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The Daily Ghost

The Daily Ghost #108 07/01/2012 Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI

(AUD Download @KernelForbin Remaster)

Background (Set: 2 of 2 – Song: 4 of 10 – Show Gap: 4)

Ghost returns home to Alpine Valley and is found smack dab in the middle of the second set.  The segue and all of Back on the Train is included.

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Composed Section (0:00-3:50)

Out of some wacky keyboard melodies from Page, Trey begins the move to  Ghost.  It takes a bit for Mike and Fish to join.  We get a nice steady pace for this Ghost.

Page starts the solo section with an upbeat tempo, then falls back into the jam.  Mike gives his usual influx at the end.  Nothing special in the solo section.

The lead is well played.  The pause is a bit longer than normal, with some Trey and Fish notes.  The drop in is solid.  Two in a row fellas!  You have come a long way.

Looking for Direction (3:51-5:46)

Trey comes out with some soloing at the start of the jam.  Page throws a funky clav cloud around the band and Fishman starts to establish a beat.  As Trey solos, the band looks for a direction.  Basically at this point the band is just providing some background to solo around.

Things slowly start to fade downward and settle into more of a groove.  Around 5:07, Trey dials down his tone and the groove starts to take shape. Some nice playing takes place and Fish adds some nice fills, but nothing to write home to you friends about.  That is until…

Found Direction, That Direction is a Course for Sickness, WI (5:47-10:18)

Trey dusts off his machine gun and decides to flip this jam on its head.  The lackluster first section has just gone to hyper drive.  The rest of the band jumps on board quickly and you can feel the excitement of this new direction.  Time to go to…

Maybe not full Ludicrous speed, but this gets moving quickly.  For the second straight Ghost the end section has been completely different from the rest of the jam.  This gets a fast moving Fishman and Page dives deep into the funky clav.

The crowd responds to the change with some love.  As quickly as the fast pace started, a blissful section surfaces.  Starting at 6:22, Trey finds a cool tone and lick that he starts to repeat.  His tone is like a cross between a ray gun, flying saucer, and beam of light.  (I am currently sober).  It is one of the cooler and more unique tones Trey finds.

The band slows down with Trey and finds an awesome groove, that is in full effect at about the 7:00 mark.  This is great stuff.  Only 7:00 minutes into this Ghost, yet I couldn’t tell you what song this was if I was not reviewing it for The Daily Ghost.  This is gorgeous, blissful, and just wants makes me want to sway…

This is sweet and takes me to a far, far away place.  This wouldn’t be a proper post of The Daily Ghost without a shout out to my man crush Page.  That happens at the 7:45 mark.  He drops an incredibly heavenly melody that seems like it is plucked from the softest of clouds.  7:45-8:00 is 15 seconds long.  That is it.  Yet, it feels like I have traveled to the pearly gates and back.  The melody is so soft it almost feels like it was played by an angel with a
harp.  Man crush paragraph completed.

The heavenly melodies quickly fade into some power rocking.  The power rock then works into an extremely cool groove that serves up a platform for the “Still Waiting” Crosseyed and Painless quotes.  Page is sure to drop some more outstanding piano melodies around this sick groove.  This is great stuff.  The groove begins to launch into Back on the Train.  The BOTT segue starts out AWESOME, but it runs into a bunch of problems.  It finally catches on and BOTT gets moving.

Final Thoughts

Alpine Valley Ghost continues the trend of completely unique versions in 2012.  A lackluster initial segment, gives way to one that is anything but.  Unique with some quick moving melodies, then some blissful playing, then a great end groove.  The last 5:00 minutes of this Ghost are excellent.

Score: 8.6