On Monday, August 1, 1994 at 1:12:58 AM UTC-7, Helix the DAT wrote:

Howdy everyone, I hadn't seen any discussion of the HORDE tour,
so I thought I'd throw my two cents into the ring. I went to the
Irvine Meadows show on Saturday.
If you don't want to read this, that's fine, hit 'n' now. But before
you go let me just say that if Horde comes to town, you should drop everything and go!
My band had a gig the night before, so Saturday morning I was moving
in slow gear - had to unlod the truck, coordinate with friends, boogie
on up to Irvine. I wanted to get up to the show early enough to see
Jambay - they're friends of mine from school and I couldn't miss the opportunity to see them play on that huge stage.
So driving up from San Diego we hit mondo-traffic in S. Orange
County. I was just thinking "fuck... this is a mistake. I hate Irvine Meadows, I hate Orange County..." Anyway, we get there and we can hear
Jambay from the parking lot. We had to dick around with getting tickets, first. It seemed like there were a *lot* of tickets being dumped, fortunately.
We found a guy who wanted 30 bucks apiece (face value) for Orchestra
seats. The people I rode up with originally didn't want to pay more
than 20 bucks. I've been to Irvine Meadows before, and it sucks when
you're way in the back. I was willing to pay the extra ten bucks -
soon I had them convinced also.
So we look at the tickets and they say "ORCH P" Orechestra Row P -
cool, fifteenth row. But when we got inside, it turned out that
"ORCH P" doesn't mean Orchestra Row P, it means Orchestra *Pit*, the three-row area directly in front of the stage - we were in the very
very front, in front of Gregg right on the rail!
Several of our friends were on the Jambay guest list, and they wound
up 20 rows or so behind us. Turns out that I was on the guest list, but
I didn't find this out until we were inside! Jambay played a very
strong four-song set (I heard the tape later that night), but sadly
most of the people who wanted to hear them couldn't get in in time. Fortunately, a lot of people got to hear them for the first time
(that's what HORDE's all about anyway, right?) and I heard lots of
favorable reviews from first-timers, which makes me very happy.
It was a really wonderful day. It was cloudy and ugly (typical June
weather, what's it doing in July?) when we left Sandy Eggo, but the
weather cleard just as traffic slowed to a crawl.
I got to see lots of really great bands. I counted four or five
Hammond B-3s, so I *knew* it was gonna be a nice day! :-) They
had two stages, the main stage plus a small auxilliary stage where
they had some more obscure bands. I enjoyed all the bands that I
saw. I wish I had taken notes, because I've forgotten the names of
most of them. :-(
But anyway, they had the schedules more-or-less staggered, so as you
left the main stage after one of the acts there, there would already
be a band playing on the auxilliary stage. There was a band from
Nashville - very suthun' - that I enjoyed a lot... shit, all the bands
were fun. That's probably what impressed me the most about HORDE. They
had done a really good job selecting bands, and as a package, pound- for-pound, it's just an unbeatable experience. I'd been to Irvine
Meadows to see Dead shows [ODC :-)] but didn't particularly like it
as a venue. My opinion changed this weekend. Having cool stuff to do
on the little pavillion lawn helps a lot.
Who is that woman... Shelly Crowe or Cherl Crow??? - she is wonderful.
I need to look up her name, so I can post it correctly and not look
like a complete idiot. I was just very impressed by her, and her band
was really terrific too! She's a very compelling performer, IMHO. She
came out and sang a song with the next band, Big Head Todd.
I got to see Big Head Todd for the first time - I heard one of the the
CDs and it didn't do much for me. I enjoyed the live show, but what
was the deal with the choreographed guitar changes? ;-)
[in what were clearly cued-and-orchestrated maneuvers, Big Head
Todd's equipment guy would change his guitar mid-solo. Granted the
move was pretty slick, like an Indy pit stop, but it wasn't like he
was swapping a Les Paul for a Strat or he had a broken string. It was
cute the first time, but got tiresome after two or three switches.
Pure Schtick, and I hate that kind of gimmick.]
Blues Traveler is getting more and more difficult for me to enjoy.
This makes it probably the 6th or 7th BT show I've seen, and every
time I have seen them, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, the sound has been
terrible. Just terrible. There is an awful, awful peak at about 80 or
100 Hz, very low, very unpleasant, and very loud. Their sound guy
needs to be taken out back and shot. There is simply no excuse for a
band of this stature to consistently have sound this mediocre. 'Nuff said. The Allmans were a lot of fun. It was so cool, right there at the
edge of the stage - close enough to scare the band, heh heh heh.
Gregg didn't look too good. I think he's been seeing Jerry's
pharmacist. :-(
Shelly Crow (or whatever the name is of that cool woman I spoke of
earlier) joined 'em during Midnight Rider. Oh wait, wait wait,
this you're not gonna believe!
She wasn't the first guest, she was the second. The first guest was
Don Johnson. Yes, you know, Miami Vice... I shit you not. He sang, or
helped sing I guess, Southbound. It was really fucking weird.
It was cool, I mean, he sings OK... but... DON JOHNSON? I think the
band was amused by the whole thing. Who'd have thought it.
The next guest was Dick Betts' son, Duane. He looked to be about 18
or 20 and absolutely terrified. I felt bad for him. You know... I
mean, I guess it would be rough to have Dicky Betts be your dad.
Then, to him name you Duane on top of it. Well, that's a helluva lot
of baggage to carry around. "Dad... maybe I don't want to play guitar
in a rock and roll band... maybe I wanna go to college or something!"
Anyway, they wheeled out his own Boogie rack and he had his Paul Reed
Smith guitar just like dad. I forget which song he played on, but he
took one very tentative solo.
Actually, it's plainly clear the kid can play! But he looked so
hopelessly freaked out by the situation (Don Johnson? :-) that he
coudn't really deliver. It didn't look like *this* jam was his idea.
What's the deal, does he have a band? Like I said, he's probably
really good when he's not so freaked out. :-)
The rest of the set was pretty heavy-duty. Let's face it, the Allman
Brothers are one heavy-duty band. Finally John Popper came out for a
bit. By this time I'd been on my feet for about 8 or 10 hours, so
I was starting to lose cabin pressure. At the end, Gregg Allman threw
out his brow-mopping towel. I caught it. What the hell am I gonna do
with THIS? Well, wash it I guess, for starters!

---------------
One last word: the night before the show, on the way home from our
gig the drummer was involved in an automobile accident. He was hit
from behind by a drunk driver, did a 360, and rolled 2 or 3 times on
the embankment. The paramedics found his high-hat cymbal about 100
yards away. Thank God they were wearing their seatbelts - they were
not hurt too bad.
Everyone, please be careful out there. This magic thing we call
Life... it's a very very thin thread we hang from. Party on, but
keep your wits about you!
Peace,
Dave
-- **************************************************************************** * Dave Chesavage *
* ch...@netcom.com *
* Whatever you do take care of your shoes. * ****************************************************************************

I love Miami Vice why I am just hearing about this now but Shelly Crow why are we still talking about her in the 21st century

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