Shug
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Posts posted by Shug
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It's a good one, for sure. I have never gotten around to collect much JGB stuff past 78, so I don't have much to compare it to. The double JGB cd release is my gold standard for the later stuff and this release is just a touch below it.
To complete the gold standard, add in several tracks from How Sweet It Is (I believe from the same shows as the double live 1990 album), especially the Tears of Rage!!!!
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Well, everyone has their own set of ears. I've listened to this several times and I'm loving it. Fall '91 was a great Garcia period (maybe the last?), and I find him to be in fine form, guitar and vocals, on this show. The Reuben and Cherise is pure gold-a total groove song from beginning to end. I've been recommending this to all my GD inclined friends.
RE: Garcia Live Vol. 8, 11-23-91 Milwaukee - I concur, wrp, The setlist is fantastic, like one I'd hope for in vain at so many JGB shows, especially set 1 (any JGB show without either How Sweet It Is or Harder They Come means Jerry is in an especially good mood and digging deep, ready to tackle his most difficult songs, not just trotting out the stuff he can do in his sleep). Melvin and Jerry are way connected, Kahn and Kemper are so simpatico together and with the songs and the band, the ladies are in typical fine form, the recording is fucking stellar, which for me is crucial to hear the beautiful details, and more importantly, Jerry's vocals are so soulful, you can tell he was really feeling it, you can almost hear him smiling.
We listened to this at full volume last Sunday night, and like so many times with JGB in person, its as close to church as I will ever get. What I would not give for one more night with the JGB. I think I appreciate the musical spiritual gift he gave the world more and more when I listen to shows like this.
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I'm happy to advise it's not just a rumor:
Awesome, thank you!
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More wishful thinking than anything, but I am hoping for a new album from The War On Drugs. I've heard rumors of a song being released for Record Store Day this year.
I am preparing myself that they may well have completely spent their collective creativity on their last album, but if they are able to follow it up with something half as good it'll still be a damn good album.
Mostly I want them to have a reason to go back on tour, gotta see them as much as possible while they are together, they did some shows last tour that got the audience very very high!
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Yeah, I remember in 94 after Healy was fired the sound levels at Dead shows were RIDICULOUSLY quiet. I mean they never played all that loud at all the shows I saw, but it got absurdly soft around that time. Seems to me their personnel decisions in the 90s were not about finding the most qualified person for the job (Bralove, Welnick, Cutler running house sound, Jerry's switch away from Irwin guitars to that horrible acoustic-y electric guitar sound on LIghtning Bolt made by amateur luthier Stephen Cripe)
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As for the Dead tunes I don't care for, I think the issue for me is not so much the tunes as how they were played, as others have mentioned.
Take Truckin' from 7-18-72 and compare it to any version from the 80s and 90s. When they played it great, I never get tired of it. When they play it weak, I wish they'd retire it. https://archive.org/details/gd1972-07-18.sbd.theotherwayne.88658.sbefail.shnf/GD72-07-18D3T02.shn
Franklin's Tower in '77 and '79 was usually epic, but by the late 80s it could be plodding and uninspired. Same for Sugaree. Those repetive Jerry tunes (Franklin's, Sugaree, Fire On the Mountain, Deal) that did not have a lot of rhythmic or chording complexity needed epic solos and rhythm-based crescendos to be hot, IMO. When Jerry and/or the rhythm section weren't killing it, these tunes could be really boring. I agree, Deal got better in the late 80s, but Sugaree and Franklin's did not. Neither did Mississippi Half Step, which for me peaked in '77 (9-3-77 Englishtown being the pinnacle!)
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It's f*** fantastic. the best of the last JGB releases imho. And Jerry is at his most heartfelt voice...Check it in Shining Star...till my dying day. Goosebumps.
Er, by the way...I use to skip Mountains of the Moon, a few of Jerry tunes I do that. Sorry, Mr Heartbreak!
I'm still waiting for this to arrive, but I am stoked to hear all these good reviews! JGB was peaking around this time, I'd say. The most longstanding lineup with quite a few years under their collective belts by this time and lots of good new covers entering the repertoire. Can't wait to get it, thinking about having a full volume listening party for my local Head friends when it gets here.
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I agree with most of this, however when it comes down to it, Jeff is a relatively weak singer, especially when you are comparing with greats like The Band. He does well with the voice that God gave him, and I like it. but it is not really a thing of wonder.
As a lead singer, he's more like Dylan, mostly character with little prettiness, but the vocal blend they achieve (Pat and John are sweet and Jeff provides the eccentric character) can be gorgeous and similar to The Band, but there is no lead vocalist like Richard Manuel or Levon Helm in Wilco, I agree.
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I don't think whether you consider Wilco a jam band (I don't think anybody does, depending on one's definition of a jam band) or not has much relevance to whether they play lots of repeats or few repeats in a run.
What does have, I think, a lot of relevance to some fans' expectations for few repeats in a run or residency, particularly in the Winter time in Chicago, is that they have done it so many times. Didn't the Kicking Television residency have zero repeats? Very few repeats in the Incredible Shrinking tour and even in 2014 there were few fewer repeats than at this run. Hell there were a lot less repeats on the West Coast runs last summer in LA and Seattle, etc.
I think the bottom line is that Wilco fans have favorite songs that they want to hear. Wilco has a shit-ton of great songs and in the past they have kept a huge current live repertoire so people had a better chance of hearing their faves. Wilco has done it many times before, they are fully capable, but its clear they just don't want to do that right now.
I will not pass a chance to see them live because they are incredible and incredibly rare in their talents and skills. I do wish they'd keep a bigger repertoire like they used to so I'd have a better chance to hear my faves.
Far more interesting to me than criticizing people who want few repeats is thinking about why this Winterlude run had so many repeats and why that has been a slowly growing trend over the past few years.
I wonder if the setlists they played at Winterlude 2017 were specifically designed by Jeff to be the message he feels compelled to put out there in these crazy scary times in the US? That would be my guess. I think these songs that got played every night are the ones that he feels speak mostly eloquently to the times we find ourselves in. Opening the run with Ashes of American Flags was a strong statement and that moment to me was the highlight of the three nights I saw.
Perhaps they also want to get really good at the newer songs or perfect the new arrangements of older songs? It seems to me they have done that. Locator, Someone To Lose, and Random Name Generator have gotten much better and they contain some hot jamming, too! Wilco is not a jam band (jam bands to me are pale imitations of the pioneers of ensemble rock based on a wide range of American musical traditions, namely The Grateful Dead, The Allmans and the Band). What I heard at these show was a band that is STILL improving their craft, still writing new songs and adding to their already large repertoire. I heard a band that I think are the torchbearers for the approach to music that the Dead Allmans and the Band took, with the guiding principle of a group of people playing cooperatively, can achieve more than a solo artist. They listen to one another. They know how to leave space in between the parts and they know how to not play on top of each other. There is a fantastic separation between instruments. If I Ever Was A Child sounded to me like Grateful Dead playing acoustic, just a beauty of an ensemble performance. Plus they have a genius singer songwriter who is in the same conversation as Bob Dylan, in my mind. Quite simply, Wilco are the best live band currently playing, in my book. Nels is as good as Duane Allman and Garcia. His gorgeous lyrical melodic soloing on Impossible Germany is STILL getting better, even after all these years, it just blew me away night after night, it always seems like Nels tops himself every time. The band is as tight as the Allmans, whether they are playing simple folk music or complicated free jazz art rock with the sometimes subtle but supportive and lovely beyond words keyboard playing of Michael and Pat. They can sing like The Band with a killer vocal blend from Pat, John and Jeff. They can play nearly any American style of music like the Dead did in addition to the Euro Kraut rock and 80s and 90s indie pop sounds that Wilco are into.
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We knew it was going to be a good night when the set break music included Zeppelin, The Who and the Allmans! And when they open with Ashes, it's ON!!! One of the tightest and most inspired shows I've seen them play. A lot due to Jeff's fired up mood. His comments included what I thought was a very sincere plea for people to come together. The crowd by us didn't even consider sitting down and we're way into Nels' epic solos. It was a great start to the run!
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The entire Jerry backing vocal or duet vocal in Me and Bobby McGee is freaking killer!
or this one from Ladies and Gentlemen might be a better vocal performance
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I have it, don't hear any clipping...
THX! Might try to seek it out, but not for $250 on Amazon, sheesh!
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Does anybody have Dave's Picks Vol 2 from 7-31-74 Dillon Stadium Hartford, CT?
Is the beginning of Scarlet Begonias clipped like it is on all the SBDs on archive.org?
And ditto about Garcia's high harmony backing vocals on Promised Land and the Dylan tunes and others, those could be such choice little moments of fantasticness to my ears, too!
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I think he could play good faster when he wasn't singing lead. Think of the blazing speed he could get into on Saint of Circumstance and Let It Grow and Lazy Lightning. I might be over-stating it, or maybe its my imagination, because he certainly solo'd great on plenty of his own songs, but I hear something different when he didn't have to pay attention to when he had to step back up to the mic after a hot solo when it was a Bobby song.
Plus those odd chords and time signatures of Bobby's songs gave him a very interesting and very different foil to solo against compared to the Hunter Garcia songs, I think, and I really like listening to him play guitar on Bob's songs.
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Is the opposite a real notion held by serious people?
No, its my response to people who think Bobby's songs are just time-killers until the next Jerry song. I've never been of the mind that Jerry was the prime artist in the band, more important than the others. I see the Dead as a collective in which the sum is all the more interesting because of the disparate elements that make it up. I think Bobby's contributions to the Dead's music is huge and I think there would be huge hole in all Dead shows if you cut out all the Bobby songs. There are actually people who seem to think that it'd be better without Bobby songs, which is astounding to me. So I was making the point to all the Jerry-o-philes that Garcia did some of his best soloing when he didn't have to sing, many times better than the solos he took in his own songs, IMO. Lazy Lighting, Saint Of Circumstance, Let It Grow, etc. as examples.
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I was recently revisiting this kick-ass '83 show from Providence. I love the second set, in particular the Esau, Maybe You Know, Bertha punch out of the gate.
https://archive.org/details/gd1983-04-20.aud.wise.92322.sbeok.flac16/gd1983-04-20d1t01.flac
Looks Like Rain from 4-20-83 is Article H in my ongoing case for Garcia being able to solo his ass off on songs in which he didn't have to sing lead.
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According to this poll, for what its worth, most evangelicals went Trump, but so did many Catholics. I'm not surprised at the evangelical numbers, they seem to me to be far more rigid and homogenous in their beliefs and opinions than Catholics.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/
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I got excited there for a moment that there was actually a practicing, believe in God, go to church, take communion, use Christian doctrine as a guiding life principle Catholic who was foregoing the exclusivity clause. Now that would be something to get excited about!
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An athiest Catholic? I didn't know any existed!
Seriously, if the major religions just removed the exclusivity clause from their dogmas, there would be so much more peace and so much less divisiveness in the world and in communities and even in families.
sorry this is going so far off topic, but I'm very grateful for the sensible discussion, thanks so much, folks!
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My family is Catholic but acknowledges that they can't force their beliefs on others. I don't "believe in Abortions" either. My wife and I are both against it, and would never get one. That's how we approach it. If you're against abortions, then don't get one. If you're against homosexual marriages, then don't marry a member of the same sex. Make your own decision, but don't force your ethics on others.
It would be a tremendous thing if my family and all Catholics thought as you do (same goes for my fundamentalist evangelical Christian mother who told me a few days ago that I am going to hell and was mad at me for forcing her to say to my face what she believes in her heart).
I commend you on your attitude. I respect your position tremendously. Thanks for saying it!
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With absolutely no disrespect intended, I think that the idea that what got Trump elected was the disaffected American blue collar worker who was worried about his job and financial future and his voice being heard...is dishonest at best and delusional at worst. News outlets and pundits have been trying hard to convince themselves and everyone else that was what happened. But after the events of this week and some of the thousands of ugly and truly shitty things said and done by opposing citizens and politicians during Obama's time in office and especially during the 2016 election, you will never convince me that bigotry wasn't/isn't the main thing driving Trump's supporters. I lived in the South for 30+ years and I heard and witnessed more racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia in the last eight years than ever before, getting progressively worse and progressively more public in the last year. I'm not saying every Trump supporter or Republican politician is a card-carrying KKK member or swastika-wearing neo-Nazi. What I am saying is that I've felt marginalized and betrayed by my government, and I've been out of work and felt down and paralyzed and afraid...I've been scared about my future and my safety and terrified by world events...but I never once thought that what would make my life better would ever involve being okay with the Klan and the Nazis. If my champion had parties where white power advocates and Holocaust deniers were not turned away at the door, I don't care how down and out I was, I'd find a new champion.
I'm so glad someone else is expressing these ideas. I am with you. What has been revealed is just how racist, sexist and xenophobic a huge swath of the US populace really is. All through my life it has been unacceptable, in the culture that I have lived in, to publicly express these values. Little did I know so many held them but were just keeping their mouths shut (as a native Californian, I got a BIG shock when I lived in Memphis, TN for a few years in the 2000s and I heard the racist shit white people would say to my face thinking I would agree with them just because I'm white)
I also think the things that got Trump elected were mainstream America's obsession with celebrity and fame, giving credibility to people who don't do anything to deserve it, years of poor education that does not teach critical thinking, combined with an increasingly greedy and out-of-control corporate culture basically raping the middle and working class in America for the past 30 years. When people are afraid of not having a decent living even though they work hard and they have little to no critical thinking skills, they are extremely vulnerable to having their emotions and fears manipulated, triggering them into completely illogical beliefs, like thinking that Trump would actually do anything for the middle class or working class or the poor other than continue to exploit them and in fact do everything possible to make it easier for the rich to screw over everybody else in America as anyone with a modicum of intelligence and not blinded by emotion could easily see if they paid attention.
And these Trump supportes had a perfectly viable option with a proven track record who would be a champion for the working and middle class, the poor, veterans, the elderly, students, etc in Bernie Sanders, but they didn't vote for him because they are brainwashed against the word "socialism" and he was not socially and religiously conservative enough for them.
Many in my family are Catholic and I know they voted against Hillary because of her stance on abortion, which to them is the most important issue in politics above all others. One even admitted that he considers Trump a barbarian completely unfit to be President, but still better than Hillary because of her stance on abortion, which is a shocking and horrendous position to take, in my view.
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Where's everyone staying for Winterlude? I almost rented a condo, about the same price as a hotel but not as close. I'll be working in room for 5 days so wanted something descent. I was going to go through Hotwire but I hate not being able to cancel and not know for sure what I'm getting. I know that can generally be figured out, in fact I have gotten what I expected most of the time. Honestly, with the extra Hotwire fees then having to pay for wifi at some places it's not that much better of a deal.
I got a room at the Hotel Monaco about 2 blocks away from the theatre. Good rates, winter sale $119/night. I reserved a room the other day then they had a flash sale yesterday that was even cheaper, I think $104 for a deluxe king. I opted to cancel reservation and upgrade to river view room with the sale rate. I ended up paying only slightly more than a room that would face a wall or parking garage. Anyway, nice place and a bit cheaper than the Wit. Keep an eye on the flash sales! Also if you do consider the hotel, sign up for the loyalty reward program or whatever. You'll get free wifi and a credit for the minibar. I love going to Chicago this time of the year, cheap hotels! The same room in March would be over $400!
Dude, I'm glad you brought this up, I just checked and the rooms went down to $119 at the LondonHouse, so I got the lower price on Hotels.com. I probably wouldn't have checked if you hadn't brought it up so thanks!
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The Willie Dixon Blues Heaven is nice but not amazing. I'd recommend it to Chicago area music fans, but with limited time it isn't a must see.
As far as music sites, the Chicago Theater offers tours. The Green Mill might be a nice spot if you have an evening free. It is close to Wilco's most played venue: The Riviera. Buddy Guys could be a good lunch spot (I've never eaten there and can't vouch for the food). Late night Blues at The Kingston Mines.
There is a "going to Chicago" thread in Tongue Tied Lightning.
Other than music related, my favorite indoor activities: Art Institute of Chicago, The Field Museum, Lagunitas tour, Willis Tower Skydeck, Garfield Park Conservatory, Steppenwolf Theater
Thanks for those suggestions, I appreciate it along with a lot of other ideas from the visiting Chicago thread, thanks!
And thanks, Magnetized, for the birthday wishes, too!
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We are staying at the LondonHouse about 3 or 4 blocks from the venue for $140 a night. The weather is going to be a shock flying in from Arizona, but I'm looking forward to wearing some winter coats that I never get to wear here!
Besides bars and restaurants, what are some good indoor daytime activities in Chicago this time of year? How about Wille Dixon's Blues Heaven or some other music history museums or sites?
Our first Wilco shows in Chicago and my wife's birthday to boot! We could more than use a boost of good vibes lately so we are especially stoked!
The Official Bob Dylan Thread
in Someone Else's Song
Posted
I sure wish they'd put out the live video footage of the Boulder, CO show at the end of the tour (the same show that a lot of the Hard Rain album was taken from) because Dylan and the band are ON FIRE! I cannot understand why people don't like that album, except for the high pitched noise that mars the recording, but the performance is as intense as it gets, I love it!