favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite

It is unimaginable that Sac could get this much rain in the summer. Usually, it is bone dry with temps in the 100's. Yet the city does get the occasional thunderbumper which drifts in from Mexico as the tail end of a Hurricane.



Surely did not dampen the hearts of those on stage, nor those in the crowd. They don't seem too bummed ~ after all, many of them toured with the GD and would already be quite well-acclimated to the summer thunder storms that happen like clockwork all over the rest of the States.



And what is it about high humidity and precipitation that makes PA systems seem to come alive? This is an exceedingly phat and ritch mix. Even your old fave Don't Ease sounds great. Playing and singing doesn't suck, either!



Plus, this is a nicely re-mastered and well-transfered recording. Thank you, Daryl Hinko.



Vince is too all over it in Cold Rain and his hectic racing back and forth to change dynamics doesn't set well with Bruce's accordian. It fairly rocks, though. Then Phil steps to the plate and delivers Box of Rain, a song so good that anyone can sing it. Speaking of Phil, his bass playing is so perfectly captured and recorded in his show, you can almost just focus on nothing else and still receive the full onslaught of the ensemble.

Which is what I enjoy about Looks Like Rain. It's slower and more understated than most, but because of it's wide-opened, tree-lined avenues the bass can verily roar roughshod and set the scene for Jerry to insert his tortured fire bough's. From that effect he slides into his reedy horn thing then floats between wispy splashes of the torch in the rain. Absolutely gorgeous! It is the appearance of ancient Greek gods falling down, evaporating and rising up into...



Crazy Fingers. This is an excellent version and Phil is phreaking phanatical! When Jerry drops into his solo it ejects a giant tear from the great cloud of weight hanging the sky that day.

This song is so heartfelt, I want to make a loop of it and listen to it 7 times in a row. Bruce and Jerry tussle with each other in the outro. Spectacular! You must play this LOUD.



Out of it they pause and go into Estimated. The lead-in is colored sveltely with Bruce and Vince spinning glorious chords and them coupled with Jerry's ominous shadings, 'tis mystical. Phil is just flat-out out-of-hand! Insane! These two songs ~ Fingers and Estimated are...immaculate... exquisite.



A marvelous freeform piano/sax jam erupts twixt all seven, Jerry tossing in tiny pebbles of logic to ripple the air. Intoxicating. Just when you thought is was safe to go back into the sky, out pours Supplication jousting its way into Unca John. Sounds like Jerry knocks Bobby out of the saddle, for, after the supersonic excursion which proceeded it poses a rather ackward and disharmonious transition yet Unca John is presented with such verve and confidence that it carries the flag. Halfway through UJB the recording cuts into what sounds like an AUD Patch, and then it streamlines back into the SBD for drumz. Drumz and space is rather predictable. If you can appreciate it, "space" can be comforting. This version sounds very similar to many of 1991, but suddenly, why does this space comfort me? -- 'Cause it's predictable. Does that make sense?



Said another way, this particular night's space is easy to entreat. To lure you into it's goof, it paints this mock intensely gloomy portrait then spins on a dime and dosey-doze its way right into the Other One.



Wharf and Around and Heaven's Door are pedestrian, but the sound on this recording is so vibrant that it more than compensates. And you're right at the gate. But be forewarned: There are some pestilent screeches on the recording near the mid peak.



This concert rates a 10.

- November 4, 2007Something Good Comes From Sacramento