7/12/19 Alpine Valley #1
Set 1
Great looking set tonight with a very rare Sand opener. Cool beans....
Sand - It starts off pretty tentatively, Trey doing that "playing
too quietly" thing. It slowly builds steam and eventually builds to the
highest, hottest peak you've ever heard in your life. Talk about a show
opener! Jaw firmly planted in the floor....
Tweezer - Who expected this in slot 2? Noone! 
Pretty cool jamming on this that ends up focusing on a feel-good,
major-key vibe. This leads us into a darker, funkier area for a bit. All
in all this Tweezer isn't anything ultra-special that you haven't heard
before, but it is a great little abbreviated slice of jamming that
works wonderfully in the 2nd slot tonight.
>Free - They nailed the segue for once in the freaking world! Tweezer
was winding down and you could tell they were "looking for a way out",
so to speak. Trey stumbled into that opening D chord and then quickly
everyone jumped on and they slammed into it. Absolutely terrific
segue!!! Trey is rocking the Leslie sound on this one. Very well
performed - this is one of those "album-ready" renditions. Just a
full-on excellent straight ahead Type I Free.
Turtle In the Clouds - Absolutely on fire. The crowd has been
audibly loud the whole set so far and this is no exception. Awesome
version with everyone tearing it up on their respective instruments.
Lots of extra OOMPH to this one it seems! Really, this one is just BANGIN! FOR REAL THIS IS BANGING!!!!
Set Your Soul Free - Hotter than the sun. This is maybe in the
ballpark of what SYSF might've sounded like on an average night in 1.0.
Meaning Trey is shredding it up, Page is smashing those keys, and
everyone is just hammering this home like their souls depend on it.
Terrific, short, Type I beast. Really, really full of p!ss and
vinegar!!!!
Lawn Boy - Is Lawn Boy. You know exactly what you are getting. 
Camel Walk - Unexpected and totally welcome. Gordo shines big
time on this, following up from his great solo in Lawn Boy. Flawless
rendition with everyone on their A-game. Trey's licks are tasty and
perfectly placed/phrased. Fishman is doing loads of fills and Cactus is
tearing it up. Fantastic Camel Walk!!!
Theme From the Bottom - OUTSTANDING!!! You say you've heard the best Theme ever played?! WRONG!! HAVE YOU HEARD THIS SUCKER?!?!??! HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!
>Rift - Great segue. Very dynamic version. Trey is again doing his
"playing too quietly" thing, but it works in the context of this
version. A pretty strong 3.0 rendition all things (re)considered, except
that Trey completely drops the ball on this one. Ok, actually, yea not a
great Rift, lol
Wolfman's Brother - When in doubt, toss in the Wolfman!
A solid 5 or so minutes of tasty funk workout in this one, Trey laying
heavily into his wah. Pretty dang hot and makes up for that awful Rift,
but at the end of the day this is just a solid, red-hot Type I Wolfman.
Raging peak but nothing special. See Free^^^
All in all, a pretty strong first set. Discounting Rift, nothing was
below "excellent", imo. Everything was AT LEAST excellent on a base
level!
BUT, the highlights did stand out. This was a set where everything was
terrific, just some stuff was MORE terrific than others, capiche?
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Set 2
No Men In No Man's Land - Pretty fantastic. It's only 10 minutes
but feels like 20. They go hard Type II raging space funk on this one,
but then Trey ripcords us into Prince Caspian. Wtf mate! 
Prince Caspian - I forgive you Trey. This Caspian is spectacular.
Seriously, this is an A+ Caspian with inspired playing from all.
Fantastic. Goes Spanish Jam type II for a minute!
>Everything's Right - See the last two! This one is even BETTER!!! Hardcore raging deep space groovy funk explosion. MUST HEAR VERSION!!!
Roses Are Free - Good version, but it aint Big Cypress 
2001 - See Roses Are Free
The Wedge - Absolutely ON FIRE version! This aint no chill GD rendition, Machine Gun Trey is here, babay!! Absolutely red hot and totally worth your time!!
Light>Plasma>Light - Spectacular!!!
Light and Plasma both have great self-contained jams and then the segue
back into Light is just icing on the cake! Short but sweet!
46 Days - Fantastic
The Squirming Coil - Sounds as good as any other great version, but nothing to distinguish it.
A Life Beyond the Dream - Playing wise, it's ever-so-slightly rusty at times, BUT, Trey
pours his friggin' heart and soul into this performance. So much
emotion and energy. The guitar shredding at the end is terrific. A
perfect emotional climax warmed up by Coil!!!
Tube - Encore Tube?! What!? Outstanding version that brings it like you expect. Terrific!
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Terrific show overall. Looking at the setlist, I'm sure lots of people were taken by surprise!!
Set 1 was excellent from start to finish, thought there were obvious highlights.
Set 2 was like one continuous album sequence or something. It just
flowed and flowed and flowed. The playing was great throughout and
several of the jams were must-hear, imo.
I wouldn't put this near Uncasville, but it was maybe in the Top 10 of the summer so far. Killer show!
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