From: mlaurenc@world.std.com (Matt Laurence)
Subject: Portland Expo, a brief comment...
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1993 17:39:35 GMT

Hello All!!

I'll keep this brief, since I'm sure we'll get a good many
comments on the Portland show last night before the day
is done. I don't have the setlist, but ROb Johnson does and
I'm quite sure he'll post it. 

Anyway, this was not what I would call a SMOKIN' show, but
it was a damn good one. It was quite a surprise to hear them 
open with a Stones song (Loving Cup), which they swore they
would never play until they had a 7.5 foot grand piano on
stage with them... which sounds GREAT, by the way. They paid 
brief tribute to it during a crazed Terrapin/big ball jam in
the second set.... speaking of which, did ANYONE else notice
that Page threw in a good portion of "I Feel Free," a real
old Cream song, during that jam? I seem to have been the only
one... Also, the new tune "Lifebuoy" is a nice one, another
ballad - are we entering Trey's reflective period? - which a
couple of us thought sounded more like the Dead than anything
in The Wedge, which they also played last night, the first time
ever for an audience. A very nice, if somewhat straightforward
Bowie rounded things out, but the key element of the evening
was You Enjoy Myself - not only did the jams smoke, but they
did the most sublime vocal jam I've heard in a long time...
PLUS, we discovered that the lyrics really ARE:

"Water your team with a beehive, I'm a sent you!"

Ahem... ;-). But they DID sing it... 

Much fun was had by all (I certainly hope, anyway), and I'd like
to say hello t Jeff the bass player from New Jersey/UNH that was
about to try and get on the net - hope you got your interview!

Oh yes, Amazing Grace was just that - amazing! Sounded wonderful,
at least form the third row. I can see how some of the harmonies
in that will get lost in big places even more easily than 
Carolina or something... but I like it. Oh yes, then there was
Fishman's cardboard solo, his shoe, Mike playing his spare bass
for the entire second set (first time he's played it live, I
think - a black Yamaha 5-string, for you equipment heads), Trey
playing the acoustic guitar on The Horse/Silent and, uh... well,
one other thing I can't recall.

Anywa hey, you've got to know security is cool when they not only
DON'T tell you to stop standing on your seats, but they actually
catch balls thrown around by the audience and throw them back! The
guys in front of the stage were taking the balloons and balls out
of the pit or stage when the crowd lost control of them and 
throwing them back out. In fact, two of them were fighting playfully
over who got to throw it back out to the crowd. I was afraid at first
that Portland Expo was going to be another Stonybrook, but the sound
and the security were far better on all counts. 

Ok, so it wasn't so brief. But there y'go, for what it's worth.

I just want more outdoor shows. 

Matt

P.S. See y'al in Providence and Roseland!

---------------------------------
From: IO21087@MAINE.MAINE.EDU
Subject: Portland ramblings
Date: 4 Feb 93 17:13:33 GMT

With the show still rather fresh in my mind I thought I'd elaborate
a bit on last night's show.

First the highlights (IMO obviously)

Llama- Trey went absolutely insane during his solo. He ended up pounding
crap out of his guitar.

The Wedge- This song translates very nicely from studio to stage. It
does have a bit of a Dead feel to it, not that that is bad.

David Bowie- Sick! Sick! Sick! I thought it would never end. Some
very strange twists, Lots of speeding up and slowing down.

Tweezer- Very Dark. Long and scary.

YEM- My personal highlight. The intro was extremely long, everyone
took a solo, including Fish. Mike's bass solo was a dual with Fish that
got extremely complicated. The scat at the end was also different.

Vacuum/Terrapin/Big Ball Jam- Right when Fish was about to start singing
someone yelled "Give us the Balls!" The balls were thrown out and they
did a big ball jam with vacuum and audience participation (Trey asked
that each side of the aud. make a noise like they were being kicked in
the stomach whenever a certain ball was hit.)


All in all a very hot show. The whole band seemed really hyped. Lots
of on stage banter, and lots of playing around.

The new songs are all really cool too!




Enjoy the tour,
Robert
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From: "Benjamin M. Brainard" 
Subject: portland comments
Reply-To: Benjamin.M.Brainard@dartmouth.edu
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1993 19:27:36 GMT

first, the piano sounded VERY nice.
there were a lot of PA problems, especially when Trey tried to use the
acoustic guitar, and after the feedback went away, I couldn't hear the
guitar
at all.
The system itself looked brand new (esp. the monitors), so it seems that
portland was a show for them to get used to the new system.
The show itself seemed very disjointed, which may have resulted from the
new
system and the band not being able to hear each other...I know it took
Trey a
LONG time to start YEM, and although they sort of jammed on, it seemed
like
he just wasn't happy with something or other and didn't feel like comig
in.
        There was also a really disjointed big ball jam during terrapin;
it
was my first one, and i don't know if that's how it usually sounds or
what. 
I was just sort of confused.
Fish apparently has a couple more toys this tour; he said he was going to
play them all at once but there was a problem with one of them (that
looked
like one of those toy xylophones with the mallet heads on springs), so he
only used two.  the other one was a piece of cardboard wiggled in front of
the mic which gave a....wavy feeling.
There was also a lot of white noise coming out of the PA; it was very
difficult to distinguish single instruments, much less what they were
playing.
Trey's new song.....we'll see.  the best line was "God doesn't listen to
what
I say......and you don't get a refund....if you over pray."
the show was pretty good otherwise, though; a nice Bowie, Jim -->Ice, and
Sparkle
Oh; matt mentioned the security guy up front...there was one guy we were
watching who started off sceptical, looked sort of confused, and by the
encore was watching the band instead of watching the crowd (one of the
other
guards had to come over and remind him)... a phan is born?
wow; this was a pretty negative review now that i look at it....oh well;
those were just the things i noticed at the show.
anyway, as matt said, this wasn't a smokin' show (except for bits of the
bowie jam), but it was a good show, and handled well for the band getting
used to bigger venues and crowds, etc.  
B

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