london@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP (David London) (09/21/84)
<> Well, I saw the Steve Morse Band last night, and (of course) they were phenomenal! They played (almost) every song from The Introduction, as well as some older (Dregs) tunes. They even played a medley of older tunes, which included Bloodsucking Leeches, Where's Dixie? and others (which I recognized, but don't know the names of). Several comments: 1. The Steve Morse Band will have (at least one) video soon (!): They taped part of the videos for General Lee and Cruise Missile at the concert (Park West in Chicago). Hopefully, they will be done soon and will be shown (so Steve says) on MTV. So all you Dregs/Morse fans can see the band on video, and all you non-converts can see that not only is Morse the best overall guitar player in the world, but they also play good, interesting music. 2. I thought two-handed fingerboard playing was old hat (a la Van Halen) until I saw Jerry Peek do it on bass. Awesome. And the rest of his playing is equally good. He slaps and pops with the best of them. 3. For encores, they played (among others) Cruise Control and The Bash. They ended up with (Jeff Beck's) Freeway Jam. Along the way, they gave us parts of Billie Jean, Dazed and Confused, Free Bird and I Ain't Superstitious (from Beck's Truth album). I was talking to the guy next to me and he said that he saw him do Little Wing as an encore once. Question: What other covers have you people seen him do (either the whole thing or parts of)? 4. The one criticism I have is that Morse isn't *that* good a classical guitar player (compared to his other playing) - he cheats. He uses the volume pedal when he uses his electric classical guitar instead of controlling the volume properly with his right hand (as Segovia, Bream, et al do). So it doesn't have the right tone. 5. Let's not forget the talented drummer, Rod Morgenstein. He competes with Elvin Jones and Billy Cobham for being "thunderous" while keeping time and adding tasteful licks when appropriate. Overall, a truly remarkable performance. David London ..!ihnp4!oddjob!london