From: Charlie Dirksen
7/23/96 Hamburg, Deutschland Opening standard. Tramps segment opens around 2:30 with Mike and Page funking away.
Trey comes in off-key sustaining at 3:30, similarly to old versions of Mike's Song. He doesn't do much of anything until, after
about a minute, he launches on a very long, dark, erie solo in the lower octaves of the 'doc. The solo lasts a hell of a long time..
Trey just noodles away. Around 9 minutes the jam gets especially erie and mysterious. Fish is still maintaining a typical
tramps-segment groove for the most part (well, he mixes it up a bit around 9:30), and Mike and Page continue to accompany
Trey's spooky noodling. At 10 minutes Trey repeats this particular lick several times, creating a truly psychedelic, mesmerizing
effect. Page's piano accompaniment in here is quite delightful. The jam quiets down a lot in here (10-11 minutes), and Fish starts
loosing the rhythm every so steadily. Trey's soloing gets progressively less centered (and he sustains some notes and throws out
some effects around 11:15 or so..). Spooky MikeSGroove... lots of odd noises out of Trey's 'doc around 12 minutes. Fish is
still holding on to a soft, steady rhythm (almost a marching-beat). Around 12:45 Trey starts lightly noodling again, and Page and
Mike melodiously accompany -- but SOFTLY. A very precious, delicate groove (13 minutes), before, at around 13:20, they
begin a crescendo.. start building the jam! =^] Agh.. oh well.. nothing really happens, then there's a key change at around 14:20
or so, and a quick crescendo, and at 14:40 the jam sounds like it could segue into Midnight Rider.. but it doesn't. Trey starts
soloing in a typically fierce, end of the Mike's Song, fashion.. he lets loose some digital delay loop effects it sounds like, too.
Page, Mike and Fish accompany powerfully, too. This jam just sorta dies out without really going anywhere, around 16 minutes,
and melts in a hazy fog of sustained sounds.. soft sounds. And from this pretty interlude, Hydrogen begins at 16:52, teased at
first by Mike (and then Fish kicks in the rhythm at 17 minutes or so). This is a very mellow, relaxed version of Hydrogen (well,
they usually are, of course). One of only two Hydrogens of 1996 (this and 8/5 Red Rocks). Weekapaug starts up around 20:30
or so (yeah, that Hydrogen really was mellow!). Mike's opening soloing is pretty funky and snappy, as usual. Pretty typical,
great soloing from Trey in the Weekapaug.. he moves over to the percussion kit around 24:50 or so. And then Page starts going
off on the Piano. Fish and Mike and just funking along. Great groove in here for awhile! Around 27 minutes Mike appears to
get more prominent in the mix, and he appears to play off of Page's rather repetitive piano jamming. Trey gets back on the 'doc,
chording, around 27:30 or so. By 28 minutes he begins to solo in a typical conclusory Weekapaug fashion, and the Weekapaug
theme comes back in around 28:15 (Trey is a bit sloppy with the chords, though). Ahhhh. Closing verse of Weekapaug. How
unusual it is to hear this these days it seems. Total time 29:19. Well, Darius you were right. This is pretty much a typically
awesome "B" MikeSGroove, in my opinion, but the jamming in the Mike's Song was particularly odd. Trey did passionately
noodle in the lower octaves for what seemed an eternity. And the closing chords of the trampolines segment never did occur
(not to mention the closing chords to Mike's Song, which haven't occurred in a long time, it seems to me). Odd. There's some
great jamming in this MikeSGroove, though. No question about that.. but I'm not going to miss having this around. two cents
KingMoron420