The band was in good spirits on this tour stop in Lyon, France. As per usual during the 1996-1997 Three Snakes & One Charm world tour, the setlist was completely different than the previous performance as well as the one that followed. It is dominated with songs from their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, including three consecutive rockers (“Stare It Cold”, “Twice As Hard” and “Could I’ve Been So Blind”) to start the show. In keeping with the theme, a rollicking cover of Elmore James’ “Shake Your Money Maker” follows. The pace is then slowed down with another appearance from Shake Your Money Maker, a powerful reading of “Seeing Things”, with Chris’ vocals sounding absolutely compelling and the band in lock step.

The next song, “Hotel Illness” is the only commercially released, original song played on this evening that was not from either the new Three Snakes & One Charm or Shake Your Money Maker. The end-of-the-world atmosphere of “Evil Eye” ironically features a funny one-time-only local ad-lib in this performance. The rarely played “Hollow Day Jam” segues into the layered beauty of “Bring On, Bring On.” Covers of The Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Hot Burrito #2” and The Rolling Stones’ “Torn And Frayed” displayed the band’s uncanny ability to choose uncommon, but great songs and infuse them with a new significance through committed, passionate interpretations that always uncovered a previously unseen dimension. Speaking of covers, on this evening, the band decided to substitute a pair of original songs for their only European 97’ tour performance of the Allman Brothers Band’s classic “Dreams”. This particular performance of “Dreams” is also notable because it does not feature any guest performers, which was often the case for this song during the tour. Three Snakes’ “How Much For Your Wings” is linked to the Grateful Dead's arrangement of Otis’ Redding’s “Hard To Handle” by what was dubbed the “Space Jam”, a spacey improvisation that was exclusively played on this tour. The theme of Three Snakes & One Charm and Shake Your Money Maker is again demonstrated by the final two songs of the evening; the new “Good Friday” and the old favorite “Jealous Again.” [BAND ARCHIVE]