From: benjy eisen <[email protected]>
BathtubGinFiles #7 10/14/94 McAllister Auditorium; (Tulane U.); New Orleans, LA
GinStats: Set I Total time: 11:47 A brief pause after PYITE and Bathtub Gin's opening starts up, standard as is to be expected. Johnny B. Fishman - What do you wanna bet that he goes over to those wood blocks over there? Ah, what a funny guy - he DOES! Page jumps in at 0:15 with some ivory sweeps and fiddler speaks and then some tease of something at 0:23 'till 0:49 -- it sounds *very* Fiddler On The Roofish, buuut....I just listened to Fiddler to see what exactly it's a tease of, and found this melody nowhere. Fuck...maybe it's just Hebrew/Israeli influenced or something though I swear I've heard this before. Some theme from the tease is hit upon in the last few seconds, joined in on by Spike Gordon. If anybody recognizes this as something, please enlighten the rest of us.... Lyrics Segment: 0:49. Trey sounds pretty indifferent. Page Fill 1: 1:21->1:38 with some more Olde Time Folk/Fidder on the Roof/or something teases till 1:38. Argh! I just can't place it. Fill 2: 2:10 -> 2:18 And is joined in on by Spike again. It's that same theme that I can't think of right now. Damn! FAUCET: 2:34 Ack, Cough, Sneeze...wait a minute I must have missed that, or at least *somebody* must have missed *something* because this attempt at the Faucet is miserable...absolute yuck! Trey tries his famous cover-up trick ("Just pretend that that's the way it's supposed to go and now I'll just work it and repeat it a couple of times to proove this") But it doesn't work. It's too late. Trey's a New England Patriot after all. :) SINGING W/The Faucet: Comes in at 3:22 in an odd place...smack in the middle of the lick, having forgotten to, or having lost the ability to, in the beginning. Sorry, but this just drops to the level of suck. The second (3:59) take on it is better - they actually get it right this time and finally we begin to hear some honest enthusiasm again!...'bout time! WATER From The Faucet: 4:32 without prior notice or warning, just smootches right into it - I like that! Trey pretends he's MEAN MR. MUSTARD now, spurting out sticky honey dijon and amber strokes and speading it low on the 'doc, giving us the whole root 'doc therapy in the bathtub. Drilling us (not trilling us) and slowly going for that root canal jamming so prevailent when the Evil One emerges. By 5:11 Trey pretends to hit the FT again, the others call his bluff, Fish rides those cymbals, Mike is Spike, and Page is the doo-wop boogie-woogie chordster in the corner. Some staccato-licks that are Facet derived erupt from Trey now, and then around 5:52 he starts staccatically and methodically blazing us with short little licks of up-the-neck water-downs in a desperate attempt to delouse. Page answers beautifully in his mad-capped insomniac interjections; He's still a sucker for that Isreali theme. Trey indulges him with it, teasing it on guitar a little. (around 6:30->6:42ish) What was that about the beginning of this Gin not showing any promise? "My God, what have I done?" By 7:07 Trey gets quieter, pulsating with a low steadiness while Mike holds the Vibrations, Fish beats the hell out of that snare drum of his, and now Trey is scratching the strings all up and down the neck like a lost ADD dog juiced-up on speed, with fleas. Believe me, it sounds alot more pleasing than one would assume from this image. :) Page, meanwhile is still stuck on this other tune that I can't freakin name yet - argh! Starting at 8:10 you can hear that they want to go somewhere new and at 8:32ish the jams drops to a new level in this Bathtub sea, exploring coral reefs and gently sort of swimming about. Remember on NYE '93 when they came swimming down from the ceiling in wet-suits? If only they had played this (Type II improv.) then...this is the 12/31/93 REPRISE soundtrack, I swear, for we are now gently floating along an ocean floor, shallow but deep enough for us to see some crayfish and other freaks of the coral-reef bottom. This could be the genetic beginnings to Steep. Page is hitting one or two notes at a time every so gently while Fish has an OXYGEN TANK SCARE and wigs out on his cymbals. Mike gives the cartoon-theme-funk to secure this image. This is most definately The Other Theme From The Bottom and in-fact I would love to hear some improv. of this sort in the middle of a real Theme... I see *plenty* that I'd like to try. By 10:05 Trey starts letting water flow right through him, bringing it up a notch, and then up even more to a teary-eyed crescendo in the 10:24, after which he lets out a bubble-burp or two. 10:29 peak of sorts and then descending licks while ascending the walls of anticipation. He quickly nods an indulgence of Page's tease. At 10:51 there's a return to the Faucet Lick, higher on the 'doc and at 11:02 full Classic Faucet Theme (CFT) return, applauded by the audience and lauded by me. Wow, this is great! This is refreshing! When it comes to quenching thirst, this is better than Gaterade! I ought to write to their people complaining about false advertising! Trey's Mysterious Effect is activated from within the (Type I) confines of Starship CFT at: 11:24->11:28 Hmm...all part of the Great Conspiracy I suppose. Trey plays like a drunk who has just been shot in the leg, trying to walk. At 11:46 Mike lets out the final and emphatic "Bathtub Gin." Band stops together on cue at 11:47. This was a potent jam segment that I would easily recommend. The beginning started out a li'l sour but ended up SWEET! The boys must've thought so too - they sing Sweet Adeline next. Rating: 84 Proof (B) It would have scored an 89 or 90 Proof easy, had it not been for the horrendous butchering of the initial Faucet Theme. Once the WATER starts flowing though, we have ourselves a nice little Garden Hose. Not golden, but hey, it works and the flowers are a growing quite nicely ...Aren't we now? It looks like it's a clear win for the New Englanders after all! Benjy