Friday, Dec. 5, 2003 | 8:18 a.m.
Side project. The mere words are enough to send chills down the spines of musicians everywhere who love their bands.
Rock's long and winding road is littered with outfits that splintered and vanished after one or more members began devoting time to a secondary venture.
One such band was the great Jefferson Airplane, a seminal voice in San Francisco's psychedelic scene during the late 1960s and early '70s.
Though the group stayed alive in different incarnations, morphing first into Jefferson Starship and then into Starship, Airplane never recovered from the exit of two founding members: bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen.
In the long run, however, Airplane's loss proved to be music fans' gain. Casady and Kaukonen's one-time side project, Hot Tuna, remains a vibrant blues-rock vehicle some 33 years after its formation.
Tuna's 1970s studio output stands as some of the Bay Area scene's most underappreciated work. Most of the band's essential contributions, though, have come onstage, leading to a slew of topnotch live recordings.
"Classic Hot Tuna Electric" is just one example. The disc, released by hippie label Relix Records in 1996, captures Hot Tuna during its final performance at Bill Graham's legendary Fillmore West venue.
While its companion piece, "Classic Hot Tuna Acoustic," showcases the band's folky bluegrass leanings, "Classic Electric" is a tribute to Tuna's heavier side.
Supplemented by drummer Sammy Piazza and late, great fiddler Papa John Creach, Casady and Kaukonen tear through eight of their classic tunes. The pace is breakneck throughout, even when the quartet moves into its longer, improvisational jams.
Highlights include the opening track, "Never Happen No More," the band's live warhorse "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" and Creach's frolicking violin charge "John's Other."
The disc is also home to one of Graham's famous band introductions, which includes his amusing description of Casady as "a devil, devil, devil of a man."
The Relix discs go in and out of print, but seem to be available at most online superstores at the moment. If you can't find them, 1971's "First Pull Up, Then Pull Down" features most of the same electric material from another early performance, and is readily available on RCA Records.
Artist: Hot Tuna.
Title: "Classic Hot Tuna Electric."
Year of release: 1996 (Relix Records).
Tracklisting: "Never Happen No More," "Candyman," "Keep Your Hands Trimmed and Burning," "Uncle Sam Blues," "John's Other," Rock Me Baby," "I Know You Rider," "Come Back Baby."
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