From: Charlie Dirksen
12/17/95 Lake Placid's Olympic Arena, NY Thanks to Gordon Paleosharpless for this crispy copy from Nak guns and his
trusty 550... certainly one of the crispiest AUDs I've heard from '95. Opening upbeat but standard.. some nice
col-AAAAAAHs from Mike (read: "cold"). No significant pre-Ebeneezer jamming, like the rest of the Fall versions. No
screaming on Ebeneezer, like the Fall versions.. that this version is upbeat means that the jam segment begins at
************4:20************, instead of the usual 4:30 or so. Trey's opening jamming is mostly chords that follow the
rhythm. At 5:20, though, he starts fiercely chording in a repetitive, descending, melodious groove, that is gloriously dark and
scary. This plods along for about a minute, very intensely, with some great fills from Trey lighting up the jam (in the midst of
some very harmonious chordwork). At around 8 minutes or so, the jam could definitely segue into Immigrant Song, if they felt
like it.. but, no. It sounds extremely similar to Immigrant Song, frankly... until 8:45 or so, when the jam eases into a slower, less
intense, jazzily enchanting jam. Page is on the 'clav, noodling, and Trey is in the lower reaches of the 'doc, noodling, but Mike
and Fish merrily funk along, prefering to Stay the Course without burdening the groove with too much improvisational wizardry.
At 10:30, the jam starts sounding vaguely akin to Immigrant Song again (just slower chordwork and rhythm than ImmSong). At
11:15, though, Trey breaks out into some very gorgeous soloing.. but it doesn't last long. I really can't describe the jamming in
here very well, and I apologize for that. The next couple minutes are very repetitive and hazy, though still make for delightful
listening. Page lets loose with some great piano around 13:15 or so, but it is brief... Around 14 minutes, Fish and everyone drop
into a slow, repetitive groove, with some fun plucking from Mike in here.. but the jam just dies out.. with Page wailing on the
Piano.. Fish stops completely around 15 minutes. All Page now, soloing. Memories of the 12/30/94 Tweezer at MSG. 17
minutes and Page is still all alone, delightfully improvising. It is beautiful, but he does nothing especially impressive (for Page). At
19:19 or so, Trey comes in sustaining an effect of some kind, and then at precisely 20 minutes, Tweezer Reprise begins.
Standard. Total time 22:46. I thought this Tweezer, based on the universe of Tweezers that I've heard (spanning from the very
first one in '90.. thanks, J()e), was clearly above average, but it is also without question one of the least interesting and exciting
versions of 1994-5. There were no engaging theme-grooves, and no hose.. unless you call Page's solo hose, which I don't. It
was just spectacularly base compared with 11/30/95 and 12/11 and 12/2 and 12/28. Page was great, of course, but this
Tweezer -- and his soloing -- isn't as dramatic as it was on 12/30/94. Again, this is still above average, considering the many
older versions.. but simply isn't that grand in light of what's happened to Tweezer o'er the last few years in particular. And in my
nsfho. 6.0 rating. two cents