From: Victor Szalvay Subject: Antelope in Review PT.1 8/14/93 Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 02:15:28 -0700 Greetings friends, Well, I this is the first Antelope in Review and so I would like to preface this discussion with a couple of notes to the reader. I have seen several very excellent reviews of YEM, Tweezer, and entire shows by netters like Charlie Dirksen and others who are probably household names to us by now, but I wanted to start a thread detailings the musical endevours specific to the song Antelope. I am a very big fan of the song and love its unique presentation each time it appears in the setlist. Also, I feel that discussing and relating what I hear can be of great benefit to the reader as well as myself. I dont really want to try to qualify myself as an authority, because I would feel pretty silly doing so, so please take my comments as discussion and add your own and please feel free to add your own critic of this or other shows Antelopes. My first selection has to be one of my favorites. Here is the setlist and location so that you can scale the heaviness of this show for yourself. 8/14/93 World Music Theater, Tinley Park, IL Sound Check: Long Jam, Funky Bitch 1: Chalk Dust Torture, Guelah Papyrus, Divided Sky, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, It's Ice, Sparkle, Split Open and Melt, Esther > Poor Heart, Cavern 2: Also Sprach Zarathustra > Run Like an Antelope > Sparks > Walk Away > Have Mercy > Run Like an Antelope, Mound, The Squirming Coil, Daniel, You Enjoy Myself, Purple Rain > HYHU, Golgi Apparatus E: La Grange Keep in mind what month we are taking about here... 8/93 has got to be one of the best and I cant help but add this to one of the months best shows. (I saw them during 8/93 and it was incredible, really!) Lets start at the beginning of set II as 2001 (abbreviated for brevity) > Antelope is a must hear! 2001 --- Spacy intro, with Mike and Fish, also Trey making reverb sounds and then... Boom! Very cool, everyone is on as Fishman takes control. Page jumps in with his cool 2001 riff, the groove is building. Here comes Trey! Very nice, very together... standard melody in progress and there is no turning back. Pretty funky and fairly bright, no misses... Break... Mike bomb... and then it is all over >>> Antelope intro! Antelope --- Nice together intro unlike some other versions where no one can figure the time. Smooth accents by Fish and Page as Trey heads up the melody. And then out of the intro: POW!!! POW !!! POW!!! Trey takes the reigns as the melody builds. Very nice key change, everyone is awake tonight and groove/jam build utterly beautifully. Some funny stuff by Trey and Page. Then Trey insists on taking a bizzare direction! A repeated riff is present and the other guys dont seem to want to go in that direction, so it alters a bit. Quiets down... wheres Trey? Back and forth, Back and forth like Jaws theme or something... There he is! Quiet again, they want to go into something else, every one is reaching. A patriotic song emerges but slowly dies as the band loses interest in this. The groove has all but died and they are searching to settle on a riff... where will this lead? Trey plays a faintly remenescent phrase, but no one seems to be able to place it. Utterly annoying phrasing comes out of this. Kind of like Ga! GA! GA! GA! gA! Ga! GA! POW! The band is swimming in a see of madness but here emerges a wonderful jam! It sounds like the beginning of Real Me but then one realizes that this is really Sparks Sparks ---- Utterly magnificent jam, Trey is yelling in the background to the others! Here comes the solo!!!!! Wow!!! Page enters the scene and the double solo is hot as Page moves to the B-3 sound! This groove kind of sounds Weekapaugean in some respects, but it is an all out rock and roll jam! We are definitely not in the land of Antelopes anymore! The jams dies and Trey again blazes to another portion of must really be the meat of the song Sparks. Very sharp and hard. The boys are feeling pretty good as Trey whips off some very nice riffs. Page smoothes it out and brings the craziness down but Trey picks up on another theme... oh no! What now? Walk Away --- What a blunder, imho, but I guess they know what they are doing. This ridiculous interlude seems totally out of place and made me laugh out loud when I heard it first in this particular position. The timing was just so unlikely... but I guess its pretty funny. The song has the standard solos and words we are used to. Can they come back to being serious? What will happen next? I am sick of this song after the first verse, it is still a damn good version, though. The rhythm fades and something is in the brewing! The wheels are turning as they feel for something good... Form is taking shape, the result: Antelope seems to be revisited for a fine solo and jam. I am happy with the tempo and tone. Yet still no Marco, and then it just slips away again into Have Mercy --- Mike and Trey collaborate to bring this one on! Thank God!!! I knew they could do it! Seriousness has been restored and what a cool song. Very light reggae feel and tempo. Page chimes in with the first solo... B3 patting along as he feels out the rhythm... cool Mike interlude now.... He settles everything into a very stony setting and grooves along as Trey accents with Makisupa-like sound effects... I can see the puffs smoke now! They must all be smiling!! Very quiet, laid-back groove and then in a very baked voice,Trey: My, my, my pause Marco Esquandolas.... Would you happen to have any.... pause Spike! (?) Its all over!!!! The place goes crazy and we are back to >> Antelope --- OH MY GOD!!! Run, run, run, run, run, run.... in full swing and they entire band is on target. Here comes Trey with, Set the gearshift... Run like an antelope! The gearshift is in the high gear of our souls!!! Unfortunately, no jam beyond this and they abruptly pull out and finish with a nice splash. Mound drums resume immediately... enough said. Well, I will not go into the rest as my hands are about to fall off, but it is all worth getting into. All in all, the Antelope was not mind melting, but the songs and jams in between made it all very interesting. More on another day, another time, another show.... I give this version a 9.0 on the Victor scale.