From: Victor Szalvay
SubjectAntelope in Review Pt. 14 11/23/85
11/23/85 Goddard College Cafeteria-
This tape has some merits although it is relatively obscure. It is the
second live Antelope, and besides offering a fresh, experimental approach
to the song, this tape has some significance mostly to Mike. Apparently,
it was this November 1985 Goddard Cafeteria show where Mike had this
moment of musical enlightenment and basically went nuts! He starts
jumping up and down and smiling... I guess he has never felt that since.
So, without further ado:
Before the song, they come out of Whipping Post into what sound a lot like
the Harry Hood intro for about 3:00 ... but then it kind of fiddles down
into...
Antelope -- Intro: There is none! This version slowly rolls out of bed
and into the >>
Opening theme: This is where the song starts (at least on my tape), and
it is interesting because they had the intro segment on 10/17 and now they
don�t... so we are seeing some experimentation.
Trill!: 00:14 barely noticeable as this version just waltzes out of the
beginning right into the >>
Em Theme: 00:15 OK, this is the meat of the song in this one. Right away,
you can hear Mike is on fire (isn�t he always?), perhaps I am listening
very hard for him because of the enlightenment thing, but he is grooving
pretty hard! We have to remember that both Jeff and Trey are on the
guitars here and I am not sure which one is playing lead (although I think
it is Trey, someone let me know if I am wrong, please). The feel is again
very riff oriented, in a sense very dark like early Black Sabbath. Trey
reaches for a gear but just at that same moment the band cools into the >>
Pre-Marco-Groove: 3:38 Mike is all over it! He is placing some really
solid notes and keeping the groove interesting. The guitars and funny to
hear together, and Page is barely noticeable in this segment. One guitar
starts in with some funky rhythmic chords, and the other offers these
weird Black Sabbath type repeated lines. The music is, of course, much
more busy with the second guitar, and to compound that, one seems to be
slightly out of tune.
Ry, Ry, Rocco!!
MARCO ESQUANDOLAS: 7:05
Happen to have any ... (inaudible if anything else) ...?
Someone flubs shortly there after and we see the long pause stuck in the
groove before the transition to the High Gear theme. The jam just
deteriorates into a GD type �Space� for the period of several minutes...
really weird and out there. Some harmonized guitar effects with a delay
pedal or something.... then, my tape continues for several minutes in this
space and then stops (13:30). I am assuming that they closed it out with
a Gearshift segment, etc. but those tend to be standard and unnecessary to
comment on most of the time.
All in all, a lot more interesting then the 10/17/85 show which I really
thought had a cheesy Antelope. The band seems to take a lot of risks and
unrehearsed steps in this version in comparison to the 10/17 show, which I
thought was nice. Well, until next time,
--Victor Szalvay
Back to AIR homepage