Music and Politics

Last night, the Allman Brothers & the Dead played an Obama rally @ Penn state. From most accounts, the music was sub-par, but I'm about 1/3 of the way through the stream right now, & overall I'm diggin' it. The video-taped Obama speech was good & he name-dropped a few dead songs. Bobby fucked up the "Truckin'" opener, but that is to be expected. Phil's vocals on "US Blues" are much better than expected though... making a boring song tolerable. The playing on "Help on the Way" is fantastic, but Bob's vocals leave something to be desired. "Slipknot" is fun & jazzy as always. Phil's vocals on "Franklin's Tower" are great as is the music., & I usually prefer "Help" to "Frank," but not this time. "Playin in the Band" has a great slow jam that goes for about 10 minutes. It's nice & even Bobby's guitar is high enough in the mix to hear. Possibly the shortest, most boring "Dark Star" of all time though... as if getting to "St. Stephen" was their main priority. it's understandable though as getting to "St. Stephen" is 1 of my main priorities too... & so far it's been well worth it: definitely a highlight. "Unbroken Chain" is also a highlight of the show w/ some amazing jamming. Many of the fan-based reviews claimed there wasn't much impovisiation last night, & while "Dark star" left a shit-load to be desired, "Unbroken Chain" more than makes up for it. That's as far as I am @ the moment, but I'm in hurry to get to the end... it's fun, the intro to "The Other One" sounds good so far & from what I understand, the ABB set streams after the Dead set. This should keep me busy all day while I'm reading Quicksand. I'm excited for the ABB set too because there are a couple songs I'm not familiar w/: "Who's Been talkin'" & "Anyday' are new to me. Revival
Statesboro Blues
Who's Been Talking
Midnight Rider
One Way Out
And It Stoned Me
Dreams
Don't Think Twice
Anyday
Melissa
Trouble No More
Ain't Wastin' Time No More
Jessica
E- Whipping Post

Obama Speech Video
Truckin >
US Blues
Help on the Way >Slipknot >
Franklin's Tower
Playin in the Band>
Dark Star>
St. Stephen>
Unbroken Chain >
Other One >
Throwin Stones >
Playin reprise

E-Phil rap >
Bobby rap >
Touch of Grey>
Not Fade Away

While Jerry Garcia rolls over in his grave upon hearing Bobby's vocals, in other musical news, we can assume Hank Williams Sr. is also rolling over as Hank Williams Jr played a McCain/Palin rally yesterday, debuting his reworked version of "Family Tradition," "McCain/Palin Tradition." He does a nice job of getting all of last week's Palin talking points in there including Obama is a terrorist, but I wonder if he wrote it himself or if her people did it for him. I'm sure they @ least fed him some basic ideas. He even goes so fr as to blame Bill Clinton for this month's economic problems. Talk about poetic licence. I don't know Hank III's politics, but I can't imagine he'll be stumpin' for the GOP anytime soon. In actuality, I don't know much about Hank Sr.'s political views either, but he seems like he would have been an active New deal Democrat... when he could stand up anyways. What ever happened to drinking & smoking pot being the family tradition...