Worcester review and impressions

I'm completely wiped out so my thoughts aren't even close to organized
(not that they ever are, but even less so right now : ) This is just
stream of consciousness stuff regarding the weekend's festivities

First off, I was originally on the fence about the whole idea of going
to this show. I was pretty intimidated by the price of the ticket,
especially since I was laid off for all of Feb and March. John
Dougherty (from rmgd) contacted me a couple of weeks ago and said
that he had an extra ticket and asked me if I wanted to go. By this
point I had seen enough of what they were doing that my interest level
(and financial situation) had changed, so I figured why not. They were
the "cheap seats" , behind the stage, looking over Phil and Jeff's
shoulder. Chad's seat was three rows down in front of us. The sound
was crystal clear and they had a banks of speakers aimed right at us.
During drums I walked down and watched from about 30 feet away. The
sound was crystal clear, with perfect definition on every instrument.
I walked around during the second set and they did a nice job making
the room sound good.

Last nights show was unbelievable. Bobby brought his "A" game like
I've never seen. His guitar was really out front in the mix. I *hate*
the way Phil's bass looks, but holy crap does it sound good. Jeff was
amazing. Drums were awesome. The weak link is Warren, but he's got
some mighty big shoes to fill. He did as good a job as anyone could
do, but it's an almost impossible task IMO. having said that, if you
closed your eyes you would be hard pressed to know the difference
during a lot of parts. I really like how they are mixing up the songs
during the show, and bringing back old arrangements. I'd forgotten how
much I really enjoy the early material. It's stuff that was LONG gone
from their repertoire by the time I was going to see them. Hearing
them do "Alligator" and "Creampuff War" or for that matter even "Here
Comes Sunshine" was very cool. And they also did a nice head nod to
the early 70's arrangement of "Good Lovin" with the classic intro/
outro riff from the Pigpen era. I like the new, slower arrangement of
"Hell in a Bucket" too.

Scarlet>Fire was a excellent and during the transition jam Jeff was
playing some really nice afro/Cuban sounding piano

Let me hear an "Amen!" from the crowd for "Born Cross Eyed"!!!!!!

If I could only bring one Grateful Dead album with me to a Desert
Island, Anthem of the Sun would probably be the one and "Born Cross
Eyed" is a major reason why. Last night they NAILED it. Perhaps the
best single performance I've ever seen them do on ANY song.
Unbelievably tight and just thundering. Seeing that alone was worth
the price of the ticket.

And then to have it followed by "Slipknot!" was completely out of left
field.

I was really impressed by the whole show and it was certainly the best
post Jerry performance I've ever seen. My thoughts are completely
disjointed. My original plan was to celebrate the anniversary of
Albert Hoffman's bicycle ride, however the individual who was going to
hook me up said, "I've got some bad news for you, I ate it". As it
turns out, I didn't even need it. Either I accidentally ingested a
little, caught a contact high or they were beaming it too me through
the music : ) One of my favorite things is to be completely taken away
by the music and you are in almost trance like state. Jerry used to
routinely take me to that space. During the jam of "Let it Grow"
pretty much to the end of the show I was completely taken over by the
music, in an almost uncomfortable way. Some of the jams were almost
Robert Fripp like. (Fripp is perhaps the only guitarist I have ever
heard that makes me feel dizzy and almost nauseas, like when you were
little and an adult would grab you by your feet and spin you around,
or if you just rode and amusement ride) I was almost there last night
wishing they would play a song, ANY song. The music grabbed a hold of
me and wouldn't let me go. The UJB was a nice way to reel us(me) back
to some semblance of normalcy : )

I give this incarnation of the band an enthusiastic "Two thumbs" up. I
really hope they continue to play together. It was scary good last
night

The other reason I am basking in the glow of a great weekend was the
opportunity to play music for an appreciative audience. Thanks to
everybody who made the effort to come see Chad and me play. I had so
much fun playing on Saturday afternoon. I hope that you all enjoyed
yourselves and that we didn't stink it up too badly : ) Despite the
fact that "Playin Dead" (local Dead cover band) was playing just up
the street at Tammany Hall, we drew a pretty decent crowd and got
quite a bit of positive feedback. Perhaps the ultimate compliment was
seeing a friend of mine from here in Lowell who I see at every show I
go to, and asking him if he was going to the show, and having him
say,
"maybe, if I can find a ticket, but I came down to see you". Very
cool and it meant a lot to me.

The Amsterdam Lounge liked us so much that they really beat me up to
play again on Sunday. Jim and Ken (our drummer) didn't/couldn't do it,
so I finally agreed to play acoustic. It wasn't really what I wanted
to do since I was going to the show and wasn't enthusiastic about
leaving my gear in the truck, but it worked out well. We did one long
acoustic set from about 4:15 till about 6:30. The combination of
beautiful weather and a lack of time to let people know kept the crowd
smaller, but we did have some people and a smaller group of friends,
including a couple of people who came on Saturday as well.

Anyhow, as I said, I'm just basking in the afterglow of an amazing
time. It really never gets any better. (and the big bonus is that
Frank gave me the day off : )

Thanks again to everybody who made the effort to come see Chad and me,
it meant a lot.

Scot





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