YEM review - 9/17/99 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California

From: Benjamin N Gray bng1@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
Subject: YEM: 9.17.99 review

9.17.99, Set II
Runaway Jim, Sand, Piper, Roggae, You Enjoy Myself*# > Bass Duet*,
Wolfman's Brother*^ > Cold Rain and Snow*^ 

*With Phil Lesh on bass. #With Lesh on trampolines. ^With Lesh on vocals.

My copy of this show (I think it's the Schoeps source) is very bass-heavy.
Not much Trey or Page in the mix, and the whole thing sounds kind of
muddy.  I don't know if it's the mics or the amphitheatre, but that's just
what it is.  High bass might not be bad, I suppose, since Phil is on this
YEM.  First set of this show is good, nothing remotely spectacular.  Set
II starts with good, though not great, versions of Jim, Sand, Piper, and
Roggae.  And on to the review..

Opening section is played perfectly, and the pre-nirvana section around
1:50 or so is just insanely beautiful on headphones.  Standard, butI just
really love this part of the song.  Page is low in the mix, but doing some
great stuff nonetheless (at least I think it's Page - might be Trey)
(whatever).  Nirvana around 3:50 or 4:00 or so.  Page's section here is
really nice, very good stuff on piano.

Mike's solo is spectacular, seriously dope, possibly to impress Mr. Lesh,
I don't know.  It's good though.  Oh, I'm spacing out a bit.. First note
is sustained really well, Trey does some good jamming around it.  More
melodic and less rapid stuff.  Second note (around 6:45) is sustained
perfectly.

"Boy" at 7:15 or so after a good scream.  This one's for Mike, and he's
dropping some good stuff inbetween the lyrics.  Sounds like some good
chording from Page in the background, not too much from Trey actually...

Slow, wah-ed out clav from Page, every song should have that in it.
Tramps section.. here comes Phil, crowd's going crazy, though Page isn't
so much.  Pretty chill organ in here, climbs a bit in intensity though,
and Trey adds some dissonance around 10:45.. By 11:15, the jam section has
definitely started jamming with some noodling from Trey, and Page jumps to
the piano shortly afterwards.

Lots of bass in this jam, obviously, though the 2 basslines really meld
together nicely.  Around 12:45, Fishman is all over his ride and the jam
picks up accordingly, Trey has found some inspiration and Page is locked
in on piano.  Great stuff from Fishman still.  Nice release around 14:20..
Get this jam.. stop reading the review.

Just in case you stuck around, Trey's sustain around 15:50 finally dies
out and there's a great bass duet between Phil and Mike...fucking sick,
and then the whole band comes back at about 16:40 with Trey on wah.  We've
settled into a nice groove here, lots of interplay between the 2 basses
and everybody else largely accompanying them.  Nice..

Trey comes back in soloing around 19 minutes, the jam picks up again where
it left off before the first bass duet.  Trey's soaring above it and the
piano is filling perfectly.  Some delay loops around 21 minutes, I really
dig those things.  Bass duet really starts around 21:30 with some keyboard
effects and delay loops.  No vocal jam on this sucker, and the jam segues
directly into a Mike/Phil duet.  I'll be right back..


I won't review the bass duet except to say that it's beautiful and I'll
take it over a vocal jam anyday.  This YEM actually has a pretty standard
jam in terms of direction, though it's done very well, and it's also got
this breakdown in the middle of it where Mike and Phil just rock out, and
then the bass duet at the end obviously is something most YEMs don't have.
I mean, you want this version, there's really no question about it, though
the rest of the show (before Phil came on) was pretty blah.  Peace.

Ben Gray

Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 21:56:06 -0700
From: Charles Dirksen cdirksen@earthlink.net
Subject: 9/17/99 Shoreline Enjoys Itself with Phil Lesh
 
9/17/99 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California
 
Ahhh, Shoreline.  See you there this Fall, I hope.  This version of YEM is
considered by many to be one of the finest of 1999, primarily given the
special guest.
 
YEM's opening could be tighter (Trey fudges a little), but is fine overall.  
The pre-Snoopy segment is typically spacey, with harmonious sustained chords
(as you've heard it before).  "Snoopy" at 3:52. Mike's solo section around
4:40ish is melodic and serene.  Around 5 mins, the precharge segment begins,
and the crowd goes *apeshit* because Brad brings out THREE trampolines (if I
recall correctly, he brought three out himself, unassisted, but I can't be
sure).  Brad usually brings out the trampolines at this time in YEM's opening
segment of course, but until now, he had never brought out three trampolines
(at least, so far as I'm aware).  The precharge segment is good, but through
the motions "good" and nothing over the top or especially strong.  Charge at 7
mins, and then
 
BOY at 7:14 after a good scream.  BMGS/WUDMTF segment is normal -- funky and
punchy. Page tools around on the clavinet a bit more than usual in here,
though.  That's the only highlight. Phil comes out on-stage at the start of
the trampolines segment, at 9:30.  Crowd goes crazy, naturally.  Dude, it's
PHIl leSH!  =^] If memory serves, Phil made it on the tramps for about 30
seconds, tops, if even that.  The bass-heavy jam segment basically begins
around 11 mins. As you may have heard, Phil did have significant sound/monitor
problems during this jam.  He wasn't playing for significant portions of it.  
Phil's tone actually blends quite well with Mike's tone in this jam, and so,
when they are playing, they really, really complement each other.
 
Trey solos a bit over the bass activity, and it's nice, but nothing terribly
spirited -- at least at first.  Page and Fish just kick out a strong
accompaniment.  Filling in the spaces quite nicely.  There's so much bass in
this jam that it takes on this really heavy, thick flavor.  Trey compensates
by sticking to the middle and upper octaves, for the most part (ditto for
Page!).  The jamming around 14:15 or so is pretty damn sweet!  =^] The crowd
gets into it, too.  Trey's riffing around 14:50 really smokes.  He's obviously
LOVING IT -- seeing Mike playing so well with Phil.  Around 15:15 the jam
begins cooling off a touch.  Trey sustains a note out, and at 15:53, Page,
Trey and Fish drop out (Fish continues to tap the high-hat every other beat,
though).
 
Mike and Phil then begin "The Bass Jam." A good jam.. pretty wild hearing two
bassists jamming, huh?  Phil called it something akin to "hippopotami
humping," and that's the best description I've heard of it!  Doesn't last very
long. At 16:40, Page, Trey and Fish all come back in together; Trey on funky
chords at first.. but he starts soloing after a couple of measures.  With Trey
noodling overtop everyone else, the jam gets increasingly more intense,
building in an otherwise "typical YEM" fashion, until around 20 mins or so,
when it climaxes well... and then climaxes again, as any stellar YEM jam does,
several measures later, around 20:40!  Trey lets loose some digital delay loop
note around 20:59, presumably signaling his departure from any significant
role in the jam.  Mike and Phil just TAKE OVER around 21:20 or so -- they
become far more prominent in the mix after Trey drops out of the lead role.  
Page may sustain a note here and there, but he's basically gone, too.  And
Fish soon drops out.
 
By 21:55 it's all Phil and Mike -- the others have dropped out completely once
again.  Mike and Phil then play a far more melodic, charming duet than the
"hippopotami humping" one that they'd engaged in earlier.  What a hell of an
improvisation, huh?  They complement each other SO DAMN WELL in this duet,
IMO.  Their tones blend so well.  It's not perfect, of course, by any stretch
(it is off the cuff, after all).  But DAMN!  =^] Beautiful stuff.  How cool to
see Mike playing with Phil at SHORELINE... imagine playing with one of your
musical heroes on a huge stage before thousands of people. (!) This duet is
embued with this awed vibe, IMO, even if it could have ended more smoothly.  
Check it out!
 
Total time 25:39.  Thunderous applause.  About 20 seconds later, Wolfman's
Brother starts up.
 
Obviously, this YEM > Bass Jam > YEM > Bass Duet gets an easy "N/R" -- not
rated.  IMO it's worth hearing.  What an event in Phishtory. Sure, it isn't as
musically thrilling and intense a version overall as the 5/5/93 (with ARU) or
the 12/9/95 Albany or 10/31/95 versions of YEM, but so what.  A must-hear all
the same, IMO.
 
two cents,
charlie



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