From: Victor Szalvay
Subject: Antelope in Review Pt.17 3/11/88
Well, needless to say, I have been a slacker over this past winter break. Given that I had a bunch of tapes with me all ready to review, I really did a poor job of getting to them. I apologize for my lack of zeal, but somehow I got caught up in the holidays. Back to the action! The next subject is not currently in the HPB but I have a sneaking feeling that there are at least a few copies floating around. 3/11/88 Johnson State College- Johnson, VT This time it is the last song of the night! The grand (or not so grand in this case) finale! Antelope -- Intro: Fun and frilly intro at the beginning. Trey starts it up and Page is close to follow, along with Mike and Fish. They seem to have good control of the basic progression and are experimenting a little with goofing around and patting here and there in that ragtime kind of way. Let�s see if the transition is decent: -- Well, not too bad... Mike adds some power but then Opening theme: 2:40 there is nothing except for drums for a while, kind of an anti-climax Trill!:3:05 Weak and flubbed at the end!! OH no! Key Change to Em: 3:13 Explosive right away as Trey screeches in agony with his instrument. Page is right there adding the background color that really fuels the jam. I am surprised that Page is so audible hear, I am used to these old shows with virtually no Page in this song, but he is there jamming along. So what is happening? Well, the soloing from Trey is nothing too exciting. He is running through the motions but it seems to be lacking that true feeling that really makes this tune work. Page is dominating and the sound is a little too crowded. Once in a while, Mike just disappears for a few seconds, that must be pissing someone off!! Trey is building now with greater intensity, but we are FAR off from any sort of gearshift... It is just not coming together that way tonight, it seems. Nice harmonic major key work from Trey, very mellow but beautiful and Page counters with some very nice stuff. Second Gear: 7:50 or so it seems. A rise that works out well. Trey still working in the major scale over this minor key... the sound is very experimental. He cuts back to minor at around 8:30 very abruptly. I really liked that nice major key jam. Some more hints of it now from Page and Trey. They flub for a second and recover back in the minor key. 9:20 the intensity is artificially built up out of that flub as they all hammer on the instruments achieving a small climax, but I won�t even give it gearshift standing since it was forced out of a mistake. (Sorry!). Some decent trilling from Trey but this jam is really going no where fast and now Trey runs out in a new direction that again seems to lead to a wall. Mike follows him faithfully as good as ever. Wow! Now Trey is really pushing to pull this one out. A series of trills and runs that really come off well. Oh here we go!! Trey is going wild into: Third gear: 11:40 an extended gearshift or downshift and trilling segment into the infamous: Pre-Marco-Groove: 12:00 Not that great. I think they may want to be out of here pretty soon or something. No one is trying to make this brilliant. TREY: Ry, Ry, Rocco (the announcements commence!) (with the appropriate pauses, thanks!) MARCO ESQUANDOLAS: POSTER NUTBAG (Well, placed, man!!!) MOSES PEEFS! MOSES GRITT! (secret language clown riff) HAPPEN YOU TO HAVE ANY SPLEEF, MAN? slight delay before: High Gear Theme: 13:35 Really weak transition and lame intensity. Not the worst I�ve heard, but not even close to being good. Trey:- Set the Gear shift: etc. the usual End: 14:45 Pretty long, when looked at the average length of a Lope. Well, if you get this tape, get it for the Chicken or Harpua, not this version of this song!