From: Charlie Dirksen
7/17/93 The Filene Center, Wolf Trap Farm Park, Vienna, VA (Rvwd 8/95) At the beginning of MikeS, there's a tease of
Tweezer Reprise, which probably never occurred at any other time. Lots of great wailing from Trey during the tramps segment,
and even afterward. Yes yes, there is the usual off-key distorted and sustained crap, off and on, but certainly it is not as
prevalent in this version as it often is. At the 6:30 point or so, the jam kaleidescopes in a disoriented, trippy mode, as MikeS is
oft to go into around this time in the jam, but which eventually -- slowly and steadily -- gets slower and slower and slower, until
it LEAPS and SCREAMS back into the MikeS theme ending. My copy of this cuts to side B at this point (so the timing might
be off by a few secs from hereon). Leprechaun (Le Pricon? what the hell is this tune really called, folks) comes in around 8:18
or so, making the MikeS fairly short compared to those reviewed of late. A solid MikeS, but nothing profound or worthy of
rushing to hear. There is actually a few seconds of nothing after this MikeS.. there really isn't a segue into Leprechaun.
Leprechaun, btw, is amazingly pretty, and much much MUCH more pleasant than H2 imo, but I guess they don't play it
because of the shakiness on how to segue it into Weekapaug (I don't know.. hopefully this isn't right..). Anyway, if you have
never heard it, seek out a tape with it, because it is a beautiful melody worthy of significant *live* concert time (which it doesn't
get anymore). Leprechaun really blows H2 out of the water when it comes to both complexity and grace, imnsfho. You just
have to hear it. What does it sound like? Akin perhaps to something ELP or YES might compose -- stuck in the middle of one
of their bordering-on-classical epic-rock tunes. Who wrote Leprechaun? Trey? Oh yeah, and its an instrumental (doh!), for
those of you who haven't heard it (and it is much better than ELIZA, ALRIGHT!). It ends at around 12:41 (tis longer than H2),
and, again, there's no segue into Weekapaug. A second or two of nothing and then Weekapaug kicks in. No opening bass solo
from Mike, I'm afraid. Trey just belts right into the "chorus." The jamming begins well, with Trey chording frequently in the lower
octaves, climbing and climbing and picking away rather readily. By 15, the jam truly soars as Week is oft to do, with Trey
wailing above the others (but with the others providing strong support). Trey is very very active in this version. This had been
my first live MikeSWeekapaug in many years, and I was going ape at this show (in general.. I was completely out of my gourd
for this set). At just over 16, though, the jam quiets down and Trey gets stuck on an unrecognizable theme. The jam slowly dies
out, just melts away into nothingness. A very quiet, gorgeous jam soon develops out of the nothing, until around 18:20, when
Page starts HYHU (!), and then Fish comes on at around 18:38. In other words, this "Weekapaug" is tremendously short and
was basically a tease of the real thing. The "ending" isn't really an ending at all, but a segue into HYHU and then FAHT of all
things. The FAHT is spectacular (even with an out of tune ukulele), but the Weekapaug -- though it had some great jamming --
was way to short overall and not impressive (well, no more impressive than a token Weekapaug). C+, total time roughly 18:20.
This show is worth getting if only for the FAHT.. ;^)