Wino Wednesday: The Hidden Hand, Full Set Live in Amsterdam, 2007
I count myself lucky to have seen The Hidden Hand the few times I did. I could tell you a story about blowing a chance to do a show with them owing to a snowstorm around when their last album, The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote, was released in 2007, but more pleasantly, I recall a few especially killer gigs circa 2004’s Mother Teacher Destroyer that were an enlightenment in terms of showing me the power of what a classic heavy trio could accomplish on stage, Wino and bassist/vocalist Bruce Falkinburg playing off each other’s work so well. When it hit, their third and final outing didn’t do as much for me — its narrative of rebellion seemed put together after the fact and the songs came across as moving away from the warmth of the record prior, which I still hold as their best — but even without drummer Dave Hennessy or Evan Tanner, who played on 2005’s Devoid of Color EP as well as The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote, they were an excellent and continually underappreciated band. At the time, you could say the same for Spirit Caravan, The Obsessed and Saint Vitus too.
Fair enough. The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote came out in Feb. 2007, and they were done by August of that year, but in between they took time to hit Europe for a full month. The complete set which you can see below was webcast May 9, 2007, on fabchannel.com — not linked because it doesn’t exist anymore — and features cuts from all three The Hidden Hand records, emphasizing some of what was best about that band in their prime. The show was at Paradiso in Amsterdam, and also on the tour were Philly heavy prog instrumentalists Stinking Lizaveta and weirdo doomers Beehoover. Sounds like a solid bill. Quality on the clip isn’t the greatest if you’re looking to make it fullscreen, but it’s still worth checking out for the pro audio alone.
Either way, hope you enjoy and have an excellent Wino Wednesday:
