The Doors
Live At The Matrix '67

In March 1967, the Doors were still a band relatively unknown to the general public. Their splendid debut album had just been released, but not yet the second single "Light My Fire", which would later launch them to the top of the American charts, turning them into rock stars. In this context, Jim Morrison's band performed a couple of nights, March seventh and tenth, at the Matrix in San Francisco, a small nightclub owned by the Jefferson Airplane. The four sets, two per evening, took place in front of very few spectators but, obviously, well-equipped ones, and in fact, recordings of these concerts circulated as bootlegs for years. The Doors' record label, Elektra, acquired those tapes immediately, but it took forty years to see the first official release, when in 2008, the Rhino Records\Bright Midnight Archives decided to remaster the material available and produce this excellent live record.

Live At The Matrix '67 is certainly one of the most interesting products of the posthumous discography of the Doors, as it presents to us a band in its early days, halfway between blues and psychedelia, fresh and vital, in a full creative phase, free to experiment and improvise at will, without pressures and still sheltered from the weight of fame. The live record is decidedly substantial, with its two CDs, over two hours of music, collecting the best of those performances. The set is largely based on their first legendary album and the tracks that would form the backbone of the subsequent Strange Days, which the Doors were working on in those months, but also a couple of pieces that would later end up in L.A. Woman ("Crawling King Snake") and in Waiting For The Sun ("Summer's Almost Gone").

It begins with what was then their first and only single, the fierce and compelling "Break On Through", with a more than furious Morrison and John Densmore pounding on the drums like mad. The performances are truly excellent, Jim's voice, hypnotic and powerful as never before, reaches the height of expression in the epic renditions of "Moonlight Drive", "Back Door Man", "When The Music's Over" and "The End", which with its fourteen minutes of psychedelic delirium rises as the absolute gem of the album. Krieger's solo in "Light My Fire" is beautiful, presented without the classic organ intro, in a much rawer version than the studio one, but equally convincing. Manzarek does even better in "The Crystal Ship", with passages of rare beauty. Many other classics are on the setlist, but I will limit myself to mentioning the splendid interpretations of "Soul Kitchen", "Alabama Song" and "People Are Strange". Meanwhile, the covers "Close To You" by Willie Dixon, "Who Do You Love" by Bo Diddley, and "Money" are episodes that bring the Doors back to their Blues origins. It closes with the famous "Gloria" by Van Morrison, perhaps one of the most covered songs of all time. In short, with such a track list, a total of twenty-four pieces, it would be impossible to mention them all, but certainly, no one could be disappointed by such abundance, especially those who, like me, are more attached to the band's first two albums.

The recording quality is good, not excellent, but certainly better than the various bootlegs, one of which has also been reviewed here. Going into more detail, I would say that the voice, organ, and drums come out well, very clear, while the guitar and bass line, played by Manzarek himself with his Rhodes piano, sometimes seem less prominent, a bit overshadowed by the other instruments. This, along with the fact that the presence of the audience is almost imperceptible, except for a few rare applauses, is probably the only flaw of a live performance that would otherwise have been perfect. The album, as a whole, is nonetheless superb, and the performance by the four is spine-chilling. The group manages to play their pieces impeccably, certainly in a more stripped-down, less elaborate form, but with great vigor, full of new passages, added verses, improvised on the spot, instrumental interventions that hint at the jam, but without getting lost in virtuosity. Jim is as usual flamboyant but, at the same time, incredibly clear-headed, making no mistakes and still far from what would come later, when the icon imprisoned in his own glory would struggle even to complete concerts. Densmore is precise and incisive, his fills, with a blues base and jazz attitude, remain among the most appreciated and emulated ever. The dreamlike atmospheres created by Manzarek and Krieger's refined arpeggios complete everything perfectly. In short, the Doors at their finest.

Being present at those concerts must have been, for those few people, an unforgettable experience. If the first classic live album by the Doors, Absolutely Live, while excellent, was still the result of multiple performances collected in different periods and places and then assembled together, this Live At The Matrix, on the other hand, is a decidedly more homogeneous product, and I would even say more genuine, as it captures the band at a precise and well-defined moment. Here lies perhaps the purest essence of the Doors; it's worth giving it a listen.