From: Charlie Dirksen
5/23/94 Civic Auditorium, Portland, OR The are sbds of this set out there, but they are probably at least somewhat hissy.
Opening good.. whistling yet again in the pre-Nirvana segment, which is spacey and serene as usual. A somewhat Vibration of
Life attempt is made.. by Mike it sounds like. Very modest (for a HUGE Vibration of Life, see 11/13/94-1). Nirvana at 4:08,
and it is wondrous.. perfectly played, and just a Delightful effort from Page. Mike's solo-section is similarly quite melodious and
charming.. he's extremely active in here! Just great stuff from Mike. Trey is fairly psychotic in the pre-charge, making some
frightening noises with his 'doc. His soloing around the first Note is quite good, though.. then he returns to more chaotic-evil
noises on the 'doc, before butchering the second shot at The Note around 6:53 (he just didn't hit it and sustain it.. fumbles.. not
good). "Boy" at 7:25 after a decent scream from Trey. WUDMTF segment is standard, although I would honestly swear that
Trey says "Wash your face.." in here on at least two occasions. The tramps jam begins around 9:34, and is fairly upbeat. They
aren't on the tramps for this for certain. Trey is accompanying strongly, and Mike isn't playing the signals, but providing a really
nice bottom groove to Page's wailing and Trey's rather upbeat accompaniment. Very, very good tramps segment, in this sense..
Page is really getting Heavy on the piano in here, and the whole band is raging in support of Page's incredible piano-work! Jam
segment starts around 11:20, with Trey sustaining low on the 'doc, and Mike laying down this ultra loooow funky beat. There's
really not much Trey at all for the first forty seconds or so.. Mike is just funking out very, very low. Yeah! =^] Phaaaaaaat...
Around 12:15 Trey comes in, employing this weird, somewhat muffled, queer guitar effect. Sounds like a form of the effect he
employed in that ultra-cheesey jam in the Bangor Tweezer (that circus-like goofy jam..). Around 13 minutes, Trey starts really
noodling -- more loudly -- employing this same effect... before dumping it after some nice sustain around 13:30 or so!!! Very
nice, very cool transition. Trey's just firing away now, with some fuuuuunkay accompaniment from Mike and Fish and Page!!
=^] The groove around 14 minutes is *AWESOME*. Just kickass grooving, in my opinion. The interplay between the band
members is Dead-like in its gloriousness. Trey is soloing masterfully above this sweeeet accompaniment from Page on the clav
and Mike looooow on his 'doc. Fish is also passionately milking the groove! At 15:02 B&D kicks in, after a pretty good climax
to the jam segment (not fantastic, though, admittedly). Mike is raging in here.. he's very active! And even Trey and Page seem
to be adding little things here and there.. but this is so short!! Damn short!! :( Closing segment at 15:35, with some fills from
Fish. Vocal jam comes in very softly, VERY softly, within twenty seconds or so, as usual. Very quiet vocal jam (around 16:10).
Practically nothing.. lots of humming noises.. soft humming. Very harmonious around 18:30, with Fish lightly tapping the bass
pedal, it sounds like.. nice little vocal groove develops, and Trey appears to tease Psycho Killer briefly (humming it). Starts
getting loud, finally, around 19:30.. or at least louder.. eh, not really.. Lots of harmonizing in here.. soft harmonizing on
"humming" noises, really.. Nothing Small Furry Creatures about this vocal jam at all. Sounds like they almost create a "Vibration
of Life" effect with the vocal jam, too, around 21 minutes. Pretty cool!! Breathing noises at the end... Total time 21:47 or so. All
things considered, this version gets a B. I think it is awesome, but for every time the version appears to be _very_ awesome,
there's something in it that isn't quite as awesome. So, that's why I hesitate to give it a B+. (fwiw) two cents FOTMtease420