FURTHUR 2000

9/10/00 Meadowlands Arena

The kind folks at GDTS made our day with 2nd row center seats to this show on a very special day. We entered early to catch all the music. As we headed to our seats the directions given by the ushers just kept sounding better and better, from the 100 level we were directed to the lower level, then onto the floor, up the center aisle, and to the 2nd row aisle seats, dead center. Wow? this was gonna be cool. Everyone else who showed up there was awed by their luck. Including the people in front who bought their tickets at the box office that afternoon.

The perspective from the front is always a different world. 2nd row CENTER !! The best of all possible worlds. Music almost incidental to watching the interactions.. .

Showy rambles:

Ziggy and the Melody Makers took the stage to a fairly empty house, but you'd never know it by their performance. True Marley reggae grooves filled the air from the 1st rim shot. This band is awesome, the rhythm section was rooted by the bass player, a 6 foot 5 dreadlocked rasta dude with a huge bass and stacks of speakers. His amps were aimed directly at us and boy did it help. The background singers were beautiful and highly animated, their smiles were highly infectious. Ziggy, with his Les Paul goldtop and upraised arms was Bob personified, carrying on the vision and the message. Backstage was a family scene, with the next generation of Marleys in training. Little kids dancing and singing. The keyboard player was doing double duty as horn section and daycare. There was lots of great band interaction, and it's obvious they were having a great time playing. They played a great version of Jammin', in the true spirit of Bob Marley. Another indication of how circular time can be, who would have expected that in the year 2000 we'd get to see Bob Marley reincarnated playing Jammin', well, I didn't used to think it was possible, but now I believe in time travel.

Aiko>Rainbow's Caddy, Little Red Rooster, Down The Road, Tall Cool One, I Shot the Sherriff (w/Ziggy), Victim (weir acoustic, hornsby accordion, kimock electric), LL Rain, WRS> Let it Grow> Drumz> (Mickey, Steve Jam)> Jam>Estimated> Wharf Rat> Valley Road> NFA - Samson & Delilah

A quick set change and we were set for the Other Ones. They wandered out and tuned up and did a little noodling. Alphonso booted up his laptop and Bruce walked around the stage looking for roaches left by the Marleys. An Iko Iko groove started the show off in a festive mood. Now, this really wasn't a heavy music night.

I felt the music was uhmm.. sloppy as hell in parts... Most of the entertainment and enjoyment, both for us and the band, was the personal interaction of the musicians. Clearly they were having fun. Iko flowed into a jazzy arrangement of Hornsby's Rainbow's Cadillac. Then it was good old Bobby Blues with Little Red Rooster. Now this was obviously missing Jerry's slide and Brent's organ (or Vince's Everybody Must Get Stoned riff), but it was nice to hear Bobby growling. The guitar players, Kimmock and Karan still leave much to be desired as part of the ensemble. And somebody please give Mark Karan a damn headband. He spent more time pushing his hair out of his face than playing. Kimmock has some amazing chops when he decides to use them. He played some nice slide and lap steel throughout the night. But two guitar players just don't do it for me, unless it's the Allman Brothers in 1971, since they invented it. They are just too polite, either backing off to let the other guy take it, or playing around each other, trying to stay out of each others way. Either way, they are following the music, embellishing rather than driving. Enough said. Bruce was in a good mood, roaming the stage peeking out from behind amps to goof on various band members. Alphonso Johnson was the most amusing. He always has this highly amused smile on his face and he added some real tasty elements to the proceedings. He threw a nice bass solo in early on tastefully integrated. Down the Road was sung by Mickey to dramatic effect. He is certainly a ham these days, but seems sincere, so laugh with him, not at him. After a false ending, they came back in with a high lonesome version of the chorus, quite an unexpected treat. A real jazzy arrangement of Long Tall Cool One followed, with the guitar players getting it together for some slick riffs. Next came a true highlight, Ziggy and a bunch of Melody Makers, including the bass player and guitar player came out for a hard rocking I Shot the Sheriff, talk about time travel, there we were in 1977 again. Bobby and Ziggy had a real blast singing this one, and Bruce even handled a verse. The bass player was in total control of this one, and even had Billy and Mickey sticking to a tempo! The ending was tight and quick and left Ziggy with his mouth wide open and laughing. Very cool.

Victim or the Crime was performed with Bob on unamplified acoustic, Bruce on accordion, and Kimmock on electric. Now the fact that Bobs guitar was not turned on presented a problem for the other guys. Bruce and Kimmock had some real pained looks on their faces trying to follow. Bob didn't care, or was oblivious. At one point the song should have ended, but Bob kept it going. Bruce looked like he was passing a kidney stone at the thought of a jam at this point. Bob was yelling out the chords, pretty funny stuff, priceless, actually. Then Looks Like Rain, with Karan on acoustic and Kimmock on lap steel, though I don't think he played it much. Alphonso, on his big red standup fretless really carried the tune in a nice way. Boy did Bruce look relieved when Billy came out to try to hold it together. I kept waiting for the big sound, but it was mellow all the way through.

Weather Report Suite, Prelude, Part 1, and Let it Grow was a highlight. Another circular time event, like going back in time, something I hadn't seen in 28 years, never thought I'd see again, was right there in front of me, larger than life. Kimmock played some nice lap steel on Part 1, and the Let it Grow jam rocked. For the first time in the evening, they had hit the mark. The jam went many places and in the end found the riff the Dead added near the end. Very nice. Weir kept cueing for the drum solo, but the jamming continued, and it's a good thing, because they found some very nice places in there to explore. Finally, it was time for the good old rhythm devils. Billy on talking drum, Mickey on RAMU, Billy on the skins, Mickey on everything. Bill K is hot as he ever was even if he does look like a cross between Timothy Leary and My Favorite Martian... hahaha!

(Ok maybe the mushrooms were kickin in at that point) A few minutes into it Alphonso came out to get something, (cell phone probably). Boy that must've struck fear into Billy and Mickey, nothing worse than seeing the bass player come out during the drum solo! A brief space ensued then some real fun jamming with Mickey and his electric kalimba. First he and Kimmock were jamming, then Karan, then the whole band. This meandered very nicely for a few minutes, then they dropped into Estimated. They had it for a while, then lost it for a while, then it came back,...sort of. It tried real hard and made it there in some spots....It had a real nice jam in it that started to really go places. I was surprised when they pulled back into the riff after a while, I thought it was gone for good.

Wharf Rat was the peak of the groove. Playing straight through, without a break was the best thing these guys did. They really built a mood, and made it go somewhere. They sort of lost the focus at the end, Bruce singing the last chorus over some pretty serious jamming. But the effect was good. Another reworked Bruce tune, Valley Road was next and it evolved into a modal jam at meandered awhile. Then Bob went around to the guitar players, the drummers, and Bruce and announced they were going into Not Fade Away. No one listened for a while (again), then the drummers found a pause and went off on it. After a few bars Alphonso goes over to Karan and questions..."not fade away, right?" Karan nods and Alphonso shrugged. A quick glance at the setlists reveal they did play this tune once before (8/31) but must not have stuck with Alphonso. He went over to stand by Kimmock to watch his hands. When it came to the changes Karan was showing it to Alphonso, who clearly said.."it's not helping" and he shrugged again. Pretty funny stuff again, and totally priceless. Alphonso was definitely my favorite non-founding member up there, a real clown, and a great player. He's doing his own funky thing with a smile. To cap it off they came back out with an Iko flavored Samson & Delilah. Bobby pulled out the slide and gave it the Bonnie Raitt treatment. Quite a fun closer to an overall great night.