Live at The Matrix Part 2, San Francisco - Mar 7 & 10, 1967

Live at The Matrix - Mar. 7, 1967, issued under the alternate title Let's Feed Ice Cream to the Rats, was released on April 21, 2018, as a Record Store Day exclusive through Bright Midnight Archives and Rhino Records, catalog number R1 563063. This is a standard-weight LP, pressed in the E.U. and distributed in the US and Europe, numbered from a run of exactly 13,000 copies. The image here bears the individual pressing number 09166/13000, printed on the back cover upper left, confirming it as a legitimate numbered example from that run.

The front cover is immediately striking: a warm, golden-amber background frames a large, burnt-orange circular form at the center, printed in a deliberately aged, woodblock-print style that suits the 1967 source material. Arching across the top in bold, ornate lettering is "LIVE AT," and curving across the bottom is "THE MATRIX," both rendered in the same amber-yellow against the darker ground. The band name "THE DOORS" sits prominently inside the circle in large yellow type, followed by the subtitle "LET'S FEED ICE CREAM TO THE RATS" and the location and date details in smaller print. The typeface throughout has a period-appropriate, psychedelic quality without feeling like a modern parody of the era. Two stickers appear on the shrink wrap: a yellow and black "LIMITED EDITION / 13,000 NUMBERED COPIES" sticker in the upper left, which also notes the mastering by Bruce Botnick from recently unearthed first-generation masters and lists the catalog number; and a Record Store Day exclusive sticker to the upper right, along with a circular "YOU'RE LUCKY / FORTUNE INSIDE" sticker, suggesting a small fortune-card insert was included at point of sale. The back cover maintains the same amber palette and carries the full track listing in an oversized, heavy psychedelic display font, with each track title printed in deep brown-red, each followed by its specific source show noted in smaller text beneath. The visual weight of those track titles filling the entire rear panel is bold and functions well as both design and information. The Rhino logo sits at the bottom center, with copyright and pressing details in small text below. There is no separate inner sleeve pictured, and no gatefold; the packaging is a single pocket sleeve. The disc itself is manufactured in the E.U., as noted in the Discogs data, which is standard practice for Rhino's RSD pressings of this era.

The source material here is what separates this release from the broader pool of Doors archival product. These recordings come from four separate shows across two nights at the Matrix in San Francisco, one of the key intimate venues of the late 1960s Bay Area scene, captured just weeks after the band's debut album had been released. The tape sources are sorted across the two sides with precision: Side A tracks 1 through 3 originate from March 7, Show 2; "My Eyes Have Seen You" pulls from March 10, Show 1; "Summer's Almost Gone" and the entirety of Side B tracks 2 and 3 come from March 10, Show 2; and "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind" on Side B was taken from March 7, Show 1. That kind of cross-show assembly means the listener is essentially moving between four distinct performances across the course of one LP side and flip. The mastering credit to Bruce Botnick, who engineered many of the original Doors studio sessions, carries genuine weight here; his involvement with first-generation masters distinguishes this from earlier, more compromised circulations of these recordings. The closing track, "Let's Feed Ice Cream to the Rats / The End," is noted explicitly as partial, with the tape running out before the performance concludes, and the back cover spells this out without apology: "(Partial - Tape Runs Out)." That kind of transparency is appreciated. Collectors interested in the full breadth of the band's 1967 live work will want to cross-reference Live In San Francisco 1967, which draws from the same period and venue context. For those building out their RSD live LP collection, the Live At Konserthuset, Stockholm, September 20, 1968 release offers a useful stylistic comparison from the same RSD program. On Discogs, 3,312 collectors currently report owning this pressing, with 419 wanting it, figures that suggest the 13,000-copy run was sufficient to reach most serious collectors at the time but has thinned out considerably in the secondary market since. It is not a scarce record in absolute terms, but sealed, numbered copies with the original fortune sticker intact are noticeably harder to locate.

This is a worthwhile addition for any serious Doors collector focused on early live recordings. The Botnick mastering from first-generation tapes gives it a clear sonic advantage over bootleg sources of the same performances, and the numbered run of 13,000 makes sealed copies increasingly desirable. It is not rare enough to command extreme prices, but finding one in unplayed condition with stickers intact is becoming less routine. Recommended without hesitation for anyone tracking the Bright Midnight Archives live LP series.