in 2011 The Kinks played two sets in the Scene '67 Theatre inside Kelvin Hall on 1 April 1967; one at 6:30 and the other at 9:30 pm, with the bands
Sounds Incorporated and
the Fortunes opening. On 3 April, post-production was underway for the scheduled live album. The group also took part in sessions to "enhance" the recordings—writer Andy Miller notes that
...Kelvin Hall "is perhaps not as live as all that. Sessions were undertaken to 'sweeten' the original tapes. Close listening seems to reveal that the audience hysteria is an extended, repeating
tape loop." It is also notable that an entire fourth of the 4-track mix was devoted to the crowd's screams and yells. Doug Hinman, in his 2004 book
All Day and All of the Night, also states that "it appears that overdubs [were] made (noticeable ... on the released album's guitar solo on 'Till the End of the Day', and the differing guitar solos between the mono and stereo mixes of 'You Really Got Me')." Jim Green of
Trouser Press wrote of the band's "mercurial" gigs in which they "seemingly pull songs out of thin air" and perform unexpected material, describing this as a characteristic that dates back to the group's early days and which is represented on
Live at Kelvin Hall. Dave Davies recalled: "Yeah – we did
the Batman theme. Off the wall. I think that was why road managers didn't want to work with us – 'Strange people, they change their act every night!'"
Charles Shaar Murray wrote the band sound "curiously tinny and underpowered" underneath "the up-front, full-bodied quality of the screaming." He elaborated that "until you get your ears properly adjusted, it's a recording of an audience bananaing out with accompaniment by The Kinks ... The screaming, therefore, becomes a constant
noise element which you mentally filter in and out according to whim." He compared the effect to listening to records in a noisy environment and described it as "a conscious artistic choice" from the album's producer; "ultimately it ends up as almost a
Velvets effect, like the feedback on '
Sister Ray'". Shaw wrote that the Kinks "play on [the] hysteria like a fourth instrument". ==Release and reception==