Kansas - Hold On - Live Civic Auditorium, Omaha

This is very interesting scenario because we have two audio recordings of the same concert that were both professionally made. One for a video of the concert released by Sony on VHS/Beta which I’ll call the Sony video/audio. The second was broadcast on the radio show King Biscuit Flower Hour which I’ll call the KBFH audio.

The Sony video credits indicate the audio was recorded and mixed by Brad Aaron who was an audio engineer and producer on many Kansas projects. It was apparently recorded courtesy of D.I.R. Broadcasting who put on the King Biscuit Flower Hour. This implies that both the KBFH audio and the Sony video were planned from the outset and almost certainly used the same tapes.

Along with the previously mentioned overdub on Chasing Shadows there are some differences in the resulting audio: 

1. The introduction is a pre-recorded medley of instrumental versions of several songs including the very recognizable Nobody’s Home theme. Just before the introduction transitions into Paradox you can hear Phil Ehart start to keep time on the hi hat. This is not in the Sony audio where you only hear the band come in right at the start of Paradox.

2. Between Chasing Shadows and Crossfire the Sony video/audio includes Robbie giving an introduction of John Elefente as the new lead singer of Kansas as well as announcing the 10 anniversary of the band. This is not on the KBFH audio.

3. At the end of Crossfire the KBFH audio mistakenly includes the intro of Face it which is understandable considering the way the 2 songs were transitioned.

4. The obvious omission of Miracles Out Of Nowhere from the Sony video/audio. I’m not sure why this wasn’t included in the video but likely it was due to time since it includes a lengthy synth solo. This YouTube video includes the KBFH audio of Miracles Out Of Nowhere and some snippets of video cleverly edited together to approximate what the video might have looked like if the song was included (the synth solo is not included).

5. An interesting discrepancy during the intro of Portrait where the organ is faded in much earlier on the Sony video/audio than it is on the KBFH audio. This allows for some speculation about how the audio was recorded for each version but it’s very likely the same tapes were used for both the video and KBFH audio but mixed down on different dates resulting slightly different mixes. 

6. The final two tracks are mislabeled on the KBFH audio (which you can find here). Track 15 is labeled Portrait (He Knew) / Down The Road but should be Portrait (He Knew) / Down The Road / Magnum Opus Excerpt. Track 16 is labeled Magnum Opus but is actually a similar pre-recorded medley of instrumental versions of several songs like the introduction and should have been labeled Outro or Ending or something like that. You can hear the entire pre-recorded outro music on the KBFH audio version whereas on the Sony video/audio you only hear about half. 

I would love to know more about the intro/outro music which is a really well done and cleverly arranged instrumental medley of many different songs. It was performed on synths. I can only assume that it was arranged and recorded by Kerry Livgren who alone would posses the knowledge of the Kansas repertoire it draws from along with the ability to arrange and perform it.

I did find this audio listed on Discogs in the unofficial category under the name Live Confessions (From New York to Omaha) in which it's bundled with another recording from NY in '77. I know this is the King Biscuit Flower Hour version because it has Miracles Out Of Nowhere where the official video does not UNLESS there is a 3rd recording of this floating around which I find hard to believe.

If you buy this album from Amazon you are getting a unauthorized recording made for the King Biscuit Flower Hour. I assume this recording is still owned by Wolfgang’s Vault which bought the King Biscuit Flower Hour tape archives. I tweeted at the official Kansas Twitter account asking for info about it and I promptly received a reply indicating that this is an unauthorized bootleg. So buyers beware.