06-24-97 La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France
1: Split Open and Melt, Beauty of My Dreams, Dogs Stole Things, Vultures, Guelah Papyrus*, Runaway Jim**, Talk, Free, Prince Caspian, Rocky Top
2: Wolfman’s Brother, Reba, NICU, Twist, Oblivious Fool, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Ghost
E: Loving Cup
*Aborted. #With “Gypsy Queen” jam .
This is a great show. The Melt opener starts things off nice and weird from the get-go. A trio of new tunes before a botched and aborted Guelah, but then they rock out this Jim to make up for it. This is the first Free that was given the real “funk treatment”. They had previously added a bit of a funk groove to the jam, but this one is all out summer 97 status. Very cool. It’s really cool to listen to the evolution of Prince Caspain over the first few years. In 95 the song was kind of lame, but as 96 went on and by summer 97 they started playing around with some different things. It’s not a ‘jam vehicle’ or high-energy tune by any means, but I don’t necessarily need that to appreciate how good these guys are.
Set two is a dance party. The Wolfman’s is super chunky and it leads into a very very nice Reba that meanders around and off the Reba jam theme. The peak before the end does seem a little misplaced or rushed, but everything before that is really pretty. The Twist again features an awesome jam. This Ghost is a little more rock and roll than other 97 Ghosts are and builds in intensity until the very end. Really cool and different Ghost, though they play around with this same jam at the end a few times during this tour. Is it a tease I wonder?