Jay’s Plays – Ominous Seapods North Country Freakouts Vol. 2 06-17-94 Waterhole 3, Saranac Lake, NY

[Editor’s Note: As part of the 2018 Ominous Seapods Reunion festivities, Jay went into the vault, and with the help of South Catherine Street Jug Band archivist Nate Pelton, released three more live archival recordings from the Golden Age of the Ominous Seapods under the “North Country Freakouts” series. Today, Volume 2: 06-17-94 Waterhole 3, Saranac Lake, NY]

Once again, we interrupt this sports website for a rock’n’roll update. The drop of formative-era Ominous Seapods master DAT soundboards continues apace. Today’s release resolved a once thorny issue – the need to not only preserve, but protect history. Between 1989 and 1995 there were few if any tape decks in the house and until well into 1997 I was the only DAT. So on occasion in the early days, my tape was the only copy in existence.

The OJ Simpson show deserved better.(Click here to download!) Maybe it’s because it was only the second Seapod show at the Waterhole ever, maybe it’s because they had just played the Waterhole two weeks earlier, or maybe it’s because the scene was still in is infancy, but nobody seemed to know exactly how historic this night was. Before there was 211, there was the OJ show. (The same can be said for Rock Rest, Boat Cruise, and the Monopole, for those of you scoring at home.)

During this period and well into 1995, Canceled was one of the big showpiece songs, and the band would play out Shakespearean-in-magnitude tragi-comedies, often ripped from the headlines of the daily news. This night was the archetype – they are singing “Hey OJ Simpson, Why do you walk that way” while the slow-speed Bronco chase is on eery TV in the house…EVERY TV IN THE HOUSE…butt during Cancelled, Dana morphs into OJ, while Max plays the inept police.

Genius. Sheer uninhibited genius.

Every Seapod fan needs a copy of this show; your musical collection (and your Seapod history) are incomplete without it. This show was a mile marker, one of those nights where they transcended the jam scene and delivered an indisputable comedic rock masterpiece. Sometimes, even we didn’t know exactly how good we had it…