Dead > Slip pt. 2 (what happened...)

[guigsy]

ok, first of all, sorry for the double post on this, but it was a crazy intense weekend for me, i thought it deserved not to piggybacked on something else, even a post i started. haha.

anyways...

big thank you to number 2 and his crew, totally made me feel welcome and one of them, amazing new connections were made, definately some special moments, and hopefully some long lasting friendships will come of this... so cheers to marc, megan, dean, andy, vanesy, marc's girl steph, whitey and lori. oh, and cant forget sarah and meggo who came by friday... and certainly cant forget the few dudes that made their regular rounds, jerry, kevin squared, and the georgetown kids... good times..

the show as a whole was really good, but i gotta say, it was all about the 2nd set. the jams, the song selection, the teases, AMAZING! i mean, a china cat tease right into Blackbird, that was gorgeous. the intro jam to truckin', sounded a bit like dark star, then phil goin off and we end up with a gorgeous truckin'. crowd way into it, obviously, its buffalo, we all trucked there for a reason. drums and space were really good, and coming out of space with Sugaree was a dream come true for me... warren hanging on with every last breath as the last big fireworks were going off was perfect. then finally a good Dark Star (after umpteen teases) into Franklin's, which didnt actually surprise me, after the first set shenanigans. but the encore, the Ripple. awesome. since i heard the ripple from april 71 fillmore east, with the crowd goin crazy, i've always wanted to do the da-da-da's at a show, but never had the chance. i mean, i get fu©king goosebumps. so, that was un-fu©king-real for me. everything was going great, the crowd was singing along, we're getting to the end, the last line before it hits, and then it happened: Bobby ruined Christmas. he flubbed the last line, and kinda threw me off, i mean, come on, 12000 people in there and everyone else in the band new it, and bobby fu©ked it up. but whatever, i da-da-da'd anyways with all my might. back to the first set for a second... i actually didnt really start to get into it until Loose Lucy, then more in She Said, and then it really started for me with Help!>Slipknot... actually, right at the opening chords, a dude to my left turned to me and said "do you think john kerry knows this song?" well dude, i just dont know. the jam into hey pocky way was good and unexpected, and so was the fire jam, which was really good, i thought, until Buzz Kill Mickey started to sing... but man, that first set Dark Star was THE ABSOLUTE WORST DARK STAR I HAVE EVER HEARD. seriously. i said it then. and i'll say it again if you ask me. it was brutal. went nowhere, bored me to tears, and made me question what i was doing there. the jack straw opener was ok, but, i dunno... it wasnt a great jack straw. but anyways, yeah, overall, i thought it was good, and i had a great time.

phew... ok... deep breath... The Slip at Ice Cream Truck. are you ready for this sh!t? first, here's the setlist...

8-7-04: Tyrone Farms - Pomfret CT

Set 1: Brad/Andrew do a set of West African music with guitarist/singer Bobokar Giabate from Mali.

Set 2: Eube, Mudslide, Back in 15 Minutes, My Landlord->Fear of Falling, beautiful intro->Soft Machine, Sweet Thing!, Come Over, Proud@, Spice Groove->The Shouters#, More About Me%, Dogs on Bikes

Encore: December's Children->With or Without You^

Notes: set started at Sunset and went til about midnight, the stars came out over the stage area just as BAM was starting the set, one couldn't have asked for a more perfect night. ! Van Morrison cover, @ Proud featured vocals by Brad, # in the transition from Groove->Shouters Bobokar came out and sang for about two minutes, % last time they played this was a similar setting in Hillsborough for the BethelFest in 2002. ^ U2 cover, with Sara Azriel on vocals

ok... so this one is going to be a lot more difficult for me, because, well, last night was intensely personal. way moreso than darien was. maybe cuz i went solo, im not sure, but at any rate, something happened to me at that farm, and im still not quite sure what it was... one day im sure i'll know exactly what it was... and one day i'll share that information with someone very special... until then, i can only tell you what im not afraid to say. i can tell you it was absolutely amazing. right now, ask youself what would make you the happiest person on earth, then translate that into music. my body went through so many changes, i went through so many emotions... im shaking my head here. you know, you drive back 10 hours by yourself, you have a lot to think about, and i'll be dead honest, somewhere around mile marker 220 on I90 West headed towards Albany, i nearly broke down in tears. i swear it. the eyes were welled up, i just refused to close them. that band did something to me. this wasnt a hallucination (well, i guess maybe it could be classified as one), but i like to think of it as more of a translation, it was like my brain was connected to this massive wall of sound that they had created, with, i dunno, tentacles or something, and i was channelling this music from this wall, right through my body, on down to the earth. the stars were projectors. the moon was the light. the night was exactly what it should have been. i'm pretty sure there were only 3 canadians there, myself and young sisters... (Del?)... but i met Benny D from Ithaca.. when i met him he actually asked me if i had heard of jambands.ca... i thought that was crazy, being in connecticut and all with no more than 200 slip fans. i'd bet some of you guys know him... nero boys? what a trip.. as far as the slip go, he and i were on totally the same level, which was really cool for me, and we totally hit it off right away and were on the same buzz all night... great stuff... so, yeah, that was a good vibe... but.... the music... THE MUSIC!

so, these guys have built up this beautiful wall of sound. i really love how they altered some of the older songs with the intro jams for that effect, and the new stuff they are writing is fu©king ridiculous. that first set speaks for itself, you can imagine how cool that was. then their own set got goin, and man, phishheads talk about the Moma Dance 2000 in Toronto, well, The Slip's Moma Dance 2000 was Mudslide '04 at the Truck!! fuckin' brad with those wicked licks, the pauses, and then marc droppin' the heaviest bomb, and all at once the entire crowd just hit the fuckin deck, bouncin', dancin real low, it was fuckin thick, man, heavy duty... christ... i wasnt even a huge mudslide fan, but i am now... that My Landlord song, i think i've also seen listed in sets as Warrior Blood, or Paper Bulletts, and it may just be my new favourite. lyrically, its gold, i remember it sounding very tweedy-esque, in Brad's fashion, if that makes any sense... but they build it up with a great spaceship landing type loop thing that gets bigger and bigger and bigger, a wall of sound like you'd expect from DoMakeSayThink or BSS, or Sianspheric back in their day... it was absolutely awesome... Soft Machine was what i really wanted to hear, and Marc was unbelievable on that... he was really fu©king me up at this show... im not sure i've seen anyone handle their instrument like he does. he's so fu©king solid, and way out there, i love it. why wouldnt anyone wanna play bass like marc friedman? anyways... sweet thing... come on! didnt expect that at all, and i really drifted away during that, it was so beautiful... travel a few mind timezones and end up back in time for The Shouters, and just in time to get absolutely lost where i was. i think these guys really knew they were on last night. they must have, this was certainly their night. during the shouters i had a strange thing happen to me... you know, i've used the term loosely, as im sure many other people have, the term "i felt like i was going to explode". well, i did. explode. at one point during the shouters it was all too much, and this air pressure that was building in my chest, rising up, had to come out somewhere, and all at once it felt like a giant gulp gone backwards, and out came snot, saliva, and air, and i really was surprised. it wasnt a sneeze. i dont know what the fu©k it was. the dogs was its wonderful jazzy goodness, and then Decembers Children>With or Without You. deep breath. Decembers Children wasnt a longshot by anymeans, but its always a fu©king great song to hear live, especially cuz i've never heard it done the same way twice. its a fu©king great song. and this did not disappoint. again, really thick sounding, and the tempo was perfectly timed and transitioned into a really beautiful drone type outro with great loops and sounds, and again, that huge wall of sound, and then up on the stage comes Sara Azriel, now this chick has a beautiful voice, and she starts singing, in her own way, the chorus to With or Without You, and it absolutely spectacular... what a fu©king moment!! i really lost my sh!t. no, seriously, listen to me, i really lost my sh!t. i chanelled everything i had, and it left me weak at the end of it all. Benny D said to me at one point that he felt like he was just getting punched out the entire time, didnt know where to turn. i believe him. the next few hours were a real trip, a real messy trip... but then i found my way back into the barn, and this barn by the way, makes the saloon at frontier town look like a shitshack, man, i was impressed! what a great spot to see a crazy improv jam set... the improv players: andrew barr on drums, brad barr on bass, a dude i dont know on hand drums, and Bobokar Giabate on guitar and vocals. when i did my head count their were 28 people in the room. wow fu©king wow.

i think i've said enough... what a weekend!

[Groove Fetish]

lucky lucky bastard- good summer choice- can't wait to just hear that stuff. Thanks for the great review!

doing stuff alone can be a great experience. would sure have been great to check out!

[paisley]

sounds awesome dude... lucky you ::

[bouche]

Obviously here, a little bit of travel goes a long way.

I guess you don't really need to see anymore Slip eh? Sounds like that was the show of shows. How can they top that experience in the future?

Speaking of the Slip, I need to see them SOON!

[Booche]

Guigsy Sharts At The Slip.

[zero]

So it was good then?

[guigsy]

yeah, wasnt too bad...

bouche... yeah for me this was the show of shows up until now, but man, these guys are just gettin goin.. i cant wait to see where time takes them..

i still cant believe that there were maybe 200 people there... it seemed to me like there were more people up for the fat cats at come together, which was a real trip for me considering i was in their backyard... but their scene down there is really a lot like ours, as far as the people go.

[Esau]

Nice.Great read my friend.

Glad you enjoyed yourself and were able to make the Slip show.

Cheers

[Mango]

I have to completly agree with you, your summation is right on. That show blew my mind. I'm not being dramatic when i say this but I am a changed person the felings that went through me, :: the revelations I had is nothing I have ever felt befor.It was like they could ready my mind and played every note I wanted to here. Thank you Benny D, guigsy, all the wonderful americans I meet and my beautiful sister for making the experience that more enjoyable.

What a fu©king night!!!!!!!

[bONES]

why wouldnt anyone wanna play bass like marc friedman?

for sure man...he is so slick!

I really have to go to Evolve now...dang

[guigsy]

one of my favourite moments of the show was after Soft Machine, marc was actually playing guitar, and just before he turned to put the guitar down he kinda looked into a few people in the crowd and raised his eyebrows as if to say "did you hear that? yeah, we got it tonight."

i was locked in on him all night, watching his fingers, and the way he moved as he played... he's brilliant.

[AdamH]

Bahjeezus mang, that sounds amazing. It's now worth the drive to Acton AND Ice Cream Truck next year.