DISC ONE: Can't Explain, Substitute, My Wife, Baba O'Riley, Squeeze Box, Behind Blue Eyes, Dreaming From The Waist, Magic Bus DISC TWO: Tommy Intro, Amazing Journey, Sparks, The Acid Queen, Fiddle About, Pinball Wizard, I'm Free, Tommy's Holiday Camp, We're Not Gonna Take It, See Me Feel Me, Summertime Blues, My Generation, Join Together, My Generation Blues, Won't Get Fooled Again (incomplete)

REVIEW: There's an outstanding European website, "The Who Concert Guide" (www.thewholive.de) devoted to setlists and details of the 'oo's live adventures. Conspicuous in its absence among the 1976 setlists is the show from August 7 at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL, which would suggest that tapes of the show have not been in widespread circulation, which in turn suggests that Main Stream's advance claim that it had unearthed an unbooted Who tape was accurate. This is part of the label's "Unreleased Masters" series and according to a source in the know the tape had been in the hands of a longtime Who collector for years until he finally allowed it to slip out. In that regard, there's some obvious archival significance to Main Stream's release. But why did the collector keep it so close to the chest in the first place? Good question; it's a serviceable aural document, but nothing special, just an OK audience recording with a slight tinniness (possibly due to digital processing?). Not to mention the fact that most of the concerts from the Who By Numbers American tour which have been booted all have the same setlists, the same internal dynamics, the same massive-crowd vibe, and the same so-so recording quality. This one is no exception -- or is it? In the Joe McMichael/Irish Jack Lyons book The Who Concert File, of the show in question, we learn how overpriced tickets and muggy weather "kept attendance [at] 40,000 [out of] the 60,000 capacity… An open air all-dayer in a big stadium in muggy, unpleasant weather… A greedy promoter had overcharged [and as a result] The Who were furious. Come showtime there was an extraordinary transformation and al their fury, all the frustration and pent-up rage that that spilled out of Pete and Roger was channeled into the music, and they played and absolute blinder, as powerful as any show in the classic '69-'71 era… At the end they smashed their equipment in an orgy of gleeful destruction and the crowd exploded with endless ovations because they'd never seen or heard anything like it before, nor would they ever again." Amen - one does get a sense of all this from the discs, although unfortunately we're not privy to the gear smashing as the final song, "Won't Get Fooled Again," cuts off after only a minute and a half. Artwork-wise, Main Stream has done a very nice job, two-sided tray panel and insert both with smart-looking B&W and color photos. Intriguing, also, that the album title was cribbed from a Soundgarden promo-only release and an accompanying video - or perhaps Soundgarden was at the time appropriating a bit of 'oo legendariness for itself, hmmm?