Hot Tuna Electrifies the Wilbur

Just a short blog about going to see Hot Tuna electric at the Wilbur on August 21^st.  You can imagine that we were very excited to once more be able to see this classic combination rock out, and they did not disappoint.    We were second row center in the balcony, which made for fantastic sound, and of course famous Hot Tuna fan PeterP was in attendance, a few rows behind us.

Dave Mason opened and played a long set with another electric guitarist, a drummer, and a keyboardist.  The guy on keys had bass pedals and Mason introduced him as “our bass player and keyboardist.”  But at several times the lack of a real bassist left a hole in their sound.

Some of their songs were fantastic, like Pearly Queen, a spacey, jazzy cover of High Heeled Boys (which we’d seen Phil Lesh cover), and Only You Know and I Know.  He also did great covers of Cream’s Badge and Dylan’s Watchtower (he pointed out that he did the guitar intro on Electric Ladyland).  But the song we all were waiting for (especially because this was billed as his “Feelin’ Alright” tour) kind of disappointed.  I mean, how can you excel on Feelin’ Alright without a bass player?

Here’s his setlist:

• World In Changes
• Pearly Queen
• Dear Mr. Fantasy
• Rock and Roll Stew
• The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys
• Can’t Find My Way Home
• We Just Disagree
• Look At You Look At Me
• Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave
• Only You Know and I Know
• Badge
• Feelin’ Alright
• All Along the Watchtower

 Didn’t take that long to set up for Hot Tuna and soon Jorma and Jack came on and just burned the place down.  Jack must have taken some kind of vitamins because he was an unleashed psychic tiger all night.  He did a little bouncing around the stage and had some of that eyebrow work going, but he mostly just stayed in place like a rock and played possibly the best concert I’ve ever heard him play, not that he’s ever been less than fantastic.

Jorma was trying to keep up and did a fine job of it, but this was Jack Casady’s concert.  Dave and I had to stare at each other open-mouthed after some songs, there was not much to say except, “Did we just hear that?”  The color, the tonal strength, the pure power, the woodenness of his bass was incredible.  It must have been the coincidence of our great seats right in the middle of the theater, the instrument, and the player that made for this wonderfully memorable experience.

The setlist itself was not great:

• Candy Man
• Serpent Of Dreams
• Day To Day Out the Window Blues
• I’m Talking About You (Chuck Berry)
• Wolves and Lambs
• Walkin’ Blues
• Good Shepherd
• Sleep Song
• Baby What You Want Me To Do
• In the Kingdom
• Hit single #1
• Funky #7
• Water Song (encore)

But the playing was superlative.  The peak of the night was probably Walkin’ Blues, which Jorma killed on vocals, followed by Good Shepherd with Jack making the whole Wilbur resonate to his beat.  I was hoping for Come Back Baby, but they ended too soon and then encored with an incredible electric Water Song.  Jack was not to be stopped that night.

Ipswich River In Mid-Summer 2019

I haven’t been blogging about my kayak trips lately, but I took a trip up the Ipswich River this past Sunday (8/4) and had to write something about that, it was so beautiful.  Took off from the usual spot on the road from Topsfield and soon was just enthralled.  It was almost exactly the middle of Summer and the flowers and trees were beautiful and the dragonflies were thick.

You probably can't see all the bees buzzing around the flowers above.  I really like lily pad flowers and many of them were as decadent as they ever get.  Most bloom a pure white with an intense yellow interior, but some of these were blushing a bit, and some were entirely a startling pink.

I also passed two swan family groups with two adults and a gaggle of cygnets, who were almost as large as their parents already, but still in juvenile colors.  Lots of turtles of course, hundreds of birds (I even saw one cormorant and one kingfisher), and a couple of muskrats.

There were also some of the red spiky flowers you get later in Summer.  They usually show up as isolated splashes of color but there were some groups of them exhibiting a deep shade of scarlet.

And it was as crowded as I’ve ever seen it on the river.  Probably all of the Foote Brothers canoes and kayaks were out, and most of the Audubon canoes.  I passed two young girls (10?) with matching kayaks/paddles who were doing great against a strong current in the narrow part where I passed them, and singing songs from The Jungle Book incredibly well.  I complimented them on it and they thought ok, and launched into another.  They must have the record and had the parts down perfectly.

After one song, one girl said to the other, “Can I be on top for this next one?”

The other girl said, “No, your part goes like this [sings the opening of the lower part].”

“But I just thought maybe we could switch for this one.”

The other girl stared at her and gave her the dreaded pause.  “You’re Mowgli!”

The first girl shrugged.  She knew that was the end of the conversation.  I mean, what was she going to say, that she didn’t want to be Mowgli??

Another interaction was that two young women were headed downstream as fast as they could and you could tell they were in a bit of distress.  I stopped to take a flower picture and they got close enough to me to shout.  “Excuse me, excuse me!” they said.  “Yes?” I said.  “Uh … how do you get out of here?” one of them asked.

We were on the river, miles from anywhere.  I said, “Just head downstream.”  I could see they were in a Foote Brothers canoe and must have been driven upstream on their truck and then sent downstream.  “Foote Brothers is in a couple of miles still, it’s the first building you’ll see on the left,” I told them.  They moaned.  “Just stay in the middle of the river, the downstream current is strongest there,” I advised.  That made them stop and look around them, they were stunned that there was such a thing as a current and there was a strategy to dealing with it.  “You learn something new every day,” I said.

“Yeah,” one of them said, “I’ve learned that I’m NEVER GOING IN A CANOE again!”

“Oh come on,” I said.  “By the middle of the week you’ll be bored back in your office and telling your friends about what a great time you had on the river this weekend.”

She considered it.  “I hope so!” she said.

I told her I hoped so too and took off quick before they could ask me to call them an Uber.

GDMUATM 2019, Giants Stadium 1991

Went to see this year's GDMUATM at Loews Boston Common this Jerry's birthday.  This was the famous June 17th 1991 show from Giants Stadium, which featured Bruce and Vince and is an absolutely fantastic show in many ways.  The GD people concurrently announced a "Giants Stadium" box set, which includes this show, and a DVD of the movie.

We met Dave at Stoddard's on Temple Place for dinner after Sarah and I fought thick Summer traffic into the city on another hot, sunny day and parked in her building.  Nice Old Boston atmosphere and architectural details, but not much in terms of beer list or food.  Went down to the theater, got a Lagunitas, and settled into our great seats.

And boy, it didn't take me long before I was thinking, "Getting it!!!" about the box set and the DVD.  Dave had selected the show for his 30 Trips, but I wasn't that familiar with it.  This is an amazing show, with a killer setlist and killer playing.  And they weave Dark Star all through it, you have to hear this show if you haven't.