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 Howdy folks! As the title says, welcome to my archive of live show reviews as I have posted on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums website! I pr...

Thursday, December 30, 2021

2019-12-01 Uniondale, NY

12/1/19 Uniondale

Ghost opener and interesting looking first set! On paper, set 2 looks like a beast as well. Let's go!

Set 1

Ghost - A first set, 13 minute Ghost to open the show?! Yes please!! This one rocks, but at the same time its got that laid back chill that it sometimes lacks. Man, they waste NO time getting down to business launching smoothly into the jam! It stays pretty Ghost-ish for a long while, working on that funk before slowly moving towards more uplifting, peaky, 3.0 fair. Around the 9 minute mark or so things start to build towards the sky, everyone riding a wave together taking it where it leads them. By 11 minutes in the fire is bubbling, but the guys hold back the sauce and return to the Ghost theme pretty easily. I think the sexually aware among us call this "edging" :p And with that they ride this sucker to the finish line with a proper conclusion that then launches into Rift. A+ OPENER!!! C'mon, it don't get that much better than this!

Rift - Trey nails it!! He's doing that "playing too softly" thing again, BUT, in this instance it works. It provides dynamic tension with the other players and really grabs your attention. Finally a Rift that sounds practiced and not butchered!!! :D Holy crap, GET IT PAGE! Page is just slaying the piano on this sucker. Hardcore. Then Trey pops in with some shredding for us. Fantastic. This Rift was excellent! This was as close to "NAILED IT" as it gets these days. Great!

TMWSIY-Alvenu Malcanu-TMWSIY - "NAILED IT!" Yup, PRACTICE CONFIRMED!!! Also, who expected them to play this again only 6 or 7 shows after Alpine?! Fantastic.

The Wedge - Great song choice to pick the mood back up. Great set flow so far! Really great playing from Trey. Another one of those "Grateful Dead" versions of The Wedge that I am so fond of. Awesome. :)

Martian Monster - A short 5 minute instrumental jam interlude. I bolded it because I do think it's excellent though! Great playing from all, definitely interacting to each other. CHECK OUT GORDO DROPPIN THEM FUNK BOMBS!!!

>Timber - Ah yes, here we go! It goes quasi-Type II and Trey ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN RIPS THIS SUCKER TO SHREDS!! Short but oh so incredibly sweet!!

COOL IT DOWN! - Bust out! Yee haw! Wait, didn't they play this in Mexico? I don't remember. Who cares - it's fantastic. 'Nuff said.

Roggae - Look, it's just one of those sets. The X Factor is upon us this night and I can already tell the whole dang thing is gonna get highlighted. Deal with it :p Anyways, this Roggae is gorgeous. Trey and Page both are just going for that Bird Song beauty....Really fantastic.

Poor Heart - RAGE IT PAGE! HOLY CRAP!

>Tube - 11 minute, peak-laden, disco party insanity. Must-hear Tube! Just outstanding! A+

Character Zero -
Is CZ. It closes the set. But c'mon, I'm obligated to highlight this too. :)


Absolutely outstanding first set that completely destroyed all 4 sets played in Providence. By a noticeable mile. Yes, this one set was better than all 4 previous ones (and those were pretty good too!). A++++++++++++++++ first set!!! Fantastic song choices, energy out the wazoo, "practiced" playing, Machine gun Trey, funk histrionics, a friggin' Ghost opener.... A total "complete package" set where everything felt perfect in its place. DONT SKIP THIS SET WHATEVER YOU DO!!!! Holy crap... 

 

 

 

Set 2

Everything's Right - Fantastic 14 minutes of Type II funk. I'll let .NET review speak for itself as it sums it up perfectly: "we get another deep spacey cosmic version. It's dark and gyrating, and unique without any traditional peaks. Mildly reminiscent of 12/30/18's ER at times. Mike hits some bass bombs and Trey and Mike exchange words and a drone begins before Mike slams the intro to DWD. It's a feverish version with no wandering around. Peaks are hit high and fast and a deep groove is landed on". Let's put it like this, it sounds like the stage is a UFO about to lift off. We get out there!! WOW!!!

>Down With Disease - From literal outer space Mike SLAMS us into DWD. He's just like "yo guys check this out" and BAM! we are in Disease :) This sucker BANGS!!! For the first 8 minutes it's the definition of "Type I RAGER" and then at the end they suddenly dive into funky town Type II!!! This only lasts about a minute - Trey quickly introduces Cities and the band slip right into it. Terrific segue!

>Cities - Incredibly cool!!! That segue!!! The boys keep the uptempo rage of Disease going for a bit but latch onto Cities, giving this one a totally different vibe!!! Slowly they match beats and tempos and slide into the proper tempo with a reggae-funk infused kind of vibe. The crowd is going nuts. NOW THIS RIGHT HERE IS SOME UNIQUE AND MUST-HEAR STUFF!!!! FANTASTICALLY COOL!!!

>Carini - Perfectly placed out of Cities!!!
Guys I can't get enough of this show! It's practically flawless (for 2019) so far!!! As with Timber, this one doesn't last that long (only 8 glorious minutes) but what's here is beautiful. The spaceship launched and now we are chilling out cruising the cosmos in style, baby. Heck yes. Don't sleep on this Carini - short but fantastic.

>Ruby Waves - Without looking at the setlist, this took me totally by surprise. Always love to hear it though - new MVP song? :) Once the jam begins, the guys play with several different styles for a few minutes before hitting on a spooky organ-led segment by Page. Trey starts playing with his wah, Fishman is keeping the tempo frantic, and it sounds like an aural panic attack :p And we still have 6+ minutes left! :) Page and Trey are both tearing it up, seemingly reacting to each other with every note they play. Fishman is just crushing his kit....THIS THING FRIGGIN ROCKS. Then somehow they shift gears again to a more uplifting and blissful kind of sound. The sun has come out and it sounds like they could break into an NICU if they wanted to. Very cool. This somehow turns into the guys going up a slow rollercoaster, dragging the jam literally upwards, beat by beat, vertically. Sounds like Trey is dragging a rusty chain on some gravel while the synths push him upwards as well. Then they reach the plateau and return to the Ruby Waves them fantastically, rocking this sucker to a perfect conclusion! HOW DO THEY DO THIS?!?!??! This was astounding....

Twenty Years Later - With some bliss you gotta get some darkness to counter, eh? This thing is hulking behemoth stomping through the arena, just smashing everything in sight. Bluesy psychedelia like it's 1974 or something. Fantastic (saying that a lot - what else should I say?!). There isn't much to say - it just CRUSHES. HARD. LIKE REAL HARD, YO. Now I'm waiting for a 20 Years Later>Egg in a Hole combo!!! But then around 7 minutes the beast takes a break and the light returns, Trey squiggling away and Page doing his church organ. This slowly returns to a grinding, stop-and-start stuttering kind of rhythmic jam with darker overtones. This is incredibly dark and weird. Sounds like some stuff from a 1993 Bowie or something, haha.

>Number Line - Just as we are about to die of fright, 20YL dissolves and the shattered pieces of our psyche are pieced back together with this relaxing drink of cool water. Ah yes, that's the ticket. Absolute 10/10 Type I RAGER of a Number Line!!!

>SANTOS - Yes, the new Character Zero of second sets :D AND ITS AWESOME! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!

Roses are Free - Is a great little RAF :)

Slave to the Traffic Light - Wow, talk about a killer way to end a killer show!



THIS SHOW WAS FREAKING FANTASTIC! ABSOLUTELY TOP TIER FOR THE YEAR! THE WHOLE SECOND SET WAS AMAZING AND THE FIRST SET KILLED IT TOO! THIS SHOW DESTROYS! SKIP AT YOUR OWN PERIL! A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



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