Steve Kimock's 60th Birthday Bash
2015-10-05
Sweetwater Music Hall
19 Corte Madera Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941
8:30 PM, Monday, October 5, 2015
Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!
[6:30 PM doors]
[7 PM Birthday Dinner – “Menu by culinary legend Gordon Drysdale”]
[8:45 PM lights down, announcements from Wavy Gravy]
[onstage: Wally Ingram, John Morgan Kimock, Steve Kimock, Pete Sears, & Bobby Vega]
[10:57 PM lights down, noodling about]
[onstage: Jerry Joseph, Wally Ingram, John Morgan Kimock, Steve Kimock, Dave Schools, & Pete Sears]
After a rocky start (long queue to get inside, not enough hors d'oeuvres to go around during the pre-show hang, a shark-like feeding frenzy when supper first arrived, and typical personal space issues between alpha fans), the show settled into a typically blissful space once the K-waves got rolling. It was funny to listen to the whispers and shouts as folks around me tried to call the tunes throughout the set: fortunately, I heard the good advice and let the wrong choices go unheeded. It was all absolutely top notch entertainment – but I'll pick the deeply soulful opener, Many Rivers to Cross, as my favorite of the set. Not that I was unhappy when Dave Schools and Bob Weir subbed in – but the disjointed groove and cognitive dissonance in the lyrics on Schoolgirl threw me off for a bit. Dark Star must have been great, right? Sadly, all I really remember about it now were Wally's rhythmic accents (played on his hubcaps) stimulating my recall of the prominently featured scraper/guiro on the classic Live/Dead version from so long ago. Oh, and Bobby was messing around with delivery of the vocals, stretching and pulling them out like vocal taffy as compared to the usual pace of delivery. So, uh, not my favorite rendition tonight, but glad it was on the list nonetheless.
Set break was quite long, but I appreciated that – the length afforded plenty of time for socializing (and drinking, and all the other usual activities) and generally relaxing and getting ready for the second half.
The second set got off to a great start with a couple of Jerry Joseph originals, then blasted into the stratosphere with a cosmically funky take on the Toots Hibbert classic 54-46 That's My Number. Yowza! That's what I'm talking about! Funny to notice that my favorites tonight were the reggae numbers. Must be my headspace! Following that, everyone split but the drummers, and when the other musicians returned, it was time for a run through several classic Zero instrumentals. Wow! So much fun to hear those tunes again. Brings back many fond memories of shows long past. Per his mien, Steve just kept pushing things forward without pause or encore break, and the show eventually wrapped up about quarter past one with an impassioned take on Jerry Joseph's War at the End of the World. Whew! 1:30 AM? That's dang late for a Monday night show. Thanks guys! And happy birthday wishes to Steve! Here's hoping you have many years more time to play!
Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!