Lakini's Juice video 1999 Chad T & Chad G going off Options

[zmanpga]

freakin love this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbBPQpDhf4Y

[Liveman94]

I really miss those guys.

I reckon if Ed watched that video now he would think 'How ridiculous I used to be!' or something along those lines...but it was His passion and intensity (though at times spastic) it was impossible to ignore - id rather have a less than perfect performance that was moving and then a perfect performance with the same tired movements (both physical and musical) and meaningless banter anyday...just sayin'

[FishOutaWater]

I really miss those guys.

I reckon if Ed watched that video now he would think 'How ridiculous I used to be!' or something along those lines...but it was His passion and intensity (though at times spastic) it was impossible to ignore - id rather have a less than perfect performance that was moving and then a perfect performance with the same tired movements (both physical and musical) and meaningless banter anyday...just sayin'

After all the time that has passed and all of the water under the bridge and the pressure to sell out. After V and BoP and SFBM. Chad Taylor, Chad Gracey and Patrick Dalheimer have not changed. I admire that about them. Their passion for the music was always still there. Underneath. They tried to stick it out and be loyal to their friend Ed. I will never forget that conversation I had with Chad Taylor about a year before live ended. I admired his loyalty to the band and to Ed and his selfless refusal to talk about his own seperate endeavors when he was there on "Live's time". A good soldier to the end. Until finally, the three of them couldn't take it anymore creatively. And the secret publishing contract was the straw that broke the camel's back. But they were bent but not broken. The fire and the creativity was still in there. And then came the early emergance of TGF music. The Ramius monolgue played over the first incarnation of "The Few". And their excitement for it. They were unshackled. No more God in the lyrics - exclaimed Gracey! No more plexiglass! Removing the plexigalss was a metaphor for so much more. (In fact, I think I am going to go onto Cafe Press and get a "No More Plexiglass!" T shirt to where to my next TGF concert.) Then came Kevin. A great friend and a perfect voice for their second life. And then TGF was born. All that is missing for TGF now is the acclaim and the financial success that an effort like this sorely deserves. And Ed is selling coffee and pendants and pretending he never heard of TGF and changing the lyrics to Live songs in a way that bastardizes everything that Live ever stood for. Ed can earn my attention back when he returns from whatever pollyanna, Spongebob-induced, Sunday School love fest he is on and becomes cynical and jaded again. Genpo Roshi cheats on his wife. Priests molest young boys. Ken Wilber is a self-inflated ego who doesn't know everything. When Ed realizes that all of these thought-leaders are empty, and returns to the view that the music is EVERYTHING and not how much money you can make off of it, then I might start paying attention again.

The thing about the end of Live that always perplexed me, is that for almost a decade, I watched Ed lose himself int he moment of those hard rock songs like White Discussion and Lakini's Juice and he seemed to love it. Then he promised "rock" songs and a return to what Live was before, but concocted feminine, formulaic soft rock tunes that were desperately trying to seek acceptance from a money-spending, soccer mom audience. If Ed likes rocking those songs in concert so much - why doesn't he do more of that with the new music? Unless he couldn't figure out how to do it anymore.

Speaking of Lakini's Juice, here are a few shots of Lakini's Juice in Hershey in August 2008. We may never see this again. Good times.