Audience Recording  

Disc 1: Rock And Roll, Celebration Day, Black Dog, Over The Hills And Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song

Disc 2: Dazed And Confused, Stairway To Heaven

Disc 3: Moby Dick, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love, The Ocean

Soundboard Recording

Disc 4: Rock And Roll, Celebration Day, Black Dog, Over The Hills And Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song

Disc 5: Dazed And Confused, Stairway To Heaven

TCOLZ come through once again with another comprehensive set featuring both the available soundboard and audience tapes for Led Zeppelin's July 15, 1973 Buffalo show. The soundboard has been available for many years and in 1996 Midas Touch released the best version on Where The Buffalo Roam. The only musical cut during the board tape is at 2:26 during "The Rain Song" and the tape unfortunately ends after "Stairway". In comparison, TCOLZ sound is geared more toward the low end where Midas Touch is equalized more toward the upper frequencies. Midas Touch has a clearer top end but sounds somewhat thinner than TCOLZ as a result.

TCOLZ present, for the first time on silver disc, the entire audience source on the first three discs. Previously only the Wendy label had released the final portion on Silly Putty, used to complete the soundboard. The audience source is rather thin and brittle sounding with distortion but there are sections of the tape that are surprisingly clear and enjoyable too. Another problem is some tape drag in places that gets worse and becomes unstable as the night goes on. The source is fairly complete with the exception of a cut at 3:13 in "Since I've Been Loving You", one at 12:04 in "No Quarter" (that repeats about a minute of music), a cut at 7:07 in "The Rain Song", at 16:53 in "Dazed", and a tiny insignificant cut at 12:42 in "Moby Dick".

The first half of the show is somewhat uneven but the band seems more inspired as the concert progresses. Robert is having a bit of a rough start in "Rock And Roll" and John Paul Jones gets lost during the solo section. Page however, is having a decent night from the beginning as is evident in "Celebration Day" and "Black Dog". There is an explosion during the intro to "Over The Hills" prompting a disgusted Plant to say "there's one guy who's not on the same journey". The band is extra playful, pushing each other in "Misty Mountain Hop" and Page once again shines during his signature blues in "Since I've Been Loving You".

The bow section sounds very effective in "Dazed And Confused" especially in the soundboard. "Stairway To Heaven" is also above average for the tour and Jimmy is in total control throughout the solo. Even Plant goes for the high notes at the end with great results. With the band improving as the show goes on it is a shame that the soundboard ends here.  

Now with the release of the audience source we get to enjoy the final hour of the performance. "Moby Dick" is about 30 minutes with some nice tympani work where Bonham gets very musical. Unfortunately for Page, he is late on his reentry for the closing of the song. He will certainly redeem himself with some stellar playing both in "Heartbreaker" and "Whole Lotta Love".  

The repeat in tape during the audience recording is a bit of an annoyance but at least TCOLZ were thoughtful enough to offer the entire source, and without the metallic sound that is reported to be on the Wendy title. The set comes packaged in a 5-way fatboy jewel case with photos from the 73 tour. The only way to top Slowing Down In Buffalo now would be if the remainder of the soundboard would surface.