A feeble attempt at a Big Birch (7/13) review
John J. Wood
I'm going to try and describe the 7/13 Big Birch show -- I say "try"
as there is nothing in my vocabulary that could adequately describe
what went down at Big Birch.
First, Big Birch itself! Picture a festival tent suited for social
functions at the bottom of a typical ski slope in some hilly mountains
& woods! Picture 1800 folding chairs that passed for seats,
and another 2000 barefoot children dancing on that lawn! Picture
the first dozen rows of folding chairs becoming history by
the first minute of Buried Alive. Because my row was
actually 17th, that remained intact, and the seat itself
was excellent; with a full view of the band, and full sound
sans some muddy vocals.
Now, the setlist...IF it's correct!
7/13/94 - Big Birch Pavilion, Patterson, NY
-------------------------------------------
I: Buried Alive->Poor Heart, Sample In a Jar, Foam, Mango Song->
Down With Disease, Fee->It's Ice->Fast Enough For You->
I Didn't Know*->Split Open & Melt
II: Possum**, Cavern intro->Wilson->Cavern reprise, NICU->
Tweezer->jazzy jam->Julius tease->Tweezer->Julius->Tweezer->
I Know A Little jam->Tweezer->Big Black Furry Creatures
From Mars intro->Tweezer->Big Black Furry Creatures From
Mars***->Tweezer->Mound, Slave To The Traffic Light,
Suzie Greenberg****
E: My Sweet One, Tweezer Reprise
* - "Greasy Fiseek" on trombone, which ends up a full jazz jam incl.
Trey on drums.
** - The band totally phucked up the final chorus (Fishman was
behind one beat), then Possum collapsed into a wild
scat-singing ending from Page & Mike, then the band
closed it with a typical blues finish (a la big ball
jam @ FLPAC last night)
*** - with bluegrass/rock themes on the 2 verses!
**** - All of Trey's solos were Slave!
The first thing I said to Jon Chase (brother of Dan) when the lights came up,
"I don't know what drugs they took tonight, but I *want* some!";-)
I could use a number of adjectives to describe the second set --
demented, totally twisted, phucked -- but nothing could describe
the mythical mindphuck that went down!
The first set actually looks basic on paper, but with the exception
of a standard It's Ice, everything counted! Buried Alive->Poor
Heart got the crowd rocking, and Sample cranked as usual (and I
saw it 5 times in 6 shows...and enjoyed every version!).
But the first indication something was in the air lied in Foam.
For one, Fishman accented every third beat instead of fourth,
resulting in a chunkier tempo, and Trey brought the music
to a quiet hush before bringing everything back up to fever pitch.
Everything was intentionally a beat off-tempo!
I was happy to finally get Mango -- my only other one was at
the Warehouse, and I was too clueless then:-} -- so I treated
it like it was my first one (ah, Page!), but then...
Down With Disease! OK...I've seen it 8 times in 12 shows now,
and I should've been tired to death of this tune. Instead,
this sucker was a monster, with a jam that reached peak
level, then went *completely* over the edge! Without question,
*THE* Down With Disease to date -- Shelly, please tell
the band to put that one on the live album NOW!
Things then quieted down with a joyful, sublimed Fee, the
forementioned It's Ice, and an insightful reading of Fast
Enough For You, which I truly enjoyed. Without stop, the
quartet shot into I Didn't Know, the only a capella tune of
the night (miked, of course). Fishman wandered over to
backstage left, then reappared with his trombone; Trey
then went over to Fishman's drumkit, and for over a minute,
the quartet went off into a jazz excursion instead of
just the Fishman solo. And no sooner than the song ended,
already Fishman was hammering the drum intro to another
shredding Split Open & Melt that did everything as advertised.
Nonetheless, the second set...oh, man! For the first 12+ minutes,
the band raged through Possum, but when the final chorus
appeared, Fishman & the others were out of sync. So,
the chorus -- and all of Possum -- collapsed into dead silence,
*then* Page & Mike pulled some scat-singing trade-offs until
the band closed Possum as if it was big ball jam!
And that's only the beginning!
Next up...Cavern?! A strange choice for the second song, and
Trey started inserting Wilson riffs (but also sounded like
the Queen ditty "Another One Bites The Dust), but when it was
time for Cavern's first verse, Trey sang the first
verse to Wilson! Wilson, in general, was played to the
tempo of Cavern, and when Trey yelled "I must inquire,
Wilson, can you still have fun", he immediately sang
the reprise to Cavern ("Give a director a serpent deflector"
and so on). What the phuck?!;-) I enjoyed my first NICU,
with a nice reggae flavor carried over with an aggressive tone.
But then came Tweezer!
It's intro was rather low-key & subdued, then it came to
a hush, and Fishman pounded out the drum rolls to *Possum*
before the first verse arrived. The playing between verses
was also *way* off from the norm -- how they stayed in
tempo I still don't know!
So...here we are taking off to Tweezer when Trey discovers
a melody, and Vermont's Phinest transforms into a jazz
quartet for a jam that flies in a completely outside direction
before returning to Tweezer. Trey then picked up the intro
to Julius, to the point I wrote down "Julius" on my note pad.
But then...they just go back to Tweezer for *another* few
minutes until Julius indeed arrives!
There was no finish to Julius; it disintegrated back into
Tweezer, then Trey picked up the signature riffs to a song
more associated with Lynyrd Skynyrd, I Know A Little. After
another few minutes of fiddling, the Tweezer theme returns,
then a chord progression gives way to Big Black Furry
Creatures From Mars...BUT before we can get to the first verse,
they go *back* into Tweezer! Finally, the chord progression
builds up again, and we get the first chorus of BBFCFM.
Then came the next verse -- with a musical bluegrass/rock
background that sounded like the sister of Scent Of A Mule.
Now, picture Mike Gordon singing "why, oh why, do I want
to kill you" over that backdrop, tease Tweezer, then go
into the second chorus. The bluegrass themes return for
a final "why", then the last BBFCFM verse succumbs to
sonic disonnance before pulling back *into* Tweezer!
At this point, Trey took his megaphone and started up those
wild N2O-ish noises again, with the Tweezer theme fully intact; then
the unit winds it down slowly, and Fishman pounded out the opening beats to
the usually-bizarre Mound. And then...the first notes to Slave,
another entry that was manna-from-Heaven! This Slave started
out more like an anthem, then developed a lush section in
the middle (thanks to Page's Fender Rhodes), then the final
buildup -- euphoria!! I thought the set would end right there,
but Trey decides to give us one more for our money with a
spunky Suzie Greenberg where all of Trey's solos *were* Slave!
Those bastards!;-)
Of course, Tweezer wasn't finished yet, and after a spirited
My Sweet One (appropriate -- this was a sweet show!), the
band brought it all home with a powerful Tweezer Reprise that
summarized the intensity of this night. It would
have been criminal if the reprise was passed on this
evening: There was no way they could *not* play it!
Now that you've read all this blabbory, go out and find yourself
the tapes: Then after listening, please let me know if you
have figured this show out!
I'm *still* trying to!:-)
John
jo...@troi.cc.rochester.edu
jo...@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
catp...@well.sf.ca.us