Freakapaug!

Anticipation for Madison Square Garden is heightening as the month of December barrels towards the band's second ever four night run at the fabled venue. While picking a Top Ten list of most memorable moments at MSG would yield scores of different responses from fans with all the extraordinary moments there, there's no doubt the "Freakapaug" from 10-22-1996 would grace many lists.

For fans yearning to replay this magical moment or wishing to see what they had only heard about, great news surfaced earlier this week when it was revealed that: IT WAS CAUGHT ON VIDEO! In case you don't know what happens, mid-Weekapaug dancers dressed up in circus garb raided the stage and danced for the remainder of the Groove. Mimi Fishman even joined in on the fun towards the end. Despite relatively poor video and audio quality, the uploader has promised to upload a remastered video (with remastered audio too) along with the entire second set of this show. Hopefully, that includes the encore too! In addition to the fun in the first set, this show featured a spectacular "All Along the Watchtower" encore. It was the second (and last!) time ever played (the first being 1996/04/21). It included more circus dancers along with Buddy Miles on drums and lead vocals. Plus Merl Saunders on keys and Fish on Trey's percussion rack.

Thanks to Bill for uncovering and uploading this fantastic gem!