From: Charlie Dirksen
6/30/94 Classic Amphitheater, Richmond, VA Trey fumbles just a tad
in the very opening.. otherwise standard. In the
pre-Nirvana segment, at 2:08, Trey begins "Jerusalem City of Gold"
(by humming ... first version since summer 93). This is a bit
rough of a version. The harmonizing isn't as grand as it could be,
and Mike sounds a bit weak. In fact, the harmonizing is
actually dreadful at times.. they don't do the entire version. Nice
segue back into the pre-Nirvana segment, though, with spacey
& enchanting & eerie stuff. DOH!!! The Nirvana segment doesn't
start as well as it ordinarily does.. sounds like a miss from
Trey, who also doesn't play the Nirvana segment well. :( Page's playing
is pretty nice, though. Mike's solo section at 6:10
sounds somewhat ashamed and annoyed, as well it should.. he seems to
be spouting off (I'm not kidding). The pre-charge
section is really pounded out, and doesn't sound all that keen. Trey
really doesn't sound very Present. At 7:31 the first shot at
the Note occurs, and is excellently jammed on and around by Trey (surprising
the hell out of me). Trey goes back to somewhat
dull and dreary stuff in the rest of the pre-charge, before sustaining
out the second shot at the Note at 8:16 flawlessly. "Boy" at
8:51 or so, after a very long and extended scream from Trey. Fish lets
out a weird noise after Trey says "shit." Mike is
extremely funky in here.. he's very active, VERY active. I can't wait
for B&D!! Otherwise, a typically good WUDMTF
segment, with some nice fills from everyone, but especially Mike, imo.
Tramps segment comes in at 11:01, and Page is noodling
away on the piano. Strong signals from Mike (and some nice accompaniment
from Fish! kinda mixes it up in here!!!). Page
teases Landlady around 11:35 or so. Page plays really well throughout
this segment, as usual.. and there's a decent climax, too,
with some nice funky accompaniment from Trey and Mike (and some YEAHs
from Fish) before the jam segment comes in at
13:10, with Page still pounding away.. Trey really rages repetitively
at first, since Page is still just going OFFF!!! At 13:30, Mike
starts FUNKING OUT at the beginning of the segment Trey usually noodles
in.. and Trey does noodle.. and at 13:50 it is just
Trey and Fish. Trey isn't doing anything all that profound, though..
just climbing up and down a scale. But around 14:10 or so he
gets a lot more melodiously profound!! Around 14:30 he finds a theme
to repeat (that has a 'lil circus tease in it).. he's
accompanied by Mike and Page well, too. Still, this jam around 15 minutes
isn't all that together.. very jazzy and funky, but a
little disjointed-sounding to me.. still, very crazy. Trey lets off
quick little licks here and there, and around 15:38 starts making
some weird fret-smacking sounds.. he's just tooling around. At 15:54
it is B&D time (after no climax to the YEM jam
segment).. Mike starts out slowly, but at 16:10 or so, he picks it
up a little bit, sounding a bit disjointed, much like the jam
segment was.. but around 16:35 or so, Mike just starts plucking away
INSANELY.. just starts ripping it up (and there's some
weird noises coming from Trey in here, too, I think.. I have no idea
what sort of effect that is). Mike is just funking out in here in
a rather haphazard way.. just a crazy damn B&D segment.. little
longer than usual, too!! Trey (alone) begins the WUDMTF
segment at 17:56 or so. The vocal jam begins rather high.. high notes
being vocalized. Very unusually high, actually. Some weird
effects on Trey's voice, too, it sounds like. The harmonizing is a
lot better than the JCOG earlier in this version, though, fwiw. At
21:35 or so, Trey starts screeching "Red Ruum" over and over again..
Fish joins him it sounds like. Spooky!! Total time
basically 22:21. Sparkle starts up with a few eerie "Red Ruum"s from
Trey and some nice noodling from Mike... Have to give
this a B-/C+ rating. There are a lot of mistakes, the jam segment is
kinda disjointed.. but the vocal jam is definitely unusually
intriguing, the B&D segment is long and strange.. heck, the jam
segment is really strange, too. It certainly isn't average... Plus
JCOG in the damn pre-Nirvana segment. It is these latter factors that
warrant the B-. It is nevertheless the lamest June 1994
version I've heard, and I was at this show. I really enjoyed this 6/30/94
show, too, and well, the highlights of it for me are the
GREAT Harpua (with Honky Tonk Women) and an incredibly gorgeous Harpua-reprise-like
opening to the Antelope. two
cents charlie