From: Charlie Dirksen
4/12/93 Memorial Union, Iowa City, IA Thanks for the tapes, Mike Powers. (as you warned me, Mike, this copy is sped
up.. enough that the vocals sound uh, noticeably, uh, higher..). The timings below are therefore all screwed up. There's also a
terrible cut in this YEM in the midst of the jam segment. After a "terrible basketball shoot" (i.e., big ball jam), YEM starts up.
Trey isn't as clean in the opening as he could be, but it is still an ok opening. The pre-Nirvana segment is enchanting and spacey,
but no definitive "Vibration of Life" effect occurs.. well.. around 2:20 or so there does appear to be somewhat of a Vibration
effect. I spoke too soon. Very beautiful pre-Nirvana! Trey's eerily sustained notes work quite well in here. "Nirvana" at 3:46.
Typically good. Mike's solo section is also melodious but nothing special. The pre-Charge segment is powerful as usual, and
well-played. Trey's first shot at the Note occurs at 5:41, and he hits it flawlessly and jams QUITE well after it (bodes well for
the jam section). Second Note is also hit flawlessly, but like the first isn't sustained.. Trey jams about it. "Boy" at 6:54.
WUDMTF segment is fine.. because of the tape speed, it sounds unduly active. It is well-jammed, but nothing terribly out of the
ordinary. The trampolines segment kicks in at 8:51. Mike jams really well, and Trey joins in. Sounds like Mike picked up on a
melody of some sort. Page goes completely insane!!! =^] Very excellent jamming in this segment!!!! At 10:41 the jam segment
begins with Mike and Trey carrying on the theme that they'd been playing in the jam segment, and then, suddenly, this theme
segues mightily into GUMBO, of all things (an unduly sped up version, though!), then //CUT\\.. that was a COOL segue and
key change, fwiw. Wow! Nice Gumbo-esque YEM jam around 11:40, that includes some severe pounding away from Page..
but this jam quiets down rather quickly.. and at around 12 minutes Trey begins preciously & melodiously noodling, with Page
Mike and Trey very softly accompanying (the beat is still typical YEM.. no rhythmic change.. just volume). My copy then
viciously cuts to side B, and they are jamming out the ending of "Honky Tonk Women." There's then a twenty second or so
B&D section (Mike just melodiously wips out a solo). Hmm. Sooo, I don't know. I really think there's a good several minutes
of the YEM jam segment cut out on this copy. It sounded like it could have been a serious version of YEM. Instead, it is terribly
frustrating. And then the vocal jam kicks in after a twenty second B&D, unless that Honky Tonky Women was in the B&D
segment.. can't tell because of the cut.. I have no patience for these vocal jams anymore. This one contains a lot of harmonizing
and vocal crescendo's, but isn't especially weird. Certainly "below average" in the weirdness sense, but above-average in that
the harmonizing is quite good. Fish appears to be talking away (but I can't hear any articulate words). Total time of what I've
got of this YEM is 18:58, but I'd bet that there's approx. 2-5 minutes of this YEM missing from this copy. Because of this, I
simply can't rate it, and based on the fact that this was also sped up, what I heard really didn't strike me as especially grand
(sorry Mike.. the sound quality just blows too much). The segue into a GUMBO jam (and verse) was very very cool, though, in
the opening of the jam segment. But the quality of this copy is too lame for me to especially care. :( Oh well. I definitely would
like an upgrade... anyone have this on DAT ? This YEM is definitely unusually fun and Happening, but I can't really compare it
with others given the poor quality of this copy. two cents KingMoron420