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Spirit — Live at Mile Square Park
(Renaissance RMED-CD-1211, 1991/2024, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-04-27

Live at Mile Square Park Cover art

For much of 1991, Spirit had been touring as a trio (Randy California, Ed Cassidy, and Mike Nile) in support of their 1990 album Tent of Miracles, in fact they had just played a show in Santa Barbara a few days earlier. The band was invited to play a free concert in Mile Square Park opening for the Doobie Brothers, expected to draw a crowd of fifty thousand or more, and California, knowing that all of the original five band members were in Southern California at the time, thought this would be a great opportunity for a reunion of the original band, with California (guitar, vocals), drummer Ed Cassidy, Mark Andes (bass, backing vocals), keyboardist John Locke, and Jay Ferguson (vocals, percussion); sadly, this would be the last time the original band would get together on stage before California’s death in 1997. Mike Nile was on hand with DAT to record the event, and Sarah Fleetwood provided guest vocals on “Nature’s Way,” as she did on the single version of it that was released earlier that year. The band introduction was done by Barry Hansen, known to most as Doctor Demento, who in fact was once Spirit’s manager and produced their very first five-song demo, before they were picked up by Lou Adler for his Ode Label. The show commences with a version of their 1969 hit “1984”; throughout their set they stick to material from their first four ablums, three from the first, two from the second, two from Clear, and three from Sardonicus. The only other live recordings of the original band are in the form of Live at the Ash Grove from the summer of 1967, at a time when most of their set was still improvisations and covers, and the second disc of the deluxe reissue of Sardonicus (live at the Boston Tea Party), which was a bootleg for many years. Highlights include the aforementioned “Natures Way,” a succinct three and a half minute version of the instrumental tour-de-force “Elijah,” Sardonicus opener “Prelude – Nothing to Hide” and “It’s All the Same” from the band’s second album The Family That Plays Together. Sound-wise it’s not perfect, with some audible irregulatrities early on in the set, though better than the second disc of the Sardonicus set from 2022. A most welcome addition to the Spirit catalog.

Filed under: Archives, 2024 releases, 1991 recordings

Related artist(s): Spirit, Randy California

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http://www.renaissancerecordsus.com/products/no-rewind-the-orchestra-music-from-the-documentary-soundtrack-cd-copy

 

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