2011-12-29 New York City, NY

12/29/11 MSG night 2

Other than the Sloth OPENER and YEM in slot 2 (!!!), set 1 was completely and utterly skippable and unmemorable.

Don't rush to conclusions - it was fine, high-quality rocking affair, but there was NOTHING to mkae you even think about returning to it. Just rote versions of the songs played to the nth degree. In 2011 rote means Hot and Fun but not necessarily special.

A fine set but noone will shame you for completely fast forwarding through it  

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I don't know what went wrong this night. This was one of the most....I don't even know what to call it....shows of the year.
The vibes were great, the energy was there, nice flow on paper, no major problems.

It was like a sandwich with 2 wonderful pieces of bread waiting to be filled with tasty meats and veggies

But the sandwich shop ran out of the meat and veggies. And left you with 2 buns.

A good base for liftoff but no liftoff to speak of, does that make any sense?

The first set songs were all fine - even excellent - but none of them were memorable in the slightest. It was all "that was great, but a million others were better".

This show is just completely UNEXCITING - thats the word! Boring? No, not really, just not extra in any way shape or form.

That's almost worse than being bad - at least a bad show is memorable for being bad!

Can't compare to being there but this was a completely unsatisfactory listen, lol.

The best things about this show:

Sloth (Opener!)
You Enjoy Myself (2nd slot! 16 minutes before vocal jam!)
Crosseyed and Painless (threatens liftoff but never reaches it)

Mike's Song
>CHALKDUST TORTURE
>I Am Hydrogen
>Weekapaug Groove

Now THAT perked my ears up!!! The jam from CT into Hydrogen was especially rad - Trey was ripping up the jam full speed and introduced the Hydrogen melody at full CT tempo. Think a heavy metal I Am Hydrogen. VERY COOL!

After that, Character Zero and Loving Cup actually knock it out of the park as the encores.

The rest of the show is just OK in the worst way possible. Like when you are getting over a cold and you feel ok but your taste and smell still haven't returned. Everythign is just BLAND.

This show gets a B/B+ from me. For once I actually agree with the ratings on .NET, lol

Ok rant over - 2 shows to go! 

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12/29 New York City (Ok but incredibly boring show. Grab Crosseyed and the Mike's Groove)
The Sloth (Opener!)
You Enjoy Myself (SLOT 2!!!)
Back On the Train
Maze
Crosseyed and Painless (Nice short jamming.)
>Simple (Nice bliss!)
>LIFEBOY
Guyuute
Mike's Song (FIRE!)
>CHALKDUST TORTURE!
>I Am Hydrogen
>Weekapaug Groove (GREAT jam)
Character Zero (interesting soloing)
Loving Cup