From: Charlie Dirksen
8/9/93 Concert Hall, Toronto, Canada Trey's not really there in the opening.. kinda shaky at first, but he's ok by 40 seconds
into it (sortof). Not that tight of an opening, imo. The pre-Nirvana section is very precious, but nothing outrageous occurs.
Nirvana at 3:29. Page is delightful, but Trey kinda flubs at one point in this section. Mike's solo-section occurs at 4:12, and he
teases Nellie Cane (just plays the damn thing outright!) severely, and then let's off.. great! =^] The pre-charge section is very
tight, and is well-played, as is usually the case. Ouch!! Trey's f#cking up around 5 mins pretty badly. That was lame. But Trey's
first shot at the Note is very well-sustained.. gets sweeeet tone!!! Not much jamming around it, though. Trey's more tight for this
next part of the pre-charge, and kinda goofy actually (some vocal stuff in here.. I think that's Trey). Second Note is great, as is
the hasty jamming around it. Nothing unusually special. Charge at 6:31 then "Boy" at 6:47 after a thrilling scream. Mike's funking
in this BMGS/WUDMTF segment is saaahweet!! =^] He's rather excited in here, it sounds like.. he's definitely more into this
than usual. Kinda weird WUDMTF segment.. Trey sounds pretty laid back, and the jam dies out a little. Tramps jam at 8:58,
and Page solos nicely on the keys, but Mike makes some serious twangs in here... some strong signals... Page is playing very
enthusiastically in here.. great stuff from him!! Very groovy around 10:30 especially. Fish's drumming is also quite pleasing. Trey
comes in at 10:46 teasing Santana's "I Ain't Got Nodody," but the jam segment doesn't really start until 11:17, after Page has
thoroughly saturated everyone in the audience with fantastic notes from his boards. Trey's noodling to kick off this jam segment
is basically around the Santana 'Oye Como Va' theme, but then it is 'Spooky' around 12 minutes a little, with more 'Oye Como
Va.' He is basically playing with these two themes in here a little... until 12:29 when Trey starts playing 'Smoke on the Water'
outright, and the others follow his lead quickly. But this jam is still in Trey's Quietly Noodling mode, so they bring it up steadily
and steadily.. "Here comes Speedracer" sung to the tune of Smoke on the Water from Trey ... some nice Oye Como Va chords
from page underneath this jamming around 13:25, too. And then Trey is back into a great, sustained out NOTE around 13:40
or so. At around 14 minutes, the jam starts going completely insane in a BBFCFM-like manner, until it explodes at 14:33 back
into YEM, with Mike prominently grooving, and Page still letting out Oye Como chords. I think this is supposed to be B&D at
this point.. yeah (i.e., not that great of a conclusion to the YEM jam segment, imo). At 14:53 Mike funkily teases Smoke on the
Water on the bass in a most fiendishly groovy manner... around 15:20 Mike plays the Smoke theme in the WRONG key
(deliberately) and starts improvising around it quite deliciously around 15:40.. sounds like Trey is saying something through the
megaphone in here, too (around 15:40), but I can't make it out. He seems to be screwing around.. there's Fish making "uuuhh
uhhh" noises and they are all toolin around at 16:15.. then a low scary jam from Mike around 16:30... Fish comes back in at
16:49. Then the closing WUDMTF segment at 16:51 or so, with "Wa-choo" noises from Fish during it. Vocal jam comes in
twenty seconds later, accompanied by audience clapping. In the vocal jam around 18:30, it sounds like Trey starts singing
"Psycho Killer" (lyrics and all) for a verse.. just a verse of it. Some great monster noises (or something) around 20:30 or so.
This is an exceptionally strange vocal jam, imo. Exceptionally strange. More typical vocal jamming (finally) around 21:20 or so..
they get into a nice groove! ;-) This quick-tempo groove dies out quickly though.. some monkey noises briefly around 22:10,
and then Mike starts yeah-yuh-ing the "Contact" theme, and this vocal jam dissolves into Contact, with Trey laughing at one
point. This is definitely one of the weirdest vocal jams.. Contact opens at 23 minutes (with Trey and Mike) but they are still
yeah-yeah-yooo-ing the theme.. it is very amusing.. =^] Great segue.. Well, the vocal jam was easily the highlight of this YEM
for me. I wasn't especially impressed by the music of the other segments, though. I'd give the vocal jam an "A" for its
exceptionally bizarre (even for vocal jams) nature, but this whole version gets an above average but not must-hear B rating.
two cents (please add your own, and increase the wealth of Lamehendge) charlie