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@Bionaut: bent did an 'in-a-gadda-da-vidda' tease during one of the summer 2002 US shows. I recall it being in a 'my best friend' jam.
@Devotional: All you say makes very good sense, except I have no problem getting into Go To California, My Best Friend or Neverland (Yes, I play on the Neverland team). My Best Friend didn't catch me at first back then. Not on record, not live, until they started exploring it during the second half of the 2000 spring tour. When I heard it in Stavanger at the beginning of the tour, it was 8 min long and played more or less like on record. When I rejoined the tour in Cologne a month later it was jammed out to 19 min, and I was awestruck. It was like seeing a different band. Same, but different. Something had happened along the road.
@TraktorBass: This brings me to your question. Were the stellar jams fewer and further between back in the days? In general I'd say yes. They have always been stretching out here and there, but not like today when almost every song is a vehicle for jamming. I guess this is partly also the reason why we seem to be two main camps these days: Those who want more 90's song-based songs, and those who are in it mainly for the jams, like I am. During the 90's, all concerts had at least a couple of jams, but not every night had stellar jams.
In '93 the jams mainly occurred in Mountain, Home of the Brave and Demon Box. Most concerts only include one or two of them. The Wheel is being jammed into life on stage this year.
In '94 the biggest jams were still Mountain and The Wheel.
In '95 they play around with Nothing to Say and Hogwash.
In '96 they start to stretch out STG. Nothing to Say sometimes includes part of Mountain. They also jam out the first embryonic Un Chiens.
In '97 the big jams are in Un Chien, Hogwash and, uhm… Nothing to Say with Mountain tease.
Come '98 and Trust us, and we get K9, Supertsoge/The Wheel, as well as Heartattack Mac which is jammed out for up to 15 minutes, sometimes including Waiting for my Man. It's a crime that this was not included on Roadwork 1. 1998 also saw the longest STG's to date, 17 minutes in Copenhagen including a long, floating and beautiful ending similar in mood to the ending that developed for The Cuckoo during fall 2018. And you had 10 min long Young Man Blues'es. I think it is safe to say that '98 saw the most jammed out sets of the Geb-era.
Spring '99 they continued the '98 jams, extended Black to Comm to up to 10 minutes, and at the very end of this era they introduced the mind-bending troika of Song for a Bro>Hogwash>Tristano.
Fall '99 and enter the pop-era. Still we got In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Song for a Bro, Un Chien and Tristano.
In 2000-2002 the stellar jams were inside Song for a Bro, Liz Reed, Go To California, Flick of The Wrist, K9, Superstooge, Supertristano, Hogwash (Spacewash), Dora Peach, 577, My Best Friend, Pills Powder & Passionplays, Landslide, and… Walkin' With J. In Wien 2002 we got the once-in-a-lifetime Superstooge>Hogwash with both the coolest intro to date as well as an intrepid skronk-transition between the two. Do I need to say it? Mind-blowing!
But still most concerts only included 3-5 bigger jams.
2006 continued in the same manner, the main jams were in K9, L.T.E.C., Triggerman, and a few more, but many songs were still song-songs, to use Bent's own word.
Enter Kenneth, and more and more songs become vehicles for jamming.
Enter Tomas, and almost every song is a vehicle for jamming.
Apropos Kenneth and Tomas, they bring me to the next question.
@BronYAur: Ãœberpilgrim is re-arranged.
To conclude and bind this together: the whole reason I started traveling to see multiple concerts was mainly because there were fewer and further between the stellar jams back in the day, and to a huge degree also because the setlist changed so much from night to night, and from the beginning to the end of tours. Norway always got the first and the last concerts of the tours, much like today. But back then they always seemed to peak in Italy. Nowadays they seem to peak every night. Still you don't have to go further back than 2016, when they played the first half or two thirds of the tour before they finally re-invented both the setlist and themselves in Wiesbaden. That is the kind of magic I am in this for, and every tour has a couple of those nights. In 2017 it was Cologne/Leipzig, both very good cities to see them in. In fact I will say most of the 2017 concerts were magic and packed with stellar jams. 2018 was one long big highlight, and they seem to continue the trend in 2019. I could not be happier.
@The Other Anders – like Devotional said: great post. Your knowledge and ability to pry open and reveal various aspects of the MP live history is remarkable.
@The Other Anders: Thank you for a much, much more in-depth reply than I had hoped for. Very interesting read.
Looking back at Roadwork 1, the record seems a tad 'vanilla', if you catch my drift. Not to say that it is a bad record, it is still my favourite live record of theirs, but seen with '2019 eyes', the jams are not as developed, dynamic and fluid as what they pull off seemingly every night these days. Your walkthrough puts this into context in a way I hadn't thought of before. Much appreciated.
As for the '90s tunes' vs 'more jams'-camps, I for one would love it if they went more 50/50, but this is a luksusproblem of epic proportions. Can't complain, really.
I think the boys never fail to surprise. I remember my jaw dropping last december @
Dornroosje Nijmegen when they started "Hogwash" out of the blue. Or tears in my eyes
during my first ever "Wheel" in Hamburg a year before.
Here it was the return of the Ãœberpilgrim, in Haugesund mot likely Der Alchemist. Still a
month wait until I can join in the fun at Markthalle. Brrrrr…(the sound of shattering
hoofs…)
Back to the tour opening night at Sinus: After listening to the recording my vote for jam of the night goes to the weird shit inside "The Tower".
@the other Anders – Best post I've read on this forum yet. Great background for a 'newbie'. Thank you!
@fillmore, yes – that's quite special – reminiscent of a certain SF-band, hehe. And speaking of noise-outs, my favourite moment in the Sinus-recording is probably from 9:15-11:00 in "The Crucible", which is just mind-numbingly heavy/industrial. Can't wait to dive into that when they bring it to Oslo! :MPD:
I just found out what a brilliant gig this was – two weeks after the event
Spent an afternoon painting and listening to the complete gig – this combination has become one of my favourite activities…
Excellent recording on DIME – thans once more, Lars!
What a show! Lots of jamming, great great playing overall and a definite Crimson '69 feeling to the whole gig.
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