The Suns 6-28-02
Eastport Clipper A Review
Posted on 7/1/2002
at 05:20:13 AM by taper88
JUGGLING SUNS
6-28-02
The Eastport Clipper,
Annapolis, MD
SET ONE 76:00
Mountain Marlane
CC Rider
Who Are You Tease-->
One More Time-->
Circle Of Light
Long Live Rock
Express Yourself
Deal
Crimson-->
Jam-->
Pwave
SET TWO 74:00
Eminence Front
Tease-->
Jump For Joy
Gates Of Heaven-->
Listening To You-->
Let It Go
Playin’ In The
Band-->
Low Spark Of High
Heeled Boys-->
Playin’ In The
Band
Son
Spin Song
Mama’s Got A Squeezebox
My first show in
six months and it was a blast! The band played with a tight unhurried intensity
the entire show. Bruce was busting out all over the place, Mark was on
fire, Gus was dripping trippy sounds over everything and Ivan was driving
it mightly. Each song was well played and well jammed too. Bruce and the
Band played tribute to John Entwhistle all night with a few Who songs and
a bunch of teases.
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The First Set
started off strong and then got even better. A smoking One More Time spiralling
down into Circle Of Light was a thing of Grace & Beauty. The Who’s
Long Live Rock was a joy to hear. Express Yourself was very jammy and bassy.
Deal was a slow cooker. It roared, it whispered, it churned. I loved it.
Crimson’s all grown up now, rearranged & reworded. It’s quite savory
and I enjoyed it immensely, almost as much as the jam that followed. Earlier
Crimsons had harder and faster transitions from the song to the jam. Today’s
Crimson has a softer ending and a completely different bridge before the
jam. The entire band was really ripping it up during this jam but I really
noticed Ivan's drumming here. He was snappy and expansive. The jam was
good and jazzy but softened at the end, weakening the transition into Pwave.
This Pwave was good but a bit slower than usual. I’m not sure, maybe that’s
the speed at which it is played nowdays. I liked it a lot.
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The Second Set
kicked off with Bruce riffing on the Who’s Eminence Front. The rest of
the band joined in but it quickly spluttered out, kicked out of the way
by a powerful Jump For Joy. Gates Of Heaven then roared to life. Great
song, well played and at the very end, a seemless transition into the Who’s
Listening To You. Only about 2 minutes long, this blistering instrumental
version of the Who song served as the perfect bridge into Let It Go. Another
beautiful transition. This version was good but not great. Mark was late
on the first verse and his explosive breakout guitar part between the jam
and the reprise was underplayed. This sounds like a small whine but it
is a vital point in the song where Mark’s guitar takes things over the
top briefly before dropping back down into the vocal reprise. That and
the fact that Let It Go is the song that abducted me at my first Solar
show umteen years ago could be why I’m so picky. I still did enjoy it.
Mark still tore it up. Next up was Playin’ In The Band with a Low Spark
beautifully folded in the middle. The Playin was very jammy and the Low
Spark was lush. The transitions were excellent. Low Spark is such a weird,wonderful,
unusual song to cover. I love this band. That said, the next song was a
new one for me, Son. I listened to it carefully live. I’ve listened to
it carefully on the tape\cd of the show a few more times now. I still don’t
like it. Spin Song exploded to life and consumed the room causing the lights
flicker and the bar management to groan. After all that, with the lights
burning brightly now, the Band jumps into the Who’s Mama Had A Squeezebox
and the bar management jumps into action. Crash, Boom, The End
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