The Lost Sailor's Pub

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[Kochman]

08-27-72 Old Renaissance Faire Grounds, Veneta, Or. (Sun)
1: Promised, Sugaree, Me & My Uncle, Deal, B. T. Wind, China Cat> I Know You Rider, Mexicali, Bertha
2: Playin, He's Gone, Jack Straw, Bird Song, Greatest
3: Dark Star> El Paso, Sing Me Back Home, Sugar Magnolia, Casey Jones, Saturday Night
Springfield Creamery benefit - "Field Trip" - also: NRPS

Promised comes blazing out of the gates on a mission!
Sugaree, typical early placement, more emphatic than typical.
MAMU puts you in the saddle, the set is off to as blazing start.
Deal pulls us back a little.
BTW, 10 yd penalty, delay of game (Bob missed his vocal intro point). To me, this is Bob's theme song for the era (of course PITB is in another way), he really pours his heart into it. Strong finish and, it appears, I can't believe I forgot this... this is a DONNA FREE SHOW (for the first set)! Extra Star rating just for that!!!
China Rider is full of pep, we achieve X factor in the transition. Solid work all the way through this one.
Mexicali, early sleazy dead, constant crowd pleaser. Some exceptional noodling from the kind of exceptional noodles!
Bertha features great Jerry tone, and a solid, synched effort from the supporting cast. Great!

PITB is where it must be. Jerry doesn't waste time, getting straight to weird when the lyrics stop. His tone is great, and by the 4 minute mark he's firmly in control while the band stays on theme. Jerry puts in overtime on this one, one of the standouts from an era of standouts.
Gone has one of the faster tempos I've heard. I wonder what drove them this fine day?
Jack Straw is a song I typically prefer after retirement, but this one is flawless and entertaining. Bob in particular sounds great on rhythm.
Bird Song features more great Bob rhythm work. This is one of the false start versions, I suppose it gets them back on the same page? I am not really into it, because it prevented them from potentially leaving theme, which the bird often threatens to do, but never does. Anyhow, not a big deal because it really just signals a return to theme. We also get two jams, one after the first verse, one after the second, I like the later arrangement where they put the two jams together between the verses. Anyhow, this are minor criticisms, this is an amazing bird song!
GSET to close the set features that amazing tone we all know and love. The noodles definitely overflow the cup, even if Donna does her best to drive me crazy while Jerry is rocking out. Billy deserves some special mention too! A+ way to end an A+ set!

Dark Star>El Paso, as I recently covered, this is one of four appearances of this combo, and two from within this year.
Dark Star starts off in a thematic jam that stays mellow and beautiful. After the 7 minute mark we generally leave the theme in a energetic way, pushed by Billy. It's electric, this Dark Star, sometimes you get the feeling of flying through space. Sometimes you're adrift in a broken ship... in this, you're going warp speed, stars whizzing by. After the eleven minute mark we get the first verse. The jam is again driven, Phil later gets a solo after the 20 minute mark, which he handles very groovily. They all come back into the mix and it's chaos at its finest. Starting after 28 minutes, Jerry goes into the jam that often leads to the Tiger, true to form, it has the head fake. It's dark and creepy, you're waiting for the beast to leap out of the bushes, having seen his orange race by... the cat never strikes, but the threat was worth it...
And then the way they go into El Paso, just perfect. Jerry takes a different approach to much of the noodles, and of course, it works great.
Sing Me Back home gives you a minute to pieces back together after what just went down. I'd have preferred not to have put them back together though. Still, it isn't a deal breaker by any means, I enjoyed it.
Sugar Magnolia is just about properly perfect. It's not crazy energy, but it's flawless and fun, while maintaining some zip.
Double encore of Casey Jones and OMSN to end the show, as though they hadn't already played long enough!

Top notch show. The only weakness, as I see it, is the lack of lengthy meat sequences.
Consider it filet mignon, I suppose... you have, PITB, C>R, maybe Bird Song you could through in, and of course the awesome Dark Star>El Paso combo.

[swamiGD80s]

Never heard of this show - guess it's pretty good?

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Even the blind man knows when the rain is falling.

[Zephyr]

swamiGD80s wrote:

Never heard of this show - guess it's pretty good?

It has no lengthy meat sequences, so you'll need to lower your expectations. There's a movie out there that features bits and pieces of it, but people watch it mainly for the naked hippy chicks.

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[Kochman]

Aside from my 99% gushing review, I'll address that comment.

In the end, I'd rather have all that magic wrapped inside one long sequence. I don't think that's that off the wall to bring that up.

I've reviewed shows within this month that I would rate higher (12/18/73 and 4/2/73), primarily for this reason.

I know it is verboten to speak freely about shows that are coveted, but that's what I do.

That being said, this is clearly an all time favorite for a reason, and I love it.