Dinner and a Movie starts this show off sort of slowly. Sloppy at parts, doesn't seem to do much. Meh. YEM is next, starting off slow with a couple flubs in the beginning, the jam is awesome. It starts off as a typical jam until Trey just goes crazy and rips the ending apart. Riding the energy, Mike rips through the D&B segment. Amazing jam for 89 IMO. A short vocal jam dies out into just Trey talking about leaving Northampton and entering Gamehendge. He describes a circus as they start up Esther. I'm always happy to hear this song, and this one is played fairly well. I absolutely love the solo in this song. Gamehendge continues as they drop into AC/DC Bag. Very standard, well played.
A bouncy Alumni Blues > LTJP > Alumni Blues sandwich followed. Extremely fun (as always), Page sounds extremely good in this Alumni. Great flow in the setlist so far.

Take the 'A' Train is next. I have only heard this song a couple of times so I don't have much to compare it to, but this version is very tight and interesting. Each band member plays a solo at times, even Fish (wish we could hear that in 3.0!), before returning to the original theme, making for a really cool jam. Mike shakes the building (and my room) during the Split Open and Melt intro and a tight rendition follows. Mikes voice is very loud during the choruses, it sounds sort of weird. The Lizards brings us back to Gamehendge for a super cool rendition. Like Esther, I love whenever they play this song. Trey nails the solos!

Golgi Apparatus is next. Tons of energy, extremely well played. Recent Golgi's can't even compare to old school ones like these. The high energy of Golgi carries over seamlessly into Good Times Bad Times. Perfect placement for this song, and they tear through this. Trey is on fire, showing off (in a good way). Rock and roll. Page also sounds extremely good on his vocal parts. Great ending to the set.

Unfortunately I don't have the second set. But the first set had extremely tight playing all the way through, but not too much jamming.

Highlights: YEM, 'A' Train, GTBT

4/5

https://youtu.be/BNBpc1vwh-0?si=aH6-2VIqcfuTfaxb
Video from May 1, 1989 at Pearl Street Ballroom in Northampton, MA. Quote about the footage from Page. "As I recall, the video for this show came into being rather spontaneously, without too much forethought or planning. As we were setting up our gear, in a basement club in Northampton, MA, we were approached by a well-dressed, diminutive gentleman. As best I can remember, his name was René. And he was there to pitch his video idea to us. For a nominal fee he would shoot the band’s set with one camera, artistically. He spoke with a French accent, almost spitting at us in a kind of broken English, with an urgency that was quite compelling. As his pace and volume increased, he kept saying it would be “avant-garde.” And the more times he said “avant-garde” with that thick accent, the more I believed him.

Rene’s use of the fisheye lens, the “negative image” effect, the odd angles and abrupt movements…I’m not sure it all adds up to “avant-garde.” And, at times I wish he would settle down. But, he went for it, and there is no denying that Rene’s camera work brought a certain excitement to the overall shoot."

First off, I find it interesting that this show has been rated by 48 different fans when the average show around this time is typically rated by 14 individuals?

The source for this is a pretty flat SBD with multiple cassette generations. Luckily the pitch is perfect and the music comes through if you don’t mind cassette hiss. It’s the type of recording that’ll take you back to the good ol’ tape trading days. .

Unfortunately, we don’t have the 2nd set to review here as it looks like a good one. Set 1 is pretty solid. A few notes. The OG Alumni seems to be back. This version has a pretty harsh cut. Beautiful version of A-Train. Fish’s jazzy drum solo has been omitted from Split Open. I was curious to see if Fish would take back to back drum solos in A-Train and Split Open. Decent first set overall. Hopefully a master copy of set one and two show up some day.

There's some slopitude going on in this recording. The start of Dinner & A Movie is horrible, Page is completely off. YEM, too, starts sloppy, but ends OK, then Esther is shaky as well. Most of the rest of the set is all right, although there is a heinous cut in the middle of Letter to J.P. I would say that it doesn't bode well for my rating when the moment that stands out is Fish's woodblock solo from A Train, so I'm going to go ahead and go two stars here.