SlipLive

It was 8 years ago today. I was all stoked to see my favorite band Schleigho play at the Ironhorse in Northampton, MA. I had my little rinky dink tape recorder all set with a fresh XL-II and batteries. I get to the club a little early and Schleigho are outside huddled near their old tour bus talking with some guys I didn't know. I was in the doorway to the horse looking at a promo pic of some band I had never heard of. I'm thinking, Jesus look at the beard on that dude. Two seconds later that dude walks up behind me and ask me about the tape deck I had with me. It was the guy with the beard. "Hey, I'm Brad from The Slip" he says. "You recording the show"? I told him I was there to see Schleigho. He said I should stick around for their set if I could. Not long after the rest of the audience came an lined up for the show. Most people were buzzing about The Slip and the show they had played that afternoon in Amherst down the road. A few people asked if I was recording The Slip. I remember saying that I had never heard them and was there for Schleigho. One guy had some sort of stealth recording setup. It was a pre amp in an Altoids container if I recall correctly. He told me it had broken somehow just a couple of hours before. Eventually we make it into the show. I grabbed a seat near the railing and waited for Schleigho to come out. Indeed they did. They ripped it for about an hour. I was close to leaving but Erik from Schleigho told me he would be sitting in with The Slip so I stayed. I can't recall the exact set list off hand but I know Callisto, Spice Groove, Yellow Medicine, Alsoa, Rhythm-A-Ning, and Zion were played. They started a bluegrass jam while Andrew set up a steel drum. Erik got on the drum kit. The jam went into Zion, the 1998 steel drum version. Jesse from Schleigho got up on his organ during the Zion. I was BLOWN away needless to say. After the set the atloid taper wanted to buy my master tape. I offered to copy it for him and gave him my address but never heard from him. The rest is history of course. I still see The Slip a lot. Schleigho doesn't gig too much anymore unfortunately. I'd love to get these guys together again at some point for an old school throw down. Since then I started archiving for Schleigho. Managed to get my hand on the sound board that Mike Mahar had snuck that night. Oh how I wish he rolled for The Slip's set too. My recording is absolutely the worst one I had ever made in my life. Now of course I have been archiving The Slip. Just a week or so ago I got some analog tapes. One of them was labeled 4/24/98 master. I was stoked thinking it was The Ironhorse from someone I didn't notice recording. Turns out it was the tape from the Altoids taper in Amherst that day. Pretty random.

This post was not thought out much. Just sort of rambled as I went along. That is my story of how I first heard The Slip.

Cleantone wrote:I still see The Slip a lot. Schleigho doesn't gig too much anymore unfortunately. I'd love to get these guys together again at some point for an old school throw down..

where can i make a donation? man, would i love to see another ho down, circa 2001.

awesome. i'm actually 2 weeks removed from the 7th anniversary of my first schleigho show, 4/10/99. much like you, i went to see another band(the disco biscuits ) but found something completely unexpected that surpassed any expectations i might have had at the time. a short month later i finally had gotten my first slip show under my belt and i guess you could say the rest is slipstory...where in the hell has time gone???

I threw a little festival of my own back in the day.... I think it was the summer of 96.... The thing that dates it well would be he summer that hurricane "Fran" hit the U.S. it rained really hard and pretty much put a kabosh on my party. Anyway, I had The Slip open up for Schleigho. It was pretty much a little private show for my local friends and the red house kids and I all came out from Boston. It was alot of fun dispite the low turnout. It was in Hamilton, NY and I called it the "Stu's Ranch" fest. I had a little jam before the bands went on..... I played "Tommy the Cat" with Brad and my buddy Jr. on the kit. Right before Schleigho's ripping set, everyone that was there, which was about 25 people, all got on stage and started this mass puff down.... the stage then started to collapse and the rain started to really fall. After nailing the stage back together, the rain let up and the HO ripped some serious ass for a tiny crowd. This was right before they started recording live stuff for the "Farwell" album, I believe. Right? Farwell had the D-funk opener.... I can't F'n believe I can't remember. It was a fun time.... yes I took a bath, and it marked the end of my career as a festival promoter, but damn, those we're the days. I must add that I was prepared to at least give The Slip something for their efforts, and they drove away without asking me for anything. Oh yeah, my drunk, uber-conservative father was also busting alot of my hippie friends' chops for some reason.... which was a bit weird and embarissing for me. Man, I could go on and on I think..... sorry no tapers, If someone knows how to track down the infamous Ed Venteruso, he engineered the show. He actually made a schwilly recording of it. Man, I can't believe that was ten F'n years ago. -Z

well, my first show was the axis show that was just two years ago, april 18th. haven't turned back since. but i've listened for a little bit longer than that, though not by much.