From: ra@asuvax.eas.asu.edu (Starcap'n Ra)
Newsgroups: rec.music.phish,rec.music.gdead
Subject: Starcap'n Ra Does Phish in Tempe
Date: 14 Apr 92 17:27:57 GMT
Followup-To: rec.music.phish
Organization: Tempe


     Well April 13 finally rolled around,
and as promised in this newsgroup earlier, 
I went to my first Phish show at After the
Gold Rush in Tempe.

     After the Gold Rush is a very nice
little venue.  It's a night club that includes
a small section where alcohol is not served,
making the show in effect an all age show.
There is quite a bit of room to dance by the
stage, and the floor levels continually rise
as you go back from the stage, giving every
table a decent view of the stage.

     From what I gather from reading this
newsgroup, I am lucky to have been able to see
the band in such an intimate setting, with
waitresses bringing me beers and such and
plenty of room to dance between tables as well
as on the dance floor.  Tickets were $12,
incidentally.

     The crowd was your basic deadhead crowd,
with many people who were very familiar with
the band.  Actually, let me amend that to
say it was the better portion of your typical
deadhead crowd.  Just the nice dancing
deadheads -- none of the drunk fuckups. I ran
into one friend -- she said kind of tounge in
cheek, "Yeah, this is my third show," "so to
speak" implied but not said.  Kind of cute.

     So anyway, I promised I'd tell you all
what I thought.  I went in completely cold,
deciding not to go out of my way to get a
listen to the band on cd first.

     From having read this group, I expected
to have to develop a taste for the music
over some period of time.  This did not
happen -- I just said, "Hmm, what seems to
be the problem?  This music is just fine."
On further reflection, I realized it's just
the same old bullshit that you go through
with getting people to listen to Grateful
Dead jams.  Fuck em, most people are basically
stupid anyway.  If you are so stupid you
don't like this music, then get away from
me.

     Speaking of the Dead, everyone had said
this band was not really like them at all,
but I was amazed at how similar to the dead
they are when jamming.  Sometimes it was
uncanny.  Other times, the jams took on
shades of jazz, latin, and one time even
reggae.


     I'm not much of a lyrics person, but
voice plays a great role in the Dead's music.
I must say that with the exception of the
vacuum cleaner thing, I almost didn't even
notice vocals with this band.  I found them
almost superfluous, and when they were there
couldn't really hear them anyway.  For the
most part, this band seemed to be about plain
good hot home cookin.

     My only disappointment with the jams was
that sometimes they'd start something that
really sounded like it was going to be
hauntingly interesting, but then the lead
guitarist would come in and trivialize it
with some wimpy simplistic major chord thing.
The jams lacked the haunting quality of, say,
some of the more psychedelic Major Lingo
stuff.  Does this band feel no angst at all?
Is everything just bouncy peaches and cream?
Never a tear to one's eye, like when the Dead
strike up Althea?

     But anyway, I had a really good time and
am glad I made the effort to see the show.

--Starcap'n Ra       {ames,gatech,husc6,rutgers}!ncar!noao!asuvax!kennedy
                        {allegra,decvax,ihnp4,oddjob}--^
                                          ^---------------The Wrong Choice
                             internet: kennedy@asuvax.asu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.music.phish