Recorded on Pink Floyd’s third American tour, this show introduced San Francisco to some of the newer material from the ‘Ummagumma’ LP, and a taste of things soon to come on ‘Atom Heart Mother’, to be released later that year.
This San Francisco audience is particularly quiet and attentive, a fact that seems to have facilitated a more intimate, unique and focused performance than other dates on this tour.
This show begins in a quiet, pastoral manner and continues to build in intensity as the sets progress.
Of particular note in the first set are “Cymbaline” and the unreleased “Embryo”, as well as the entire suite of ‘Atom Heart Mother’.
After the acoustic opener to the second set, “Green Is the Colour”, the band takes off into the outer realms of musical exploration for the rest of the evening.
The last three compositions, in particular, show the band in an adventurous mood with standout performances of tracks from their first two albums.
Following the marathon, 22-plus minute encore of “Saucerful of Secrets”, the audience brings them back for a rare second encore of “Interstellar Overdrive”.
Earlier this same day, the band had taped a memorable live performance for KQED TV in San Francisco.
This tour met with disaster a few weeks later when the band’s equipment was stolen during a multi-night engagement at the Warehouse in New Orleans.
The rest of the tour was cancelled.
Fortunately for fans of Pink Floyd, however, this broadcast recording remains – an earnest, unique perspective of the band in a formative time of their career, now available in its entirety on this two-instalment set.
