8/17

8.17.97 Bathtub Gin

This date will always have a special significance to me. It's the day we made contact. It's the day that it all came together and the secrets of the universe unveiled themselves in an explosion of musical delight. It's just a perfect memory.

For those that were there, The Great Went was a larger than life event, showcasing a band at the height of their career, capable of drawing tens of thousands to the farthest reaches of the country for a two day bliss-fest, culminating in a musical odyssey that simple 'takes you there'.

It started like any other Gin, and then something happened. Right around 8 minutes - the skies open and the heavens poured and the guitar gods shined and the rhythms united to form an exponentially building melody transcending time and space. I go back there from time to time. I hum it in my sleep. I sing myself a song. It is the perfect melody...

Here's how Benji Eisen summed it up nicely in his review from eight years ago:

The riff Trey has stuck with all along has turned from a
mock-psuedo-psychedelic anthem to a painfully exquisite theme.
Okay, I'm now running stark, mad, naked down the hallway, out into the
street, past all the houses, past the Giant Supermarket and the
Uni-Mart, 7-11's, cheesy nightclubs with names like "Wanda's" and
"KoKoMo's" that are attached to hotels, past delusions of grandeur
and, for that matter, of grand-daddies too, clawing at the windows
of the urbanite houses until I find myself plush in the forest,
back in the wilderness, groking with the apes, mocking the elephants and
their silly ivory-clad wives, rolling in the dirt making friends
with the lovely dew-sucklings and turning back into a Lizard of the
Gamehendge of Old.

Woah, that's deep...

Happy Went: http://www.gadiel.com/phish/went/