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Sunday, 12 January 2003
Dixie Dregs @ Slim's ::
Saw the Dixie Dregs at Slim’s in San Francisco last night.
I first saw them in a country club ballroom in Syracuse, NY in early 1981, and was blown away by the apparent effortlessness with which they pulled off their highly-arranged and sometimes intricate tunes.
I wasn’t sure if the opening piece was a rearrangement of an old one or simply one I hadn’t heard before, but while the group’s musical range may not have grown over time, the musicianship has gotten even better.
Steve Morse switches gears between low bass-register lines, chunky chords, and screaming leads on a dime, and plays intricate fast flurries with absolute rhythmic precision. One highlight was his duet with drummer Rod Morgenstern, an absolute monster who looks like he’s having the time of his life while he plays. On several pieces I just watched Morgenstern, who would interject series of accents in surprising places that unexpectedly and yet inevitably resolved right on a downbeat. One expects this in jazz and Indian music, but it’s unusual and pleasantly surprising on straight rock beats (e.g. “Cruise Control”). It’s very apparent that Morse and Morgenstern have been playing together for a very long time (over 20 years).
Electric violinist Jerry Goodman, perhaps best-known for his tenure in the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 70's, joins the Dregs on this tour. He brought “Meeting of the Spirits” 
from Inner Mounting Flame to the group; perhaps it helped that Morse did not take a solo, but it’s unusual for a band to attempt such an ambitious cover and pull it off, let alone make it a highlight of the set.
Cool, they’ve already updated stevemorse.com with pictures from the show. Update (23 Apr 2003): pictures moved.
Looking at the attempt to collect a complete list of tour dates, the show I saw in Syracuse isn’t on the list but was almost certainly in the first week of May 1981, since it was one of violinist Mark O’Connor’s first shows with the band and they were playing other gigs in New York State then.
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