Today I begin the 2nd European 1997 tour. Finally, some fresh blood with the setlists!
First show, 6/13/97, Dublin. A whipping seven new songs in the set!
Pretty long at 2.5 hours with a solid A- level audience capture (clear
but thin).
Let's go!
Set 1
The show opens with a very nice Theme From the Bottom. Not the opener I
wanted and not the one I needed, but it's as fine as any other
"standard" rendition. To be fair, Trey's solo is absolutely soaring and the final 2 or 3 minutes see the band exploding in an absolute frenzy of "HERE WE ARE, MOTHER-EFFERS"-like intensity!
Up next is the new "My Soul" - aka, the song I only kinda get down with
and will be completely overplayed over the course of the rest of the
year: Dogs Stole Things. Dogs is Dogs. After Beauty of My Dreams, it's
into an early Billy Breathes. Billy is nice but doesn't really do much. This set is going nowhere quickly.
Perfectly, the debut of Limb By Limb follows, giving a perfect build up out of Billy. Really, these two songs work GREAT together! Limb
By Limb sounds perfect right off the rip. Check out Trey's neat little
guitar fills throughout the whole "taken far awaaaaayyyyy" part. Great
stuff! Slowly it builds more and more until Trey lets it rip in the back
half. Not the greatest of all time, but this was definitely
better than expected from a debut performance! Showed massive promise
for sure!!!
With things finally starting to cook, the guys follow up Limb with a
groovy, 13 minute Wolfman's Brother. Immediately, this thing get's
funking hard! I mean, by the 5 minute mark we are already
approaching porno-vamp land! By the 7 minute mark, the jam is in
full-blown cow-funk, the entire band grooving as one. Page is tearing it
up on the Clav (?) while Trey does the best vamping you've ever heard
in your life. Around the 8 minute mark Fishman changes up the beat a
little bit and Trey comes in hard with some good, bluesy soloing. The
crowd roars their massive approval!!! Welcome to X Factor Magic. Somewhere around the 10 minute mark, this section reaches it's peak. Quickly, the jam dies down into more subtle funk territory. This is the first full-blown 1997 funk jam. It started right here, folks. While Trey and the boys vamp harder, Page comes in with some funny synths before reverting to the keys. From here, the jam slowly fizzles out and reaches it's natural conclusion...
HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AMAZING!!!! YOU GUYS NEED TO GO PLAY THAT RIGHT
NOW!!! FIRST PROPER FUNK JAM OF 1997!!! THIS WAS THE BIRTH OF THAT 1997
SOUND. HAMBURG DON'T COUNT!!!!! MUST HEAR!!!
And out of the hazy ambience into the debut of Wading In the Velvet Sea.
On paper, this looks terrible as far as set placement goes, but as a
listen....it kinda works?!?! Velvet Sea is Velvet Sea. Good but nothing
special. Then, just like Limb By Limb out of Billy Breathes, Taste comes
along to slowly reawaken the now slumbering crowd. Thankfully, Taste is
absolutely ridiculously kickass! Seriously, holy mother of crap,
they just annihilate everything in sight with this one!!! My goodness!
TASTE FOR THE AGES!!!
And with that, set 1 comes to a close....
All in all...wow!! Definitely an awkward set that plays out as
strangely as it looks on paper, but the highlights were downright
massive! Limb By Limb, Taste and the incredible Wolfman's Brother were
probably the main takeaways. Don't overrate this set, but don't sleep on
it either!
Set 2
A nearly 14 minute Stash opens up set 2. Again, definitely not my pick
for set opener, but points for originality, I guess. Stash does it's
Stash thing, culminating in a maniacal frenzy before fizzling out into
Maze. Maze reaches 11 minutes tonight and, blazing hot as ever, it
doesn't seem to surpass other recent versions. Which is weird to say as
it's absolutely a complete facemelter of the highest order. Maybe it's
just me today? Still, killer Maze.
As a nice cooldown, we next get the slow country and western version
debut of Water In the Sky. Always strange to hear it like this, I think I
prefer the fast version. Good stuff, though. Up next is the debut of
Vultures. As with Limb By Limb, this far exceeds debut-version
expectations. This thing absolutely kills, everyone nails their vocals,
and the whole thing is just great - plain and simple. A+ Vultures. They even go nuts in the back half with some kind of spastic anti-jam or something. This is fantastic!!!!
Oddly, Slave to the Traffic Light shows up next in the middle of the
set. Ok, I guess. Solid version but I don't think it really transcends.
It's one of those "you've heard a million others identical to this" kind
of versions. Good stuff but nothing special. A terrific and strange
Chalkdust is up next. Slight cut killing most of the intro on the tape,
unfortunately, but it still comes back in before the vocals. Chalkdust
is nearly 10 minutes tonight and boy does it get going! Almost
immediately, at the 3 minute mark, the jam suddenly shifts into a
pure funk jam!!!!!! Fishman slows the tempo and suddenly we are in Porno
Land! Dude! X Factor Magic all over this thing!!!! For the next
long while, the jam gets progressively more quiet with each passing
measure. They are head-first in the uber-funk murk on this sucker!!! This is friggin SICK!!!!! Funny
sound effects and synthesizers abound, vocal scatting, etc etc. They
pretty much throw everything at the wall in this one, and most of it
sticks. Eventually it reaches a point where they are just slowly vamping
and the jam kinda fizzles it's way on down the road into....
...Ghost! The debut! HOW FRIGGIN PERFECT WAS THAT SEGUE?! And
good golly Miss Molly what an absolute breath of fresh air this is to
get as a listener. Ghost is short at only 8.5 minutes, but it's pure A+
funk magic all the way. This thing absolutely SLAPS HARD!!!!
Seriously, they are putting their all into this! If your head ain't
a-bobbin' along to this sucker, you need your hearing checked, STAT! In
the final few minutes, the hard funk gives way to a more "Walk Away"
kind of classic rock vibe, more bluesy and rocking in general. Seeing
the next song, you can hear them slowly transitioning into it from a
mile away.
They bring Ghost to a close and, after a bit of an awkward stumble, they
launch right into Olivia's Pool without a stop. OP is OP, as is the
following Character Zero that ends the set.
The encore is an insane pairing of Stand! into Izabella. Both kick major behind and send us home more than happy.
Wow, this was a very enjoyable show!!!! As I mentioned before, the
Limb By Limb, Taste and Wolfman in set 1, as well as the
Chalkdust>Ghost in set 2 are all must hear. This show killed it once
it got going and was the perfect "taste of things to come" kind of
listen. Give it a whirl!
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