Grousing The Aisles: GSW @ Irving Plaza ’93

For today’s GSW-themed Grousing The Aisles column, we’re passing the proverbial mic to longtime taper Scott Bernstein to tell us all about a recording he made of God Street Wine’s historic first show at Irving Plaza in New York City on June 24, 1993. Yes, Scott does share the same name as Hidden Track’s editor, but we swear they are two different people.

God Street Wine – June 24, 1993 DAUD [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]

[Photo by Michael Weiss]

This is BARN21, the 21st in my occasional series of historical releases from my audio archive, and I’ve reached 17 years deep for this one. This is the first God Street Wine show I’ve transferred. GSW was a jamband that was primed to be the next band to bust out of the Nightengales/NYC scene, having followed closely on the heels of Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors: becoming regulars at the Nightengale Bar, developing a following, spending some time growing that following at Wetlands, and then stepping up to bigger venues and national audiences.

This particular recording goes back almost to the earliest days of my DAT taping and is the oldest of my BARN series thus far. I’d only been DAT taping for a few months at the time (though I’d been taping on cassette for at least 5 years before). It’s not the greatest GSW show of all-time – and far from my best recording of them – but this show is historic for me because it was my first time seeing them live (after having been prepped for their show by listening to their most recent March Wetlands show which was recorded by my old friend Geoff Tischman) and it was my first time going to Irving Plaza (which I’ve been to hundreds of times since then). It was also GSW’s first time playing there, having just made the leap from Wetlands and previously the Nightengale Bar.

In terms of the performance….what can I say? This is GSW at their prime. The 1st set stuck with most of their poppier tunes at the time – due to, apparently, the presence of record company people in the audience – but it is still no slouch. Mostly a good intro to people who’ve never heard them — they knew how to rock those tunes out…until all hell literally breaks looks on Hellfire to end the set. Wow…it’s all over the place and jamming. And onto the second set — Tina’s Town, Imogene, Mantoloking, and Feel The Pressure all range far and wide in their jamming, bursting out of their normal boundaries.

I hope you enjoy! Look for more GSW from down the line…I’ve got many many more of their shows to transfer.

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4 Responses

  1. It should be noted that this show features the same live performances of Snake Eyes, Stranger and Feel the Pressure that were used on ‘Whos Driving’ – this is awesome!

  2. Thanks, Vin. Good to know. It was a pretty sweet show! Nearly all of their Irving Plaza performances were standouts. Look for more to come.

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