The Union Bar Iowa City, IA: September 24, 2002
Was Joel’s Moog new? There’s a lot of cool experimentation with weird Moog sounds at different times during the show. The 2nd performance of Wappy Sprayberry is still just a bass line and some full band noodling around…not a true debut of the song yet.
[update: Joel tweets (@goldlikejoel) this comment about the synth playing in this show and the Moog: “I didn’t get my first Minimoog Voyager until around 2005. You’re likely hearing me play with a Roland JP8000 which was my main synth from ‘99-‘04.” –Thanks Joel!
Give the sound a chance: during the beginning of FF the sound gets much better about one minute into the track and for the rest of the show.
Notable:
The Crooked One has a 10 minute improv jam afterward, it’s just labeled as “jam“ in the track list. The jam includes JaJunk teases but they don’t go into the song.
FF also has a cool jam afterward that morphs into the second version of Wappy Sprayberry. Wappy is still just a bass line with improv jamming around it, and doesn’t have the written parts yet.
This Wappy jam has a “Nachos for Two” tease notation in the setlist, but really it’s just the classical piece Rondo Alla Turca (Turkish March) by Mozart, which was built into Nachos when they played it.
Nothing Too Fancy has a jam that slowly morphs into the beginning of August; They are telegraphing the transition into each song a lot during the show.
It’s an awesome August build up in the first improv jam and then a really good Brendan Bayliss solo for the second jam then August morphs into another improvisational jam leading into the next song but it’s labeled jam as one of the tracks and Megadeth jam as the second check before it goes into band on the run.
When 40s theme comes in we have an awesome version of the verses and lyrics where Brandon is freestyle rapping instead of doing the normal lyrics during the vocal parts at the end of each verse.
At the start of the improv jam Jake goes off in a little bit of beatboxing, and the jam goes into a really cool Eminence Front (The Who) instrumental and vocal segment.
Made from an interpretation of the scene from the movie Caddyshack, Jake and Mike’s Caddyshack blues jam is well done, ridiculous and funny. Mike comes in with a version of the Chevy Chase lyrics: “I was borrrrrnnn…to rub you, to lick your face, to love you, but baby you were born to rub me first.”
Awesome blues piano from Joel too.
It’s a fitting intro to 2×2, which reaches almost 12 minutes even without an improv jam. Brendan is feeling the rap vibe, as he quotes Snoop at each verse finish: “bi-atch!”
After Nothing Too Fancy, ending the set, Joel leaves the Moog on a crazy weird random note setting with trippy “waaa” sounds and left to right sound mix changes for the entire encore break, 5 straight minutes. (Headphones reveal this) It must have been supremely entertaining for those in altered states.
Joel comes back to play the Moog in solo, creating a journey of sound before the encore, and then joined by Mike to finish before the beginning of 13 days.
Lately 13 Days has a very synth beginning, sounding like a game show music intro or something. They don’t play the song with such Joel Moog stuff these days.
The Andy “scratch” sound is very apparent in the quiet moments before the verses in 13 days here. As a percussionist I remember the cylindrical thing with the ball chains around it making that sound, called a Cabasa.
The ending of 13 days slams right into Space Funk Booty, as it’s wont to do in later versions.
Joel is again playing with Moog sounds and then the Hammond organ during the ending section, and ends the show with more auto-Moog sounds.
Setlist from allthings.umphreys.com
Set 1:
The Crooked One[1] > FF > Wappy Sprayberry[2] > Rondo Alla Turca > Nothing Too Fancy > August[3] > Band on the Run
Set 2:
Intro[4] > Family Feud theme, JaJunk[5] > Thin Air, Last Call, Jam[6] > Smell the Mitten, Uncommon, 40’s Theme[7], 2×2[8] > Nothing Too Fancy
Encore:
13 Days > Space Funk Booty[9]
Footnotes:
[1] with JaJunk tease
[2] with Nachos for Two jam
[3] with Wake Up the Dead (Megadeth) jam
[4] vocal jam
[5] with Orfeo tease
[6] with Born Under A Bad Sign (Albert King) teases
[7] with Eminence Front (The Who) jam and chorus
[8] with Caddyshack Blues jam in intro; with Jessica (The Allman Brothers Band) tease
[9] with Batman Theme (Neal Hefti) teases
Links to Audio and Apps
The Live Music Archive app (iOS) and the Taper’s Section app (Android) is a great way to find and listen to these shows. You can stream, download for offline listening, save favorites, and mark shows as already listened to. The app pulls all data directly from the public repository of live music recordings posted at archive.org.
