228. Strictly Roots, Caribbean Allstars, Burning Bush
(won tickets) Bridge, San Francisco, CA. 1/17/93I went to this show alone. I had never been to this club before and it was a pretty cool place! Burning Bush were ok, they had a couple of good roots tunes. Caribbean Allstars were great!! A really well rounded mix of world music mixed with roots reggae! Great band. I had hoped that Carlos might show up for a jam, but he didn't. Their sound mix was not that great, so the recording was only so. Strictly Roots were quite good. They had a couple of spacey dub jams that were great. Excellent guitar! Pretty good roots reggae show.
229. Hieronymous Firebrain, Granfallon Bus and Mingo 2000. Starry Plough., Berkeley, CA. 2/5/93 $5.00
I went to this show alone also but I hung out with the guys in Hieronymous, so I did not feel alone. Mingo 2000 were older guys dressed in strange 60's/70's clothes playing all 60's/70's soundtrack and TV show songs. Very strange, kind of fun.
Granfallon Bus were strange and pretty boring this time. The lead guitarist still couldn't sing and he also played clarinet this time. Jonathan from HF played the whole set with them.
HF were great! They started a bit slow but the whole end of the show was a massive improv jam including a CAN cover (Connection). I got a good recording but the vocals are a bit distorted. Great show by a great band!
230. Hieronymous Firebrain, Mommyheads, and Fibulator. Elbo Room, San Francisco, CA. 2/13/93 (free show)
I was to go with Malcolm and Katt, but they decided not to, so I went alone. This was one of those music convention shows. Fibulator were pretty strange. Some of it worked ok though. Chris, the horn player sitting in with HF, played in this band. The Mommyheads were pretty good. I thought they sounded to commercial at first but their songs got better! HF were great but not very loose. They played a pretty straight forward set of songs for 45 minutes. Pretty decent recordings of all bands. The set list was:
Evening Raga, Strange new Suit, Heaven's Expanse, Skin Holds it In
Relax, You do Right (CAN cover), It's Fine231. Inka Inka (free show) DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA. 2/19/93
A great free show. I went by myself again. I had a great place dead center on the balcony, where I got an amazing recording of Judy Mowatt from. Inka Inka were smoking. Speaking of smoking, the guys next to me passed me a joint and I took one hit and I had had one beer already, but a few minutes later, I passed out and fell to the ground (the recording kept going). I felt like I was out for a while but from the reaction around me, it was only seconds. I got back up and took a seat back by the bar (this is where the sound of the recording changes). I missed two songs. This was a cool show despite.!
232. Blue Oyster Cult and Motherlode. Slims, San Francisco, CA. 3/9/93
Scott (Pigfeeder) got me on the guest list for this show and I went alone again. Hard to believe, but this was the first time I had ever seen BOC. They never played El Paso or Albuquerque when I went to school. The only time I remember was in 1983 when they came to Albuquerque and opened for Rainbow. I missed it. Anyway, Motherlode were a local band that rocked pretty hard and had some great songs! No idea what happened to them? BOC were as good as ever! Eric was wearing an Alice in Chains T-shirt and looked really different. The place was packed and hot and they had the PA cranked as it was LOUD! I got an excellent recording and they played a good selection of old and two new songs. I met a really nice guy named Frank. We had a few long talks between bands and after the show. He never did call me. The set list was:
Stairway, Dr. music, Dominance, A kiss before the Redcap, ETI, Demon's kiss, Teen Archer, Joan Crawford, Cities on Flame, Still Burning, I am the Night, Ain't the Summer of Love, ME 262, harvester of Eyes, Harvest Moon, Burning for You, Godzilla, The Reaper, OD on life itself, Golden age of Leather, Red and the Black! Incredible set!233. Col. Bruce Hampton and the ARU and Tinsley Ellis. Slims, San Francisco, CA. 3/10/93
I went with Paul to this show. I was really tired from the night before but there was no way I was going to miss ARU, especially after that incredible show back in November! Tinsley Ellis was a blues guitar player from Georgia. He was pretty good. ARU were smoking! Jimmy was really hot and Oteil just blew me away. They only played for 95 minutes but there were a few songs they didn't play last time, I think! I got a good recording!
234. Blues Traveler. $20.00 Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO. 3/20/93
I was in Boulder for the Western and Southwestern Conference on Comparative Endocrinology. It was a fun little meeting and I had never been to Boulder before. It is a quaint town and beautiful, set right in the mountains, just far enough from Denver! I did not even know that Blues Traveler were in town but I was walking down town checking out the record stores and saw they were playing three nights. All the shows were sold out. I decided that I would try my luck and hang out and see if I could score a ticket. Sure enough a guy came out from inside and sold me his ticket as he managed to get on the list! Very cool! This was the best I had ever (and have ever) seen BT. I got to stand dead center in the front row right in front of John. He was sitting in a chair as he had yet to recover from the motorcycle wreck, so I could never see the drummer! This was the first performance ever of Spinning Spiraling Machine, which they still have not recorded! Incredible show and a lot of drunk fuckers at this show! I got a address from a guy who made a board tape, so I eventually did get a copy, but it took a while and I thought I was going to get ripped off by the guy but he did come through! The set list was: Crash Burn, Gina, Save his Soul, Should I stay or should I go, Believe Me, Close this Park, Love and Greed, As we Wonder, Spinning Spiraling machine, But Anyway, Crystal Flame
2nd Set: Alone, NY Prophecy, Got outside and Drive, Conquer Me (yuk), Trina Magna, Defense and Desire, Hey Joe>Gotta get Mean>Gloria>Gotta Get mean, Johnny B. Goode 150 minutes!235. Joe Higgs and Island Machine. Ashkenaz, Berkeley, CA. 4/24/93
I was pretty blown away that the legend Joe Higgs was playing. I met up with Bobby Fiesel at the show and he danced his ass off while I recorded! Island Machine was the guitar, bass player and drummer from Caribbean Allstars. The singer for CA came out for a couple of songs. Pretty cool mix of roots reggae and steel drum calypso.
Joe Higgs was great! I did not like the occasional dance hall rap crap that the keyboard player did but the rest of the show was great and they played for over 2 hours. I got a pretty good recording as well of both bands. A fun night!
236. Zulu Spear and Midnight Voices (won tickets) Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA. 4/30/93
I went with Bobby again. Midnight Voices were rap music not that great. We did not care for them at all. Zulu Spear were great, as good as the last time I saw them. bobby has seen them a lot of times! It was a late show, ending at 1:30. They played for 90m and I got a decent recording!
237. Chaos UK, Capitalist Casualties, The Dread. (won tickets) Gilman Street, Berkeley, CA. 5/7/93
I always loved the raw hardcore of the early Chaos UK stuff and I was amazed I was going to get to see them and they were incredible. I wish I had a tape of the show! Anyway, I went with bobby and I think we must have really stood out as different at this show with all the spiked hair and true punks! CC were ok, playing loud, fast and short songs. The Dread were better but also had a thrashy style of punk, very similar for Final Conflict. Chaos UK played for almost an hour (long set for a gilman band!). They played a lot of my favorite old songs! It was fun!
238. Strictly Roots (won tickets) Berkeley Square, Berkeley, CA. 5/8/93
This was the first time I ever got a chance to speak with Strictly Roots and it turns out they are from Albuquerque and moved to the bay area, where they are quite popular now! Nice folks. These guys are really tight and play mostly true roots reggae. Only played for 65 minutes. I went with Bobby.
239. CACA and LOAD. (won tickets) Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA. 5/10/93
I went to this show with Malcolm, Katt and Paul. the first band called BAR= square root of Dan... This was a Glenn Spearmen, the drummer from Oingo Boingo and a few guys from Br. Bungle and they made a horrendous amount of fucking noise! Awful... LOAD were fucking great! Tim, the drummer from Primus, a stick player and guitar. They really sounded great with that King Crimson influence. The demos I got were really impressive as well. The stick was really poorly mixed tonight, so it was not as heavy as it could have sounded. Caca were great! Larry from Primus and the Limbomanics guys.. It is cool to see someone doing justice to Zappa's music. Fun stuff... Got a pretty decent recording! They even did Sofa (the German version!)
240. Richard Sinclair's Caravan of Dreams and PFS. $10 Komotion, San Francisco, CA. 5/14/93
This was a small non-profit club run by a friend of Malcolm humes. I went with Malcolm and Katt. PFS were a local trio who played mostly instrumental music (sax, piano and drums) and they did a great cover of King Crimson Starless and Bible Black. Very interesting band!
Caravan of Dreams were excellent. I liked this much better than Richard just by himself. The songs took on a much more jazzy fusion type style. They played two sets and a total of almost 2 hours. I got a great recording and had fun talking to Andy Ward. This was before he became a member of Bevis Frond!
241. Robin Trower. (won tickets) New George's, San Rafael, CA. 5/26/93
Went to this show with Scott (pigfeeder) and my friend James Malley from New Mexico. A pretty good show but way too loud. They had it cranked to the max and the PA would even crack at times like it was being pushed just to the limit. It was a almost totally male crowd. Robin looked old and he made these really tortured faces when he soloed. He was a great though and he had some good backing musicians. Davey Patterson (who lives in Salsolito) came out and Sang Day of the Eagle and Bridge of Sighs! If you recall Davey sang for Trower after the break up of Gamma. It was great to finally get to see Robin live!
The set list was: Too Rolling Stoned, Rise like the Sun, Don't lose faith in Tomorrow, Althea, Secret Place, Day of the Eagle, Bridge of Sighs, Prisoner of Love, Extermination Blues, ?, Step into the Dark, A little bit of Sympathy
242. LAGUNA SECA DAZE- Allman Brothers, Blues Traveler, Phish, Shawn Colvin, Jeff Healy, Gin Blossoms. Monterey, CA. 5/29/93 $26.50
This was an amazing day of music! I went with Paul, Kevin and James. It was a hot, beautiful sunny day! All the bands had really good sound also (except when the wind would blow through the mics!). We missed the Gin Blossoms and only caught part of Jeff Healy as we were getting set up and he sounded great! It was Khan's B-day and he was really smoking! They played about an 80min set. Phish were ok, but they only let loose a couple of times and for the most part stuck with their pop tunes, which I hated, bouncy fun songs... ugh.. The Allman brothers were fucking great and played for 2 hours and 20 minutes. They would have played longer but they were closing down the place. They did the shortest encore, with like a three minute version of One Way out! Awesome version of Nobody knows! It was an incredible setting for the Allmans as the sun was setting over the hills as they were playing. The wind was picking up as they started their set though and the first 30 minutes of my tape until the sun set has wind distortion, sometimes pretty bad. Hot show!!
243. The Mentors and Fuck Boyz. Brave New World, San Francisco, CA. 7/10/93
I went with Pete and he paid for my ticket (too nice a guy). It was an awful show though as the Fuck Boys were a total bunch of fucks and there were a lot of skinheads (they did not fuck with us long hairs though). El Duce was so incredibly drunk that he did not perform at all really. They had to help to get him up on the stage and the first thing he does is fall over backwards and destroy the drum set. They have to take 5 minutes to set it back up before they can start the show. Sicky ended up singing all the songs. They did get El Duce to actually stand there and hold the mic and say a few things but he was so out of it he did not have a clue. His fucking pants kept falling to the floor and there he was standing on the stage with his pants around his ankles (no underwear) clueless. It was sad and pathetic but I guess it is the MENTORS! Great band on lp but awful live. I am glad I did get to see the legend, however awful. Pete and I actually did chat with him. NIce guy. I remember when Lani and I called him up on the phone from Las Cruces and had chat. He actually was a funny guy. RIP......
244. Burning Spear. $18.00 Slims, San Francisco, CA. 7/15/93
Bobby Fiesel bought the tickets but could not go so I met his brother at the show. A really cool guy. The show was sold out and the doors opened at like 8 and we stood around until 10:15 before they came on. They played for about 100 minutes and were really great! A few of the new songs were a bit poppy but most was heavy roots reggae! I got a good recording! Slims is just a great club to see a band in!
245. Monster Magnet, Raging Slab and Paw. (won tickets) Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA. 8/25/93
All I can say is WOW>>>>>>>> I was totally blown away at this show. Monster Magnet were so incredibly heavy and psychedelic! Awesome! We came in during PAW and they were not too bad. They reminded me a super heavy version of Pearl jam. The singer was really an Eddie Veter clone but they were pretty good. Raging Slab were really entertaining and cool. They reminded me a lot of mid 70's Foghat! They had one song in which all three guitar players played slide. The female slide player was really good and she had a USA shaped guitar! Dave Wyndorf seemed like he was on another planet at this show. He just had this wild look I his eyes and almost fell into the crowd early on in the show, when he was probably the highest! They were incredible! The set list was:
Intro, Superjudge, ?, ?, Nod Scene, Twin Earth, Cage around the Sun
Evil, Spine of God, Pill Shovel246. Richard Sinclair. (a donation) Malcolm Humes Apartment, Berkeley, CA. 9/6/93
This was a really cool get together of Caravan and prog fans from around the bay area at a friend of mine's apartment. It was a nice day and they had a little PA set up in the small backyard and people brought their own beer and they had some chips, etc.. Richard was very cool and spent a lot of time hanging out with everyone. He played a very loosely structured set and played for a couple of hours with several breaks. There were about 20 or so people there and I met some really nice folks!
247. Frank Marino and Coney Island Whitefish. Slims, San Francisco, CA. 9/15/93
Coney Island Whitefish were ok. As the name infers, they were highly influenced by Aerosmith and Guns and Roses. Frank was fucking great but predictable. It was the exact set as last year at the I-Beam except a 2-3 minute version of Babylon before Voodoo Chile and a bit different guitar solo. I went with Pete, whom had never seen Frank and was pretty amazed! I got Frank's autograph but not in person. They were sending sheets of paper down to the dressing room after the show. I guess he was too shy to come out or too tired. Great sound and great jams as always. I will never miss a Frank Marino show. The set list was:
The Answer, Midnight Highway, I'm a King Bee, Dragonfly
Free, Poppy, Strange Dreams, The wall came down, Babylon
Voodoo Chile, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Johnny B. Goode
Who do ya love, Bass solo, drum solo, Guitar Solo
Roadhouse Blues248. Col. Bruce Hampton and the ARU and Mother Hips. Slims, San Francisco, CA. 9/16/93 (won tickets)
I went with Paul. Mother Hips were ok, but nothing special. I think the songs were just not that memorable. They only really stretched it out on one song. Matt Mundy (mandolin player) was not with ARU tonight. I don't know why? I found out later that he had left the band at least as far as touring goes. ARU were so tight and smoking. It was amazing! The Col. seemed to be more with it and did a lot more solos and material from the first record. Got an excellent recording! One of the best live bands that I know of!
249. Jethro Tull and Procol Harum. $22.50 Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA. 9/17/93
By this time I was really tired as the two previous night I had seen shows at Slims. I did not get home till after 2 for Frank Marino and 1 for ARU. Luckily this was a sit down show and much more laid back in the beautiful Greek Theatre! I went with Paul and Rich from work. Procol Harum's old material was great but the new songs were only so. The old stuff got a great crowd response and they were just great songs, so they deserved it! Jethro Tull were pretty amazing. The set was mostly material from the 60's and only one song from the 80's (Budapest). My tape recorder fucked up so I missed most of Aqualung and Locomotive Breath. Excellent tull set.
250. Peter Gabriel and Papa Wemba. $25.00 Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA. 10/93
I went with Tim Garrow from work. Pap Wemba were a pretty good afrobeat band from Africa but based in France now. Peter Gabriel had a really cool stage set up but the sound mix was only ok and he played way too many of his ballad style songs, which I don't like and not enough of his interesting introspective songs. The tape was 100 minutes. We left before the encore, if they did one......
251. Mercyful Fate, Flotsam and Jetsam and Cathedral. $14.00 Omni, Oakland, CA. 10/7/93This was amazing. I figured I would never get to see the original Mercyful Fate and here they were. This show was completely sold out and over sold. It was so packed and hot. I met up with Pete, mike and pigfeeder. Cathedral were fucking great! I loved their style of slow heavy grinding doom.... They only played for 35 minutes. Flotsam and Jetsam were ok but not that great. high energy! The slammers were loving it. After Flotsam we went near the door to get some air and Lars Ulrich showed up. We chatted for a minute (he did not remember me interviewing him 8 years before! I look totally different though now) I had hoped that maybe he would join them to play the drums as he did play on one track on their new lp at the time. No. MF were incredible! Amazing! I got pretty good recordings of the shows, but the crowd was pretty loud!
252. Monster Magnet, Clutch and Liquor ball. (won tickets) Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA. 10/13/93
I won tickets again! I was really surprised that they were back again in less than two months but that was fine as we were totally blown away last time! I spoke with Ed before the show and is a great guy. I had told him that I hoped that they would mix up the set and he said they never play the same set two nights in a row. I also told him I loved Cyclops Revolution and they opened with it! We were talking about older 70's bands and he said that the band had rehearsed the instrumental portion of a Capt. beyond song! That would be great! Zozer Mez do a great version of Mesmerization Eclipse by Captain Beyond! Anyway, Liquor Ball were pure fucking noise..... We had to go outside as it was so painful! Clutch were not too bad but I thought that they were a poor mans Rollin's Band. All there songs sounded the same. Monster Magnet were way too loud. Either they had a new PA or someone new cranking it as all the rest of the shows I saw from now on at the Kennel Club were always too loud, This show was deafening! The set list was awesome!
Intro, Cyclops Revolution, Snake Dance, Medicine, Twin Earth, Nod Scene, Superjudge, Zodiac Lung, Elephant Bell, Face Down, Spine of God, Evil, Freakshop USA
253. Voi Vod, Damn the Machine and the Big F. Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA. 10/18/93
I won tickets and went with Pigfeeder. The Big F were really good. I liked them a lot. They only played for 30 minutes. Damn the Machine were a progressive style metal band, but they did not have enough guitar solos for that style, too much riffing! I recorded both bands.
Voi Vod were great! It had been a while and quite a progression since 1985 when I saw them last. They had a really cool visual show and they all seem to be having such a great time on stage. Piggy was still playing his custom guitars and even had one with 8 strings! They played a good mixture of stuff and even three songs from the first record. Nothing from Roarrrrr though. The cover of Pink Floyd was great! I got a pretty decent recording as well.
254. Bad Religion and Green Day. (won tickets) Warfield,San Francisco, CA. 10/20/93
I won tickets on the radio by answered what the title of Green Day's first 7" record was! It was the only one that I had! We missed Seaweed and Green Day were pretty entertaining. One of the guys was wearing a dress! All three chord pop punk stuff. The crowd loved the shit out of them. Bad Religion were excellent and played a good mix of the old and the new stuff. Weird to see them in such a big place. I went to the show with Pete. Last show of this type in the bay area for me. Living in the San Francisco bay area was an incredible experience. Everyone should do it for part of their life. The music scene is hard to beat anywhere in the world.
255. Iration. $3.00 Commonwealth Brewery, Boston, MA. 11/28/93
I was out in Boston to try and find an apartment to live in as we were moving in less than a month and I needed to give the moving company and address. I got lucky and found a great apartment in Somerville (or scummerville as some call it). Anyway, Colin Leech, a colleague from the lab I was going to work in took me out and we went to this good brewery. We met up with an ex-postdoc from the lab named Suzanne. Good beer at this place. I recommend it! Anyway, Iration were a local all white roots reggae band. They were really good! I was pretty surprised. I would find out later that reggae and world music was hard to come by in Boston.
256. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Ensemble. (won tickets) Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, CA. 12/4/93
I went with my friend Tim Garrow. We were both leaving Berkeley soon for new places, me in Boston and he in Illinois! I had never heard much of Nusrat, only one song on a Peter Gabriel label compilation. Anyway, I think that we were both blown away. The music just seem to transport you away. The chanting was so rhythmic and intense at times. I was truly blown away at the power of Nusrat's voice at times. I got a great recording, but the box that had this tape in it was lost in our move to Boston and I had not had a chance to copy it for anyone. I am bummed.
257. Nik Turner's Hawkwind, Shiva Speedway Middle East, Cambridge, MA. 1/29/94
This was my first show in MA after moving. I met up with Patt Dunn (6 foot 9" tall) from Worcester, whom I had traded tapes with for some years. I also met up with several people from the HW/BOC-l internet list; Tania Ruiz, Carl Anderson and David Kuznick. Sleep were to open the show but their truck broke down in NY. I was bummed. Shiva Speedway were a local band, all female, except the bassplayer. They were ok but they did nothing special to make any of their songs standout from one another. Nik was fucking amazing and heavy! The club had a low ceiling so the primitive light show (with the rotating pillow case!) was even worse than it should have been. Helios Creed's guitar had this chainsaw sound to it and was really heavy! He had this great fluorescent orange face makeup. Nik was totally decked out as well with wild colors and they had black lights facing the band so it was all greatly enhanced. They played a mixture of Helios songs, Nik solo songs, Inner city Unit and hawkwind songs. great two hour show. I got a good recording. The streets in Cambridge and Somerville are a fucking maze and since I was new here I really had a hard time finding my way around. I got lost on the way home and it took me 45 minutes to get home. I was so angry. We only live 10 minutes away usually. Ugh.
The set list was:
Ghost Dance, Watching the Grass Grow, D-Rider, Master of the Universe, Sonic Attack, God Rock-Slo Blo, Serenade,Brainstorm
Ejection, The Right Stuff, Thoth, Throw away the Rind, You shouldn't do That, Orgone Accumulator, Silver Machine
258. Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Morbid Angel. Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA. 2/11/94I went by myself on this very fucking cold and snowy evening. I had never been to the Orpheum before and I was amazed as it was exactly the same as the Warfield in San Francisco, but a bit bigger. The design was the exact same. What a suprise! Morbid Angel had really poor sound and sounded like a poor man's version of slayer. Motorhead, besides a couple of crap sounds fucking were great! Really heavy and loud as hell!! SOund could have been better though. I was surprised at how much I liked Black Sabbath. They played some really cool old songs like the Wizard, Symptom of the Universe, and Into the Void. Tony martin was great on the new songs but sounded really strained on the Ozzy and Dio stuff. He also seem to use a teleprompter to read lyrics which was lame. Bobby Rondelli was totally unremarkable. The recordings came out ok.
259. Swinging Steaks and the Pies. Johnny D's, Somerville, MA. 3/4/94
This was the first time I had ever been to Johnny' D's. A lot of cool bands come and play there and the place is so small. I was blown away when I had heard that Hawkwind had played there in 1989! The place only holds like 125 people and the stage is really small! Great intimate setting for a show though. The Pies were a local Blues outfit. not too bad. Swinging Steaks were a country rock band from Boston. It was very much a local scene. The crowd was really into them. I went with Carl. They played two sets of about an hour each. Not too bad.
260. Col. Bruce Hampton and the ARU, Leftover Salmon. (won tickets) Paradise, Boston, MA. 3/9/94
I found another great college radio station, in which I would win a lot of tickets over the next three years! WMBR 88.1 Cambridge MA. This was the MIT student run station. Great station! Anyway, a guy named Dan Gold from Arkansas, who was going to school at Brown in Providence came up for the show and we had a good time. We met on the internet. I had never been to the Paradise before. It was a long skinny club and the stage was in the middle. There was a huge support pole right in the middle about 10 feet from the stage. Very poor planning for this club. Pretty decent sound system but smallish stage for the size of the place.
Leftover Salmon were from Boulder CO and played a mixture of Cajun, bluegrass and rock. They were really entertaining and great! Fun stuff. ARU were awesome. This would be the last month of shows with the Col. in the band, as he would leave in April due to poor health. The Col. was really with it tonight and played a lot more than usual. Jimmy fucking smoked as usual! The bass player for Phish came out for one song and he should have just stayed and watched as he is lame compared to Oteil! The banjo and mandolin players from Leftover Salomon came out and jammed with ARU, which was awesome! Killer show!!! Lots of heavy jams.,.261. Widespread Panic and Swinging Steaks. $18.50 Avalon, Boston, MA. 3/15/94
I went with Carl and Tania. They had never seen Widespread Panic. Swinging steaks were ok but still a bit too countryish. Widespread Panic were a major disappointment. They started the show out great with Send your Mind, Fishwater and Travelin' Light but from then on it went down hill, with mostly boring tunes and mellow times. The sound at the sound was really muddy as well. They only played for 105 minutes and I felt a bit ripped off. The recording is ok.
262. Blues Traveler and Allgood. Field House, Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH. 3/25/94
I went with a guy named Scott Leno whom I met on the Blues Traveler net group. The show was about 70 miles away up in New Hampshire. It was well worth the drive except for the speeding ticket I gotten New Hampshire after the show! Anyway, the show was in a gym so the sound was less than ideal but I think the sound guy did a pretty good job. Allgood jammed pretty hard and their sound was really more funk than the lp that I had heard. I thought they sounded more original before. Blues Traveler were pretty smoking! They only played for 100 minutes, which is short for them. They played three new tunes (Stand, Freedom and Price to Pay?). Chat was pretty hot. John stood for most of the concert so he seems to have recovered pretty well. I had a nice chat to the soundboard guy. No one got a full board tape of this show but some guys did come in later and get a patch. I recorded from the audience. Soon after this the band no longer allowed board patches.
263. Allman Brothers Band. $27.50 Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA. 3/29/94
I went with Carl and Tania and we had great seats on the floor section on the left center. There was no opening act. they played a lot of new songs off the not yet released lp called Back where it all Begins. Pretty smoking show. They did a long version of Mountain Jam, if I recall correct! I did record the show and it came out quite good!
264. Ozric Tentacles and Architectural Metaphor. Local 186, Allston, MA. 4/16/94
What a day this was! I went to the club early and recorded the soundcheck and talked with the band and met some really cool people. Local 186 is, like the name says, a local dump! A long skinny club that holds maybe 300 at best in the main room and then downstairs all the locals hang out and play pool and listen to the juke box! I left and went to pick up Carl and Tania and came back. I talked with Egon, the flute player, in front of the club for like 30 minutes. A very nice and spaced out guy! Anyway, this was the first time I had ever seen Arc Met and they were great (although I heard that the drummer was tripping). They are a cool three piece, synths (Paul) , drums and percussion (deb) and guitar and effects (Greg). They covered Hawkwind, Tangerine Dream and Roxy Music as well as performed originals. The psychedelic Juggler followed Arc Met and he was a guy who came with the ozrics from England and did juggling in the same time and rhythm as techno music that he produced. The effect was cool, as he had a lot of blacklights facing him on the stage and it just looked cool and trippy. The crowd loved it!
The Ozrics were loud and bright. They had these rotating lights that faced out at the crowd and were incredibly bright. So much so that often you could not see the images on the screen or the drummer at all! It was a great set and they jammed hard! My mic clip broke so I did not tape but there were like 10 people recording and I met my good friend Ian Scheff at this show! We have traded tapes and seen shows together for several years after this! The set list was:
OG-HA -BE, Erpland, White Rhino Tea, Vita Voom, Jurassic Shift
Dissolution, 0-1, Sunscape, The Throbbe, Kick Muck, Sniffing Dog265. Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies. (free show) Paradise, Boston, MA. 4/26/94
This was a free show sponsored by WBCN, the local rock station (now they are alternative and would never play the Wheelies!) I went with Carl and it was incredibly packed, smoky and hot, with drunk Boston University kids as the school was just around the corner! The band played a mix of hard rock, Texas blues (ala SRV) and funk. They had some good songs and jams. I was not really won over at first but as the show progressed I was really impressed with them. The guitar player on the right had a SRV/Robin Trower style and really jammed on some songs. The encore was a like 20 minute long jam. I got a pretty good recording except for a small section in which the recorder fucked up. A lot of crowd noise at times on the tape!
266. HORDE Festival. Allman Brothers, Blues Traveler, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Sheryl Crow, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, Little Sister and Cycomotgoat. Great Woods, Mansfield, MA. 8/13/94 $31.50I went with Carl. This was my first time to Great Woods and it was a lot like the shoreline Amphitheater but a bit nicer. We had pretty decent seats but because of the bands on the second stage you were running back and forth to catch all the bands. It was a really hot and humid day. We had good seats near the soundboard. We were sec 6 J34. If you were sec 6 row F20, that would be perfect! Anyway, Cycomotogoat were fucking great but I think you had to be into the style. I think they were a bit much for a lot of the people! They were a hot three piece. The guitar player had a great tone especially when he ran his acoustic guitar though this pile of effects. We loved them! Little Sister were a four piece funk band with a female singer. The guitar player seemed quite good but because of the 30 minute set, really didn't get a chance to let it rip! Quite good. I recorded both of these bands. Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies were excellent in their short 30 min set as well. I did not record then to conserve energy. Sheryl Crow (before she got huge) was ok, but not really my bag. A bit too poppy. The same thing with Big Head Todd. The crowd was totally into this guy and I thought they were really boring, as did Carl. Blues Traveler played about 90 minutes and was pretty decent but not as good as I had hoped.
The Allman Brothers were fucking unreal! Carl and I were just floored a couple of times of the sick jams they did. The version of Jessica was incredible! I recorded BT and the Allmans but the recorder overheated during the Allmans and I only got about 105 minutes of the show. Great fucking day!!
The set list was: Sailing the devil's Sea, Statesboro Blues, Blue Sky, Same Thing (w/Duane Betts), SOuthbound, Soulshine, Seven turns, Midnight Rider (w/Sheryl Crow), Jessica, No one to run with, Where it all begins, In Memory of Liz Reed (Batteries die), they also did One Way out and Whipping Post.
267. Lynryd Skynryd, Ted Nugent, Pride and Glory. Great Woods, Mansfield, MA. 8/13/94 $27.00
I went with Carl and we were totally psyched up to see Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent (for me!). The show fucking started at 6:30, so we missed the first song of Pride and Glory. Our seats were off to the side and it was still light so it was quite hard to get set up to record, so the Pride and Glory is a bit muffled as I really had to hide the stuff as the security was only a few feet away. Zakk fucking smoked! We were really blown away. Zakk did all the shit, playing with his teeth, coming out in the crowd, behind the back, etc... We were blown away!
Ted was fucking awesome! They were a three with the drummer from Damn Yankees. Derek St. holmes was suppose to be there but he was sick. Ted did not need him as he was more than able to hold his now. He ran around like mad, was as crazy as ever and played all the classics with his hollow body Gibson! . He even pulled out a bow and shot it into a guitar!! The set list was: Stormtroppin', Wang Dang Sweet Poon Tang, Free For All, Snakeskin Cowboys, Just what the doctor Ordered, Don't Tread> Shapes of Things
Fred Bear, Cat Scratch Fever, Stranglehold, Great White Buffalo>>
Hibernation>>Spirit of the Wild>>Great White BuffaloLynryd Skynryd were a really disappointment and they had crummy sound, no bottom end and the guitar you could hardly hear them. They started the show off all acoustic which was pretty cool. We did not think they were that great but the crowd loved them!
268. Architectural Metaphor and Atomic Cafe. Local 186, Allston, MA. 8/24/94 $5.00
This show was on my birthday and Carl went with me. They started late. Can't remember Atomic Cafe, except the guitar player did not use a pick at all and played with his thumb which was bleeding after their set! There were only 20 people left by the time Arc Met came on, but they were great and played for about 50 minutes. The set list was:
269. The Hatters and Truffle. (won tickets) Paradise, Boston, MA. 9/8/94
I went to the show alone but met up with a nice couple from New Hampshire who had lived in Roswell New Mexico! Truffle was excellent. I really like these guys. They played for about 70 minutes. I got a good recording from the side. The crowd was really small,less than 100 people. Hatter were really cool guys but a lot of their songs started to sound a like and neither guitar player really stood out to me. I left before they finished.
270. Aquarium Rescue Unit and Everything. Local 186, Allston, MA. 9./10/94 (won tickets)
I went with Carl. The place was packed the crowd was really into both bands. Everything are a band from Wash DC and play a sort of funk/blues but more eclectic. Not too bad. Carl and I spent about 30 minutes chatting with Jimmy Herring before their set while he tuned his guitars. One of the nicest guys I have ever met! We asked him about what it was like to play in the Alamos (I have the tape and he smoked!). He told us that Allen Woody was a mad man and that he actually took off and played a whole set of shows with them down in Florida playing mandolin! I would love to her that! Anyway, this was the first time for me to see ARU without the Col and the new singer. The Col. was missed but they still smoke and the new singer has a good voice and the new songs were pretty good.
271. Gov't MULE Paradise, Boston, MA. 9/16/94
I won tickets on WMBR and went with Carl. We were totally psyched but not really sure what to expect and were blown away. I knew it was going to be a short show because it started at 8 and they said it had to end by 9:30 so the club could become a disco for the local college students. The MULE were incredible. Allan Woody's bass was so loud that it just rocked the floor below your feet! We stood about 10 feet away right in front of Warren and his amp was loud!! Besides a few Allman tunes and covers all the songs were unfamiliar and awesome. Tons of guitar solos.. I was totally blown away. My friend Ian, earlier in the day had recorded the MULE play live in the studio of WBCN and a short interview. The set list for the show at the paradise was:
Rocking Horse , Blind man in the Dark, Mr. Big (Free cover), Mother Earth Blues (classic 40's blues tune, also covered by Johnny Winter on the WInter of 88' lp), Same Thing, End of the Line, Monkey Hill
Gambler's Roll, Sins a good mans Brother (Grand Funk tune),
Yonder Wall, Left Coast Groovies, World of Difference, Just got Paid
(ZZTop of course!)272. Aphex Twin, Eat Static, Banco de Gaia, Coin of the Realm. Limelight, New York City 9/21/94
I had this all prearranged and lani and I spent a week in NYC to coincide with this and the Ozrics show. We had a great time. I was suppose to meet up with Jim Collins from Chicago, as he put me on the list for the show, but we never did meet up, until Irving Plaza! Anyway, what a fucking place and the crowd..... wow...... The Limelight (RIP) was the most amazing club I had ever been to. It was an old church that was converted into a night club with a killer floor shaking soundsystem! The tall ceiling in the main room was perfect for a killer light show and projections. The club also had all sorts of small rooms with people hanging out and various bars and techno music rooms, etc... Big place.
I only caught the last few minutes of Coin of the Realm. Banco de Gaia was really great! I was amazed at how much electronic equipment they had piled up on the stage for all these techno bands. Hardly a space for anyone to move, not that they do much up there. Great light show and the sound was incredible! I hung out at the soundboard, where I recorded Eat Static. I got to talk with some of the guys from the Ozrics like Ed and Zia. Eat Static were wicked good! Killer projections and tons of wild strobes and the bass thump was pretty amazing. They did not come on until like 12:45. They played for like 50 minutes. Aphex Twin did not come out until 2 to even start. I was a bit disappointed that he appeared to be doing totally preprogrammed stuff and not actually playing, like Eat Static, whom, although they did rely on some prerecorded stuff, were really mixing beats, and making sounds with the synths! I have to mention the crowd, as I had never seen anything like this in my life. I saw Dominatrix's with men on leashes, with the full leather and the tits just sticking out! I saw one guy who was wearing just a see thru shirt that only came down to his waist and he had nothing else on besides shoes! I guess in NYC you can do anything. A fucking good time!273. Ozric Tentacles. Irving Plaza, New York City. 9/23/94
Lani and I had a few days to check out NYC and then I went to this show with my cousins, Cliff and Craig. I met up with some cool people like Bob Lennon, who was video taping, Doug Walker, Jim Collins, and others. This was the first ever show with the new members of the band, Seaweed (from the Thunderdogs) and Rad. Irving Plaza holds about 600 people I would guess and there were probably 300 or so at this show. I don't think there was any opening act or if there was I have no recollection of them at all. Anyway, the band played some great new numbers and the new guys seemed great. I had hoped that you could hear Seaweed better as what he was doing seemed pretty cool. Ed was amazing as ever. The Set was a bit short, less than 100 minutes, but this was the first show with the new guys and I don't think they really were totally with it as far as stretching the tunes out. The set list was:
Og-ha-Be, O-1, White Rhino Tea, Astro Cortex, Vita Voom, Myriapod, The Throbbe, Beard of Joy, Erpland, Dissolution, Kick Muck, Sniffing Dog274. Ozric Tentacles Paradise, Boston, MA. 9/25/94
This was a most amazing day! I had hardly recovered from coming back from a week in NYC. The band played in Providence, only 60 miles away the night before, but I needed the rest, but I heard it was a cool show. Anyway, I went down early and got to hear the soundcheck (recorded a few minutes of it). After that I hung out with the band for the next two hours before the show. We had dinner together at the Thai restaurant next to the club and then went onto the bus where I asked Ed and Seaweed questions for the next hour. It was a blast and they are great guys. Seaweed knew alot about the different bands in the psych scene and spoke of this band the Thunderdogs and Webcore (the soundman for the Ozrics played guitar for them!) and others... I asked Ed about his influences (Steve Hillage and HW)..... What an incredible time. After that I met up with Carl, Tania, Ian, Chris and Mary, and Jim Collins. Because of the stupid pole and the way the club was set up they had no visual projections and the light show was limited compared to the last time. The set list was the same as NYC but they stretched out the jams a bit more and did an amazing Dissolution! Great show again though! The set list was:
Og-ha-be, 0-1, White Rhino Tea, Vita Voom, There's a planet here
AstroCortex, Myriapod, The Throbbe, Erpland, Instrumental
Dissolution, Sniffing Dog275. Disarray and Mr. McTavish. Mitchell Club, Middleboro, MA. 10/1/94
Disarray are a band that a local Hawkwind fan that I had met through Chris and Mary Bruce, played in for many years. I guess they did well in the early 80's in the Boston scene. this was a 15th anniversary show, near where some of the band are from. Mr. McTavish were a local punk band but were quite fun. I drove down with Mary Bruce and would take Chris and Mary back after the show. Chris was recording the show on 8 track ADAT. Disarray played some really good songs and it was weird to see the locals who knew a lot of their songs from 10 years ago or so. They all had a great time.
276. Dave Mathews Band and From Good Homes. (won tickets) Avalon, Boston, MA. 10/8/94
I went to the show alone but met up with a cool guy named Martin from the Horde group. The show was totally sold out. This would be the last time Dave Mathews would play small places as their commercial sound would get huge and next time they would play the Fleet Center! Amazing... This was also the last time they would allow soundboard patches. It stopped soon after this. From Good Homes were ok, but I did not get into them that much. I think the fact that the lead guy strummed the acoustic guitar on all the tracks made them all sound too much alike. As for the DMB, they were just too poppy for me and they did not jam enough. Great musicians and DM looks like Tom Hanks, but I was just not into the dance groove thing at all and wanted them to jam.... I was disappointed..
277. Michael Ray and the Cosmic Krewe. Johnny D's, Somerville, MA. 11/11/94
I won tickets on WMBR and went with Carl and Tania, who live really close to johnny D's. We lived at the other end of Somerville, but not too far away! Michael Ray used to play with the Sun Ra Orkestra. the band were all dressed up in these great costumes. They played a few New Orleans styled songs but the best ones were the way out there jazz tunes with the killer sax player! We only stayed for the first set and 30 minutes of the 2nd set. Pretty fun show.
278. Pride and Glory. Paradise, Boston, MA. 11/15/94
I won tickets on WMBR and went with Carl and Tania. This was a great show but there were a lot of assholes in the crowd that night. It was quite loud and I could never really find a good place to record, so the sound is a bit weird on the tape. There were some killer jams though in which Zakk would stretch out the solos. He played two Black Sabbath covers (Fearies wear Boots and War Pigs) and dedicated them to Black Sabbath and Ozzy. The version of War Pigs was awesome! The encore was an incredible version of his song called Shine On. He must have soloed for 10 minutes! Great 100 minute show. We wanted to meet him but never got the chance.
279. Brain Surgeons Middle East upstairs, Cambridge MA. 11/16/94
I went with Carl and Tania and we met up with Dave Kuznick, John Swartz and a few others from the BOC-L list. It was a fun night as Al Bouchard and Deb from the Brain Surgeons are on the list and so we got to meet them. They gave us free t-shirts and signed autographs etc.. They only got to play for like 35 minutes but it was great. Only one guitar player at this show, as Billy Hilfiger could not make it. The set list was:
Name your Monster, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Baby Ice Dog, Most Romantic Place , Language of Love, Soul Jive, Time will take care of You, I play the Drums, The Red and the Black
280. Blue Oyster Cult. $12.00 Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, RI. 1/5/95Kind of ironic that the next show we would see is Al Bouchard from the Brain Surgeons old band, BOC!! It is about a 55 minute drive to Lupo's from Boston, which is not too bad, but the shows at Lupos go so late, which is a drag. Carl and Tania had never seen BOC so this was a big night for them and the band were quite good and loud! Lupo's is kind of a strange place. If you are front row on the balcony it is great, but towards the rear is not so good at all. We stood on the floor and I recorded the show from there in the middle. The place must hold about 1000 people I would guess? The show was really good and they played one new song that they did not play the last time I saw them, nearly two years ago and they said the new lp would be out next year, ha!!! The set list was:
Stairway to the Stars, Dr. Music, O'd on life Itself, ETI, Before the Kiss, A Redcap, I'd like to see you in Black, Take me Away, Flaming Telepaths, Cities on Flame, Last Days of May, Buck's Boogie, Still Burning, Burning for You, Godzilla>drum solo, Godzilla, Don't Fear the Reaper, This ain't the Summer of Love, The Red and the BlackA great set of songs but I really wish they would drop Don't fear the Reaper and especially Burning for you. I still love Godzilla but the others are a bit old and they have other great songs from that era they could play.
281. Mercyful Fate and Solitude Aeternus. (won tickets) Axis, Boston, MA. 1/18/95I went with Carl and Tania and met up with Leonid and girlfriend (now wife!). It was a really fucking cold and late show. Solitude Aeternus only played for 30 minutes but were incredible! I was really impressed by them and the new songs as well. The singer was a real trip as he would stand there and have his eyes rolled back in his head and he looked really weird! Mercyful Fate totally kicked ass!! The new songs off Time sounded great live and the classics like Satan's Fall, Doomed by the Living Dead, Black Funeral, Evil, were great!! Only about 200 people at Axis which probably holds 400 or so. I also saw Patt Dunn at the show but because I was recording I did not get to talk to him. He was really drunk! Great show. The set list was:
The Oath, The Bell Witch, Curse of the Pharaohs, Black Funeral
Nightmare by thy Name, Doomed by the Living Dead, My Demon
A Dangerous Meeting, The Mad Arab, Moby DickDrum Solo, The Mull
Is it you, Melissa?, Egypt, Satan's Fall, Come to the Sabbath, Angel of Light, Evil
282. God Street Wine and Smooch Daddy's. Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, RI. 3/11/95I won tickets on the radio and Carl and I drove down on a fucking awful night. I still can't believe we did it. Smoch Daddy's were an all white boy funk band with great horns but the music was a bit too poppy for me. God Street Wine were too much like Phish or the Grateful Dead and I thought they were really boring. We only stayed for like 40 minutes. The guitar player was alright but the songs were all dancey type crap.. The drive home was the scariest experience I have ever had driving in my life. There were parts of the freeway that were pure ice, it was scary as hell. I was gripping the steering wheel incredibly tight. There were cars spun out all over the place on the road. Scary as hell!
283. Ecolyn and Arc Met. Paradise, Boston, MA. 3/22/95
I won tickets on the radio and went with David Kuznick. It was a great show, but there were only about 35 people there, a really poor turn out. Arc Met played a good set and two new numbers. There set was: BMTD, Holographic Caves, In Every Dream Home a heartache,Holy Ground, Brainticket
Ecolyn were quite a good band, like a cross between Gentle Giant and Starcastle. They had a few songs that were a bit too poppy for me but I enjoyed them quite a lot and they played for like 75 minutes considering there was hardly anyone there to see them. I did not record them.
284. HAWKWIND, Brain Dance and Finally Balanced. Limelight, New York City 4/9/95
Carl, Tania and I drove down for the show. Bill Stewart, a HW fan how lives outside the city had a pre-gig HW party at his flat. We met some really cool people and his wife Bev made a great Lasagna. A guy named Frank had a huge collection of HW vinyl and collectibles. Sadly, Frank died a year or so after this get together. We hung out for a few hours and then headed down to the Limelight. We took the train into town and would stay with my cousin Cliff and come pick up the car the next day, as it was safer to leave the car out in the suburbs than in the city!
The Limelight was an amazing place for a space rock show. Finally Balanced are a band that my cousin Cliff, he went to school with their poet! Yes, the band has a poet that speaks poems and makes them up as the songs evolve. Mostof the time it seems to work quite well. A really talented band with some great songs. BrainDance were not really right for the bill but I liked them quite a lot. They were a four piece, with a killer female lead guitar player. They played basically progressive metal. The singer was kind of strange but had a great voice for the music. It was 1:15 before HW came out and you could tell that they were a bit tired as were we. As the band was coming out on stage they had this women in tight leather gear who was dancing to the techno music and making erotic moves etc inside and around this cage that was hanging from the ceiling. Allan Davey was particularly amused by it!
Hawkwind were quite good and they had this insane new from man named Ron Tree, who had apparently eaten a ton of drugs that people were more than willing to give him and was out of his mind! The band was tired though and they only played for 70 minutes so that was really lame. The light show was totally lame as well.. I think we were a bit disappointed. A lot of people from the HW/Boc-l list were at this show, which was cool. Met up with Chris Raymond, Chris and Mary Bruce, David Kuznick, Steve Swann and others... Fun time despite the Hawks being a bit disappointing. The set list was:
Master of the Universe, You Shouldn't Do That, White Zone, The Golden Void, Death Trap, Wastelands Of Sleep, Iron Dream (w/ new lyrics , Hassan I Sahba, Space Is Their Palestine, Hassan I Sabha, Altair, Robot, The Alien, Elfin, Urban Guerrilla>,Reggae Space, Silver Machine, Welcome To The Future285. HAWKWIND and Arc Met. Toad's Place, New Haven, CT. 4/11/95
We had a day off to get back to Boston and rest up before the drive to New Haven (2 hours) for the next HW show, since the one that was suppose to be in Cambridge, MA (was on the t-shirts and posters) but never properly set up. We rented a car so that we could take Chris and Mary Bruce (and they still to this day never have pitched in for the cost).
It was great that Arc Met were opening this show and they were the best I had ever seen them up to this point. We heard part of their soundcheck while chatting with the band. Because Chris Bruce was with us we had close access to the band and got to get autographs and say hi to all the members. Carl and I did an interview (it is on the web or was) with Richard and Ron. Tania took a picture of me with Ron Tree, who looked like he was recovering a bit from the drugs in NYC! Also met up with Chris Raymond, Doug Walker, Jim Collins, and others. Toad's Place was a great club with an excellent sound system. Arc Met were great! Their set list was:We did the interviews and all that before the show, which was good because we had a two hour drive back after the show. Hawkwind were much better this night. Ron was more with it and we had conveyed to Dave that some fans were unhappy because they were playing such short sets (He commented that they were playing 90 minutes, but it was really 70-75), so they added two songs this night. The light show was still lame but came across better in this smaller place that the huge Limelight. We enjoyed them a lot more this night! The set list was:
Master of the Universe, You shouldn't Do That, White Zone, The Golden Void, Death Trap, Wastelands Of Sleep, Iron Dream (w/ new lyrics , Hassan I Sahba, Space Is Their Palestine, Hassan I Sabha, Altair, Robot, The Alien, Elfin, Urban Guerrilla>,Reggae Space, Silver Machine, Welcome To The Future, Sputnik Stan
LSD
286. Soul Coughing. Paradise, Boston, MA. 4/20/94When we were down in NYC to see HW, Cliff played the Cd by Soul Coughing and it was pretty cool. He said that their shows in NYC were packed and hard to get into, so I won tickets on the radio and he drove his motorcycle up just for the show! I thought that the band were very unique and their stuff from the lp did not totally translate well to the live show but it was cool. The keyboard/sample player was quite cool. A strange mixture of hip hop, jazz, funk and rap.. Pretty fun.
287. Blues Traveler, Xanax 25, and Dowdy Smack. Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, RI. 5/9/95
This was a part of a series of shows that were set up by the Blues Traveler fan club and if you wrote in time and told them you wanted tickets you would get a pair to the show nearest you. I had been on the mailing list for several years and wrote in and got a pair, so Carl and I drove down for the show. It was clearly not all fan club folks as it was packed with drunken Brown University students. Fucking Runaround was beginning to be a big hit and that song disgusts me.. They did play it.
Dowdy Smack were a funk band an quite good. I think they may have been an offshoot of the band Smooch Daddy's we had seen earlier in the year. Xanax 25 was a NYC band that Warren Haynes (Gov't MULE) jams with and has produced their record (I think). Pretty decent but a weird style, very unique. I was not expecting much as I hated the FOUR record by Blues Traveler but once they stopped playing the new stuff, they smoked!! The set was awesome! I still have faith in them.. The set list was: NY Prophecy, Crash Burn
Optimistic Thought, Stand, A Price to Pay, But Anyway
Should I stay or Should I Go, Runaround, Go outside and Drive>Low Rider>Loser>Go outside and Drive, The Best Part, Sweet Pain
Droppin' some NYC>, What's for Breakfast>The Mountain wins again>Brother John>Mocking Bird>Droppin' some NYC
Mountain Cry, Encore: GloriaIt was nice to hear them do The Best Part and Mountain Cry was fucking awesome!!! The Brother John jam was great as well. A pretty hot show!!
288. Arc Met. (won tickets) The Rat, Boston, MA. 5/13/95I won tickets on the radio and went by myself. There was no list and they trusted me and let me in anyway. Billy from Finally Balanced was at the show and Chris Bruce showed up for like 10 minutes and left. Arc Met were pretty good. The sound was better during the soundcheck though than when they actually played. I hung out with the band quite alot, great people! It was a pretty good set to a very small crowd. The set list was: BMTD, All Tomorrow's Parties, Holy Ground, Holographic Caves, Welcome to the Future
They had planned to do Sonic Attack but took too long to set up so only did Welcome to the Future.
289. Monster Magnet, Fu Manchu, VIC. Pearl Street, Northampton, MA. 5/21/95
This was a great time! Carl, Tania and I drove the 2.5 hours to this show and it was well worth it as we got to hang out with the band and interview Monster Magnet and talk with the cool guys in Fu Manchu, whom I had never heard of and was totally blown away by! I am still a little bummed that I did not record Fu Manchu as they were so fucking good! I still have not seen any live tapes of them from this tour! They were great, a Black Sabbath meets Blue Cheer sound with a bit of the Stooges thrown in for good measure!
Monster Magnet had a more elaborate light and visual show this time but musically were more restrained and not as psychedelic as I had seen in the past. They were quite excellent though! The set list was:
Intro, Vertigo, Snake Dance, Twin Earth, Nod Scene, Dopes to Infinity
Look to your Orb, Blow 'em Off, Face Down, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Evil, Third Alternative Encores: Medicine, Spine of GODThey were heavy! Teenage Negasonic was not a big hit yet but it was really spacey live,more so than on the lp. Third Alternative, one of my faves off the last lp was incredible! Dave had said that the producer wanted them to leave it off the record and Dave said no fucking way, as it was his favorite song from the record. They did a really far out 15 minute version of Spine of God, that showed that they still had the want and feel to do real psychedelic music! I did an interview with the bass player and we talked with all the band after the show. You can read the interview on another web page!
290. Ghost, Magic Hour, Karate. $8.00 Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA. 6/22/95I went to the show with David Kuznick. Karate were Nirvanish and did not really fit with this bill. Magic Hour were pretty cool but they get alittle out of control. They played for about 50 minutes and it was only two songs. the first song I could have sworn I was listening to Tangle Edge before it evaporated into a noise fest! I still enjoyed them but I think they go a bit far.... Ghost, I had just read about in the Ptolamaic Terrascope and they loved the hell out of them. Well, we were really in for a treat as these guys and gal, were great! Incredibly hard to describe the music though but I really liked them a lot. I got an ok recording but have not idea what the set list was. I picked up one from the stage after the show and it was all in Japanese and I sent it to my friend their and I don't know what I did with the translations.... Very cool show.
291. Black Sabbath, Motorhead and Tiamat. Great Woods, Mansfield, MA. 7/13/95
Carl, Tania and I went to this show and we saw Leonid! There were only like 1000 people at Great Woods and we got there early so it was basically general admission and we got in the third row, which was great for the view but man did we get blasted by Motorhead! Tiamat went on before dark, as did Motorhead, but I thought that they were quite good but the crowd hated them. I guess the stuff was just too slow, doomy, and introspective for them.. Motorhead came out and blew our shit away!! They were fucking great and loud as hell. Carl was yelling Silver Machine and there was no chance of being heard!! My recording did not even pick him up much and I was standing right next to him! The set list was:
Ace of Spades, Sex and Death, I'm so Bad, Over your Shoulder, On your feet or on your...., Metropolis, Sacrifice, Liar, Stay Clean, Burner
Nothing up my SleeveThey were back as a three piece and Phil did a great job as the solo guitar player. The new lp Sacrifice was really heavy and they played some great songs. They only played the heaviest songs off Bastards as well. Smoking! Black Sabbath were quite good. I was very impressed with Neil Murray on bass, he was great. Cozy Powell was a bit disappointing though and he seems like he was not into it at all., Tony, was of course all smiles and having a great time. Excellent sound! The set list was:
Intro, Children of the Grave,Neon Knights
I guess I have not figured it all out yet, but I got a great tape!292. Nik Turner's Space Ritual, Spiral Realms, and F/i. Mama Kin's, Boston, MA. 7/18/95
This was an amazing show! We came to the club early and sat at a table near the entrance and had a chat with Nik Turner while he date his dinner. He is such an incredibly nice guy (old looking). After the show we would get a chance to met Del, Simon House, and Alan Powell. F/I only played for about 30 minutes but were quite good. There was not much of a crowd when they played. Spiral Realms were really good and did a cool cover of Pink Floyd Interstellar Overdrive, which they ended with a power outage!! I don't know if Simon is shy or what but his violin was never loud enough in the mix either with Spiral Realms or when he played with Nik. For those who don't know, Spiral Realms is Simon House, Del Detmar, both ex-Hawkwind members and Len Del Rio from Pressured. This Nik Tuner tour was supported more by the record label and they had a really good visual show to go along with a incredible set of songs from the hawkwind catalog. Fucking amazing!! Met up with Jim Collins, Chris and Mary, and a lot of people at this show. The set lists were:Dream Worker, Watching the Grass Grow
Kadu Flyer, Master of the Universe, Spiral Galaxy, Lord of the Hornets
Vision Infinity, Soul Herder, Opa Loka, Dying Seas, High Rise, Thoth
Ejection, Audio Energy, Orgone Accumulator, 10 Seconds of Forever
Brain Storm, Silver Machine, You Shouldn't do ThatThe set was amazing! A local Boston horn player came out during Soul Herder and opa Loka and there were like 10 people on the stage. It was a great spacey jam... Simon should have been louder though! A better show than HW a few months earlier!
293. Allman Brothers and Rusted Root. Great Woods, Mansfield, MA. 8/4/95
This was the first of two consecutive Friday night shows by the Allmans at Great Woods. The traffic getting out of Boston was awful and it took us two hours to get there. Usually it is a 50 minute drive. Rusted Root were ok, pretty rhythmic, tribal at times. I think the lead singer who plays acoustic (no lead electric guitar at all in the band), his strumming pattern makes a lot of the songs all sound the same. There music is a bit to happy and dancy for me. the DEAD heads loved them.
The Allmans were really good. Dicky Betts was really smoking and left Warren in the dust. Warren seemed to be a bit flat. The Same Thing jam was really awesome! Great set of old numbers. The set was:
Don't want you no More, It's not my Cross to Bear, Ain't wastin' time No More, Ramblin Man, Good Clean Fun, Sailin' on the Devil's Sea
Same Thing, Soulshine, End of the Line, Stormy Monday, Back where it all begins, Hoochie Choochie Man, No one to run With Anymore
Jessica, One Way Out, Whipping Post
294. Allman Brothers and Rusted Root. Great Woods, Mansfield, MA. 8/11/95Went with Carl and Tania again and we left earlier this time to miss the traffic. Rusted Root seem to play pretty much the same set. The Allmans played about half the same numbers but some great different numbers like Statesboro Blues and Dreams. I did not record this one and still don't have a tape of the show. Not as good as the previous week, when Dicky was on fire!!
295. Tempest and Lenahan. Johnny D's, Somerville, MA. 9/95
I went to this show with Carl and Tania, as it was just down the street. Lenahan are a NY based Celtic Rock band and they were not too bad at all. Tempest were great!! They are from California but have one member who is Swedish or Norwegian (Leif) and they play Celtic folk rock, some of which really rocks out! They were quite a fun band to see. I was surprised that there were not more people at the show... Carl recorded it.
296. Gov't Mule and the Brain Surgeons! Club Toast, Burlington, VT. 8/25/95
What a day this was!! We drove from Boston to Burlington, which is about 4 hours away. Carl, Tania and I piled into my Mazda B-2000. It was a little uncomfortable for Tania, sitting in the middle, but we managed! When we got there, low and behold, Al and the Brain Surgeons were unloading. We helped them load their stuff into the club and they put us on the guest list, which was really nice of them! Club Toast was a cool club, small with a loud sound system. This was a special show for the BS, one of the first outside of NYC and the artist for the first lp, was actually at the show! We were there for the soundcheck, which was fun as they fucked around a bit. Deb and Al's son, Ace even came with them. I recorded the soundcheck and their set, which was great! The set list was: Name your Monster
Medusa, Civilization, Gimmie Nothin', Language of Love, Death valley Nights, I play the Drums, Cities on Flame(1000 guitars), The Red and The Black,Time will take Care of You. It was a great heavy set of new numbers from Trepanation! I was surprised that they did not play longer though, as the sound guy said they had an hour and they only used 40 minutes. Oh well.. Not too many people were there when they started but I think a lot of the crowd dug them once they sat and listened. No one had heard of them besides us!As for the MULE, they fucking blew minds!!! The volume was cranked and it was hot in the club. Tania stood right in front of Warren and got blasted by volume and covered by his sweat as he was dripping buckets!! Carl's sister actually came up for the show also as she was somewhere near by in the area. The set was amazing and they played for like 2 and half hours!! The set list was: Mule
Rocking Horse, Mr. Big, Temporary Saint, Trane>St. Stephen>Trane, Monkey Hill>She's so Heavy, Painted Silver Light, Same Thing
Don't step on the Grass Sam, Politician, Blind Man in the Dark
Grinnin' in your Face, Mother Earth, Left Coast Groovies, World of Difference, Just got Paid, End of the Line, Yonder WallThe were on fire and really into it as well. Some of the jams were unreal. We were totally blown away when the show ended sometime after 2. We hung out for a little while and I got Matt and Allan's autographs. Really cool guys. We then drove back to Boston arriving just as the sun was coming up.............
297. Glenn Phillips Band. (won tickets) Johnny D's, Somerville, MA. 10/11/95
Hard to believe I did not see any shows for nearly two months but I had the Glenn Philips double comp CD and was curious to see him. I loved the Hampton Grease Band and his comp CD had some great stuff on it as well. I won tickets on the radio and Ian and I went to the show. Glenn was pretty cool. We got a chance to talk with him and he was very nice. It was a fun show. I was not all that impressed with the music but he has a very unique guitar style.
298. THE Widows. (won tickets) Causeway, Boston, MA. 10/19/95
The only reason we went to see this show is that our friend Heather Hermann had been talked into playing saxophone with her friend (John Elder) from her Harvard days, whose band the Widow's is. The Causeway is a small dump right across the street from the Boston Garden (now called the Fleet Center) and very close to where I work (Massachusetts General Hospital). Chris, Heather's husband came, as did Will Walker from the lab. I really enjoyed the sound of the Widow's, a real late 60's psychy pop sound. Heather only played on one song and you could hardly hear her, as she was barely mixed into the PA. She was extremely nervous, but still I think it was fun.
299. Aquarium Rescue Unit and the Winebottles. (won tickets) Mama Kin's, Boston, MA. 10/26/95
I had a nice chat with Jimmy Herring again, the guitar player for ARU! Great guy. The singer said they were recording for a new CD in December but would not play any new songs, so I was a bit disappointed. The Winbottles were ok, but I was not into them and I think the crowd was a bit lukewarm as well. ARU did not come on until 11:40 and this was like a Tuesday night, so I ended up leaving early, after maybe an hour. Oteil was really hot doing a lot of solos. The highlight of what I saw was Jack the Rabbit, some great jams! Great band!
300. Architectural Metaphor and Industrial Sonic Boom. Heywood Gallery, Worcester, MA. 10/27/95
This was an incredible show in a very cool modern art gallery in Worcester. Industrial Sonic Boom were a very interesting band, one that Malcolm Humes and Katt would have really liked. Sort of an improv noise group. Pretty interesting though. This is one of the best Arc Met shows I have ever seen as the band were trying out a lot of new tunes and did some really long jams (Greg got to play a lot of guitar) and they also had a little light show with spacey projections! This is a big plus for the band to have the light show, something they need at every show. The set list was:
Cascading Folliage, Holy Ground, ? , Crega?, Richocet, Holographic Caves, ?, Ptern DerianI think there was a songin there called March of the Wooden Potatoes and also OJ Jam (Ozrics Jam).
301. Architectural Metaphor and Incus. Upstairs Middle East, Cambridge, MA. 11/18/95
I met up with Ian at this show and he recorded both bands. Incus were really good, a cross between Tom Waits, Pearl Jam and Danzig! That is the only way I can describe it! Very cool though. Nice guys as well. Arc Met played a good short set which included one new song they were working on. They also mentioned that they would have a split 7" record out in three weeks with Sons of the Corporate Dog. The set list was:
Cascading Foliages, Holy Ground, March of the Wooden Potatoes, Holographic Caves, Welcome to the Future
302. Anthrax and Life of Agony. (won tickets) Avalon, Boston, MA. 11/25/95
I went with my friend Leonid to this show. It was very loud and I also had problems with my tape recorder. Life of Agony were alright. I really liked some of the heavy wah wah solos the guitar player did at times, but never enough, as they have to stick to the song, rather than jam it out. Not bad! Anthrax were really smoking! John Bush is just a great front man. I still wish he was with Armored Saint though. He had cut all his hair off and looked like a cholo, with the sunglasses, shorts and bandana! He belted out the lyrics though and was great! They played a lot of new songs which were brutally heavy! I was blown away that they did the song Protest and Survive by Discharge!! They said it was the first time they had played it live, but I think that is bullshit. Most of the crowd had probably never heard of Discharge or the song anyway!
303. Gov't Mule and Big Sugar. (won tickets) Mama Kin's, Boston, MA. 12/16/95
I went with Carl, who was back visiting from England for Christmas. Also met up with Bob and Anne Rudich. This show totally kicked ass! Big Sugar were a real surprise (from Canada), with guitar (a lot of slide), bass (rastaman), drums and a guy who played sax, harmonica and melodica. Heavy guitar but the songs were weird in a kind of Tom Watts way. The end of the set was awesome as Allan Woody came out and played Mandolin on I Don't want no sugar in my Coffee. Then Warren came out and they jammed Smokestack Lightning and Ride like Hell! What a way to open the show! THE MULE were great with lots of heavy new tunes and covers that I had not heard live before. The Big surprise of the night though was when Brad Whitford from Aerosmith came out and they jammed a 10 minute version of Born under a Bad Sign! The set list was:
Mule, Temporary Saint, Rockin' Horse, Painted Silver Light, Kind of Bird, Mr. Big, Same Thing, Trane>St. Stephen>Eternity's Breath> Trane
Born under a Bad Sign(w/ Brad Whitford), Grinnin' in your Face
Mother Earth, Blind Man, Goin' out West, Just got Paid, Gambler's Roll, Young Mule Blues