Review of 7/1/98 copenhagen

Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 15:29:33 EDT
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Review of 7/1/98 copenhagen

7/1/98  The Grey Hall   Copenhagen, Denmark

Set I: NICU, Sample, MMGMO, Moma Dance, DWD>Space Jam>DWD>Space>
         Dog Faced Boy, Piper, Waste, Chalkdust Torture
Set II: Tweezer>2001>Loving Cup, My Soul, Sweet Adeline(no mics)
Encore: Harry Hood

After night one of this run, I was so pumped to see this show that my friends
and I hung out in and around Christiana most of the day.  The show began with
an energetic NICU, which I think they played to try to recapture some of the
energy from the previous night's show.  Sample was solid, and most of the
locals seemed to like it.  MMGMO was pretty standard, but by the end of it,
the band was warmed up and starting to play for real.  They followed with the
Moma Dance, in an effort to practice both it and the dance.  Of course Page 
and Trey got dance, but Mike totally forgot and just kept playing.  It is a
very good version of the song, and sounded awesome inside the hall.  Trey
decided after the song that Mike could start the next song since he missed
the dance, and then came DWD.  This was played great, but they screwed up
some lyrics.  I think that this screw up ended up for the better, cause they
ended up playing a totally rockin' version with a nice little erie space in
the middle and a great segue back to the song.  They went back into a little
space type jam and slowly built up a rhythm and beat into what became an
unusual version of Dog Faced Boy.  It sounded great, I totally dug the segue
as well as the altered music to it.  Next was my 1st Piper, caught me off
guard since I had no idea what it was.  The Waste was solid and included a
little bit of the Trey Jam at the end(nothing like 8-9-98 though).
Chalkdusty caped a first set that was well played, and ended better than it
started.

Set 2 started with Tweezer, which I personally drool over.  I love a good
Tweezer and this one was bomb!  The jam twisted and turned and recaptured 
some of the sounds and rhythms of the DWD>Dog Faced Boy jam in the first
set.
 The transition to 2001 was solid, as was the version of the song.  They
extended out the intro jam of 2001 very nicely(Page was ON).  Loving cup took
shape abruptly at the end of 2001, and really sounded incredible inside the
hall.  I must say this song struck a nerve with everyone there(Danes LOVE to
drink...) and the song hit for me.  Since this version I've always loved it
live.  The Sweet Adeline was sung without mics and sounded loud enough so
that everyone could hear it well.   The encore was Harry Hood, which as
always came out great, a perfect cap to a show that flowed and perveyed a
weird surreal vibe, at least in my mind...

The bad side of this show is that yet again, the lighting was poor.  I put
most of the blame on the location, and available light rigging.  Or maybe I'm
just used to the grandeur of the normal US tour type lighting...The show did
start off a little slow in my eyes, but from Moma Dance on, it flowed like
melted butter...aw yeah...  

- Jeff