2/28/08

The Vortex of Vortexes / Revival

This was one for the ages. A performance of this magnitude by a single human being has NEVER occurred.

To start:

GS looked HORRIBLE at 9:30 when he was setting up. I spoke to him and he told me, "I'm on the wrong road, it's all wrong. What a waste. It's OVER. IT'S OVER." (this was all said to me in a whisper, btw..). I was pretty sad after hearing this from him. Would it be another stinker ? ? (last week's show was a disaster). I told White to talk to GS in the head and GS pretty much told him the same sad thing. Very depressing.

When the band started, GS began with a nice ( sounded EXACTLY like the studio ASFB version ) Water Street. The guitar was crisp to start, but as time went on, he dwindled off. His singing was almost non-existent. Was his voice shot???? Still too sick to perform ? He then went into a few other jams..I recall a very SLOW chord progression that sounded like "Spanish." It was a fair 1st set, but obviously GS was not all together. Toward the end of the set, he found a few people to pick on (whores, females, dummies, etc..) and this seemed to invigorate him a bit. His voice was getting a bit stronger, as was his playing. Then, he threw his hollow body guitar down (on top of the strat!!...this drives me crazy to see) and said "That's IT! We're DONE!" and the set ended. An interesting note is that this entire set was void of ANY mention of spiritual matters. Was GS questioning his faith? An existential crisis?

White & I spoke to him at break and he talked about Morgan King, the old bassist from ASFB who contacted me a few weeks back. He shared a few stories and again, his strength seemed to be returning. At break, Dom said "He's on the edge of either disaster or greatness for the next set." I told Dom that I felt a barnburner in store for us. Little did I know how big of a barn would be burned to the ground.

Set II:

This 55 minute set consisted of ONE SONG. It's the slow blues where he yells at the end of the 1st verse every time (When it's time to die, and lay down in the mud..(the usual lyrics)). The lyrics were again dark and often referred to undertakers and death. As he went from chorus to chorus, he raised the intensity level. As the time passed, he entered the realm that no living musician enters for more than seconds at a time (if LUCKY!). He was SEARING and SOARING. Holy sweet Jesus! My God! Life was returning to him, more energy than ever. Break.

Set III:

I was about to leave, but I figured I'd hear the 1st song at least. It was about 12:30 when they went on. Starting with "Stepping into the Sunlight." A treat as always. But again, no familiar lyrics. More dark lyrics, but a beautiful version. Then a version of "My Friends Don't Treat Me, Like they Used To" with alternate lyrics as well. And then the grand finale. For the final 40 minutes or so, he went BACK to the blues tune from set II. I was not too excited, but he WAS VERY EXCITED. He was feigning death on the ground, climbing on the bowling machine, screaming, moaning, and most of all he was SHREDDING. During this set he turned up his amp not once, but twice. I think he ended up on 10 with his 2 volume controls. I have NEVER heard him play that loud, that strong, and that intensely in 9+ years of observance.

Pete was in the house for this set encouraging Paul to hit harder. Geno was NAILING the bass runs with machine gun like precision. Dom was like a whirling dervish. Blanco & I were just SMOKED. It was stunning. When it was all over, we thanked Glenn and Dom told him "Glenn, that is the best jam that I've EVER, EVER heard in my life!! Thank you!!" We all thanked GS and milled about for a bit. He was completely revived and stronger than ever. Jokingly he asked us, "What do you guys want, BLOOD??!!" He knew that he gave us more than blood.

Amazing.

TZ