2019-07-10 Uncasville, CT

 7/10/19 Uncasville

Great setlist and the first Dogs Stole Things since the Baker's Dozen
I have low expectations after the insanity of 7/10. Just gonna jump right in and enjoy it

Buried Alive - Awesome version to open that Trey does not butcher! AWWRIGHT YO!! This BA is the tits! Absolutely crushed!!!

Cavern - Yes, Cavern is list worthy tonight! Holy crap this sucker smokes!!! I'm sick and tired of Cavern at this point in my life but holy hell I can listen to this one all day! The set placement was a great surprise, the guys nail it, and it hotter than the sun. FREAKIN AWESOME CAVERN!

Dogs Stole Things - Still, the energy is through the roof and this bustout is red hot!!! Jeez guys, save some hot sauce for set 2!!! Trey just nails it and the whole thing is fantastic.

Sugar Shack - Absolutely flawless. Trey must've practiced because he nails it. TERRIFIC SUGAR SHACK LOADED WITH ENERGY!! AWESOME VERSION!!!

Stash - 14 minutes and totally excellent. Goes to some pretty darn cool arabian-sounding places. Very inspired jamming, again, absolutely LOADED with energy! Freaking raging heat on this sucker, holy moly. ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN OUTSTANDING FLAWLESS ADVENTUROUS STASH WORTHY OF ALL-TIMER STATUS!!!

Wingsuit - Oh my goodness, absolutely perfect set placement and beautiful version. It feels good indeed! FANTASTICALLY BEAUTIFUL! TREY AND THE BOYS ARE SOARING TO THE HEAVENS! OH MY GOD. THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IVE EVER HEARD.

WHERE DID THIS WINGSUIT COME FROM! OH MY FREAKING MOTHER OF HOLY BANANA SATANIC PIGSBLOOD JESUS. 

  THAT WAS FLAWLESS!! THAT SOLO WAS BEYOND THE MOON!! THAT WAS INTO ANOTHER FREAKING GALAXY!!!!

Limb By Limb - Holy freaking crap, calm down wolfy, it'll be ok. Perfect set placement here, slowly rising from the ashes of the destructive Wingsuit. Absolutely outstanding Type I Limb By Limb. I don't know what they did before the show, but whatever drugs they took to play this good, please administer me some right now. Mother of christ...

Gumbo - Funky and gooey. Bust out that clavinet, Leo!! Down and dirty, nasty and funktastic. Yea, baby! It's pretty short but accomplishes a lot in its 5 minute run time. Again, another perfect performance for the evening!

Stray Dog - A good time boogie rocker to keep us on our feet after the funk of Gumbo. Still goin strong!!! Absolutely ripping Trey solo goodness.

Steam - Pretty strong version that grooves hard from the outset. Again, Trey is throwing everything at the wall and most if it is sticking. Everyone is playing their hearts out and the vibe is strong as heck. Just hardcore goodness from all!! Fantastic!!!

TREY DESTROYS WORLDS ON THIS STEAM!!!!

David Bowie - Extremely cool ambient/spacey intro jam for a minute or so. Everyone playing with effects and stuff. Then BAM into Bowie. Excellent all around version to cap off a truly 10/10 flawless first set.


This first set was so good, I honestly can't believe it. Literally every single track was list-worthy. The guys are playing with some voodoo x factor magic this night, energy out the wazoo. Do not skip this set. Holy freaking crap.

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Set 2

Didn't have time last night so I left off at set break. Here we go:

Party Time - Absolutely ON FIRE!!! The one I got in Charleston was a blast, but this one is a beast. The whole band is, well, partying like their lives depend on it. Outstanding opening to the set!!!

Chalkdust Torture - Starts surprisingly slow. Groovy tempo on this one fer sher. Around 6 minutes in, they drop into dark Type II. Very unexpected sounding jamming!! Very unsettling vibes going on. Things stay dark and mysterious, with new rhythms coming and going before some ambiance begins to creep in. 9 minutes in and we've covered more ground than many jams cover in 20!!! Trey steers us slightly towards land with some piercing licks perfectly timed. This jam is COHESIVE AS HECK. Page begins to sprinkle in more upbeat keys and the jam heads for a much more positive sounding direction. Absolutely outstanding "micro" jam, as the folks call it. LESS CAN BE MORE, BABY!!! Do NOT skip this CDT!!!

>Ruby Waves - Pretty horrendous "segue" (if you can call it that, lol). Truth be told, the song portion is just ok - nothing wrong but it never really feels overly terrific. But - and that's a BIG but! - the guys immediately break back into that awesome dark jamming from Chalkdust. It's almost as if that CDT jam was simply interrupted by Ruby Waves but never actually ended. Extremely cool stuff. And just like that CDT, the jam is only what, 3 or 4 minutes?! Like, holy crap talk about getting your money's worth here!!! Jeez...Slowly, the jam devolves into a much sparser area. Fish keeps the rhythm frantic with Page laying down lengthy sustained notes and Trey noodling away in the back. Appropriately, we segue into....

Seven Below - I didn't want that jam to end, BUT that was a terrific call by Trey for once!!! Great transition!!! The boys waste no time getting to the goods and 3 minutes in the jamming starts. It's a pretty good 8 minutes that goes from frantic funk to more blissful rock areas. This jam is much more meandering - everyone is taking their time and soaking it in, nobody quick to cut to the chase.

Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan - At the end of 7 Below you could kind of sense them running out of steam. A lackluster intro to STFTFP confirms this, lol. Not the smoothest intro! Pretty nifty Stealing Time. Not a great one, imo, but it feels like it tries to be a little different at times, almost jazzy in spots. Pretty darn cool, actually!!! Hell, the final minute is pure 1999 ambiance! When the hell has that ever happenned out of a ST?!?!?!?!?

>Piper - Keeps the goods going. Builds nicely out of ST and feels more like another excuse for a jam than the song proper (song? what song? ). Which is why we love Piper. Also, back into RW it goes!!!

>Ruby Waves Reprise - SICK!!! A full on reprise of the song with more great Type I jamming to close out this monster sandwich!!!! SICK SICK SICK!!!!

>I Always Wanted It This Way - SICK SICK SICK!! Came PERFECTLY out of Ruby Waves!!! Terrific 10 minutes of just awesome Leo action. Don't miss! Awesome jamming! The jam descends into jet-engine ambiance tricking you into thinking Cactus is about to slam into Down With Disease. Instead we get....

>Drift While You're Sleeping - Absolutely perfectly (as with every other song choice this very constructed set...) placed, we get Drift. Awesome version of my favorite GOTF song!! What a freaking smashing set! The jams were short but they were terrific and the song choices were perfect.

Bouncing Around the Room - It's just a nice BATR to ease us into the encores. Nothing more, nothing less.

Saw It Again - Is Saw It Again

Slave to the Traffic Light - Look, its Slave, its the closer, its awesome. What more do I say?

 

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Ok, final thoughts on 7/10/19 Uncasville

Set 1 was amazeballs. Add it to the list of absolutely start-to-finish PERFECT first sets. Seriously, its that good.

Set 2 followed suit but had a different character than others. The guys were in the mood to jam, but Trey was also in the mood to keep switching songs. This led to multiple shorter jams that were super excellent, just not very long. Again, "microjam" is the term, I guess. Perfect example of it in this 2nd set.
The flow in set 2 was pretty superb - while the transitions weren't all flawless, the song choices were pretty much dang perfect. And that entire Ruby Waves "sandwich" is fantastic.

On the whole, if 7/9/19 is one of the best of the year, this show is definitely at the very top of the "you've heard the classics, now dig deeper" pile of 2019 gigs.

Damn excellent from start to finish, but a little bit of a haphazard feel at times.

I'd give this show a strong 4.0-4.2 rating, probably. Sick gig.