Mark Wallace's Home Page, Saint Louis University, Piqua, Ohio, Lehman High School
Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

-10.9.99-

I wanted to drop a line of thanks to everyone I met at the St. Louis show on Friday and tell everyone about the great time that I had. It was my first Incident, and but I'm slowly getting more through trade.

It was amazing!

Please feel free to mock my first-impressions and naive observations. Thanks again!

10.8.99: American Theatre - St. Louie, MO

Set I: Lester, Missing Me--> Joyful Sound, Dixie Chicken, Elvis' Wild Ride, Sand Dollar--> Sittin’ on Top of the World

Set II: Jam--> Pirates, Sing A New Song (new Billy)-->KASHMIR, Mountain Girls, All Blues, Shaking The Tree-->Black Clouds

Encore I: Superstitious *

Encore II: Johnny Cash *

*w/ Ozomatli

Alright, there was a lot of room to move around at the American. I was dead-center behind the first rail, the level just above the floor. It was a really nice "elder" crowd, I thought. (no offense intended, I consider myself a geezer at 24)

They didn't have a wild light show, but they did have great stage lighting, you know?

The fiddler [Kang] played an electric mandolin most of the time, but he played it in the electric guitar space. He had a lot of effects on his tone like Jerry. He also did most of the singing. (he has a high that can produce a very impressive array of voices, including the seventies Rocker voice i.e. Robert Plant) Nershi (a fuzzy, blue-grass looking guy) plays an acoustic for the lead spot and then Moseley is a tall, metal-head-looking bass player. He did this cool speak-sing mellow tune that sounded very familiar. (might have been Joyful Sound?) Hollingsworth on keyboard looks like your buddy from a fraternity or the main kid from the Goonies all growed-up and he rocked the house. He had a nice long keyboard jam where everyone left the stage then one-by-one got drawn back out into the jam.

They were pretty playful, like sneaking behind one another during the jam and then putting their instruments up to the guy's head and playing right into his ear.

The highlight for me was the drummer, Travis (?). He was insane to watch. His drum set was half-normal kit connected to the other half bongo set-up. He would play the bongos with his right hand and the drums (via drumstick) with his left. (it doesn't sound as cool as it was to watch and hear. I couldn't figure out how he was playing the complex rhythms on the bongos with one hand, not to mention adding the drums!) In mid-phrase he would grab another drumstick and rattle off some climax then drop it and continue the foundation of the groove.

The Peter Gabriel [Shaking the Tree] blew me away. A great tune to pull out as a cover. (especially for me who loves Gabriel anyway) They also teased "Hold Your Head Up" for a while. The Kashmir was unreal. I have never heard of anyone covering the whole thing. It was awesome.

The encore added 3 horn players (Ozamtli [sp?]) and a rapper of some sort. They all came out and were goofing around while they got their swerve on. During Johnny Cash I think), the rapper came out front and free-styled over the jam for what seemed like 2 minutes. He was loving the music & crowd and was dancing all over the place. I think he might have even done some cart-wheels though, by this time my eyes were almost completely closed and I was pretty drunk, so I might have dreamt the gymnastics.

I couldn't believe how long they played. I would like to see some actual numbers, because I definitely had no concept.

It is probably the best complete show I saw this year.

I was glad there weren't more lights, because the sound was already putting me in overload. Did I mention there were two party-dudes hula-hooping up in the "boxes" for the last half of the show? (they kept getting tired and were totally hilarious)

Black Clouds is something I really wanted to see and it was putting me in orbit; absolutely no disappointment. (thanks, gentlemen)

Take Care,

Wallace

http://www.angelfire.com.oh/wallacemt


Email: wallacemt@hotmail.com

Angelfire - Easiest Free Home Pages