6-21-02 - Tweeter Center, Camden, NJ

Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 13:17:56 -0400
From: Mike Ford mford2000@hotmail.com
Subject: REVIEW for CAMDEN

I've never written a review before, but this isn't really a review, more of 
an observation.  I was lucky enough to get down on the floor for a little 
while for this show and it is unbelievable watching Trey conducting this 
band.  He was motioning to the horn section to create certain sounds for the 
song then he turned around to Russ and started moving his fingers up and 
down real fast.  Russ and Trey were in this  exchange for a a short while 
trying to get a certain sound together.  He would point at a cymbal and say 
no no not that one, THAT one.  It was really cool, I haven't had the luck to 
be up that close for any of the Trey shows and it was really cool watching 
this musical genius at work.

Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 13:35:45 EDT
From: madcurls85@aol.com
Subject: 6/21/01 review

Dave Robbins
West Chester, PA

First of all, the lot scene was pretty cool.  I have heard of people having security/police
problems in the past but I didn't see anything going down and everybody was pretyy tolerant of
each other but now, onto the show.

Set 1:
Our seats were way down in the front, 9 rows from the stage in the center.  The Tweeter Center
didn't seem to be full out on the lawn.  I'm estimating that there were only about 14,000 people
there.   The band opened with Simple Twist Up Dave.  It was definetely a cool song, one of the
few I wasnt very familiar with.  They went in to Plasma, which was cool, then back into STUD.
 The crowd loved the song and I was impressed but compared to the rest of the show, it wasn't
that great.  Sweet Dreams Melinda was another one I didnt know much about.  Trey seemed real
happy during this song, dancing around.  But he was dancing around pretty much all night.  He
seemed so happy and in tune with the crowd, laughing at them etc...  Alive Again was great.
 Trey's guitar skills really "came alive" during this song.  The crowd loved it.  The horn
section was great throughout the show.  A highlight during this song was when Cyro came out
blowing the whistle and ran out to the front of the stage w/ it.  He was on fire all night.
 Downtown was good to hear, I wasnt expecting it.  It was kind of short though, maybe like 5
minutes.  But, nothing could have prepared me for what came next.  Money, Love, and Change must
have been at least a half hour long containing many many different sections.  The horns left the
stage and came back 3 separate times, cutting the band in half and usually leaving Ray and Trey
to jam it out.  This jam was off the hook.  The whole crowd was grooving to it and the stops and
starts were amazing.  At the end, the band played "mock endings" like 20 times before ending the
song.  That song alone made the 1st set for me.
Setbreak:  got some water ice which was nice.  Mango in honor of the Mango Song.  Sat down and
cooled off from all that dancing and sweating.  

Set 2: I hadnt heard of this song, Olivia, before.  It was cool and featured some awesome playing
on the horns by Grippo and Pete.  Mozambique was great and featured even more of the great horn
section.  Mr. Completely was perhaps the highlight of the night.  Trey was on fire and after some
amazing solos, he put down his guitar like he did several times during the show and did some
serious conducting of the band.  Peter took a long solo and the rest of the horn section was
coming in and out with complex arrangements. Also, I believe the horn section left at one point
during this song and left Trey to play a wicked solo.  A cool thing about this band is that they
all play percussion at some point in the show.  So, at one pont during Mr. Completely, the jam
becomes pretty much all horns and starts getting real creepy and mysterious.  Trey is conducting
them and Grippo brings out the baritone sax and Jen gets this huge tuba.  Ray started playing
these really creepy keyboard lines too, it was amaing.  You could tell this was completely
improvised by the way Trey was running around the stage doing movements and talking to his
bandmates.  This developed into a total percussion jam were everyone in the band was playing
percussion.  It was real creepy and avante-garde and was amazing to watch.  Trey was holding some
kind of large bell up to his mic and just ringing it.  It created the strangest sounds and while
all this was going on, Ray started playing cool electric piano type sounds.  The thing I can
compare it to most is the old Dead-style Drums and Space.  This went right into Flock of Words
which was also great.  Trey delivered the lyrics beatufully.  Push on was another highlight.  The
horns were amazing and the crowd was going nuts.  Trey's solos were great too.  He was playing
the standard lines from the album but then mixing it up big time on the solos.  This song ended
but then Trey said something to Russ Lawton and they kicked back into Push on till the Day at
double speed for a minute or two and then Trey introduced each band member and did a "Ready for
Truth" vocal jam with Grippo.  He would build it up for a long solo and then each band member
would play like a 5 second solo.  It was pretty funny.  Cyro's solo was especially cool.  A great
end to a great set.

Encore- Sultans of Swing was cool.  I hadn't heard it yet and it was cool to hear.  The crowd
really cmae alive for the encore.  Trey was dancing all over the stage and kicking a beach ball
that kept landing on stage.  Andy hit the ball one time with the slide on his trombone.
 Everybody was cracking up.  Trey then went for the acoustic and played a beatufil version of
Gazebo.  I was hoping for one more and was surprised to hear Tony start the bassline to First
Tube.  This tube was the best I have ever heard.  Trey was on fire and really feeding off the
crowd's energy.  This is real the real party started.  Trey started experimenting with his
distortion and was moving his guitar around and up and down to get different sounds a la Steve
Vai.  Then he took his guitar off and was swinging it in every different direction and the sounds
coming out of it were amazing.  This went on for several minutes until Trey put his guitar flat
on the ground and did this thing where he would pretend to throw a ball and hit the string with
his foot when the "ball" was in the air and then when Jen or Andy "caught it".  He would stop the
sound.  Almost everyone including the crowd got a chance to play catch.  It was truly amazing.
 After all this, they went back into Tube and then ended the show.  The whole Tube must have been
about 20 minutes or so.  It was incredible.

Great show in all, the band was more than I could have ever expected.

Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 16:04:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Benn shadstack@yahoo.com
Subject: 6-21-02
----------------------------------------

Just thought I'd write a review to agree with every thing said in the first.  It was a great
show, however I think PNC was a little better, but just personal opinion.  I thought I'd correct
the hypothesis of what Trey was doing during First Tube.  He put this one note on a loop, so it
was permanently holding this note.  Then he uses his whammy pedal, which will raise or lower the
pitch an octave, by the use of a pedal.  Thus this is how he simulated throwing the ball in the
air, not by the use of his feet to play a guitar string.  This is how he really made all these
sounds, and he likes to try and fool people (ala the matterhorn with oysterhead).  But it was
very cool none the less. 

Ben

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