Return to tape listUSAir Arena, Landover MD, 10/11/94 I feel sorry for those who went to this show without also attending the previous night's, for to these ears, they were still encoring that blockbuster. This show just didn't have the same emotion behind it, and to those who did not attend Monday's show, it may have been similar to attending a 3-D movie without glasses. On one level, you get what's offered, but on another you miss an entire perspective. Another problem was that the sound quality at my location was the worst of the three nights.
The show had a juicy setlist, but the first few songs were not played nearly as well as they have been on other recent occasions. Good renditions of the last three songs of the first set made up for that.
Eyes was a cool, mellow version that featured Phil running up and down scales of eighth notes on his bass over and over again. MSWS was hot like it had regularly been at recent shows, Samba did nothing for me, and He's Gone was good, if not quite up to the level of 7/17. I was hoping for something else before the drums, but it was not to be. Once again, Jerry stayed out with the drummers. This time he provided melody instead of percussion. Space had teases of The Other One and the bridge that used to show up between NFA and GDTRFB before it shifted to D and an awkwardly uptempo China Doll. The closing Sugar Magnolia brought down the house, though I'm not sure if it was the music, the lights, or the images filmed at the show that were being shown on the screen. But in a world where some of the folks in attendance ingest substances that let them see and touch the music, it seems that debating which medium was the pleasure center stimulus is a pointless thing. That which was there was it.
I was happy to see Lucy in the Sky show up instead of the expected Brokedown. But if they wanted to play it for the first time in a while, the least Jerry could have done is make sure he knew what he was singing. He couldn't get consecutive lines right. And the audience wasn't willing to sing it for him. Unusual for an East Coast show.
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