Recorded: 1993
Tracks: Now You Can Open Your Eyes; One Drop; I’d Rather Be Lost; Silawe; Always Give Your Love Away; Scatterbrain; Steer Clear; Long Walk Home; Butterflies; Love Thang; “What Can You Do?”; Fishsticks; Lockjaw; Up; Influence; Simple Things; Cold Samba; Forget Song
Best track: I don’t know, I love all these songs
Track to skip: none
This is a live show, and not an official release. According to where I downloaded the show from, the recording date was 10/29/93, but that can’t be right since the 29th was a Friday and on this recording they mention that it’s a Sunday. If the date is almost correct then I assume it’s either 10/24/93 or Halloween. There is a very brief mention of “Halloween” in one of the songs so that makes me think that maybe it was recorded on 10/31/93, and not 10/24 as I originally thought. Regardless, it’s sometime in the fall of 1993 at Wacky’s in San Antonio, Texas. I’ve had this tape for quite a few years, since ’97 or so, but I just recently found it on the internet for downloading. This show was originally available at
http://www.elcorazon.org/Wackys, but it’s no longer there. Still, there are some good downloads on the site.
The personnel on the recording is Davíd Garza on guitar and vocals, Clay Pendergrass on bass, Jim Cocke on keys and Michael Hale on drums and vocals. There are actually two songs played that aren’t listed: a rendition of Happy Birthday at the beginning of the encore (after Simple Things) and the last song of the night was an interesting medley of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas/Feliz Navidad. With these songs on there, the show comes to about 84 minutes and just over the length of a CD. So I chopped ‘em in order to fit on one disc. If they were there, they’d really be skippers so it’s not a big loss.
Like I said, I’ve had this Wacky’s show for a few years and it’s always been one of my favorites of the live tapes I have from Dah-veed. Of course I haven’t heard everything available, but this show and the Rick’s one are the two best I’ve heard. This is an excellent show with a ton of energy and it’s absolutely fun to listen to. The mix is pretty good, with the acoustic guitar and drums sounding particularly awesome. One of the main reasons I love this so much is it shows how amazing of a drummer Mike Hale is. When my friends and I would go to Dah-veed shows we’d just be in awe of his talent and massive groove-ness. He’s incredible on this show, and he’s also got a huge vocal presence here that wasn’t really present on the studio recordings. The bass is a bit too quiet, but that’s just the bassist in me being nitpicky. I like the “What Can You Do?” section, which features the 4 band members doing songs. Before I listened all the way through I wondered if the full thing would be on there, as the break on my old tape was in between Jim’s campfire song and Mike’s Loving You. It’s the same on the download, just a better edit. It’s a fun little section that shows the humor of these guys.
This show is a very good representation of what Davíd Garza sounded like in the ‘old days’. There’s a good representation of the albums on here, a bunch from the newly released Culture Vulture, some from Eyes Wide Open and some Twang songs. Since you can download this show (and you don’t have to worry about ripping anybody off since it’s not an official release) then there’s no excuse to not listen to this show. I think it’s great and I’ve listened to it a ton in the past few weeks.
Rating: 94
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