From: Charlie Dirksen
11/12/95 Gainesville, FL Somewhat slow tempo at first. Mike sounds fairly upbeat on the vocals, though. Fairly nice
pre-Ebeneezer segment, with some nice soloing from Trey. But it is brief.. no screaming on Ebeneezer at all, and nothing
especially profound. Jam segment at 4:28 (about right, actually). Trey begins fairly shortly into the jam with a typically vicious,
dark little lick that he repeats a couple times.. but then nothing. Just a lot of rhythmic wall-of-sound building chording from him
(Page's chording is typically tweezeresque). Very repetitive until about 5:53 or so, when Fish appears to want to really crank it
out. But Trey is still repeatedly smacking this one note (and sustaining it) for awhile... finally around 6:40 the jam gets very
intense and passionate, again, thanks to Fish.. Trey is still hardly doing anything at all (and Mike is just funking along), though..
ugh. At 7:10 or so, Trey jumps on the mini-kit (after sustaining out the same dark sound on the 'doc that had been going on for
the first few minutes of the jam segment). Page starts chording vigorously on the piano, moving into upper octaves, and actually
making music. Fish is accompanying well (the jam doesn't sound so tweezeresque in here.. it sounds more akin to a Free jam,
frankly). Trey appears to be screwing with the 'doc a little while keeping one hand hitting the mini-kit.. yes, indeed. Some digital
delay loop-like effect around 8:45. Total wall of sound groove in here, btw. (9 minutes) (for wall of sound jams, see practically
every version of Free in the last year, not to mention some Runaway Jims.. ) Around 9:30, Trey gets off the kit and starts
messing around with the 'doc again, still darkly chording for the most part, and not doing anything divinely melodious. Page is on
a synthesizer at this point.. noodling here and there but mostly sustaining a note or two. Mike and Fish are keeping a nice
bottom on the jam.. Trey is still rhythmically chording.. but occasionally he lets out licks that are evil-sounding.. and
semi-melodious. A theme of sorts appears to be taking shape around 11 minutes, and indeed, at 11:15 Trey starts repeating this
intensely ear-catching lick that reminds me a lot of ... What the- ! This lick, frankly, reminds me (at least the first few notes of
this lick, before it leaps up the 'doc) one hell of a lot of "Here Comes Sunshine." Now, this is by no means a "tease" of HC
Sunshine, or a "quote," so don't misunderstand me. But it is honestly the closest melodious lick to the main HC Sunshine theme
that I've ever heard Trey do (and Mike's bass action in here is somewhat akin to Phil's in the early 70s HC Sunshines).
Anyway, this theme is -- to me -- very engaging, and he steadily milks it for awhile. This jam also reminds me (given the Leslie
effect) of a Beatles-esque Abbey Road groove that never was (i.e., **WOW** for Beatles fans). The accompaniment is
somewhat uneventful in here, though. Page isn't doing too much. Fish isn't that bad.. Mike is difficult to make out, but he's
accompanying Trey extremely well! The rhythm throughout this ultra-engaging (to me) jam is basically "Free" (an unusually
melodious version, though) and not Tweezer. At 13:30 this theme is still being played, and it is definitely a groovy, interesting,
and melodious theme to my ears.. Trey is employing that leslie effect throughout this jam, btw (the watery psychedelic guitar
effect that he often used in 1995). At around 14:30, Page starts chording very prominently, and Trey goes back to rythmically
and repetitively chording with the sustain on, until around 14:52 when he trills a little bit, and then starts masterfully soloing
melodiously amidst some serious accompaniment from the others. Around 15:45 or so, Trey starts chording repetitively but
semi-thematically (sounds almost like a possible segue into Walk Away could occur, frankly.. almost)... it doesn't suck, but no
especially pleasing melodies. This jam just dies down. Fish's beat by this point is plodding and monstrous (constant bass drum)..
sounds like this is dying out now (around 17:15). Indeed. Trey is chording more and more slowly, slowing Fish, Mike and Page
down... Very dull, boring ending. The opposite of the ending of the Hershey Tweezer, for example. Absolut Schwag ending.
Ends on a sustained note from Trey (a "thwaaawunk" from Fish and the others), and Cheeseboard Army comes in. Total time
basically 18:48. This Tweezer's jam segment was frighteningly not "tweezeresque." It was basically "Free-like" for the first 6
minutes, but then Trey finally hit on a theme that, for me, is not quite "teary-eyed," but sure as hell could have been if Trey had
been more deadset on milking it. But he DOES milk it sufficiently, in my opinion, to warrant giving this somewhat peculiar
Tweezer a 7.0 rating. It is certainly above-average compared with older versions, but honestly, there is nothing PATENTLY
outstanding or remarkable about this version. And the ending was just boring... I'm going to put five minutes of this jam segment
onto something as filler, however, and I think you know which five minutes.. =^] Additionally, I want to say that the melodious
Beatles-esque portion of this version could easily be a TEARY EYED JAM for one of you.. so I'd recommend it to those of
you desperately seeking what could be such a transcendent, spiritually fulfilling jam to you. I honestly do feel more fulfilled to
have heard it (I'm not being sarcastic, but cheesy). Thanks, Michael Gouker!! two cents charlie