03-04-85 Hunt’s, Burlington, VT
Anarchy, Camel Walk, Fire Up the Ganja*, Skippy, The Midnight Hour
African Relief Benefit *With members of Lamb’s Bread.
Slight difference in track listing for this show I believe. The Midnight Hour falls after Fire Up the Ganja, and Skippy is most definitely McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemaster at this point. Praise Jebus. A really nice SBD of this exists, thanks to Marmar. Very rich sound, and the best sounding tape to this point.
Anarchy kicks this show (or maybe just recording) off with a real blast of heat. Basically over before you know it even started, and Trey mentions “now we are going to move on to a funk song written by Jeff.”
Jeff goes on to sing Camel Walk, and there is some slight lyrical differences from the versions that we all recognize throughout the '90s. It seems like it is a bit slower, and very funky indeed. Right after the lyrical section, Jeff mentions that “nobody has ever danced to Camel Walk before, try to visualize what it would be like.” The band then goes on to jam this to the top level of funk, and Jeff is actually playing really well. Trey takes a really nice solo towards the second half of the song, and it becomes a very progressive rock sounding affair before being brought back to the Camel Walk theme we all know.
Fire Up the Ganja starts off with another (I say another, because of shows before) Garcia-esque solo by Trey. Seems he is using Jerry’s style as a bit of a crutch, and maybe hasn’t found his own uniqueness yet. Either way, great opening solo before the lyrics even start. Lyrical style is similar to Fire on the Mountain, just completely different words are appearing. Trey can faintly be heard laughing during most of Jeff’s lines, and you can tell the band is really enjoying themselves. They even get the crowd to sing-along with the chorus, just before members of Lamb’s Bread appear on stage. I imagine they must be improvising lyrics, because it is pretty rudimentary. During this long section of freestyling and jamming, I noticed Mike is really killing it, great great stuff coming from the bass player. This kind of fades out at the end, so I am wondering if it was a set break, or just a tape flip.
Either way, after fifteen minutes or so of a relaxed reggae beat, The Midnight Hour really kicks your ears into high gear. Very lively playing by the entire band, especially Trey. With Jeff singing, Trey is able to really jam or solo like a mad man. Excellent version I just wish was longer.
Then comes those wonderful opening notes… of McGrupp! Yes, not Skippy this time around. This is not mentioned in the Companion, as it says the debut is two months from this show. So maybe this isn’t actually played on this night, but either way, it is McGrupp! Trey is incredibly relaxed during this, and basically just speaking the lines. Dave is even in attendance for this one. There are some interesting sounding guitar parts from Jeff, but overall, I can’t wait for the keys to appear. As good as Jeff was during the first 3/4s of this show, the sound kind of suffers at this point. The jam is absolutely rocking however. Moves very smoothly back and forth between a distortion led jam, and a very calming smooth jam. Finally flows effortlessly back into the McGrupp ending. I don’t think I can type enough how one version of Skippy was enough for these ears.
At the very last second you can hear someone in the audience yell for “That’s It For the Other One.” Fun stuff, would love to hear them play that.
Highlight would easily be McGrupp. It really kills me pick a lowlight from this show, as it is absolutely great throughout the entire thing. I guess Anarchy takes it though.
Nice. I have that show, and it kind of cracks me up when Jeff asks the audience to visualize a dance. Right? It’s so different than like, ‘everyone do this dance’.