Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention s second album, Freak Out came out in May 1967, and in the wake of the record s release the band toured in the US and Europe for pretty much the rest of the year. A short hiatus however, took place in August when Zappa released his debut solo-album Lumpy Gravy, initially on 4-track cartridge only on Capitol Records, but after legal action by Verve Records, it was withdrawn until 1968, when the record got a full release on Verve.
 
The Mothers continued touring in September, largely throughout Europe, during which Zappa played the famous Albert Hall in London for the first time - a venue at which he would later have a show cancelled for allegedly using obscene material.
 
By November, the Mothers were back on home turf, playing on the East Coast and it was during this tenure that, on December 2 and 3 67 they played at The Fifth Dimension in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they performed one of their very finest shows of 1967.