From: Charlie Dirksen
8/24/93 Commodore Ballrom, Vancouver, BC The most incredible thing just happened (thanks to Mark PickyBastardMan
Powers for this and other fantastic August 1993 tapes!). In the last segment of Yamar, when Mike opens with all that extremely
fast vocal nonsense (all of you who have heard Yamar have heard this), Mike begins in the normal fashion... but progressively
slows down what he'd been repetitively and quickly vocalizing. He says "Everybody has to look at it from my side, cause I say,
if you're gonna rectify my finger, then I'm going to rectify you're finger." Then he says this extremely quickly (making it
nonsensical) another time or two before the final Yamar segment kicks in. Wow. Never heard THIS is Yamar before.. ;) I've
always wondered whether he was saying something in here.. (inaudibly) Opening standard. Tramps jam at usual time (2:39).
Mike and Page in the opening of the tramps jam, as usual for most Mike's Songs. Nothing impressive in here at all. Trey doesn't
come in off-key sustaining and eerily trilling until 3:30 or so. Trey jams very hard in here, suggesting to me that he wasn't on the
tramps. Very sweeeeeet, until the final MikeS tramps segment ending chords kick in around 5:20 or so, and he fudges one of
the chords. The opening of the post-tramps segment around 5:40 starts off in typical chaotic, spooky fashion. Lots of very
repetitive chording from Trey in here. Around 6:30 Trey starts creepily jamming.. it is really your run of the mill scary
post-tramps segment in here (7:30). Nothing special catches my ear at all.. lots of chording. Well, to be fair, there's some
screeching noises from Trey, I believe.. doesn't sound like Fish (who, fwiw, is arguably more active than usual in this segment,
hitting lots of toms). No themes, no melodious noodling or grooves. Page gets excited around 9 minutes.. he starts repetitively
noodling. At 9:45 or so, everything comes together more/less, and there's a pleasing climb into the final Mike's Song closing jam
segment.. welll, I spoke to soon. It sounded at first like it would launch into it, but there's some fantastic jamming first in here
(10:30). At 10:52 the true closing chords kick in. Pulled together in the end, but this won't salvage this version. I've heard many
versions much more impressive and engaging than this, imo. Ends at 11:35, sounding like it could segue into Lifeboy or
Hydrogen (page sustains a chord or two). Trey picks up the acoustic.. Ginseng Sullivan! Niiice. Sounds great in here, I think. A
beautiful version. (it is mic'ed) There's silence after Ginseng, and at 15:54, Trey starts Weekapaug with his typical opening of the
theme chords. No Mike's opening solo in here at all whatsoever. Trey solos well in the jam segment, for the most part (he is
very repetitive in spots, though.. arguably moreso than usual). Around 18:40 the jam quiets down a little bit, and then, after
twenty seconds or so, Fish speeds up the beat a few touches. Trey is just plucking a note here and there, keeping a melody
going. Page and Mike are fairly active. Around 20:30 Trey kinda touches on the Suzy Greenberg-esque jam segment licks... At
21:09 the jam is very off-beat (intentionally)... Page, Trey and Mike are slightly off-beat from Fish.. this is cool in a rhythmic
sense, but there are no awe-inspiring themes in here at all. Just doesn't sound at all pleasing to my ears at this point (22:30). It
isn't dissonant ... just a monotonous, plodding, boring noodling session. Everyone is listening to each other, though. ;) It just isn't
something I'd play for someone whom I wanted to impress... Trey starts crescendo-chording... and then fading the chords out
(crescendo->diminuendo). He does this twice. Lots of little noodle jams in here. They honestly sound like they are just playing
games with each other ... at our expense. Fish is screwing around with the beat (I forgot to mention that there hasn't been a true
Weekapaug beat for about 4-5 minutes.. DOH). At 26 minutes, Mike plays the Wilson opening notes (DOOM DOOM
[pause] DOOM DOOM), and this bullshit, foolish Weekapaug segues into Wilson. Never been so relieved to hear Wilson. ;^)
Trey, I think, lets out a brief Weekapaug theme tease inbetween Mike's opening Wilson notes... I was hoping they'd close out
Weekapaug. But no. Not at all excited about this 'Groove. I liked the Ginseng in the middle, though. It is ironic that this is so
lame, too, given how glorious so many 8/93 jams are. I can't give this more than a C- rating .. I honestly wouldn't even call this
MikeSGroove "reasonable." It isn't magnifiscently lame, but it really didn't even come close to touching any buttons, based on all
the amazing Hose I've heard of late. But even really old versions of MikeSGroove are more melodically enjoyable..