Rocky Mtn TOO

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... no, really it was just the best of times or at least a small slice of them that summer of '98, nine years ago.

Truckin' outta (or should I say VW Bussin' outta?) Maryland Heights, Mizzou westbound and down, the Interstate drive was long and hot across the wicked boring landscape that comprises the I-70 corridor from the St. Louis area, out of Missouri and through the Golden Waves of Kansas Grain, followed by an excited relatively short jaunt to the great Mile High City on the eastern edge of the mighty Rocky Mountains. We drove all night, we drove all day, still giddy from the sounds of Bobby & Phil, Bruce & Mickey and Co. that shook the Dead crowd alive back there at Riverport. After a quick stop to meet with some friends in Denver, twas time to make our way to another shed in the nearby 'burbs for some more swell sounds of summer, more bittersweet bliss...

The Other Ones 7/19/98

Fiddler's Green Amphitheater
Englewood, Colorado
Furthur Festival

Playing In The Band -» All Along The Watchtower,

Scarlet Begonias -» Fire On The Mountain,
Jack-A-Roe, Minglewood Blues,
Down The Road, White-Wheeled Limousine,
Bird Song -» Samson and Delilah-» Drums -» Space -»
Banyan Tree -» Playin' Reprise -»
Wharf Rat -» Throwing Stones -» Not Fade Away
Encore: Ripple

Before I downloaded this show, and just finished up a listen a few minutes ago, it had been quite awhile since I had the pleasure to hear these tunes... since they ended that night, actually. This band isn't the Grateful Dead and one example of how that's clear as day is the fact that the setlist fails to mostly conform to what became a fairly standard structure with Jerry at the helm. Playing In The Band kicking things off doesn't work so well, I think. When the song moves into jamming territory it does so in a way that is quite dissimiliar to a rockin' opening show Bertha or Shakedown or something like that. Playin' is definitely one for 2nd Set Land (or in the case of TOO, later in the show.) Even though this doesn't make the best opener, at the very same time, once again I had the biggest smile across my face, a smile that I can't get from any other music outside of something immediately Dead-related. These guys loved playing this song and they played it well!

In all good time Bobby kept the ball rollin' with a fine Watchtower. The band was sounding pretty tight, just an outstanding group of musical professionals playin' some of the best music on Earth!

Scarlet was bittersweet but here they let their un-Deadness show. I really like Bruce singing this (and any Jerry songs) but the song sort of suffers in that big jam area before going into Fire On The Mountain. With our beloved Jerry steering the ship, jams within songs can smoothly retain elements of the song and they can all bring it back down so perfectly to end the song or transition or launch into what's next. The Other Ones, on the otherhand, can hold together a jam and really work on it as a group, but it's loose and frayed around the edges, the coming back down all as one takes a lot more work. The Dead just did it; TOO needs to work at it but of course they get it done. They did exactly that with Scarlet -- they made it happen and wham into Fire which would soon have Mickey at the Mic rapping out his version of FOTM. This is something I may never get used to. I just laughed as I usually do 'cause it's funny, really, and not the straightforward song that everything else is and that everyone's used to.

A whole 'nother feeling came to me a few songs later -- the rawest emotion ever from a TOO show. It never happened when I was there seeing them. That was probably due to the fact that I was always way too (no pun intended) caught up in the moment to clearly make out the lyrics as I know them now...

"From the corner of my eye I saw the sun explode
I didn't look directly 'cause it would have burned my soul
When the smoke and thunder cleared enough to look around
I heard a sweet guitar lick, an old familiar sound
I heard a laugh I recognised come rolling from the earth
Saw it rise into the skies like lightning giving birth
It sounded like Garcia but I couldn't see the face
Just the beard and the glass and a smile on empty space"

Wow. Robert Hunter's Down The Road isn't a whole song about Jerry but that little bit sent tears from my eyes. There's very little else in the Dead or post-Jerry catalog that can do that but Down The Road has that capability and yes, I cried a little at that moment. Bittersweet indeedy so.

Another highlight that had me choked up some was Bird Song which has Bobby & Bruce trading lines of lyrics. Very nice.

Out of a pretty kickin' Drums from Mickey & Molo, the relatively short Space melded into a very Bobby smooth Banyan Tree. Out of that it was great hearin' Phil mess around a little with the Playin' Reprise and then thinking Dark Star... but back to Playin' Reprise but wait, here's some Dark Star-ish notes again... oooo, oooooooo! Amazing that was a week before at Alpine Valley, yes, Phil, keep hittin' those notes... come on... but no such luck as the Playin' Reprise firmly established itself. So close it came, just three or phour Phil base notes away from Dark Star. Oh well.

The end of the show drove forward in fine GD-style fashion. Hornsby sung a great Wharf Rat followed by a very Dead and Ratdogesque Throwin'->NFA. A fine show But Wait! For the whole tour I had been following setlists as best as I could that summer and I knew that they were giving an Encore about every other show or so. Tonight the crowd got one again, my first in three shows. Boom shahka lahka, Ripple, baby! Ahhhhhhhh. Sadly it wasn't the best I'd ever heard. Twas certainly the best for me from a band with Bobby, Phil, Mickey or Bruce... but Bob & Phil primarily on vocals weren't perfectly in synch. What a shame but despite the unperfectness of it, it was still was so great to hear. I couldn't have thunk up a more fantastic way to send the fans out into the cool Rocky Mountain night!!!

A great night in a nearby Denver suburb and a great rediscovering listen these few years later. This show is a very nice piece of The Ones Ones on the Furthur Festival that summer just three years after Jerry's passing. One thing kinda bugs me though and that's on the tunes that are commonly Dead, I don't really love the lead guitar. Steve Kimock is great and on the Hornsby songs, Banyan Tree, and Down The Road, I really dig his playing. But on the Dead numbers, as much as I like others singing Jerry, I don't care for the lead guitar replacing where Jerry should be. If those parts were filled in more with sax and piano, it would make this much, much more joyable for me. As it is now, I do love this music... but to replace Jerry's guitar work kinda puts me off just a bit. But that's just me and maybe it's the fact that this was a pretty sweet Soundboard where you're able to zoom in on one instrument so well and no Jerry really shows itself. I dunno. In any case, to not listen to TOO as often as I don't (does that make sense?!), well, that's a crime, or at least it should be! What I'm tryin' to say is -- listen to more TOO!!!

Courtesy of SugarMegs.org
(it's all in one long .wma file)

Listen to 7/19/98 Here
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Save 7/14/98 Here

SugarMegs is Dead... no pun intended.

320 kbps mp3 SBD files to be uploaded eventually.

Stay tuned...

The Band:
Phil, Bobby, Bruce, Mickey,
Steve Kimock, Mark Karan,
John Molo, Dave Ellis