Jefferson Starship Acoustic Explorer

31 March 1996 - Cain's Ballroom - Tulsa OK

Paul Kantner, Jack Casady, Diana Mangano, Gary Cambra


A commercial video that was available for a limited time from Stinky Cheese Productons. Graham Lloyd, big cheese at Stinky Cheese said that born-again JS manager Michael Gaiman wanted this video off the market. I don't know why!

Visually, it's quite good. At least a three camera shoot, with lots of close ups. There's an occasional bit of bad, transparent animation superimposed over the proceedings, perhaps to distract attention when one camera is holding the action for an extended period of time - really not necessary. The sound is fair, perhaps a bit better than the average bootleg (although this incremental quality may just be my reaction to an unaccustomed low generation copy). The vocals are mixed too loudly for my taste, and Gary Cambra's keyboards often disappear (his last show with JSAE, by the way.) But it's a VISUAL medium, right? And when Diana's singing, it's delightful.

They've taken an interesting tack with this video, and presented the entire show (Cain's Ballroom, 31 March 1996, Tulsa OK), unedited. In total, about 95-100 minutes in length. It's a good performance, and a decent, semi-professional recording.

Highlights: "Mountain Song", as is usual with this line-up - Jack playing an acoustic bass guitar backing "Fat Angel" - Diana taunting the audience after an aborted start of the second encore's "White Rabbit" - "We're just fucking with you. I don't know the words!"

Setlist:

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