03-21-93 Ventura Theater, Ventura, CA
1: Maze, Sparkle, The Sloth, The Divided Sky, Esther, All Things Reconsidered, Split Open and Melt, Poor Heart, Punch You in the Eye, Lawn Boy, Possum
2: Loving Cup, My Friend My Friend-> Rift-> Tweezer-> Ya Mar, Llama, You Enjoy Myself, My Sweet One, Big Ball Jam, HYHU-> Cracklin’ Rosie-> HYHU, Harry Hood, Cavern
E: Sleeping Monkey, Sweet Adeline, Tweezer
I’ve been restricting myself to shows played in '93 and earlier. I apologize in advance for such a looong song by song review, but I’m basically figuring out which way best suits me. Without furthur text, here’s my review.
Maze - Great opener for this Rift-era show. Fairly standard, but nonetheless well executed and it gets the club pumped.
Sparkle - I don’t love this song as an individual piece, and I would’ve preferred if it went Sparkle>Sloth. This standalone Sparkle keeps the pace set by Maze, but to me it’s take it or leave it.
The Sloth - Trey really sings these lyrics. You can tell he’s having fun singing his nerdy songs at a real club.
Divided Sky - Standard and well played. Nothing not to enjoy. There’s a shorter pause than later years, and less whoooooooing during the quiet division.
Esther- After things mellowed out with Divided, Esther carries the mellow mood through the middle of the set. Early in the circus-like intro there’s a random note signal from Trey. Otherwise, nothing out of the ordinary. So far great flow with the set, and excellent, energetic playing from every member.
All Things Reconsidered - Again, nothing against this cute instrumental, but a > could have set up, and offered a good juxtaposition of goofy with dark and serious tune that followed…
Split Open and Melt - Melt was really hitting its stride in the pre-94 era, and this one is a great example of a pre-94 Melt. Dexterous playing from every one here, and great controlled dissonance. It drops into space around the 8 minute mark. From there we get some stacatto fills from Page, and the band plays with some start stop jamming. Then Trey plays some dissonant, ascending licks which Page bounces off of nicely. Finally they go back into the SoaMelt theme and thus ends a stellar song.
Poor Heart - It’s amazing a band can go from a dark, psychedelic jam like SoaMelt to bluegrass, as well as having the technical and theoretical mastery to write and play such contrasting music.
Punch You in the Eye - Quicker intro than usual. The song in general feels a little rushed, especially the last 2 minutes. There is a possibility I’m more used to the tempo of '95-> PYITE though. Also, Page sounds like he’s playing an electric piano. Unless I’m mistaken, I’m pretty sure he acquired a grand piano later in 93, so feel free to inform me whats the dealio with Page’s gear.
Lawn Boy - Nothin wrong with a little lounge singing from the Chairman of the Boards.
Possum - Wow! Simpsons signal in the piano intro. Trey and Page play with a theme around 4:00. It could be a tease, but I’m leaning more towards probably not. In the middle, Trey is playing with more crunch and distortion than I’m accustomed to. Trey brings some screaming, almost Antelope, like guitar work to his solo. Afterwards, Mike doesn’t draw out the “I was drivin down the rooooOOOOaaaad”. Great closer to a great first set.
Set II starts with some noodling that becomes Loving Cup. Straight forward rocker. Next is,
My Friend My Friend - Probably my favorite song off Rift, and one of my favorite compositions. This does not end in the usual “…Knife…Hahaha!” fashion. Instead, it drifts into a slow outro with Trey subtly playing a theme I’m not familiar with.
Rift - Hmm, I lied above. This might be my favorite song off Rift. Page screws up in the beginning of his solo, but more than makes up for it, adding some organ splashes towards the end.
Tweezer - Ah, we get to the meat of the second set. Our 11 minute jaunt into the freezer contains very dense jamming. Not yet a massive type two behemoth, nor a syrupy sticky groove vehicle, this Tweezer features great, locked in single minded playing from every one. I could describe this icy cold, guitar driven excursion, but you should listen to it for yourself.
Ya Mar - Tweezer’s jam breaks down until settling into Ya Mar. Great juxtaposing of a scary jam and some lighthearted Island fun.
You Enjoy Myself - This is an interesting YEM. The guitar jam sort quiets into the bass and drums section, instead of landing in it, if that’s an understandable description. Same with the bass and drums into the vocal jam, Fishman kind of carries the bass and drums into the vocal jam with some woodblock smacks. This vocal jam is 5+ minutes and as standard as vocal jams can be (whatever that is).
My Sweet One - Keeps the energy going. Take it or leave it.
Big Ball Jam - You probably had to be there.
HYHU>Cracklin Rosie>HYHU - Again, you probably had to be there. Page sounds like he’s trying to end it and go back into HYHU towards the last 30 seconds of Cracklin Rosie.
Llama - Now we’re back to business. Sick sick tension release soloing from Trey. Page McConnell makes it sound even better.
Harry Hood - Very good. The earlier, shorter Hoods get going a little faster than the ones with the delicate beginnings than start from nearly nothing. Around 12:00-12:30 Trey plays a theme you are probably familiar with. He plays with it often in 94 and earlier, also in ALO, but I think he really nails it to the wall in 94. If I had to describe it, it would be like singing “You can feel goooOOOoooOOOd!”
Cavern - You know this song.
Encore: Sleeping Monkey, then “one more song”…Sweet Adeline? Oh! then Tweezer Reprise from left field! (Kind of).
Final words: Listen to more March 1993. I am very pleased with this show. You will be too, and I look forward to exploring more '93 and earlier shows.