A personal opinion of this: spotty, but with some real high points. These are the first two gigs we did with George. I think the A side, the Lhasa Club show, has more going for it (including the poetry piece that gave this tape its title). The major thing about the B side, which is actually the first gig, is that the infamous "set list" incident is captured for posterior- uh, posterity. For those not in the know about this, here's the story: George was very nervous about going out with nothing to hang onto but his instrument, so we grudgingly agreed to go out with a list of ideas to improvise around, something we hadn't done since the band's improvisational format had been set after the very first two shows in '83. These scraps of paper were put down on the stage, just like yer garden variety set list, and so of course to the audience that's what they appeared to be. Well in the middle of the set we announced that our music was improvised, and someone yelled out something to the effect of, "Then why are you using set lists?" I would have thought George would get upset, but it was me. I am usually very, very calm until something upsets me- which takes a lot of doing. But once that is accomplished I can go from angry to unhinged very quickly. My first impulse- VERY strong- had been to find the heckler and see which broke first, their skull or my SG. (Ah, the glory days of youth.) I couldn't see who made the comment. I started yelling back, defending the band. I couldn't tell who had made the comment and when I responded, there was no answer; but once the red fog cleared from my mind I realized the voice had sounded female. This, combined with the nervous looks on my bandmates' faces, brought me reluctantly back from the heady heights of total rage. Unfortunately I kept cycling back in that direction all night, feeling I had made a fool of myself by responding at all. Needless to say, the gig was not one of my fondest memories, and when it was suggested we use this as the flipside of the Lhasa Club gig, I was against it. But in retrospect it's an interesting bit of history. I have also suspected at times that the heckler may even have been someone put up to the task by M., to cure George once and for all of wanting to use a set list. The heckling might not have, but I think maybe my reaction did!
There are no song titles for individual pieces, although we could easily have done this. Instead, each side is just presented as you would have heard it live- music done at a particular venue on a particular date.