Disco de Jefferson Airplane: “Return to the Matrix: 02/01/68”

In contrast to the three 1966 releases in this collection (

,

and

), this 1968 set finds the Airplane a great deal farther along. By 1968 the classic six-piece Airplane formation had released

and

in 1967, and were about to embark on recording

. Their performance includes tracks from all three of their released albums (including "It's No Secret" and a rare performance of "Blues from an Airplane" from

), a pair of tracks from the upcoming sessions ("Share a Little Joke" and "Ice Cream Phoenix," the latter still a jam at this point, and each their only known live performance), two covers that had long been in their live set (Fred Neil's "The Other Side of Life" and Donovan's "Fat Angel"), and their last known live performance of Leiber & Stoller "Kansas City," turned into a superb blues jam by Jorma Kaukonen.

The show was something of a homecoming as the Airplane returned to the club where they'd debuted (albeit with a somewhat different lineup) in 1965. By this point the group was internationally famous, with two albums that had cracked the Top 10 and two hit singles, each of of which are played here. They'd become international representatives of the San Francisco scene. The band remained remarkably fresh, even on material that had been in their set for years. Marty Balin sings a wonderfully emotional version of "Today," the band plays an energetic version of "The Other Side of Life," and the groove running through "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds" pushes the vocalists to terrific heights. The latter is propelled by Jack Casady's imaginative bass line, and features terrific 12-string figures and a blistering solo. Slick's show piece, "White Rabbit," is more fully formed on stage than it as two years earlier, and "Plastic Fanstastic Lover" has a memorable terrific guitar opening.

The chemistry between Balin and Slick, evident immediately in the weeks after she joined the band, is even stronger here, with Slick adding terrific wails behind Balin on his signature "It's No Secret." The newer material offers fertile territory for exploration on stage, particularly the multi-part "Won't You Try / Saturday Afternoon." Though the tapes are mono, the instruments are more prominent than in the recordings used for We Have Ignition. There's some tape hiss, the sound system occasionally evidences a buzz, the rhythm guitar is mixed too hot in a few spots, and the vocals can get a bit edgy, but overall this is a dynamic recording of a key performance in the Airplane's flight. The set closes with a mesmerizing 10-minute version of "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," complete with a raging guitar solo that briefly quotes "Spoonful."

Airplane fans haven't ever really been wanting for live material, with

and

released during the years of the group's ascension, and archival recordings

, At Golden Gate Park, Last Flight released over the past few years, and numerous bootlegs circulating among collectors. This 1968 performance shows just how well the Airplane had matured with Slick on board, particularly as live performers. Their catalog of original material had grown deeper, and the freedom they found on stage set the stage for their triumphant performance the following year at Woodstock. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Whatever this lacks in sound quality (which I think is not much considering what it was probably recorded on) it makes up for in energy and performance.

I like the "intimacy" as you can feel it's not for a arena sized audience. I think they feel "comfortable" being "home" so to speak and they play songs they might not have tried in front of a large audience. At least, that's my take on it.

As far as distortion, it really only happens a few times in the vocals where the singers are probably singing to intensely into the mike. The sound man can't catch everything live...right? Overall I'm impressed considering the situation.

Also, Jorma (Jack and Spencer) are really hot and on IMO. I think the vocals are consistently great and do not agree with some other reviewers here. A few places here in there they may be a little off, but nothing to even consider considering how great everything else is.

I'm really pleased with this release and it's some of my favorite "live" Airplane.

The jefferson airplane never played a song the same way twice. Their material is so diverse and you never know where they are taking you. They are the only band that still hold my interest after so many years. I never experienced the band in the 1960's, so I appreciate this release.

I like the material on several Airplane STUDIO albums and thought a lot of it would translate well in a live scene.... I figured that by 1968, after a few years of playing together that this live (mostly?) concert would have the AirPlane at their jamming best... But most of it was OK, some of it tedious and no real jam brilliance. I'm not trying to offend hard core fans, I was just a little disappointed.

Very disappointed. The sound quality on this is very poor. It sounds like a cassette of a sound board. Most of the vocals are distorted as if no one watched the levels. It is not stereo.

This is a rip-off! You can talk importance of the performance but others were doing high quality live sound in 68, example Cheap Thrlls.

Pass on this. I'm not overstating how poor this is.

I got ripped off by Collector Choice before with a Quicksilver they claimed was Happy Trails quallity or exceeded and the recording wasn't listenable with guitar tracks so low that it rendered it worthless.

This double album is a con job. Avoid. Totally over-hyped con.