Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 12:09:53 -0800 (PST)
From: Bob Siebecker <deadshow@well.com>
To: leftover@lists.Colorado.EDU
Subject: My Favorite Show of 1996

"Best" is sooooo subjective so I won't even attempt identifying the "Best" 
Leftover Salmon show of 1996. But I will say that my favorite favorite LoS 
show of 1996, possibly to date, was the evening set on 9/9/96 at the
R.O.A.M. festival.  As we know by now, LoS opened each day of the R.O.A.M. fest 
with an acoustic set and closed each day with an electric set.  On 9/9 the boys  
opened the day with a beautiful tribute to Jerry Garcia including  Catfish John, 
I Know You Rider and Friend Of The Devil.  However, as the set ended, the 
boys were presented with the  disturbing news that Hizonner, The Mayor 
McCheese, had been  KIDNAPPED!!!!  The ransom note simply stated that 
The Mayor would be returned only if LoS would "light a Fire On The Mountain".

Fast forward to evening.  After a day terrific sets by Magraw Gap,  New 
Orleans Klezmer Allstars, Acoustic Syndicate, Baby Gramps w/Eugene 
Chadbourne & Vince, Jonas Hellborg Trio and Hypnotic Clambake, LoS takes 
the stage after midnight.  Starting out with a spacey tune-up jam, they launch 
right into The Mother Of All Pasta's.  A 21 min incendiary jam with Vince 
alternating lyrics between Pasta and the GD's Fire On The Mountain.  In the 
middle of the Jam, Drew switches to his fiddle and creates a beautiful 
background for Vince as Vince explains the spiritual Native American history  
of the Round Mountain region, called Kakalaki (sp?).  The jam had become so 
"slippery and eel-like" that I had totally forgot they were playing Pasta until 
they brought it all back with the Rocky Top Rap. The Aura on Round Mountain 
was brighter than a magnesium flare.  Light a Fire On The Mountain Indeed!

They followed this up with Get Me Outta This City, Jokester, a new  Jam by 
Mark, Big Mamou, Bend In The River and Boo Boo.  Then members of 
Hypnotic Clambake and Magraw Gap joined the boys for the rest of the show, 
launching into Blue Night and then Paul Simon's Late In The  Evening where 
everyone took a solo and Vince added several of his own improvised verses.  
They followed this up with Honky Tonk Woman, Dim Lights etc, and a short 
Bad Moon Rising before Eugene Chadbourne joined them for High On A 
Mountain Top.  By this time they had Accordians, Horns, Bongos and the 
stage was just packed with musicians.  After Chadbourne sang a song, things 
really took off with French Toast & Dada Jam, then into a sequence of songs 
that sent me reeling.

First out was the cajun song Tu N'as Pas Aller and, as that wound down, John 
Flowers (Magraw Gap) grabbed a mic and started in with one of his sing-song 
oriental chants which he's so good at.  The band formed a chord structure and 
turned the whole thing into a completely improvised jam.  This wound it's way 
into Uncle Penn->9 Lb. Hammer.  At this point, the entire summit of 
Round Mountain broke free from the Earth's gravitational pull and we were 
collectively propelled to the outer reaches of our galaxy.

They finished off the 2.5 hour set with From The Bottle To The Needle and It 
Couldn't Be Better.  The encores were Funky Mnt. Fogdown and an extended 
version of Wake & Bake, in which Eugene Chadbourne treated us to the 
"German" version.  After the encore ended, the crowd wandered back into the 
meadow to their tents and campfires.  All of a sudden someone started into 
howling and the whole meadow lit up into din of animal noises howling up at the 
cosmos.  It's so hard to reduce this experience to ASCII but I hope I have done 
it justice.  The ROAM festival was definitely one of the musical
highlights of my life.