2019-08-30 Commerce City, CO

 Moving onward with Dick's 2019.

2019-08-30 Commerce City, CO

Can't Always Listen - Does anyone know the deal with the Can't Always Listen opener?! Its the 2nd time ever played and probably a song most people thought would never show up ever again. I am a BIG fan of the original debut performance from, what, 2015? A great kinda "stonesy" classic rock sounding track. Would welcome it to the rotation! Great stuff and it makes the highlights list for the playing as much as the rarity. It starts a little hesitantly but winds up raging to a hot conclusion.

Free - Trey has some trouble with the opening lick (as a player myself, I can confirm that it can be tricky at times), but I forgive him. Sounds like he's using a the neck pickup for a thicker/muddier tone overall and I'm not a fan of it. Sounds in that 2003/2004 tonal range. That's ok though - just something I noticed! Not sure what happened but he also totally flubbed the lyrics. This is a pretty awful Free so far. BUT, it sounds like he's laughing about something so can anyone enlighten me here? Am I being too harsh? The jam gets pretty gosh darn funky and fun. Absolutely a dance-fest. But the song itself SUCKED. Too little too late for me. This is fun but nothing special.

No Men In No Man's Land - Much better!! Absolutely RIPPING Type I DESTRUCTION!!! Everyone is playing like they sat on a campfire, lol. Hot and tight and RAGING. What is this, 2010?! Spectacularly good Type I NMINML!!! DONT MISS THIS!!!

555 - Decent enough but the vocals sound very hesitant and the track has a hint of lethargy to it. It does eventually get pretty dark and heavy towards the end so it's not a waste or anything, but it's not good enough to merit a recommendation.

>Back On the Train - I'd say this is pretty excellent. Trey's playing is stupendously smooth and buttery, leading us into a chilled-out kinda zone. A wonderful BOTT that even has some effects going on and some awesome Leo throughout. Fantastic!!! Eventually they slide out of the chill zone and into hotter waters, Trey leading us to the sun and a raging peak. Awesome. ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN OUTSTANDING BOTT!!!!

Rift - Very pretty and not totally butchered. A pretty strong outing, actually, at this point in time. But nothing memorable about it whatsoever. A tad on the "quiet" side when it should be ripping hot. Great playing from Page!

Steam - MUST HEAR!!! HEAT!!! AWESOME TREY!!! Fantastic late-night groove to this. Trey is demolishing and this thing is just fnatastic. A+

Poor Heart - HOLY MOTHER EFFING CRAP CHECK OUT LEO ABSOLUTELY DESTROY THIS TUNE! HOLY MOLY!!!

Undermind - Leo is MVP of this set! He continues to tear it up. Yessssss!!! Also, let it rip, Trey!!! All in all not a classic but damn fine Undermind. If not exactly overtly memorable, it's at least of high quality.

Train Song - Is Train Song. Great to hear and good set placement as a cool down after that raging trio.

Wingsuit - Again, perfect set placement. As always, just magical. I haven't heard a poor one yet. It's like Reba - it's pretty much always gonna deliver the goods. This Wingsuit gives you exactly what you expect and its terrific.

Blaze On - Anticlimactically, they decide to end the set with my most-loathed song. Sails deflated....Once again though, get it Page! Pretty hot soloing from Trey but you pretty get exactly as expected. Nice set closer.


All in all, this set was a chore to get through - As you can see, it was up and down from song to song and the stuff that was good was usually only "just pretty hot" in the most basic way.

I would Steam and Back On The Train are both absolutely top-tier must hear, but the rest of the set you can refer to the notes for  

Set 2

Everything's Right - Excellent Type II excursion. Mostly stays in a positive, upbeat mood throughout. A strong 18 minutes of feel-good, dance party grooving. The song comes to a hot peak and then morphs into a funky jam that actually segues perfectly into...

Mercury - THAT SEGUE WAS MAGNIFICENT!!! THAT WAS LEGIT!!! FANTASTIC!!! For what it's worth, the song portion of this is pretty hot and angsty, nary a flub in sight. This is what it sounds like when Mercury is done justice! Quickly the expected jam ensues. Dark-ish funk with lots of watery keys. Magic to my ears. Somehow this eventually melts into a more uplifting area, with much more positive vibes. This has some of that X Factor magic to it. Just absolutely wonderful playing from all. Check out Mike tearing it up on bass as well! Somehow we manage to shift gears YET AGAIN into a more mid-tempo and slightly jazzy vibe with some occasional middle-eastern overtones going on. Still upbeat, but there is a new rhythm and a great sense of "how did we get HERE?!" . Very awesome. This is the stuff we hope for in a great jam, no? Slight darkness returns with Page turning up the disco synths and Trey ripping it up. Cactus is on a bombing run and we are in Funk Space!!! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE STUFF!!!!! THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST NATURAL AND EXPLORATORY JAMS OF THE YEAR!!!! Guys, this is true MANDATORY listening!!!! PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND CHECK THIS OUT YESTERDAY!!! OUTSTANDING!!!!

Shade - Holy mother freaking crap. After that mind-exploding Mercury, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. A+++ on that set placement, yo!!!

>Light - And what do you follow Shade with?....How about LIGHT! The quiet intro to this version works wonderfully coming out of the quiet of Shade. They don't bang into this one, they eaaaassseeee on into it. And it works. Just great!!!! When the jam starts, Trey makes a wrong note and the rest of the band immediately jump off that wrong note to change from major to minor key. Extremely cool and the kind of thing most probably wouldn't notice, but its a perfect example of the guys listening to each other and building on eachother's playing. This Light is short but incredibly sweet. The jam kills and they just slay it. A+ All hail Micro Jams!!! The jam again veers off into Type II and the boys segue - again, perfectly! - into a Party Time that absolutely noone saw coming!!

>Party Time - Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!!!!!!! The magic is flowing! X Factor abound!!! Incredible....

Sand - After bringing Light/PT to a proper close, Gordo kicks off Sand, thick and nasty like, with that heavy bass groove (even throwing in a fill or two!!!). THIS SAND IS OUTSTANDING!!!! THE GUYS REACH FOR THE FREAKING SKY LIKE A FUNKY BIRD SONG ON STEROIDS! THERE IS NOTHING TO SAY - WHY HAVE YOU NOT LISTENED TO THIS MAJESTIC MAGICAL BEAST OF AWESOMENESS YET?!?!??!

>What's The Use - Trey kind of ripcorded us out of Sand, but its ok in this instance and the guys follow his lead, SMASHING into WTU with the force of a thousand comet impacts. BAM!!!! WTU goes into 100 percent pure ambient silence with only Page and his "THX LOGO" synth making any sound. Holy hell this is scary! Slowly the rest of the guys rejoin Page and bring us to maximum ambient bliss orgasm.

OUTSTANDING

Harry Hood - The song portion is pretty weak, but the jam, again, is just loaded with that extra mustard sauce! Extremely hot and blissful and raging and magical Hood! A+++++

SANTOS - Raging end to an outstanding set.

GUYS THIS SET WAS INSANE! THIS MIGHT POSSIBLY BE THE BEST SET OF 2019 TO THIS POINT! SCREW SET 1 BUT SET 2 is ENTIRELY MANDATORY LISTENING!!!!!!