NYE 12/31/97

Los/SCI

Hey all,

I haven't seen any extensive reviews of the show here yet, so I thought I'd throw in my impressions.
One caveat though - it was a long, festive evening and I wasn't taking notes, so my recollections here are sketchy
and through a very clouded haze...

I arrived late, at about 9:45, and the String Cheese Incident was onstage with Paul McCandless.
Once again McCandless fit in great with them, and everyone was in fine form.
They were in a heavy jam mode, playing more instrumental stuff than usual.
Vince Welnick joined them after a time on organ,
and at one point they covered "Estimated Prophet" with Michael Kang on lead vocals.
They played until about 11:30.

LoS hit the stage at about 11:50, with Paul McCandless again joining them
on wind instruments and Vince Welnick on organ.
Also joining them for most of the show was a violin player -
I didn't recognize him and forget his name but he was very good.
I forget what the first number was (hey, I told you it was a festive evening ;-P).

At just before midnight, a Beverly Hillbillies-themed float
came out and did a tour around the floor;
on the back of the float was a "Haight Ashbury Or Bust" sign.
While this was goin, the Beverly Hillbillies theme song was played,
followed by a taped Mamas and the Papas version of
"If you are going to San Francisco."

After the mignight countdown they released a bunch of balloons from the ceiling,
and the band, joined by SCI and all of the guests, went into a very festive Iko Iko.
Vince (Herman) covered most of the vocals, and in classic Vince form he made up new words in random places.
I think "Better" was next - it was either played here or just before midnight.
Then or soon after they did an extended version of "Funky Mountain Fogdown".
At first I didn't recognize it - they started it in the new way which I had read about here on the list at a very slow tempo.
It wasn't until the way into the song that I recognized Mark's signature riff for the tune and realized what it was;
soon after that they went into the more familiar faster version.
Overall this version of Fogdown was great, easily the best of many that I've heard.

Then or soon after they went into "When the Levee Breaks". I always love to hear this one and this version did not dissapoint,
it was very jammed-out and psychedelic. This was followed by a couple of tunes with Vince Welnick on lead vocals
Of all of the covers I would have guessed LoS would do,
the Beatles' "It's All Too Much" and "Tommorrow Never Knows"
would not have been among them, but they worked, and these were fun.
Then they played some more LoS tunes, including a fun Boogie, and the first set ended at around 1:30 or so.

Baby Gramps, (a plastic-jug playin' Hillbilly-type character) who opened for LoS
at the Fillmore a year ago November and I think at other times as well, played during the set break.

The second set was also very good; they opened with a rousing "Mama Boulet".
Paul McCandless and the violinist returned, but Vince Welnick did not.
The highlight of the second set for me was "Whispering Waters"; always a favorite of mine
and this one was probably the best and most jammed-out version I've heard.
Before the song Vince commented that the violinist played on the original recording of the song.
Another tune which I really liked was a tune I hadn't heard before which mentioned Georgia in the chorus;
the jam on this was sick. The show closed with "Reach" and "Euphoria";
SCI returned to the stage for these tunes.
The encore was an extened "Reuben's Train" into "Wake & Bake", and the show ended at 3:30 or so.

All in all it was a great show, and the crowd and crowd energy were great too.
It was great to see the band again after a 6-month dry spell;
here's to hoping they'll be back this way much sooner next time.

Happy New Year, folks.

Mike

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