Pittsburgh show report

Here is Tom Donaldson’s report of the gig we did together at the Thunderbird Cafe in Pittsburgh last Sunday (7/6/08):

Greetings, my fine furry friends! Allow me to introduce myself [channeling Boris Badenov] it’s yer ol’ buddy TD here to give you the bird’s-eye low-down on this week’s Dead Night. This week, I had the honor of sharing the stage with Mr. David Gans as together we threw down a mighty fine performance. David stayed with me, arriving in town at the stroke of 2:00 and we hung out with a couple of friends relaxing before the gig. He interviewed me about a few of my favorite Dead shows for Sirius radio – I raved on about 4/19/82, 11/5/79 and 7/18/76, give a listen sometime soon. My dear wife Karen cooked us a pizza with from-scratch crust and spinach-feta sausage topping, yum-o! Then off to the Thunderbird, everything seemed in order, Shane the soundman handling David’s soundcheck. Davis suggested that I should open up the show with some vintage Dead, a capital idea as Gomez Addams would say, play on!

6/10/73 RFK Stadium, Washington D.C.
Eyes Of The World, Box Of Rain, They Love Each Other, The Race Is On, Row Jimmy, Wave That Flag, Looks Like Rain (I contemplated playing the fabulous 3rd set with the Allmans, or even the killer Dark Star but instead opted for more of the upbeat song-oriented material. By now the place is filling up – thanks to pre-show publicity, there’s twice as many folks here as were for that great Zen Tricksters show two weeks ago. Gans indicates that he is ready to perform, so I fade out the CD player. Note: * = a song played by request)

David Gans 7/6/08 first set:
Deal, Dawn’s Early Light > Thunder Road, Lazy River Road, * In My Life, Cassidy’s Cat, * Stella Blue, Quarter To Five (For Tina Loney), Down To Eugene, It’s Gonna Get Better, The Bounty of the County, That’s Real Love, Travelin’ Man, Like A Dog > * Terrapin Station > Attics of My Life (wow, a very cool set. The Beatles tune was for Linda Baker, and the other two requests for dear Karen. Down To Eugene garnered the best audience response (other than the GD covers, of course) and I was quite impressed with the way that Cassidy’s Cat wove musical threads from Cassidy, China Cat Sunflower, Bird Song and Dark Star together to form a beautiful tapestry. Yow. Now I lower the projection screen behind the stage and switch the TVs in the bar from the in-house camera (which allows people not near the stage to see the performer) to the DVD player and commence some eye candy while playing a CD, and it’s a doozy. David had brought his ubiquitous PowerMac and had downloaded some videos, including two incredible animation shorts hand-drawn by Ryan Larkin, Street Musique and Syrinx (which is what song birds use to sing, kind of like a larnyx), just stunning, plus altered images of fireworks two days before at Nelson’s Ledges Quarry Park and some time-lapse movies of Berkeley meteorology – a day’s weather condensed into a minute. Did I attempt to play any of the audio from the DVD? Noooo…)

6/20/91 Pine Knob, Clarkston MI
Throwing Stones > Iko-Iko, All Along The Watchtower > Standing On The Moon, Wharf Rat > Throwing Stones reprise (this is Throwing Stones like you’ve never heard it before, opening up the second set and launching into Iko about 2/3 of the way through the song. It’s also extremely unusual to hear Watchtower and SOTM before the drums as well, then after the post-space Wheel > Miracle (which I skipped) comes a nice Wharf Rat which ends, then turns on a dime on the exact spot that zoomed into Iko at the beginning of the set and finishes the last 1/3rd of the song! Whoa! Radical, dude! Minds sufficiently blown, it is time for David to storm the stage again.

David Gans 7/6/08 second set:
* Mexicali Blues (dirty old man version), Afterbird > * Sultans Of Swing > Blue Roses, Surely You Jest, Loser, “No name” loopy instrumental > Brokedown Palace, A Shove In The Right Direction, encore: “What do you guys want to hear?” The answer, a group sing-a-long Ripple. He played Sultans for me, I saw him do it 9 years ago when he played Graffiti here in town, and he doesn’t do it very often. Mexicali was sung in a gravelly voice at the suggestion of someone else in the audience. I really like Surely You Jest, introduced as the response to some asshole who wants you to do him a favor. David’s guitar and looping wizardry were outstanding, and everybody enjoyed the show. At $8.00, plus yours truly, quite the deal! 🙂 OK, David’s packing up, time to resume the music, so I put a Duckman episode into the DVD player and keep the party going with an outstanding audience recording and a sweet song segue)

11/29/80 Alligator Gym, Gainesville FL
Shakedown Street > Franklin’s Tower (Yay! People are swingin and swaying, having a good time, it does a DJ’s heart good to see folks getting down to his music. As FT comes to a close – before Estimated kicks in – I eject the Duckman disc and put in a nice GD DVD of Las Vegas 6/26/94 first set, then bring up the DVD volume… silence. Frantically, I troubleshoot, are all the cables connected and all the right buttons pushed? Alas, soundman Shane has left the building and no sound is forthcoming, drat! I resort to leaving the video playing – fortunately, it has lots of non-stage imagery – and bring the Estimated back up while determining my next move. Resigning myself to audio only, I bust out the next CD. Shane left me his cell number but since I only have another 30 minutes to go I hold off and go with the flow)

10/17/83 Lake Placid NY
Sugaree, Bird Song (killer versions. David has packed up, I am doing the same. Karen has sold a couple of pieces of her jewelry post-show, likewise a Dead Night t-shirt, time now to wrap things up for final departure)

12/26/69 Dallas TX
Hard To Handle, Cold Rain And Snow (we gotta get our Pigpen, and with David showing signs of fatigue – he’s been a trouper, selling and signing CDs, answering his fans’ questions, but it’s time to go, so we cram into my little Saturn SC-1 and home again, home again jiggety jig. We’ve had a great night despite the technical glitch at the end and thanks to Mr. Gans for a wonderful time. We’ll be seeing him around Labor Day at Nelson’s Ledges for Gratefulfest, and hope to see all of you there as well.

Until then, this is the ol’ buckaroo TD signing off. Fly the freak flag, be kind to your sisters and brothers and have a positive day! Love, TD and Karen.

Tom Donaldson on MySpace
Tom’s blog

I recommend the Ryan Larkin animations very highly – and I mean highly. Wonderful trippy animations from the late ’60s. The DVD centers on Chris Landreth’s computer-animated documentary about Larkin’s tragic life; Larkin’s great works and some of Landreth’s other work are included on the disc as well. Landreth’s modern works are profoundly psychedelic in a whole nother way. You can buy he DVD online from Rhino, or at least Netflix it. Trust me on this: it’s great stuff.