On August 28, 1976 Elvis performed at The Summit Arena in Houston/Texas. The concert took place at 2:30 pm and the king was so heavily medicated, that it became one of the worst personal appearances of his whole career. When Audionics released a soundboard recording of the event in 2013, they named their album "Houston, We Have A Problem...". The quote is from the movie "Appolo 13", which is a dramatized version of the moon mission from 1970. In fact, the damage caused by the explosion was analized before John Swigert called the control center on April 13, 1970 and said "OK, Houston, we've had a problem here". But enough of my pipsqueaking. The sound carrier is housed in a digipak, which includes liner notes and photos made before and after the concert in Houston. The picture on the backside was made during the show. The rest of the photos was shot on other occasions. The recording is not 100% complete, because the engineer switched on the machine during the second half of "See See Rider". So "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and the "Opening Riff" are missing. Compared to other soundboard recordings the audio quality is very good.

As written before, the recording starts in mid-song. Elvis does the best he can, but he is obviously out of energy and can't keep the rhythm.

Now Elvis sings the word "well" in different pitches, which are repeated by James Burton. When the king finally launches into "I Got A Woman" his pronunciation sounds washed out, his voice has a nasal subtone and at times his presentation is more talking than singing. During "Amen" he encourages the people to sing along. The gospel-tag is longer than usual. When he presents the mandatory parodies of his 1950s moves, he comments "I'm just trying to wake up". Obviously it's not a joke. Of course JD Sumner gets a chance to show off his deep voice, today he even has to do it twice. After a short reprise of "I Got A Woman" Elvis hands over his guitar to Charlie Hodge and welcomes the crowd. He says "It's a pleasure to be back and I hope you enjoy the show" and sounds like he's heavily drunk. Before he starts the next song, the king talks to some fans at the edge of the stage and hands out some scarfs. James Burton repeats the first chord of "Love Me" over and over again, but Elvis continues to chat with the ladies. Afterwards he welcomes to audience a second time!

Finally the king moves on and sings "Love Me". It's a sluggish performance, which also includes a lack of comminication between the band and the lead vocalist. The musicians want to end the song while Elvis wants to do another verse.

The uptempo song is nothing but a demonstration of the king's problems. His voice sounds nasal, he misses several notes and is unable to keep up with the tempo. There are also several feedbacks, so maybe the sound system is in a comparable condition.

There are more feedbacks and more shaky vocals and missed notes. 

James Burton plays the first chord of "All Shook Up" and Elvis announces "I'd like to do a medley of some of my records for you". Then he asks "How do you get so much energy at 2:30 in the afternoon...or 3:00...or whatever it is?". In compliance with his comments the performance of "All Shook Up" sounds just tired.

Once again Elvis sounds worn-out, nasal and even somewhat disoriented. He misses notes, cannot keep the rhythm and even leaves out several words. But he hands out scarfs by the dozen and the ladies scream like teenagers.

Someone on stage suggests "And I Love You So", whereupon the band begins to play. But Elvis stops the music, because he cannot hear himself properly. Maybe he just needs an excuse for his bad performance. What follows might be his worst rendition of this ballad. Once again he misses the notes big time and his voice sounds whiny. 

The band tries to sidetrack the audience from Elvis' poor condition by performing as powerful as possible. It works and the audience goes bananas. Finally the singer remarks "It's a wild bunch over there".  

With his tried and tested leg moves Elvis is able to keep the crowd cooking. Needless to say, that his vocal performance is rather poor.

Maybe this is the king's best presentation of the afternoon. However, when he repeats the last part of the song, he stumbles upon the timing.

Now Elvis wants to sing "Polk Salad Annie". Considering his condition he does it surprisingly well. Suddenly he says "Play it, Jerry" and Mr. Scheff has to come up with a solo. It's not all that great, because this part has been omitted since 1972 and the king's request hit him out of the blue.

The band plays the intro-muzak, but Elvis talks to some fans at the edge of the stage. He accepts gifts and flirts with the ladies. After four minutes (!) he finally moves on to introduce the musicians. As usual all members of the harmony groups are introduced individually and all members of the band play a solo. This time James Burton, Jerry Scheff and David Briggs even have to do two of them. Since the fall of 1974 the introductions grew longer and longer, but today they are nothing but an impertinence.

By now Elvis sings a lot better than earlier in the show, but of course he's still lightyears away from his studio recording. He also does without a second rendition or even a repeatition of the finale.

Leaving out the usual "Hound Dog" the king asks for the houselights to be turned up. Once again he takes some time to communicate with the audience, then he moves on to sing the country ballad "Funny, How Time Slips Away". At the beginning of the third verse he looses track and leaves out several words. But he catches up again and finishes the song in the usual way.

Elvis bows out by saying "You're one of the most fantastic audiences we've ever worked to...crazy, but so are we. Every time you want us back, just give us a call and we come back". Then he sings "Can't Help Falling In Love". Once again he leaves out several words and misses several notes. The band launches into the "Closing Riff" and the king leaves the stage. Of course the mc doesn't forget to mention the souveniers, that are sold in the lobby of the venue.