From: Charlie Dirksen
8/17/92  The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, CA
(Rvwd 6/95)

What a show this is, folks!  It has a really great
groove in the Bowie that I just LOVE to hear, and the
Reba is great (not to mention the Foam and the
tweezer!).  The MikeS Groove is not as great as it
could be, in my opinion, though it is long and quite
interesting.  Anyway, the MikeS is fairly
straightforward in the beginning, except for the fact
that MIKE REALLY WAILS IN THIS VERSION, folks!  He
hits a lot of notes during the tramps jam.  When Trey
comes in, he hits one sorta off-key note and sustains
it for nearly three minutes, only touching the knobs
here and there periodically, adding a little more
than just this one sustained note.  Even though Trey
isn't doing anything except sustaining this one note
for awhile, this version is still not as utterly dull
as it could have been.  There are great fills from
Mike, Page AND Fish, all of whom really kept the jam
interesting while Trey basically did nothing.  When
Trey finally gets into the groove at around 6:40 or
so, the real MikeS jam kicks in and well, it is
interesting.  Some of you might think these last few
mins of MikeS are really good, but I honestly don't
find this to be very impressive (but then, I think
the Warfield 5/27 "Simple"(!) sucks..).

The jam around 7:15 really isn't doing anything...
the improv is assuredly there, but it just doesn't
sound good.  Everyone is tooling around, and I don't
think it is clear that they are really listening to
one another.  H2 kicks in at 8:39, and thank God,
because I was sick of hearing this MikeS.  It is a
very unusual, long version of MikeS, but just not
that pleasing to the ears, in my opinion.  There just
isn't a really good jam -- it fucks around too much
and just doesn't groove.  Hydrogen cuts to side B,
but I don't think my timing is off by more than a few
secs at most.  It is beautiful, steady, and
well-played (straightforward).

Weekapaug kicks in with Mike wailing into a fantastic
bass opening solo, but also saying (at least I think
Mike says this..) "I walk awakening on the misty
fields of forever!"  sounds amusing.  Mike's opening
solo is one of the best I've ever heard.. he really
rocks.  He is quick and snappy, but this jam is more
clever and funky than usual, with him going downscale
as well as up.. Trey fudges the very opening chords
to the Week, which was a huge let down after this
kickass solo from Mike ..  The jam takes off at 13:05
or so after the first verse, and, well, is very
magical.    The crowd claps along by 13:50 and the
jam kinda mellows a touch.. more gentle, off-key,
mysterious.. you don't know what is going to happen..
You don't know where this jam will take everyone from
this point forward...

By 15:30 the jam is in stop/start mode (but it
doesn't completely stop.. the background rhythm still
maintains a presence.. the jam doesn't die).
Eventually the jam explodes back into the final week
jam segment, and Trey in particular is very
impressive, burning the frets off that damn
Languedoc.. This is a beautiful closing Weekapaug
jam, folks, but this whole groove just doesn't appeal
to me strongly enough to give this MikeSGroove a high
rating.  It is clearly an above average version, and
it beats the hell out of those -- retrospectively --
boring 1990 versions, but it still ain't that great
-- all things considered -- especially in light of
some of the earlier MikeSGrooves of 1992 (like
4/19/92, which blows this out of the water).  Still,
it gets a 6.0..(B-) the total time for this one was
approximately 19:30.  I highly recommend getting this
show at all costs, though.. as I do 11/28/92..