The Concert Vault - Web Site of the Year!
I’m so ecstatic about my favorite new web site, The Concert Vault, that I can hardly think straight. I was becoming bored with my usual selections and started searching around for some different. This is what I found:
Full Concerts. Soundboard Recordings. Streaming Online. Free.
There’s only one place you can hear Bill Graham introduce the Allman Brothers at the Fillmore East, Steve Miller ask for more PA volume at Winterland, or Robert Plant kill time with the Fillmore audience while Jimmy Page re-tunes in the background. It’s the same place you can listen to the greatest live music of all time in full concert format.
It’s not Heaven, though it may feel like Heaven to rock music purists. It’s the Concert Vault, the world’s greatest collection of vintage concert recordings.
Where does it come from? In 2003, Wolfgang’s Vault acquired master recordings from the archives of Bill Graham Presents. These live concerts were recorded at legendary venues like the Fillmore East and Winterland between 1965 and the late 1980s.
In early 2006, we augmented the Graham archives by acquiring the archives of the King Biscuit Flower Hour, the nationally famous syndicated rock radio broadcasts of live concerts from the 1970s and ’80s. We also added the Silver Eagle Cross Country archive of country music concerts in 2006, and we haven’t stopped there. Keep an ear out for additions to the Concert Vault in the near future.
You have to register, but it only requires an email address which they claim will only be used to notify you of new concerts as they are digitized. Online streaming is free, but you may also purchase many of the concerts on CD if you wish, which I assume is how the website survives.
I count 540 concerts currently available, the bulk of which is from the 70’s, but a few dip back as far as 1965 and they stretch all the way to 2002. The Fillmore concerts are legendary and many are well known and highly bootlegged but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the King Biscuit Flower Hour recordings are oftentimes the entire concert, not the chopped up 45 minute greatest hits version that we used listen to on the radio.
Recordings can searched and sorted in various ways, including listener rankings. To give you a feel for what’s available, here are current the top 10 listener rated concerts:
The Allman Brothers - 6/27/71 - Fillmore East
Pink Floyd - 5/9/77 - Oakland Coliseum Arena
The Band - 8/16/76 - Carter Barron Ampetheater
Mike Bloomfield - 11/10/74 - The Record Plant
Derek and the Dominos - 10/23/70 - Fillmore East
Genesis - 1/24/75 - Shrine Auditorium
Lynyrd Skynyrd - 11/6/75 - Cardiff Castle
Bruce Springsteen - 3/2/73 - Berkeley Community Theatre
Stevie Ray Vaughan - 4/15/84 - Austin Opera House
Jimi Hendrix Experience - 10/11/68 - Winterland
…and another 10 that I’m looking forward to hearing…
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - 6/7/78 - Winterland
Dire Straits - 1/1/81 - Central Park
The Kinks - 2/18/77 - Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
Van Morrison - 11/1/78 - The Bottom Line
Randy Newman - 11/10/74 - The Record Plant
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - 3/7/80 - Hammersmith Odeon
The Police - 3/4/79 - Zellerbach Hall
The Pretenders - 5/30/80 - The Palladium
The Rolling Thunder Revue (Dylan and friends) - 3 from 1975
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - 3/6/70 - Fillmore East
Listen now, thank me later.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:08 am
A lot of these are King Biscuit shows. I got a kick out of the fact that a Charlie Daniels show from Peoria was on the list.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:50 am
OMG They have Hall & Oates in concert. Scary Shit
July 11th, 2007 at 11:55 am
And Lee Greenwood. See- there’s something for everyone!
July 11th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I know you are both being facetious… But there really is something for everyone here! I’ve already listened to a good portion of the Oakland Coliseum Pink Floyd show, but now I am listening to Duran Duran at the Hammersmith in London.
Thank you PI!
July 11th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Big fan of the K.B.F.H. !!! Thank you P.I.!!!!
Now get that damn Peoria Landmark site going again.
July 12th, 2007 at 7:29 am
After a day and a half I’ve listened to the Pink Floyd concert (Wish You Were Here in it’s entirety with a killer jam version of Money in the encore), Genesis ‘75 (Lamb Lies Down in it’s entirety w/Peter Gabriel), Randy Newman twice, The Pretenders ‘80 twice, Tom Petty ‘80 three times, and Van Morrison at the Bottom Line twice
July 12th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Amazing selection!! Thank you!
July 13th, 2007 at 7:11 am
There’s a great show of Gary Richrath era REO Speedwagon. It really is true that they used to be a rock group.