Background (Set 2 of 2-Song: 5 of 6-Show Gap: 1)

Just one night after the Flecktones madness, a late second set Ghost out of Ya Mar sets the tone for the rest of this set.  The segue from Ya Mar and the Take Me to the River madness have been included in today’s clip.  Only the second Take Me to the River (126 show gap) and currently stands as the last one played. Composed Section Gordon’s cool Ya Mar bass line allows Trey to start the intro to Ghost.  Gordon continues the bass line he established in Ya Mar for a couple measures.  Very cool!  Cactus then gets after it, the entire composed section has the great Ya Mar Jam feel.  Page drops some extra piano notes, and Fishman adds some extra sounds as well.  Page’s organ solo injects some funk into this grooved intro.  Fishman really gets after this intro, making it super cool.  Good drop in, and the energy really kicks into gear when they return.  Even the end vocals in this version sound better.  This version’s composed section is my favorite, out of the first ten Ghosts. Jam By 3:20 we are into the jam and Cactus drops some deep vocal noises to make things interesting.  The initial jam actually builds around the vocal pitches that Gordon hits.  At 4:09 Gordon gets into full slap mode and the jam begins to really take off.  At 4:26 Trey plays the riff he used in the Ghost intro, and things start to build.  At 4:38 Gordon throws a curve ball and changes up the bass line.  Fishman runs with it and the band takes this as an opportunity to break the jam down. Breakdown This section begins to set the groove.  Page moves to the forefront of this section with Fishman and Gordon giving some great funk rhythms.  The jam comes all the way down to nothing and really exposes the band. Funkdafied  After the jam comes to almost a grinding halt, the funk really starts to pick up around 5:50.  Page moves to the piano for a couple measures before going to the organ.  The start/stop style of jamming in 1997 is put on full display right here.  Great balance from the band, you can really pick out amazing things from all four.  Trey plays some funk groves as well as some soloing, moving back and forth extremely well.  Cactus is in full ass kicking mode! Second Breakdown>Picking it up By 7:10 Page has played some chords on the organ and the band breaks the jam down again.  It moves way, way down with Page even making some church organ sounds.  At 8:02 Fishman and Trey drop the hammer and push the tempo.  Gordon has a super high pitched sound going. >Take Me to the River By the 9:11 mark you start to hear the beginnings of Take Me to the River from Fishman and Trey.  Gordon continues with that crazy bass sound for a bit and slows down the full segue.  It gives Trey a chance to move out of it and play a couple quick notes, before coming back to it.  I would say that at the 10:13 mark we are in a full Take Me to the River mode.  Smooooooth like butter segue.  Pure awesome!  It takes until 10:45 for Trey to get into the lyrics.  After revisiting this awesome segue, I put it near the top of my current bustout wishlist.  High marks for Trey, at 11:40 he gets a real nice solo then works in the chorus. Space Funk At 12:48 the tempo slows down and the band starts to move away from the river.  The jam breaks all the way down for a third time.  By 13:50 it starts to take some turns with funky tones from Page and Mike.  At 14:14 Trey has a tone that is similar to Mike’s tone from before.  He takes the lead in a jam that is pure bare bones.  At 15:15 the jam almost stops, then the band fires noises from Mars.  Trey throws some alien loops and the Europe spaceship is a go.  At about 16:15 they start to build the jam back up measure by measure. Take Me Back to the River! At 16:55 Trey yells “Take Me to the River” a couple a times and the jam continues to build.  Fishman starts to sing some background as only he can. At 18:36 Trey moves into a solo over the building from the rest of the band. This is very similar to some of his other previous closing Ghost solos.  Trey and Fish get crazier and crazier in their “Take Me to the River” yells.  The jam ends after a great last 4 min build.  End set. Final Thoughts A fun Ghost with some great funk sections.  The first Ghost where they really work a song right into the middle of it.  Good marks for a great composed section, gorgeous segue into TMTTR, and a great reprise of TMTTR.  Nothing wrong with this Ghost, it just does not ever hit that one section that really brings it into the top tier. Grade: 8.0