2019-12-04 Pittsburgh, PA

 Been about 2 weeks since I played 12/3/19 and I've been thinking of 12/4 every day since - I just haven't been in the mood to play it at all.

Kinda frustrating, actually!

Anyway, I'm "forcing" onwards tonight and getting it over with!!

12/4/19 Pittsburgh

Set 1

555 - Ooh, very interesting opening choice! Not my favorite Gordo song (the chorus vocals never ever work live, imo). An unexpected choice for opener, but definitely not what I would've preferred. It's ok - nothing special. Pretty well performed but kinda lacking energy. Some hot Trey in the rear, but overall a poor opening choice. Idk. Your mileage may vary.

AC/DC Bag - Brings some much needed energy! Forget that 555 and just pretend this is the proper opener! Great Page on this using some unusual-for-Bag keyboard sounds. A great little 3.0 Bag worthy of opener status! Nothing you haven't heard before but very good indeed!

Cars, Trucks, Buses - Yay! A great surprise and big rarity to hear! Keeps the energy going good like a Party Time or Undermind. And Trey gets down to BIZNESS on this sucker!! Awesome CTB!!!! SO MUCH ENERGY!! Fantastic!

Water In the Sky - If 555 was asleep at the wheel and Bag was the guys waking up, CTB and Water see the energy really getting high! Wonderful little WITS!!! Points again for rarity. Great Page on this. Awesome.

Sample In a Jar - See AC/DC Bag. A fine, rocking version, but nothing you haven't heard before or need to rush to hear right now. They almost butcher the ending too, lol

Theme From the Bottom - Worst Theme I've ever heard. Ok, c'mon, if I can play Theme From the Bottom better than this, there is something wrong here. Reba or It's Ice I can understand, but how the heck do you get sticky fingers on a song as simple as this?! The jam is very nice though for several minutes so I will give it that, but at the end of the day this just doesn't cut the mustard.

ASIDE: Man, this set is really lacking energy. Things are played fine, but the guys sound tired. Chilled out. Lukewarm. Not in a good way. The guys sound like they want to go to sleep.

Funky B - As this set is nodding into slumberland, a fairly lively Funky B comes to save us (for now). Page rages this one hardcore and Mike gets some awesome bass runs in. Still light on Trey but easily the best thing since CTB so far. Thank goodness Trey melts our faces off towards the end. I was really getting worried here!!!

Wolfman's Brother - Very patient and takes it's time. Actually makes proper use of tonight's chill vibe for an exceptional rendition that will have you grooving til the final notes. Pretty great Type 1.5 jamming in spots. Just a really, really, really good Wolfman's with strong flashes of jamming peeking through and a red hot peak from Trey.

Halley's Comet - Exceptionally FUNKY version! The laid-back tempo on this give it some great "early-2000's-indie-teen-comedy" vibes, like something you would hear in Napoleon Dynamite or something. FANTASTIC!!!!! This thing kills it!!! The energy is peaking again and some proper jamming commences. None of this Wolfman's-tease-us stuff!!!! We get into some ultra funky areas where they could EASILY have segued into Sand. Almost kinda wish they did - it would've been awesome!!

RIPCORD ALERT! BOOO!!!

When The Circus Comes to Town - Look, I love their version of this, but c'mon, did you really need to KILL the HC jam in the middle of flight just to give an already sedated set a ballad?!!! NO YOU DID NOT! BOOO!!! Circus is Circus, but at least this one has some really good Trey to send it out.

Victim - New Mike tune. Very cool. Sound very rehearsed and full of potential. If this was 1998 this sucker would be a 25 minute deep-space odyssey. Trey sound excellent, picking his spots to tear it up. Great sounds all around. Really awesome debut. Can't wait to hear this again!!!!

Run Like An Antelope - Pretty standard but hot version to close out.



This set is weird. And not in a good way. The first half was mostly one of the worst sets of the year (if not the worst) while the 2nd half (roughly from Wolfman onwards) was pretty darn good, bordering on awesome in spots! Even though things got hot in parts near the end, on the whole this set had NO energy. I mean, god, I've been to livelier funerals.....

Cars, Truck Buses/Wolfman/Halley's Comet/Victim

Get those and throw the rest in the trash  

On to set 2


Cavern - Incredible weird hearing this as a 2nd set opener. For some reason it feels like a rarity too, not sure why. It's a decent set opener and gets points for rare set placement. Overall it's just Cavern. Nothing noteworthy in the slightest and its not even the best version of it....It's a pretty lackluster rendition, if I'm being honest.

>Runaway Jim - 14 minutes and pretty good! Things mostly stay in an "aquatic" sounding Type II space-jazz environment. Lots of Prince-esque synth sounds and blissful peaks from Trey. Pretty fantastic once it gets a head of steam. If this was 1997 it would be forgotten, but for 2019 this is pretty decent.

Ghosts of the Forest - The debut and pretty great! Trey wakes up and we get a "why wasn't this played sooner?!" performance. Strong for a debut and good enough to want to hear it in the future.

A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing - Very nice!! Perfect choice out of Ghosts!!! It's very short (only 7+ minutes) but gets into that Type II Aqua Space that Jim flirted with earlier, Trey playing with delays and whatnot. Very very nice stuff worth your time.

Prince Caspian - Wow!! How the hell did Trey ripcord them into Caspian with the segue ACTUALLY FRIGGIN WORKING?!?!?!? WHAT?!?! Just that friggin transition itself was amazing. Dude. Great playing from all, including Trey. Great little Caspian!!

>Fuego - Caspian unexpectedly melts into ambience for a hot minute there and up from the hazy mist rises Fuego. Trey tears it up. THIS FUEGO IS FANTASTICALLY HOT!!! GET IT TREY! A+ FUEGO!!! They go full-on 1997 deep-space ambience for several glorious minutes to close it out. Spectacular.

You Enjoy Myself - Out of nowhere! Did not hear this coming!!! Absolutely killer and fantastic version!!! Trey DESTROYS and Gordo gets his due. Must-hear for a 2019 version. Fantastic.

Good Times Bad Times - Pretty awesome and funny: Trey can't get the verse patterns right but absolutely NAILS all of the soloing note-for-note.

The encores are the encores. There was some good stuff this second set but I'm done with this gig....FINALLY.



All in all, this show was extremely hit-or-miss. There were great points (as noted above), but even THOSE still felt below par. I'd give this gig a 3.7 or so if I was to rate it on .NET. The energy was SO lacking in many parts and it wasn't until Runaway Jim that the guys felt properly awake. But it was too little too late and this show did not impress me. I was pretty much waiting for it to be over. Get the highlight I listed here and a few pages back and throw the rest of the show in the trash. Easily in the bottom 3 or 4 shows of 2019 so far. EASILY.