This week's #ThisDealInHistory is taken from our Feb 17, 2002 concert in Burlington, VT.
The cut opens with some pretty interesting harmonic interplay between the bass guitar, my right hand and my left hand! When i first listened to this concert i wondered to myself how i was going to make this harmonic relationship work out, but in true new deal style it works itself out and unfolds nicely around 1:10... i should never doubt tND!
Some subtle harmonic shifts occur around 1:35 and 2:05, maintaining the same tonal footing while exploring some other colours. We jam on these ideas in a quasi-latin style until around 4:45 when we transition into "Exciting New Direction" from our 2000 self-titled album.
This song is based on a phone message that Darren received when the band was just starting out. In the early days he was still working for some e-currency company while we were touring around trying to make a name for ourselves as a band. Turns out they fired him over the phone - via voicemail no less! They probably couldn't reach him because he was busy improvising live house music in front of a frenzied crowd at The Wetlands or something...
We ended up overdubbing that voicemail on top of a live downtempo jam, and "Exciting New Direction" was born. On stage Dan had a cheap little cassette walkman with that message on it, and he would play it while holding the walkman's speaker up to his bass pickups, which would then amplify it thru his rig. He would rewind/fast-forward on the fly, which you can hear in full effect.
8:14 signals a key/tempo change while i play the signal cue for "Then And Now" (the moog line as well as the wah-wah organ chord at 8:36). This track appeared on our "This Is Live" album and was composed completely on stage at our first show. What your hear on "This Is Live" is us writing it on the spot. We would then experiment with that central concept during future performances of "Then And Now". In this version Darren has some pretty heavy drum work going on underneath my decidedly minimalist start to my Moog solo.
The theme of this show must have been to take harmonic chances, as my solo seems to stray pretty far outside at times (but never too far outside!).
Dan triggers the cue for "Moonscraper" around 12:35 and we jam towards that, slowly changing key until we hit the song at 13:59, ending with its second half. - Jamie
