Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, and an extra big Happy Birthday to Phil this coming Sunday. This week we'll be playing four pre-Drums sequences, not by design but by coincidence, all four of which come from 1981 and 1993.

It's been a while, so we figured we'd focus this week on some shows that took place at the Oakland Coliseum Arena in February, 1990. These shows were in the middle of a string of concerts recorded to 24 track analog tape by John Cutler and Le Mobile, a recording truck the band used for many recordings, including the bulk of shows that happened May, 1989 through April, 1990. Several commercial releases have been produced from these recordings, including Without A Net, Dozin' At Knick, Nightfall Of Diamonds, Terrapin Limited, as well as some parts of the So Many Roads boxed set. Not only are the recordings phenomenal, but the band was playing particularly well in 1989-1990, so there are hopefully more releases to come from these shows.

Our first two jams this week are the pre-Drums parts of the shows from March 9 and 10, 1981 at Madison Square Garden. From the first night, on 3/9/81, we have China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider>Samson and Delilah, Ship of Fools, Estimated>Uncle John's Band. This latter combination is quite rare, but it works beautifully here. From the second night, 3/10/81, we have the classic early 1980s pre-Drums sequence of Scarlet Begonias>Fire On The Mountain>Lost Sailor>Saint of Circumstance, and this is one of the more powerful examples of this sequence.

Next we'll jump forward exactly 12 years to the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago in 1993. From the first night of a three night run on 3/9/93, we have China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider, Victim or the Crime>Ship of Fools, Playing In The Band. It's been a while since we played Victim here, and it could get so dark and raunchy that it's certainly a change of pace from Scarlet>Fires. From the third show at Rosemont, on 3/11/93, we have the pre-Drums sequence of Iko Iko, Wave To The Wind, Truckin'>Spoonful>He's Gone. Wave To The Wind is much maligned, but I always found they did some very interesting things in the jam in the middle, reminiscent of the jam in Unbroken Chain or Eyes of the World.

Be sure to stop back next week for some superb jams from 1971, 1990 and 1991. Some really tasty treats coming up.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net