The Doors - The Matrix, San Francisco, CA, 3-10-1967

There are two Doors concerts from the same venue, the Matrix, only three days apart. These concerts have excellent sound quality and performances. They're a unique view into the Doors playing a half-empty small club right before they hit it big a couple of months later. I just posted the first one, from March 7th, 1967, so I might as well post this one too. It's definitely worth getting both if you're a Doors fan, even though the set lists are similar.

I said most of what I want to say about this in my write up for the March 7th show. But I'll mention that much, though not all, of this was officially released on the 2008 official album "Live at the Matrix 1967." Unfortunately, that mixed both shows together with no apparent logic, and left out many songs. That album also used the same bootleg source I'm using here instead of the master tapes, which still exist. The master tape versions of some song from the March 7th show have been released, but none from the March 10th show have made it to the public yet. 

When I looked into this, I found a few comments that the March 10th show has a slightly better sound than the March 7th one. But it so, it's very, very close. Both are soundboards recorded with multiple microphones. These blow away all other of the very few recordings of the band from around that time period. 

Note that the March 9th Matrix concert was also recorded by the same person, who was the owner of the venue. But that was recorded over with the March 10th recording, unfortunately. The only thing that survived from March 9th were the last few minutes of "The End." I haven't included that, since it's incomplete.

This concert took place two months after the release of the band's debut album, "The Doors," but before the sales of that album took off. But it's notable how varied their song list already was. They played most of the songs from their debut album, but also most of the songs from their second album "Strange Days," which hadn't even been recorded yet. They also played more cover songs than they would later. Some of those here - "Money (That's What I Want)," "I'm a King Bee," "Gloria," "and "Summertime" - were not played in the March 7th show. That show appears to be complete, while this one is not, so some key songs are missing here, like "Light My Fire" and "The End." Both both are definitely worth hearing.

As I did with the March 7th show, I cut out a lot of dead air between songs. It seems the band did virtually no talking to the audience whatsoever, so you're not missing anything other than some guitar tuning and instrumental noodling. I also boosted the volume of the tepid applause from the small audience.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

01 My Eyes Have Seen You (Doors)
02 Soul Kitchen (Doors)
03 I Can't See Your Face in My Mind (Doors)
04 People Are Strange (Doors)
05 When the Music's Over (Doors)
06 Money [That's What I Want] (Doors)
07 Who Do You Love (Doors)
08 Moonlight Drive (Doors)
09 Summer's Almost Gone (Doors)
10 I'm a King Bee (Doors)
11 Gloria (Doors)
12 Break On Through [To the Other Side] (Doors)
13 Summertime [Instrumental] (Doors)
14 Back Door Man (Doors)
15 Alabama Song [Whisky Bar] (Doors)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15127452/TDoor_1967c_TheMatrxSnFranciscoCA__3-10-1967_atse.zip.html

I don't know when or where the cover photo of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison is from. But it looks like it was in a small venue during the band's early era. So I think it fits this pretty well.