On This Day (March 1)…Baton Rouge Salad Surgery

Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed on this day in 1974 at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Poster for the show. Retrieved from here.

ELP were at this time on their Brain Salad Surgery Tour, undertaken to support the album of the same name. The group were slowly winding their way east after an extended period on the Pacific coast, having already performed throughout Arizona and Texas as well.

The group performed with a Quadrophonic sound system at each concert, which in some cases caused the speakers to block entrances and exits to the venues! The quadrophonic experience, relatively rare at the time, meant audiences were treated to an immersive (and very loud, I am told!) experience.

Each concert saw the group performing the Brain Salad Surgery album in full, intercut with several of their most well-known pieces from prior albums. These were further augmented by two long instrumental improvisation sections, one occurring during the “Aquatarkus” portion of “Tarkus” and the other late in “Take a Pebble” before the final verse.

This concert is known to have been recorded, and is in circulation online.

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