Subject: Drinking 2/17/97 AmsterDAMNGOOD Gin
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 20:06:53 -0500 (EST)
From: benjy eisen
Bathtub Gin goes to church...
BathtubGinFiles #14 2/17/97 The Paradiso; Amsterdam, Holland
GinStats: Set I Time: 12:46 Note: 1st Gin of '97 The opening follows an odd ending of LLama. Nice accents from Fish on the toms and what-not, around 0:06. Funky intro; includes audience clapping (this actually *adds* here)... Page jumps in at 0:17->0:47 and with an urgency that says Page needs to dive head first into the bathtub, Gershwin washing his back, in a rush for a water-filled baptism. Lyrics Segment: 0:47 Happy Trey... Page Fill 1: 1:19 -> 1:36 Fiddler Meets the Rhapsody Fill 2: 2:07 -> 2:24 More of the above before a full-throttle Rhapsody In Blue Bath, Page is the Rubber Ducky of the Piano! :) FAUCET: 2:39 Nice. No real botches...minor variation...not perfect, but above-par to be sure. SINGING W/THE FAUCET: 3:21 Standard and unenthusiastic but tight and textbook all the same. Second time through is a little more present. WATER FROM THE FAUCET: 4:34. Page funks away on some theme, then plays a Tequila for a second 'fore he remembers he's in a Gin, and likewise adapts to CFT chording and active note participation. Trey ominously holds and sustains notes 'till 5:15 when he glides back and forth, in an Olympic Slalom, between inspired Classic Faucet Licks and dark-side suspension-bridge notes and then it's a dance between the CFL and wonderful, teary-eyed, inspirational themes which he picks up and abandons for something else, something new, successively every couple of seconds. It's as if he's thinking about Robert Hunter's lyric, "Inspiration, move me brightly" and then he does - move brightly, that is. Trey, I gotta hand it to you, you really do walk with light, my friend :) By 6:40 he's playing around, melodiously and soul-satisfyingly, using the perfect notes. Since every note that he and the rest of the band plays here is so *perfect* it's obvoius that they are no longer in-charge and therefore, this early in the song, I'm willing to wager that they're riding the Golden Hose. That's right - a GOLDEN HOSE has been installed inside this Faucet and it's filling up the tub fAsT! At 7:07 Trill Fest Trey time is here, but he's so perfectly in tune with the rhythm, mood and feel, and shifts so seemlessly in and out of the Faucet Lick and Theme at one with the others, that I'm once again re-amazed by their collective power. Incredible CFThematics here! By 7:54 the glory of the Faucet is revisited. 8:02 a fast, double-time Faucet Lick (ala Philly 12/29/96) surfaces, in the 8:30's there's some high-powered Slave or Hood climatic style licks that pop in an appearance and at 9:18 the double-time Faucet Lick re-enters for another one-off cameo. By 9:38 Trey is machine-gunning his way to the top of the Alps, or maybe simply just "the TOP". This *is* the tops! 10:15 a revisit of the double-time Faucet lick several times through before yielding at 10:35, Mike funks like an Amsterdam Hash-Bashing Funkster (with energy though!) and at 11:00 we have one of those swirly locking round-and-round themes but again, this was a result of the jams accumulation - as with this entire version, nothing is thrown-in for the sake of throwing it in, nothing is "forced"...rather everything is just arrived at naturally, and consequently becomes part of the bridge from one area to another area, and all within the same Bathtub! :) 11:21 Trey trills just like good ole' Col. Forbin himself climbing that previously unsurmountable Mountain. Double-time Faucet Licks are revisited and at 12:11 the rest of the band is setting up for a return to the Classic Faucet Lick (CFL) but Trey purrrfectly continues the double-time, meshing it impeccably over the others' standard-time. At 12:40 he gives in to a slower-than-usual Faucet Lick as this is where the jam demanded he go. It's wind-down time, boys. We had the bath, now brush n' flush... 12:44 a two-chord "bam-bam" intrusion attack - run for cover everybody!!! They're playing around in the bathtub, but instead of playing with the soap-on-a-rope, they staged a runaway P E A R L H A R B O R A T T A C K ! Take cover! Tape cover! What was until now a victorius, completely spiritually uplifting and life-renewing Gin is now trapped in a forced segue. Trey announces awkwardly and urgently, "I look into the finance box" at 12:46. A disappointing transition at best, but what counts is that they took the risk...risk is good. ENDS AT APPROXIMATELY 12:46. The Paradiso is supposed to be an old church renovated into a music hall, and to those of us not there to see it - it doesn't matter, 'cause we can *hear* it thanks to this highly INSPIRATIONAL Gin! This Gin is trully a piece of worship, painting a picture of paradise indeed! Two-parts Golden Hose, Two-parts Technical Proficiency, Two-parts Inspiration and creativity, One-part crude and awkward segue into Golgi = One AmsterDamned Good Bathtub Gin Martini! (w/hangover into Golgi) Rating: 95 Proof! It's as if they gave us one of the worse Bathtub Gins ever at Amsterdam the last time around (7/12/96) just so they could douse us with one of the smoothest and soulful versions ever this time around. No complaints here! :) My-my-my-my-my-my-my Soul! Walk with light my friends, Benjy