SETLIST: Opening Solo-> Dancin' Fool-> Easy Meat-> Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me?-> Keep It Greasy-> The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing-> City of Tiny Lites-> Pound for a Brown-> Bobby Brown-> Conehead-> Little House I Used To Live In-> Magic Fingers, Encore: Dinah-Moe Humm-> Camarillo Brillo-> Muffin Man (not on tape)
APPROXIMATE TIME- 90 minutes (one tape)
OFFICIAL RELEASES- Pound for a Brown Keyboard Solos (most of Wolf and roughly half of Mars), on YCDTOSA Volume IV
OPENING SOLO (Persona Non Grata) (6:37)- Frank, Vinnie, and the bass players all over the place in this manic opener to this solidly performed show. Vinnie goes from calm to crazy, the bass players are low and all pervasive, and Frank is simply a whirling dervish of noise. Very sweet.
INTROS (1:08)
DANCIN' FOOL (3:13)
EASY MEAT (5:05)- FZ solo, 2:20; This solo is not as long as some of the others of the run, but what Frank does in the short time in which he does it is great. The last thirty seconds in particular stand out as some of the fiercest playing of this run.
HONEY DON'T YOU WANT A MAN LIKE ME? (4:26)
KEEP IT GREASY (4:56)- This is the best "Keep It Greasy" of the run simply for the 1:40 digression in which Frank receives gifts from the audience (a penguin in bondage, a pack of black napkins, among other things) which breaks the monotony of this normally routine performance.
THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT NOTHING (3:24)
CITY OF TINY LITES (10:04)- Denny Walley slide solo, 2:35; FZ solo, 2:19; Again, this may not be Frank's lengthiest "City" solo of the run, but what he plays cuts straight to the chase, and propels us into the nether regions of nasty guitar playing. Dramatic and heavy, and wonderfully supported by the rhythm section.
POUND FOR THE BROWN (19:27)- Ed Mann solo, 1:12, with nasty edit into Frank's solo; FZ solo already in progress, 2:03; LS/FZ dueling, with tape flip, 2:27: keyboard solos, 13:38; Even with two annoying tape cuts, this performance comes across as one impressive mother. The percussion solo is typical, as is the beginning of Frank's solo. Once Shankar joins in, though, Frank moves to the lower registers, and the meeting of his guitar with the violin is beautifully dissonant. Then we get a horrible tape flip, but when we return on side two, the rhythm section is riding a "Packard Goose" tinged vamp, similar to the opening section of that "Joe's Garage" song. This leads us into Thirteen, which sets the stage for the simply Monstrous keyboard solos. The Thirteen vamp is not stuck with for long as we veer off into a more limitless improvisational zone. At 1:41 of Wolf's solo, we find ourselves joining the YCDTOSA IV "Pound for a Brown Solos", which represents a slightly edited version of the actual event. Amazingly enough, the audience tape sounds better than the Stage mix, with O'Hearn's bass really standing out. After the spot where the fade out occurs on the CD, the song continues for approximately five more minutes with your typically insane Mars' solo. Tommy moves to synth after his lengthy electric piano solo, with Vinnie and the bass players helping boost the energy levels. The whole affair ends with a frantic jazz jam over a sprightly walking bass line. A simply transcendent performance, and another instance where the keyboardists provide the best music of the show.
BOBBY BROWN (2:47)
CONEHEAD (4:27)- L Shankar solo, 2:11; No FZ solo again, but Shankar manages to turn in a worthy effort.
LITTLE HOUSE I USED TO LIVE IN (10:46)- Mars' solo, 4:48; Vinnie solo, 3:42; After the "Pound for a Brown" magic, this Mars' showcase is somewhat disappointing simply because it does not, and probably cannot, top the earlier workout. Nevertheless, Tommy once again turns in a quality performance, and if not for the Monster "Pound", this would be the highlight of the show.
MAGIC FINGERS (2:31, with strange edit into middle of "Dinah-Moe Humm")
DINAH-MOE HUMM (4:54)- This is probably the encore, though that is not evident on the tape. The song begins with the "Whipped off the bloomers" line, coming out of an immediate edit from "Magic Fingers". Frank does some fooling around with the audience during the middle section, and claims that he "has been singing this song for 100 years" (though we all know it only feels like 90). Again, praise must be paid to Vinnie who plays the drums as if this song actually matters.
CAMARILLO BRILLO (3:25)
MUFFIN MAN (not on tape)- Frank says during the closing strains of "Camarillo Brillo"- "And now for the second part of our annual yearly (sic) encore"- at which point the first few notes of "Muffin Man" can be heard before the music fades out.
This show contains the best all around performance of the "normal" part of the show, i.e. the songs up through "Pound for a Brown". The solos in "Persona Non Grata", "Easy Meat", and "City of Tiny Lites" have a passion to them that some of the other shows are lacking, and the events of "Pound for a Brown" are simply magical. From this point on, however, the show becomes rather standard, and is disappointing simply because the first half is so phenomenal. On the whole, though, an excellent show.
4th out of 6