The Doors’ fifth album, Morrison Hotel, released in February 1970, was seen as a return to form after the critically mauled (but commercially successful) Soft Parade from the previous year. A few weeks before the record’s release, the band set off on their “Roadhouse Blues Tour”, playing across the US, and certain shows in Canada – planned Japanese dates were cancelled during this period – before, on 5th June, performing at the Seattle Coliseum in Washington State’s largest city. Putting on a dynamic but amicable show with Jim Morrison in good spirits, conversing rather than taunting the crowd (albeit somewhat cryptically at times), this rarely heard concert, recorded for FM radio broadcast at the time, proves that The Doors remained a force to be reckoned with, a year from their demise following the death of The Lizard King in July ’71.
This is the first concert taped by Doors road manager Vince Treanor. Vince used a Sony TC-630 stereo tape recorder (a gift from The Doors) running at 3 3/4 ips with a pair of AKG-D1000E cardioid microphones placed on either side of the stage to capture the audio from the vocal and instrument amps. Jim is drunk for the show and interacts quite a bit with the audience. Interesting! What always struck me about this show is how TENSE it sounds. Hecklers get worse and worse throughout the show, Date: June 5th – 1970
