The Doors, Live

The Doors were a few months away from stardom in March 1967 when they played five sparsely attended shows at a small club in San Francisco called The Matrix. These uninhibited performances would have been fleeting if not for Peter Abram, who co-owned the pizza parlor-turned-nightclub with Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin. An avid recordist, Abram taped concerts at The Matrix regularly and his recordings of The Doors, made between March 7-11, 1967, spawned one of the band’s most storied bootlegs. At long last, all known Matrix recordings, sourced entirely from Abram’s original master recordings, will be released on September 8.

On May 8, 1970, Detroit's Cobo Hall was the setting for Live in Detroit, the first complete concert performance on the Doors' own Bright Midnight label…

Live in Pittsburgh 1970 (2008) is the sixth (more or less) full-length live set from the Doors' own Bright Midnight Archives. It is also one of its shortest and arguably most dynamic entries – a single CD capturing the quartet of Jim Morrison (vocals/hand percussion), Ray Manzarek (keyboards/bass pedals/vocals), Robbie Krieger (guitars), and John Densmore (drums/percussion) at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, PA on May 2, 1970…

When the Doors were playing at the Matrix club in San Francisco on March 7 and March 10 of 1967, unofficial tapes were made of their performances. Music from four sets (two each night) of these gigs has long been available on bootleg, and a couple tracks did show up on the Doors' 1997 box set. This two-CD package, however, marks the first official release of material from these shows in bulk…

The Doors Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm features a live radio broadcast from September 20, 1968 which has never before received an official release. The comprehensive set includes rare live performances of "Mack The Knife, " "Money (That's What I Want)" and "The Hill Dwellers." It's a great sounding recording of a great performance of The Doors during their infamous 1968 European Tour with Jefferson Airplane. Recorded for an FM broadcast, The Doors' two sets of music that night are considered among the tour's best. The band is tight, and Jim Morrison's vocals are smooth as silk.

Had this two-CD set come out, or even been bootlegged, 30 years before its actual release in 2010, it would have been greeted as a revelation…

Several 1970 Doors concerts were officially recorded for use on the Absolutely Live album, including both of the shows they gave in Boston on April 10 of that year. This three-CD set has the early and late sets from Boston in their entirety, adding up to about three hours of music, all but two of the tracks previously unreleased…

One of several concerts from which 1970s official live Doors album Absolutely Live was sourced is offered in its entirety on this double-CD, Live in Philadelphia, of a May 1, 1970 show…