October 27th, 1978 late show
MARS' EXTRAVANGANZA IN Q (9:51)- Tommy solo, 2:57; Shankar solo, 1:47; Barrow solo, 3:31; The highlight of the show, and one of the highlights of the run. After concluding his solo in "Suicide Chump", Frank announces that the madness will continue with Tommy Mars taking control and playing whatever he wishes to play. Frank asks for the key, Tommy replies "Q", and the holiday extravanganza begins. Tommy spends the first half minute on electric piano, playing calm and reflective, before the rhythm section joins in and Tommy switches to synthesizer. We get your typical Tommy solo, with changing rhythms, stop-and-go playing, and the Mars' style scat. Around 3:00 minutes in he starts calling to Shankar- "Tell me about it, Shankar"- who takes up the challenge and begins soloing. Finally, Barrow gets his turn to shine, and whips out a guitar-styled bass solo, with O'Hearn laying down a fat blanket of support, and Shankar quietly weaving in and out of the mix. This jam eventually heads west, and turns into a frantic surf music homage, that gives us the warmest two minutes of music these cold Fall shows would hear. Frank finally reappears, announces that we now must go "back to the real world", and begins introducing the next song. Improvisation at its best.
Key of Q
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