Tales from the Devolver Side: November 22 & 23, 2001

      Hello everyone. Hope you have been enjoying the holiday season. Things got started off right with the return of Devolver to the realm of performing live and my 41^st birthday. It was great to see so many familiar faces out and about. And all that celebration got me thinking about another time in the history of Devolver, way back in November of 2001. The boys were still rocking in the free world after the attacks of 9/11 and the sudden and shocking passing of Terry Bowden. All of the planets aligned over that Thanksgiving weekend for some truly historic events. So without further ado, Kempepedia is proud to present another installment of everyone's favorite way back machine, Tales from the Devolver Side Nov. 22^nd through November 24^th.

      Things were going good for the band. Gigs had been steady and they had a pretty good local schedule. About once a month you could count on gigs at the Old Mill, Kclinger's, Lupita's and The Depot. It allowed them to pay off their new PA and there was even talk of buying a van as opposed to destroying their parent's. You can read about that particular adventure here:

http://kempepedia.blogspot.com/2011/07/tales-from-devolver-side-jan-2002-dave.html

      Devolver had a tradition of letting a family member write the set list for their birthday show. My birthday is November 28^th and Wendy's is December 4^th. So we decided to combine our superpowers and celebrate both our birthday's at the Lupita's show.

      They had a show at Micheal’s on November 22^nd, which was Thanksgiving that year. Michael' is the restaurant on 116 as you descend down the long hill on the way to Goofy's. It closed down along time ago. Kyle came down with the flu which was a major problem. He sang many of the leads and they had another show on Friday at Lupita's. He was unable to perform at the Micheal’s show but the rest of the band rose to the occasion.

11/22/01

Set 1

01. Sneakin' Sally, El Nino, Glasshawk, Sunday Paper, Crosseyed and Painless, Bogey>Tangled Up in Blue>Bogey, Side of a Mountain, Golden Years, Looking Blind

Set 2

Cafe Latte, Miss You, Turnaround, Coming Home, Edge Of Town>Looking Blind Reprise>Edge Reprise (with Can't You Hear Me Knockin' teases), Psycho Killer/> (tape flip)Drumz>Shakedown St., Waiting by the Sand (instrumental version)>I'm A Man

You can stream it here

https://archive.org/details/devolvermusic2001-11-22

      How good were they? Zach was jamming so hard through the Edge>Looking Blind Reprise>Edge Reprise segment he lost his glasses! The Waiting is interesting as there is no singing. The Bogey sandwich is also quite tasty.

      Kyle had recovered enough to perform the following night but you can hear on the tapes he is still a little under the weather. Before the show, Andy and myself were writing down the lyrics to China Cat. Kyle strolls over and announces he thinks the band should stop letting people write the set lists for their birthday shows. Wow, kind of awkward to bring that up at the show that myself and Wendy wrote. But as they say, the show must go on and did it ever.

11/23/01

Set 1

Bogey>Everything Comes Around, Glasshawk, Thread, Marina, Cafe Latte, Laughing Clown, Waiting by the Sand, Jam>My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama, China Cat>Bogey

Set 2

Happy Birthday Song, Looking Blind, Bubblespeak>Dehydration Jam>I Know You Rider, Rockin' in the Free World, Edge of Town, Not Fade Away>Drumz> Kesey Rap*>Funk II, Coming Home, Pedalic Sax *with Dan Wildasin

You can stream it here

https://archive.org/details/devolvermusic2001-11-23

      This show is one of my all time favorites and somewhat of a peak performance of the Golden Age of Devolver. Rich would leave the band in a few weeks and Ben had been sitting in with the band for a month and was getting a hang of the songs and his place in them. If memory serves me correct, we had rented a mic specifically for a sax, which it why it sounds so good on 11/22 and 11/23.

      And since it was my birthday show, I was feeling no pain. Pretty sure I was an MX missile that night (look it up) and dancing my ass off. Dan did a shot with me during Drumz, which was really weird because he doesn't really drink. And then he dons his Uncle Sam hat and strolls to the mike. The first part of his performance is actually about me. The “Many years ago, a warrior came down from the hills of NE PA...” part, well I was that warrior. I turned Dan onto the “Electric Kool Aid Acid Test”, which is the book that got me interested into the Grateful Dead, and the rest is history. Too say my mind was blown may be Understatement of the Century. In an incredible moment of synchronicity, I actually had a copy of The Acid Test with me because I was giving it to Kim Wilt to read.

      One bizarre denouement to this story. On November 24^th was my 10^th high school class reunion. I got to roll in there and when people asked me what I was up to, I could honestly reply “ Not much, just managing one of the greatest bands I have ever had the privilege to witness”.

      I had to leave early because the band's lawyer, who I'll just refer to as JK was having a holiday party and invited the whole Devolver family to attend. He also invited all of his lawyer colleagues. To say it was a clash of cultures is a bit of an understatement. He kept the Devolver kids downstairs and all his professional friends upstairs. Only other memory of that night I have is chilling out in someone's car in JK's driveway. At least if anything bad had happened, we would have had legal representation pretty damn quick.

      So there you have it. A trip back down memory lane. I hope you all enjoy listening to classic Devolver as much as I do and hope your Christmas and NYE are a safe and happy one.

Dave Kemp

BA American Studies

PhD Rock and Roll

  

Devolver, 2013-11-30, The Winner's Circle, Hanover, PA

     Hello everyone. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I had plenty of food, football, (Yes, my coach cheats and what an Iron Bowl!), family and friends. But the highlight was the return of the 3 headed beast known as Devolver for the first time in 1100 days

Devolver, 11/30/13, Winner’s Circle, Hanover, PA

Soundcheck: Cowgirl in the Sand, Highway 29 (partial)

Set I

Edge of Town, I’m a Man, El Nino, Laughing Clown, Glasshawk, Shakedown St (with mini vocal jam, and I’m stretching the definition of that), Everything Comes Around, Bogey>Time, Cross-eyed and Painless>Café Latte

Set 2

Turnaround, Monkeyman, Pedalic Sax, Karma Police>Funk II, Sneakin’ Sally*>Edge Reprise, Miss You, Side of a Mountain, Psycho Killer, Rockin’ in the Free World>Looking Blind

*with Taps teases

    Mad props to Mr. Frank Vecera for running the sound. That place was really packed. I don’t make every show at the Circle but I have never seen that many people in there. So great to see so many old friends out and about.

     For not playing in 3 years and only a rehearsal Saturday afternoon, they sounded amazing. The telepathy was still there and the sound was great, much better than Kclinger’s. With the Circle’s new half, it allowed people to hang that maybe didn’t want to be up front dancing.

Thanks again to Tommy and the staff at the Circle, Josh Perkins and EyeDeal Productions, and Zach, Josh and Andy for fitting this show into their busy schedules. I hope this becomes an annual event again, but maybe next time with Kyle and NARB.

   And thank you for everyone coming out. Late nights are a lot harder as we age and those of you with kids have it doubly tough. And don’t forget, I will be continuously adding Devolver shows to the Archive for the foreseeable future.

https://archive.org/details/DevolverMusic

 Yup, that about sums up how I felt about the night

Dave Kemp

BA American Studies

PhD Rock and Roll

Phish Halloween 2013

     The Best Phish Trick Ever

By Dave Kemp, Amanda Talbert, Abigail Prior, Delilah Jones, and the Jay Dewald Experience

   Hello everyone. I hope a lot of you reading this are recovering from last night’s show. I’m back in Hanover. I got Reading and just Halloween through mail order and with my budget I had to pass on doing the whole 3 night run. But that did allow myself to get back to my crib and begin an intense critical listening of Phish’s new album from the future “WingSuit”.  My friends are listed as co-authors because all I did from the time the show ended until I slept a little bit and then got up was talk about the second set. I’ll give credit to them when I can remember who exactly said what. So as someone once said, Let’s get this show on the road.

     The hype for this Halloween was off the charts even more than normal. Being the 30^th year, we were all ready for something truly epic. Would they actually do a Grateful Dead album because 2 guys with the same name who have a crazy bunch of Phish coincides were finally going to attend the same Halloween show? Or was it going to be the Allman Brothers, with all the teases we heard over the previous 2 weeks of Fall tour? Or maybe the Band with horns, to honor Levon Helm? Hell, in Reading, the last show before Halloween, they gave us beautiful jams that sounded like the Dead and the Allmans. We were all geeked beyond belief.

     On the way to the show, we saw a post saying the boys sound checked From the Mars Hotel's nugget Unbroken Chain. Ohhh the Dead. Then a photo of the playbill looked like Radiohead’s OK Computer album cover. More uncertainty. Jay knows a guy on the crew. Upon being asked, he said “I can tell you but then they would kill me.” Gonna guess he’s afraid of Don Gordleone.

     I’m gonna be brief as it’s all about WingSuit. First set solid. All the songs, all originals, were well played. The Gin was out of this world. Up there with Went ’97 and Muret ’93. That is the jam we would be talking all about if not for the rest of the show.

     The thing about Phish is we all love it in our own way. Some are more passionate than others. Some more know than others. But we all love it. And we are all right about Phish as fans. Except when the band is right about Phish. Which is all the time.

   So let’s don our WingSuits and think about the following points, which are all my opinions. I’m not saying I’m right about any of this. I also have not read any other reviews or posts about the show.

     The movie This is Spinal Tap is a documentary about a fake rock band that has experienced every cliché in rock as well as changed with the trends of rock from the 60’s through the 80’s. Folk Rock>psychedelic rock>Prog Rock>Heavy metal. If you love something so much you must be able to laugh at yourself. I saw someone dressed up as Nigel Tufnell at the show. 

   Larry David is one of the creative forces behind Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. His last episode on Seinfeld was the dark comedy of the season finale when George’s fiancée dies from glue poisoning and he’s almost relieved. And then think about the series finale, where they go on trial. You see these characters that you have grown to love are really awful people. They gave the fans what the fans thought they wanted, a recap of the characters’ lives and the fans recoiled.

    In the playbill Trey says they went back and listened to all their great jams, because that’s what the fans wanted. But when you try to recreate or clone the past, you get an inferior copy. Think about the Michael Keaton movie, Multiplicity. They cloned him and every copy was inferior to the previous one. So think of this music as Bizzarro World Phish (BWP),  (an example Vlad the Impaler is Wilson, fans even were chanting Vlad the Implaer during one song) a little universe they carved out during sound checks, downtime in studio, writing sessions and time spent ignoring the advice of record labels, record producers, concert promoters, hypercritical fans, any old guy with a blog………

   These are my observations based on one listening. You will hear something different with each listen.

Stuff in bold were thoughts I had during song.

WINGSUIT

The “feels good because it feels good” sounds like BWP Hood. The space at the end feels out of place.

 This sounds slightly off timing wise

FUEGO

Crazy nonsensical lyrics, just like a lot of Fluffhead and several other Phish songs. Actual Phish Jam the 2:30 mark. Rolling repeated vocals at end BWO Halley’s

These lyrics seem like random groups of unrelated words strung together

 

THE LINE

Cornball cliché ridden lyrics. Awful backing vocals, sounds like an 80’s situation comedy TV opening credits theme. Good jams but empty lyrics. Corporate Phish rock as if they had been co-opted by the record labels, back when they mattered in the 70’s and 80’s.

They can’t think this is good

MONICA

Mumford and Sons Phish, because that’s the trendy thing right now. We all want the bluegrass jams of the Fall of 94 tour (think Long Time, Long Journey Home, etc). BWP bluegrass. Great chords, bizzaro lyrics. Vocals and chorus BWP Gotta Jibbo. Awful solo Fishman vocal at 2:00 mark

This has got to be some kind of joke right?

WAITING ALL NIGHT

70’s classic AOR rock. This would have fit in great during the rock block of Free Bird, Layla and Stairway to Heaven, while the DJ did the blow and bang the hooker the A & R man provided as payola. He sings about his love sailing on, away from him. But as he bemoans her leaving, he also is singing about how she was so far away, what did she expect him to do. He does this in the same phrase at the 1:40 mark. Inappropriate meatball effect at 1:25 mark.

     By now I’m starting to think about this all in the Spinal Tap frame of reference. I notice a lot of nice melodies but awful lyrics and vice versa. And I’m starting to laugh. There also is a lot of downtime in between songs, no flow to show. Jay said several times” I really think Trey is regretting all this”

WOMBAT

White man’s funk, but done wrong, too fast. BPW’s Antelope. The lyrics are so silly and semi sexual, almost skanky. Please take time to listen again. Wombat is a playa in the club. The leave it behind lyric is close to a Spinal Tap homage, i.e. Big Bottom. The Abe Vogoda Dancers, old show biz cliché. Like the Jackie Gleason show with the Lucky Strike Dancers. Or Ace Rothstein and the Ace’s High Dancer’s in Casino. Sorry couldn’t find a clip.

OK this is definitely a joke. And I start telling Jay its Spinal Tap Phish, last episode of Seinfeld Phish. Amanda gets it.

   And now I explain Abe Vigoda. He was on the Barney Miller sitcom in the late 70’s as Det. Phil Fish. He even had his own spinoff. I bet when Phish first started people asked “oh is Abe Vigoda in your band”, that type of stuff. He also played Tessio in the Godfather and we know how much the band loves the Godfather. At the Great Went in 1997, the 2 campgrounds were named Camp Corleone and Camp Tattaglia, the 2 families in the Godfather. Just a guess, but I’m sure Trey has had people say they think Gamehenge is a ripoff of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, maybe even the Godfather. Probably an inside joke among the band.

   Godfather 1 and 2 are two of the greatest movies of all time, directed by Francis Ford Coppalla. For years, fans wanted a sequal. They begged for it. Said his 80’s movies sucked compared to the classic years. So he finally did Godfather 3 and the reaction was awful. Critics and fans hated it. The climatic scene takes place in Atlantic City, with over the top violence, which is what fans thought they wanted. Coppalla also directed Apocalyspe Now, which a parody of was the announcement for Fall Phish Tour. So they started with a Coppella movie parody and ended the tour with a Coppella movie ending. All Amanda on this one

SNOW

Poorly sung vocals, almost weak.

DEVOTION TO A DREAM

Upbeat music, totally depressing lyrics

555

Great bassline, BWP Moma Dance. Really good Phish jam at 5:05 mark. BWP Tweezer Reprise at 6:30 mark, no peak, all blue balls. Pointless title, just like 46 Days.

WINTERQUEEN

BWP Dirt, rhyme pattern simliar to Stash. Lots of dead air at end. 7:10 mark, speech similar to Page’s at end of third set but insincere. 7:35, lead vocalist syndrome. Total 70’s live album banter cliches

ADMIST THE PEALS OF LAUGHTER

Depressing suicidal lyrics. BWP Chaulkdust for older, working people. Phish heads in regular society. Jack and Jill, nursery rhymes. But when Mike teased Pop Goes the Weasel at the beginning of DWD in Reading, everyone loved it. 3 minutes of time killing banter at end. Manger ripped them off, every band including the Grateful Dead had this happen to them. Rock cliché, right out of Spinal Tap.

This sounds like it’s off a Foghat live album. And certainly Phish fans are more sophisticated than to enjoy 70’s corporate rock clichés… except when Phish plays them at Hampton i.e. Takin’ Care of Business by one of the ultimate AOR bands of the 70’s Bachman Turner Overdrive. 

YOU NEVER KNOW

Party Time, rock star clichés

Myself” It’s almost as the music was bad Phish, but still better than everything else”

Amanda “I’ve been saying that since 1998”

     Jay also pointed out there has never been a Phish show with 3 such distinctive sets, and different crowd reactions. Amanda thought that the second set was like our reaction to every new Phish album or song, we don’t like it and then it grows on us and we demand a 25 minute version of it.

     So all of the above is Bad Phish. They are so good at Good Phish that they created this alternate Phish world where they sold out, listened to record companies and producers telling them what they had to do to have a hit and grab that golden ring. It sounds kind of like Phish but that special something is missing.

    As we sat in set break and I tried to articulate what I wrote, I kept telling Jay that the third set was going to be the best thing ever. Better than the Tahoe Tweezer, better than Cyprus, better that Halloween 1994, my previous favorite show….. And I was right. It was like the sweetest, most epic love making 2 entities can have. Now most of us aren’t old enough (I’m 40 and 11 months) to have been with a soul mate for thirty years, going through the ups and downs of a long lasting relationship. But we have had that with Phish. No matter when you got on the bus, you absorb the past thirty years.

   Every jam was perfectly executed. Everything was slowed down nice and slow and right. It seemed like they pulled chunks of undiscovered jams from Fall of ’95 and ’97 and unleashed them upon us. All hose. And every song was a Phish original, somewhat autobiographical, about the band, the fans, and their relationship together. Ghost, Carini, Birds, Hood, Bug, and Antelope. All with lyrics that seem silly and weird just like BWP.

     The whole show was originals except for the encore. Phish was saying, You don’t need us to cover an album, or have horns. We can give you everything you want and desire and crave just with Phish. We got this.

     And the encore? The Mighty Quinn, a song written by Bob Dylan and performed by the Grateful Dead. Almost as if they are saying, yes we are really good, but we still have a ways to go.

Dave Kemp

BA American Studies

PhD Rock and Roll

It Was 20 Years Ago Today: Jerry Garcia Band, 10/31/93, Brendan Byrne Arena, E. Rutherford, NJ

     Hello everyone. I hope you are enjoying this one last blast of Indian Summer, although I think temps in the upper 80’s in October is a little ridiculous. But I’m not here to brag about still having my AC units in, I’m here to talk about the other big Halloween show I attended (the first being Phish Halloween 1994). This time we enter the Way Back Machine and set the controls for 1993 in the swamps of northern New Jersey as I recount the Jerry Garcia Band at the Brendan Byrne Arena on October 31, 1993.

     I was attending Penn State at the time and the arena was less than a 4 hour drive from State College. Myself, Nad, Nats, and EM headed out to the show. At the time, Nad was on an Elvis kick. This photo is from the bathroom at my world famous apartment in State College. 808 W. College Ave, ground floor.

Note: Nad put this in his Christmas card one year

     We drove to the show and hit an INSANE amount of traffic on the way to the show. The arena was located right next to the Meadowlands Stadium. And on that day, the Giants were playing the Jets so every Jersey meathead was in attendance. So as we tried to get into the parking lot, everyone else was getting out. Nad decided to get changed into his costume while we were sitting in traffic. So as he is getting into his Elvis outfit, people are blowing their horns and catcalling.

      I can’t remember what I went as but Nats went as a longshoreman. I also remember Nats burning his nose with the lighter. Someone at a party at Penn State thought he was going as an Amish man because he had a beard with no mustache.

Note: This is not Nats

Jerry Garcia Band, 10/31/93 Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ

Set 1

How Sweet It is, He Ain’t Give You None, Forever Young, Run for the Roses, Money Honey, Lay Down Sally, My Brothers and My Sisters, Deal

Set 2

Shining Star, The Maker, Tore Up, It’s A Wonderful World, Ain’t No Bread in the Breadbox, That Lucky Old Sun, Midnight Moonlight

Encore: Werewolves of London

I can’t find a recording to stream online but here is the JGB from Jerry Day that I attended back in August when I was crushing Phish West Coast Tour.

http://archive.org/details/msjgb2013-08-04.flac16

     The show was OK. I’m not the biggest fan on 90’s Jerry Band because it just didn’t have that much energy. The set lists did not vary at all. On that fall tour, he only did one encore and that was for the Halloween show. But I still very blessed to have seen this performance. There was a spider suspended over the stage and someone was really bouncing it up and down during Werewolves.

     The drive home was even longer. It rained down a mixture of sleet and snow. And we had a tractor trailer get all up on our asses. It was actually rather scary, especially since I was driving my friend’s car. But we made it back to PSU in one piece but I’m gonna hope I skipped a few classes the next day

    So enjoy Fall as Phish’s first fall tour in 3 years is almost upon us. I know this guy can’t wait

 My outfit for Phish Halloween 1994

Dave Kemp

BA American Studies

PhD Rock and Roll

It was 20 Years Ago Today : Grateful Dead, 9/13/93, Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA

    Hello everyone. Hope your fall is nice and cool. While being knee deep in the return of football, my mind can’t but help wander to my other fall passion, Fall Tour. There is just something special about seeing music in the fall. The leaves begin changing, the days are shorter, and there is a buzz in the air as the music moves indoors. And this journey into the past is all about my first real Fall Tour show, the Grateful Dead at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA on September 13, 1993.

You can stream the show here

https://listentothedead.com/1993/9/13

     I was attending Penn State at the time. I did not have a car up at school so getting around, and especially getting to shows was a very difficult proposition. But luckily, my roommate, who we will call E, had a car. Our plan was to drive east to Bloomsburg, meet up with some friends and then head down to the show.

     We met “W” at his apartment on Sesame St. in Bloomsburg. Sorry, but Snuffalufagus was nowhere to be seen. To say his apartment was the typical college disaster area does no justice to actual disaster areas. It was pretty beat up. The bong had the blackest of black water in it and mold or fungus growing up the insides. The bathroom had 2 toilets, but no stalls, just the 2 commodes side by side. We originally were going to crash there after the show but decided against that 5 minutes after we left.

     I was not as prepared as I normally am for a show in the fact I did not know how to get to the Spectrum. Remember, these were the days before GPS and the Internet. I mean, I would have had to go out and find an actual map. So we followed them down to the Philly area. We take an exit and the next thing I know we are driving into a mall parking lot. One of W’s friends, who I will just call Bro, because he was a “bro” well before that term became mainstream, said he needed to get a new chair. It seems that his old chair had been stolen during a party the weekend before.

     So what better time to shop for a chair than on the way to a Grateful Dead show? WTF? Are you kidding me? As some of you might be aware, I REALLY don’t like being late for shows.  And then it’s an Ikea for no less? Because what better way to spend your time before raging a show than by perusing the home furnishings of socialists who don’t include instruction and all the necessary tools? So this douchebag takes his time, sitting in different chairs. Like a steroid fueled Goldilocks, this one to too hard, this one is too soft. Dude, let’s hurry the fuck up. I could have been 2 beers into the Lot by now.

     So we finally leave and get on the road. Upon arrival at the historic Spectrum, I’m not even parked in the Lot and see my friend Kristian tailgating. Yes, if I hadn’t been delayed I wouldn’t have been parking in that Lot but I saw that guy at shows all the time, even in super random situations, so I would have seen him anyway. 

09-13-93 The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pa. (Mon)

1: Bucket, Jack A Roe, Same Thing, Stagger Lee, B. T. Wind, Dire Wolf, Let It Grow

2: Scarlet> Fire> Playin> Dark Star> Terrapin> Drumz> Jam> Easy Answers> Days Between> Good Lovin E: I Fought the Law

     While I would see 8 more Grateful Dead shows, this one I consider one of the last great shows I saw. Just on my readings and research, by 1994 Jerry was really enjoying opiates again. The first set is solid, with the highlights being  Bucket and Dire Wolf. Even Same Thing, which can be a blues based slog, had some pep in its step.

     The second set is where it’s at. First half of the set is all classic Grateful Dead. I wasn’t a huge fan of some of the originals they wrote in the 90’s but this was all killer, no filler. E really wanted to hear Terrapin and after the Playin>Dark Star, I thought there was no way they were going to do it. While the Dark Star was VERY short, the Terrapin was very epic. The jam they do out of Space is a pretty good as well.  I was glad I got an I Fought the Law encore as I had always loved the Clash’s take on it. The Dead’s had a little less energy.

     We made the long drive back to State College in one piece, which was a good test run for the next major show I had coming up, the Jerry Garcia Band at the Meadowlands Arena in Halloween.

Dave Kemp

BA American Studies

PhD Rock and Roll