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Wino Wednesday: Spirit Caravan Cover The Obsessed and Saint Vitus Live in 1999

Even as far as Wino Wednesday posts go, this one’s pretty Wino‘ed out. The date was May 28, 1999, and Spirit Caravan was playing in Wheaton, Maryland, at a club called Phantasmagoria that they would play many times over their years together, both earlier as Shine and later until their breakup in 2002, and right in a row in the set the now-legendary three-piece of Scott “Wino” Weinrich, Dave Sherman and Gary Isom covered “To Protect and Serve” by The Obsessed and “Bitter Truth” by Saint Vitus. One Wino-fronted band taking on songs by two others. It couldn’t get any more Wino if the dude was wearing a Shine shirt at the time — oh wait, he was. So there you go.

Separated by a span of six years, “Bitter Truth” and “To Protect and Serve” work pretty well together, especially since it’s Spirit Caravan playing them. The Saint Vitus song appeared originally on 1988’s Mournful Cries, which is kind of the bastard child of Wino‘s first era as Saint Vitus vocalist (the second era, by the way, is happening now), sandwiched in the discography between the landmark 1986 outing, Born too Late, and 1990’s V. Cuts like “The Troll” and “Shooting Gallery” still feature in Vitus sets at least as of last week, and rightly so. Likewise, “To Protect and Serve” was a single from The Obsessed‘s 1994 swansong, The Church Within, and that material has always hit heavier live than on disc.

That’s all the more the case with Sherman‘s bass carrying the groove alongside Wino‘s riffs (nothing against Guy Pinhas, who played on the record, or Reid Raley, who’s been The Obsessed‘s bassist on their current reunion run). As Wino takes a solo around two minutes into “To Protect and Serve,” you can hear Sherman hold out notes and kick back in, and it’s telling of the kinds of grooves go on to proffer in Earthride.

Really, the tall dude up front who spends the whole time headbanging and pumping his fists has the right idea, so I’ll shut up and let this one play out. Enjoy and have a great Wino Wednesday:

Spirit Caravan, “To Protect and Serve” and “Bitter Truth” live in Wheaton, MD, May 28, 1999

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