Tag: esther

Monday, 09/12/1988
Sam’s Tavern, Burlington, VT

Set 1: Shaggy Dog,  Take the ‘A’ Train,  Fee,  Bold As Love

Set 2: Timber (Jerry),  Satin Doll >  The Lizards,  The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenu Malkenu >  Bundle of Joy >  Camel Walk,  The Practical Song^[1],  Harry Hood, Esther^[1]

[1] First known performance.

As with early shows, you’re going to get some real rough tapes that are either late generations or perhaps were not recorded that well. This show is unfortunately one of those tapes. It’s got tape clicks and poor balances but what survives has some interesting moments. No real banter here just solid playing back at the smaller Sam’s Tavern. “Fee is performed with the megaphone. “The Lizards” unfortunately has the “If I Were A Dog” outro cut. Avenue Malkenu has a “Chag Sameach” greeting from Mike on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year that had begun the night before and segues effortlessly into a rare “Bundle of Joy” outside of Fluffhead”. Trey tries to milk time by debuting “The Practical Song”, a song about stocking up on peanut butter. A solid “Harry Hood” is ruined by the poor quality of the tape. The set closes with what probably make this show have any significance. This is the first known performance of “Esther” and it also has different lyrics. This version has more detail about the puppet and ends with the people chasing the old man and not Esther. Without the change, maybe Esther wouldn’t have died in Vegas…but that’s for a much later day. The only must listen is the early version of “Esther” but even then, the quality is poor enough to advise anyone to just skip this one.