2019-08-31 Commerce City, CO

 2019-08-31 Commerce City, CO

Night 2 in Plagueville

Set 1:

The Moma Dance - Unexpected as an opener and not my preferred choice (though I always love it). Great groove and heavy vibes on this one. Strong Moma but nothing special. This wasn't really anything notable, but it was REALLY FRIGGIN GOOD, so it goes on the list!

The Final Hurrah - FACEPLANT INTO ROKK!!! Absolutely fantastic Type I rager. They killed it!!! So much energy!!!

Gumbo - Heavy and FUNKY! Moma on steroids! This is OUTSTANDING. And that piano solo from Page to close...oi vey this was MAGICAL!!! GET THIS NOW!!!!

Access Me - One of my favorite rarities. Great version of a great rarity worth checking out!

Funky B - MACHINE GUN TREY! FREAKING GET IT! SMOKESHOW CITY!!!

Ghost - Absolutely raging 16 minute Ghost!!! And in the first set?! Right away the jam immediately goes Type II with the boys dropping straight into a CHILL and slightly ambient kind of jam. And this is right out of the gates!!! Trey is doing some beautiful Wingsuit-y stuff with Page echoing him on the keys. Interesting rhythms and fills from Fishman throughout with Mike running across the fretboard in the mean time. All 4 guys are playing interesting things and you could easily pick out one of them to focus on. X FACTOR MAGIC!!! Where did this come from?! One second we were in a funky Ghost, the next we are in Blissville!!!! And we still have 10 minutes to go!!! The guys keeps moving back and forth from major to minor seamlessly, almost bar-by-bar!! Is this dark? Is this light? What's it gonna be in 10 seconds from now?! Who knows! Who cares!! Around 7 minutes in and a proper dark groove takes hold with Page turning to his disco synths and Mike still running for it down his fretboard. Quickly a very cool and groovy "Doors" kinda jam takes hold with a steady, upbeat and driving rhythm. This whole time Trey has been carefully soloing, never quite going Machine Gun, but never bowing out either. Just a steady stream of interesting playing from him to glue this together. This really feels like a proper group improv and not just a Trey And The Boys solo excursion. Absolutely outstanding stuff. Still 7 minutes to go!!! This classic-rock kinda vibe starts growing dark and menacing. Dark and evil synths, minor key playing all over the place, Mike and Trey really nailing down the "Evil" factor. This is the most schizophrenic jam ever - there has been 5 mood changes in the last 5 minutes. And it has all sounded natural and organic and wonderfully well done. They are a friggin' segue machine right now!!! Trey and the Boys keep the mood going and allow Page to just go nuts on the keys, coloring everything purple (in my mind...) letting the funky evil to envelop us all. Fishman has a more frantic rhythm going on and Trey and Page start to lock back in sync with Cactus laying down that PHAT groove with Fishman. I don't know what this is but its freaking awesome. And we still have 4 minutes to go!!! Trey slowly regains his perch as the focal point and with Fishman smashing those cymbals, he turns on the funky wah and absolutely strangles us to death with his gnarly axe handling. Meanwhile Page is totally doing the whole "Demented Halloween Nightmare" excursion over on the keys. Mike is still just running laps around his bass, and Fishman is just hammering those drums to death. What is this - this is spectacular!!!! This is definitely spin-in-spot headbanging music. AND THEN ON A DIME THEY SOMEHOW SLOWLY BRING THE TEMPO BACK DOWN AND PERFECTLY RETURN TO GHOST-PROPER. WHAT IN THE EVER LIVING HELL WAS THAT! IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!! DO NOT SKIP THIS SUCKER!!! THAT WAS BEYOND WELL DONE!

>Tube - Talk about perfect set placement again!! And again they just destroy the jam on this! At the 1:30 mark they launch head first into the dank murk! Still shifting moods on a dime, Trey and Page seem to have latched onto one another, playing off of each other. Bliss arrives around 3 min in and then you realize there are Ramones songs longer than this!! Great Piano from Page and funky volume-pedal playing from Trey (that's what that sound is, right?) Into the sky we go...And from there that is how it goes!! Major key ripping Trey shredding it up for like 4 minutes of fantastic awesomeness before returning to Tube with the bluesy bridge section. Again, outstanding stuff!!!!

Mountains In the Mist - Wonderful set placement and song choice. Just beautiful. THAT SOLO FROM TREY IS BEAUTIFUL BEYOND WORDS! THAT IS SOME WINGSUIT CHIT, MAYNE!!! Measured and dynamic, quiet and lovely, just jaw droppingly tender and expressive. Like the world's chillest Reba/Zappa solo or something. Holy freaking crap. And then those vocal harmonies out of it...SPINE TINGLINGLY MAGICAL! Someone call the ambulance - I'm about to faint....

Drift While You're Sleeping - So glad this seems to have replaced More as the de-facto set closer. I get the "cheese" complaints on this, BUT, of course I really love it. It's musically interesting (at least in the beginning) and the "love" refrains at the end are perfect to send us out on an uplifting note. This one sound unusually impassioned and its great to hear it coming into its own at this point. Terrific closing to an A+ first set.



Unless it's 1990's Phish or something, first sets really don't get much better than this. This was pure top of the heap quality. This put 8/30's first set to SHAME.

10/10 first set, imo. A few rarities, inspired playing, several lengthy Type II excursions that were imaginative and exciting...what more do you want?!

 Set 2

Mike's Song - The song itself sounds pretty tired and lackluster, like they spent all their rocket sauce in set 1. As soon as the jam begins though, the crowd goes nuts cheering for something - does anyone know what happenned? Anyways, the jam gets pretty hot, but on the whole there is nothing special or memorable about this MS. It's not even that long. Some nice ripping from Trey towards the end, but that's about it. Expected more!!!

>I Am Hydrogen - Is Hydrogen

>Weekapaug Groove - Instead of raging in as expected, the guys limp into the song and give us the quietest, chillest, most-defeated sounding Weekapaug these ears have ever heard. I will give it this though - for being ultra-chill, the playing is still terrific and inspired sounding. What an odd Weekapaug! In the end I'd say this is noteworthy for giving a different approach to the song than what was probably expected. Eventually the song goes full Type II for several glorious minutes that feature middle eastern sounds explored and deep space pure ambience (including gong hits!!!!) WEEKAPAUG SPACE MELTDOWN!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, I can honestly say I've never heard one like this! Slowly they rise out of the murk into 46 Days. Talk about a segue! (how many times have I said that?!)

>46 Days - WOW! WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?!?! TASTE THE FEAR FOR THE PLAGUE IS NEAR!!! This rips with the white hot intensity of 1,000 burning suns. Don't skip out on this!!

>Set Your Soul Free - Hot version that descends into Type II dark space funk around 6 minutes in. This eventually turns into some beautiful upbeat blissness. Some disco synths see a move towards deeper waters, but the guys pull the cord on it and return to the song proper with a fiery reprisal to finish. Awesome SYSF!!!

>Down With Disease - Trey totally butchers the song (Seeing a pattern here?) but at least we get an 18 minute long Type II beast out of this sucker! Too tired right now to narrate the whole thing, but to get that Ghost in set 1 and then get THIS?! TALK ABOUT A SHOW, MAN!!!!

>NICU - And another "who the heck saw that coming?!" segue for the record books! NICU is NICU but coming out of DWD, this one is loaded with extra pizzazz and is a total party beast! AWESOME.

Bug - Bug is Bug but this perfect out of NICU. Total mood, as the kids say. Seemed extra powerful with those crashing chords. Great stuff. Freaking awesome soloing by Trey.

The Wedge - Again, sick. C'mon man, is everything going to be a highlight or what?!

Slave to the Traffic Light - Again, Slave is Slave. It rips and it peaks and it destroys.

Brian and Robert - Always great to get this!

Character Zero - Is CZero, but it brings this incredible show to a perfectly rocking close. A+




All in all, this show took the momentum started with set 2 of the show prior and just expanded upon it in the best way. Set 1 was ridiculously strong (as close to a flawless 1st set as you can get!) and set 2 had a rough start with Mike's but quickly righted itself to deliver just as much epic punch as the 2nd set the night before. Absolutely terrific show. A strong 4.5 if I was to rate this sucker.