Of the 35 or so shows I saw in 1992, this one ranks near the top. People were fired up for the Fall ’92 shows because the whole summer tour was 45 minute sets opening for Santana with only a handful of headlining shows. This was a hometown (at the time) show for me and the venue was a 15 minute walk up the hill. It was snowing a little bit that night and there was a pretty good crowd outside on the steps and surrounding area. I had an extra ticket and traded it for a sweet batik that I still have. The venue was also sweet and we were in the middle of the floor for the first set. The crowd was pretty pumped the whole way through except for Ben Weinstein who screamed “Put Suzy on the backburner” in between songs when the crowd got quiet. Even back then, kids were hating on repeats. Incidentally, Ben also happens to be the guy that directed the 2/14/91 State Theatre video for public access TV. This show is pretty well known for the Tweezer and the Eleanor Rigby YEM but there is plenty of other good stuff too:

Set 1: Buried Alive, The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > Suzy Greenberg, Fee -> Maze, Reba, Sparkle, Horn, All Things Reconsidered, Bathtub Gin, Sweet Adeline, Run Like an Antelope
Set 2: Axilla, My Friend, My Friend, My Sweet One, Tweezer -> Big Ball Jam -> Tweezer, Tela, You Enjoy Myself, Faht, Golgi Apparatus
Encore: Bold As Love, Carolina, Tweezer Reprise

For the second set we moved back a little bit and then I went into the hallways for the Tweezer through YEM until the debut of Faht, which was cool.   The hallway at Bailey Hall was great, there was a ton of room and you could hear perfectly. The encore was great, especially for my friend Tracy who really was leaving for South Carolina in the morning, and because Bold As Love made another appearance after being played earlier in the week for the first time in forever.  We were always calling for it in ’90 and ’91 but never getting it so everyone was stoked when they brought it back after a 300+ show gap or something crazy like that.

So anyway, Fee->Maze is  a classic combo that the band played often, especially in ’92. The versions from this show are both winners and the transition between the two is seamless. The megaphone reappeared in the tour opener earlier in the week after a 2 year layoff, and they brought it out again at this show. The first time (and last time before this tour) it had appeared was at the 10/1/90 show in Ithaca which I’ll be posting about in the future. The Maze is just freaking blazing.  Give it a listen:

MP3 Link for the whole show is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=e64969679d601a07ab1eab3e9fa335cae79030095f9a8df0

Also, even though the ticket clearly states “And Special Guest…” there was only one band that night.

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