a later song ‘Help Me’ and state “I just can't take it anymore!” Fortunately, ‘You Gave Me A Mountain’ is better and gets a better ending, but the back-up singers manage to destroy this listening moment again.
‘Tryin' To Get To You’ is next and is a concert highlight - back-up singers don't dominate and Elvis gives a great version!
Now I'm finally starting to enjoy the show!
‘All Shook Up’ and ‘(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear’/‘Don't Be Cruel’ are both routine, but passable as Elvis hands out scarves to the fans. ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ is a decent version, before a good version of ‘America’, again with great ending.
‘Polk Salad Annie’ rocks, but the Sweet Inspirations’ vocals again annoy! The introductions are slightly different from normal 1976 in that Tony Brown features a solo and Marty Harrell is conducting.
‘Hurt’ is a good early 1976 version in the spirit of the studio recording, also amazingly for this song is only the ladies’ singing up-front actually improves this version of the song. One annoying little thing here is the very ending of ‘Hurt’ being faded out and the start of ‘Hound Dog’ is also missing.
‘Help Me’ is un-remarkable but passable. ‘How Great Thou Art’ (whilst not in the surprising class of the previous night's Kansas City version) is a very good performance - you can clearly hear Elvis the singer put out another concert highlight.
‘Little Darlin’ is fun and next Elvis relates the recent amusing newspaper story that he just got married to a girl in Alabama!
‘It's Now Or Never’ follows and is also a great version (without the Sherrill Neilson ‘O Sole Mio’). Then Elvis jokes that last night he missed a note and couldn't sleep and does a better than average version of ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’.
‘Can't Help Falling In Love’ has the end faded which is a pity as Elvis ends on a high note.
Two bonus tracks follow in the more balanced Spokane sound. ‘Burning Love’ is good despite a word mix up at the start, and ‘My Way’ is a very good version, sort of half way between the Aloha and Elvis In Concert versions.
I found myself enjoying this slightly more than the FTD Tucson '76 CD as the performance seems better. However, the simply awful sound mix for at least four or five songs takes away much of the pleasure, and makes listening a painful experience. I feel this was a good show but we cannot really hear that from the bad mix. Just how much of the Spokane show, which sounds better, was available I don't know. I'm afraid because of the sound I cannot recommend this release except to FTD collectors who need every release, as the Fort Worth July 3 1976 show FTD recently released with a very good show and good sound! Interestingly, three days after the tour ended in Spokane, Elvis performed fifteen shows in Lake Tahoe.
Now is this soundboard the closest we will hear of his Lake Tahoe 1976 singing? I don't know, but performance-wise the April 1976 tour was a pretty decent tour, and it’s a pity we cannot fully hear this on this FTD soundboard!
