#GilsTheme

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

5/28/2006 - Meat

This show features a comical assortment of heavy-hitters. Water, Meat, Timmy, Dr. G, Plane Crash. Hell, even the Happy Hour Hero / Seat of My Pants / Sensory Deprivation Bank trio is exciting given that I think the arrangement is unprecedented: SOMP > HHH > SDB > SOMP. 

When the standard stuff turns out to be wild, you got yourself a show.

The first set-closing Meat, segued into out of a spot-on Water, is an action-packed 24 minutes that features a first-rate Gil’s Theme. 

Chuck has an abbreviated, curiously short solo, as if he wants to get out of the way of the pending anarchy. Then a lazy, molasses-paced beat steadily builds into a frenzy. Great Jim, great Vinnie and of course great Al, who starting at 11:30 busts out a frenetic Gil’s Theme. Jim’s vibe work during Gil is wicked, and so is Chuck’s tension-filled, almost scary supporting guitar.

What’s doubly cool is that unlike most Gil’s Themes, this doesn’t mark the peak of the jam. Instead, they drop back into third gear, let Rob take a fat bass solo, and only then build back up into a more standard culmination to Meat. Indeed the Gil’s stuff ends at 14:20... and the track ends at 24:01. They use all 9-plus of those minutes. 10/10.

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

5/4/01 - Brent Black

There are some screwy track listings here. But if we can navigate that, we’ll find ourselves a dance party Gil’s Theme buried inside of this “Hi & Lo” track.

The first 16:30 of Hi & Lo is your standard Hi & Lo > Brent Black. But the back bit of the track -- 16:30 to the end -- is pure dance party.

Vinnie lays down the 80s night club rhythm straight away after Chuck wraps up his Brent Black solo. Chuck stays engaged, though, busting out the talkbox for a “Relax” (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) tease while Rob and Al slowly ratchet up the Gil.

The track that’s listed as “Brent Black” is the drum solos and closing Al section.

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

4/2/2003 - Timmy Tucker

Al’s jam in this Timmy represents everything that’s right about Al jams in Timmy.

We’re actually talking about Track 10, which is labeled Blue Eyed Son for whatever reason. (A 25:55 Blue Eyed Son lol.)

Chuck wraps up at 13:10, and then Al takes over. Things crawl along – and I mean really crawl – for a few minutes. The pace really lags in a fun, reggae sort of way.

Jim gets on the vibes at about 14:50, and the low-key, unassuming groove that’s going on is just perfect. Vinnie even downshifts again at about 16:55. The patience on display puts the thrashing, grungier Timmy jams to shame.

First inklings of Gil’s Theme subtly appear at roughly 19:10, with amore straightforward ode to Gil at 20:15. Really a wonderful jam.

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

9/23/2000 - Meat

This is a nasty Meat through-and-through. Patient segue into it, big drum and bass solos during it. Definitely works as a show-closer.

But the real craziness kicks off at 15:30, after a lengthy Rob solo, when Al starts throwing down delightfully repetitive licks.

At 16:30, Jim hops from cowbells to bongos; at 16:50 you can hear Rob lay down the Gil's Theme bass line, which gives way to...Gil (17:05).

The Gil sounds like Gils are wont to sound -- more than three minutes of crazy -- but what follows it what really distinguishes the track. After Al's final full go-around through Gil's Theme, at about 20:30, Vinnie goes from the ride cymbal to the hi-hat, downshifting the beat in the process. This causes everything to really calm down; by 21:45, it sounds like they could be seguing out of Meat and into something entirely different -- Where Does the Time Go? or Hi & Lo...something of that ilk. This "down time" last for nearly four minutes.

They don't segue, however, and instead use the relaxed lull to build back up into a more normal Meat climax. In that sense, there are essentially two Al sections to this Meat jam. And both are absurd.

Tack on a Rebubula + Godzilla encore (they were in Japan, so Godzilla was a loaded choice), and this is some kind of second set.

- D

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

4/9/1999 - Timmy Tucker

It's impossible to deny that track 7 above is one of the all-time Timmy dance parties ever. It's been written about before and is legendary both for its meaty Gil's Theme and its overall nutiness. 1999 was a great year for Timmys (more are on the way on this blog) and this 4/9/1999 version is at the top of the list.

- Al's section begins at about 12:05.

- Al throws down some big delay riffs beginning at 13:48. I particularly love the huge descender at 14:51.

- Vinnie and Rob start dropping hints that Gil's Theme is coming at around 15:05. Vinnie's fill at 15:18 is the sign Gil is imminent. Full-blown Gil begins at 15:42. This is a particularly long version. It's hard to say exactly when it ends. I put the ending at 17:50 once Vinnie switches up the beat slightly.

- Things stay at a very high level with Gil fills and riffs being bandied about until 20:05.

- The distortion is turned up at this point of the jam. Some monster riffs are thrown down at 21:31 and again at 22:48.

All in all, one would be hard pressed to find a huger Timmy than this one.

- M

[horseshoethrowinfreaks]

1/25/2007 - Shoot First (acoustic Gil's Theme)

I won't claim to be a total Gil's Theme connoisseur. Still, I know enough to know that (a) most Gil's Themes don't come out of Shoot First, and (b) most Gil's Themes aren't acoustic.

Yet at this early 2007 Boulder, Colo., show, one that I was lucky enough to attend, Al did the unlikely and dropped a big, fat, acoustic Gil -- thus far undocumented at the show's archive.org page -- as moe. worked from Shoot First to The Pit.

5:15: Shoot First ends.

8:50: The first inklings of Gil's Theme.

10:40: Full-blown Gil.

- D