07-25-97 Starplex Amphitheater, Dallas, TX
1: Beauty of My Dreams, Wolfman’s Brother-> Maze, Water in the Sky, Bathtub Gin-> Makisupa Policeman-> AC/DC Bag
2: Chalk Dust Torture-> Taste-> Ya Mar-> Drums*-> Ghost-> Character Zero
E: Theme From the Bottom
Entire second set with Bob Gullotti on drums. *Trey turns the jam in Ya Mar over to “Leo and the Drummers”; Page drops out of jam leaving only Fish and Gullotti.
This first set is awesome. The Wolfman’s jam continues the summer of funk nicely with Maze tacked onto the end, which I felt was a nice twist. The Bathtub Gin a few tunes later is another monster. This tune made some serious strides in 97. The segue into Makisupa was a little awkward for a moment but not enough to derail the flow. The end of Makisupa got kind of type II util they started up AC/DC Bag which was not played much (if at all) during the previous two Europe tours. The ending at first sounds a bit unrehearsed but Trey pulls the band back into the jam to properly build up some tension and finish the set off nicely.
The second set…well, I’m not huge for special guests, and especially guest drummers that sit in for a whole set. The Karl Perazzo stuff from Fall 96 is awesome with aux percussion, but a whole kit…i dunno. Fishman does such a fine job with his complex rhythms that it’s really not fair to throw somebody else in there and have them find their niche. Especially in tunes like Taste. It doesn’t come off very well. BUT, the jamming is still pretty good. Mike Page and Trey still tear it up while the two drummers sort of just lock in to simpler rhythms.