I wish there were a few auds floating around somewhere
^For real. Where are my Mike shows? Hes skipping out on the southeast and I was at least hoping for a few auds to enjoy.
Sat’s show at Toad’s was great! I have a new found respect for Mike & his music … so much more experimental, deep and so so groovin!!!
I didnt spy any tapers at Toads … but it was pretty dark … would love to hear that show again if a copy ever emerges …
Yeah, if there were no tapers, we need to demand that Mike release a SBD of the Toad’s show. It was my third time seeing Mike’s band and by far the best… What a treat!
Rev Hall Troy NY
Set One
Another Door
Spiral
Walls of Time
Andelmans’ Yard
Crumblin’ Bones
Middle of the Road
Can’t Stand Still
River Niger >
Traveled Too Far
Set Two
Fire From A Stick*
Rhymes
Only A Dream
Ain’t Love Funny >
Kryermaten >
Radar Blip
Meat
Dig Further Down
Encore
Sugar Shack
Show Notes:
- Debut, Mike Gordon original
OK, the $.10 review is that for a $20 bar show it kicked ass. If I saw the same show at the Palace for $40 I would be bummed. The place was oversold, the only time I’ve experienced more people crammed in that place was for a Keller Williams show a few years back. The show started rough, was hard to get into the groove mostly due to the sound not being dialed in. Mike’s got a lot of equipment for a room that’s only 30’x30’. Right about Alderman’s Yard they seemed to get things down, but I should note that the Walls of Time was fun for me as I used to hear it often around Asheville (it’s a Peter Rowan tune I believe). I was pleased that they were trying to jam and while they didn’t all work out it was fun to watch. They had more of an early 90’s phish feel not for the sound but for the changes in directions the music took during the jams (if that makes sense to anyone it would be phish heads). “middle of the road” which is off Clone (it could be a Leo tune for all I know) didn’t quite work for me with a whole band, but a relisten may change my mind on it. The end of the first set River Niger->Traveled too far was the highlight that of the set, they were tight, jam was tight.
Set II was fire, no complaints at all. Only a Dream is one I want Phish to put into rotation (said this when mike played it last fall too). Ain’t Love Funny is a classic “gordon sings” cover (JJ Cale), great tune to catch your breath and nice addition in the middle of this set. Meat was right on, last time I saw Mike his band nailed the tune as well, which I guess would be my overall thought on the 2nd set. It’s stuff I know they’ve played well in the past and didn’t disappoint this time around.
Only one taper, Ed aka “tuffstudios” w/U89s and 140s. I’ll dig this back up and post a link when it’s up.
Alright, Parents will appreciate this, the rest can stop reading unless you know you don’t want kids in which case you can proceed to laugh at me.
The evening ended sour for me as I get home around 2, quick smoke and to bed. Not my normal MO but I was parting with an old friend. 3 AM I wake up to thing 1, 4 years old, crying (wife already gotten out of bed when I came to) and I hear wifey saying “you threw up on Bun Bun (aka her blanket or safety toy) mommy needs to clean it before you can hold her”. D’oh I stumble out of bed, and start cleaning the bunny. . .which took a direct hit. I then proceed to clean thing 1’s hair in the sink. Fast forward I go to put her to bed and she says “daddy, can you sleep in hear tonight I don’t feel good”. So what could I do but climb in bed. She woke me up at 7:00. ROUGH DAY (I’ll spare other details).
No HD video comera Pei? Ha, I am glad you enjoyed it, you should have had Keith with ya!! 
thanks for the interview link…very cool
^thank you!
I have to giggle when people get so antsy just a few days after the show to get a recording.
It’s become so instant anymore. Along those lines the patch taper has died, I leave my deck at home these days.
I admit I’m guilty. When I didn’t see it up Saturday or Sunday I e-mailed Ed and asked for a “heads up” when he got around to putting it up. Disclaimer, I know him otherwise I wouldn’t have done that because that’s just rude.
I get where your coming from, but alot of us weren’t around for that time, and don’t know what it’s like to wait weeks for a crackly 3rd iteration tape. I mean, yea we are thankful to have shows up extremely quickly, but we don’t have the contrast that some of you vets have at tape trading.
Saw Mike’s band for the first time at Toad’s Place on Saturday, and couldnt’ve had a better time. Gotta agree with PYK: the jams were fresh, energetic, experimental, and groovy. This band really has their own thing going.
LOVED the dynamics. A noticeable contrast from Phish. It might’ve had something to do with the venue’s sound system, but you could feel Mike’s bass and the bass drum resonating in your chest the entire night. At the same time, that seemed to take nothing away from the rest of the band.
A lot of people seemed to be groovin’ a bit, but our section of the dance floor was really getting down. Everyone around us was friendly, and we were feeding off of each other’s (as well as the band’s) energy throughout the show. That just added to the level of enjoyment.
This small, dark venue had some cool perks, one of which is a set of black lights above the dance floor. At one point in the show they were turned on, and our dancing group was particularly digging it, as many of us happened to be wearing light colors.
There was also one point during the second set, after a song ended and the crowd began to simmer down, when One yelled “Sugar Shack!” twice, as loudly as possible. The second time, Mike shot a glance in our area. They then played a couple of songs before executing a very neat rendition of the song. Whether he actually heard One’s request, perhaps not, but the people in our area seemed to think so. The guy in front of us turned and said “Wow, I think he heard you. Feel free to do that again.”
Met Mike after the show, and it was an awesome experience! He was shaking people’s hand’s and signing some CD’s, so we grabbed some and made our way. The people in front of us were asking for a photo, and he said that he’s not supposed to do that because it can hold things up, but we took their photo anyway. We then spoke about Tessa and the contrast and perks of small shows before he signed a copy of “Inside in”. Said goodbye after saying “You’re my greatest inspiration as a bass player, thanks for a great show.” He seemed very down-to-earth.
^WOW! Sounds like you had an awesome time. 
Is English your second language? I’m genuinely curious.
I’m gonna go to TLA this Friday to catch more Mike, since last weekend was so fab.
Maybe I’ll bring my Mike bobble-head to get autographed (!)
Actually yes but that doesn’t excuse my poor writing. . .that would be because I is an engineer.
OK the 2nd one is rough, but the first was typed quickly and edited from an e-mail story to protect the innocent (AKA not to put my wife and kids name in the post)
Revolution Hall show was the TITS
I’m glad you didn’t take offense. What’s your first language?