2012-08-22 Kansas City, MO

 Last played a show on October 5. Onwards with 2012 yet again

8/22/12 Kansas City

Set 1

Chalkdust Torture - Unexpectedly laid-back and "album tempo" rendition of the tune. Dig the breezy vibe on this one! Never thought I'd say a CDT was breezy...
Really awesome moment at 4 minutes in where Page and Trey "stumble into each other", so to speak, and you can hear a bit of dissonance. They easily could've ridden that out to a crazy jam. Alas, 'twas not to be and easily missed, but very cool little easter egg moment! On the whole this CDT isn't anything must-hear or overtly remarkable, but it is still excellently played and gets the show off to a great start! Nothing wrong at all with this one, just nothing very memorable.

Skin It Back - Ooh, this is fantastic. Why this isn't/wasn't in regular rotation is another "beats me" scenario. It sounds so great!!! Obviously well rehearsed! Killer, killer stuff. Pretty funky and Moma Dance-y

Moma Dance - ....and speaking of Moma Dance! The laid-back vibe of the first two songs contributes excellently. Killer, killer VIBE on this one. Silky smooth, as Brent Mydland would say!!! But this one just has extra mustard sauce on it tonight. Even more than usual. Seriously, this one is freaking smooootttthhhhhhh. TERRIFIC MOMA!

>Rift - Wow, great segue! Works way better out of Moma like that than you would expect! A fine Rift for the period, but Trey has a lot of struggles. Maybe tech issues? It sounds like he's having problems fretting notes/getting notes to sustain. As usual, Page absolutely destroys. Good version - if this was a 2018 rendition I'd call it killer.
A+ for effort, let's put it like that.

Bathtub Gin - Nothing overly special, just an excellently brief (well, 11 minutes) Type I Gin the likes of which you've heard a million times before. But just because it ain't special doesn't mean it isn't still highly enjoyable!

Stash - Nothing special at all until the jam sneaks in at 6 minutes. Not sure how to describe this jam! It's must-hear, imo. The guys turn the dark Stash jam into an epic sounding, major-key kind of crescendo piece. Slowly building it higher and higher, peak by peak. Rolling drum fills galore, Trey trilling his heart out on has axe, you get the picture. But then around 12 minutes the original dark vibe returns. I hesitate to call this Type II jamming, but it definite goes "out for a walk around town", so to speak. Great stuff. I wouldn't call it an all timer but worth a listen! Kinda unique!

The Ballad of Curtis Loew - Holy crap this is friggin' outstanding. A+++ playing from Trey, yo. Gotta love a good Page vocal too.

Kill Devil Falls - Great Type I rager as always. You get what you expect and boy does it deliver as usual. Great stuff.

Funky B - HOLY CRAP, GET IT PAGE THE RAGE!!!!

Antelope - See Kill Devil Falls. It kills.



All in all, while most of the set was highlights-list worthy, at the same time it also kinda fell flat for me personally. Think this is just me being tired and not as "receptive" as I thought I'd be and others will probably rate this first set a lot higher. On paper it's right up my alley, but other than Skin It Back and Moma, the rest is a one-and-done listen for me. Great set but for some reason it didn't resonate with me. I will concede though that it was objectively excellent - it just didn't "click" for me tonight.

 

Set 2

Tweezer - Always great to get a 2nd set Tweezer opener! Excellent Tweezer. Seems shorter than it's 15 minute run time. A blissful Type II example. One that prefers to "stay its course" rather than try to go in 25 different directions. Kinda like a jam out of a Simple or something. Gets heavier in the last few minutes like it's heading skyward. But eventually it sloooowwwwlllyyyy turns into the ambient realm and we get a perfect segue into Piper. Really great one-dimensional kind of Tweezer. Worth a listen! Definitely band jamming instead of "soloists taking turns". 1.0 would be proud!!!

>Piper - Out of the blissful ambient ashes of Tweezer comes Piper like it's 1999 again or something. And for only being 7:46 in length, boy do they sure make use of their time!!!! This sucker is all over the place in the best way. Absolutely go seek this out. It's a terrific blast of measured insanity!!!!!! Unfortunately it kinda just "dies" out of nowhere, but at least they follow it up with....

>Mike's Song - And holy crap this sucker wastes no time at all getting right the F down to bizness, yo!

>Bouncing Around the Room - Great set placement on this one!!! Very refreshing to have it coming out of Mike's and pretty unexpected.

>Number Line - I'm sure there were groans in the room, but ya know what? The flow of the set is just great. It really "fits" where it is when you listen to it and it's a downright barnstorming rendition. Fantastic. Not to be missed!!!

>Heavy Things - "Groaner Number 3" tonight, but not for me! Again, it just friggin' works tonight coming perfectly out of Number Line. And it's a great version to boot!
Really fantastic piano solo from Page - just beautiful!!!!!! And then follow that up with some killer soloing from Trey. * chef's kiss * A+ Heavy Things!!!

>If I Could - FANTASTIC! YES! PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

>Weekapaug Groove - GET IT CACTUS! LETS FREAKING GO! CHECK THAT SOLO AT THE START! Chillest WGroove I've ever heard in the best way. Powerful and FUNKY. HOW THE HELL DID THEY MAKE THAT WORK SO GOOD OUT OF IF I COULD?! WHAT IS HAPPENNING?! THIS SET ON PAPER SHOULD SUCK BUT IT IS KICKING TAIL!!!!!!!!! This Weekapaug is SUPER laid back and GROOVY. Almost relaxed!? What?! This is sick.
Sick. Sick. Sick. Sick. Sick. Sick. Sick.

>Harry Hood - I'm usually a Hood hater but this one is ticking the boxes. Extra oomph and evil tonight. Also, the crowd is absolutely eating it up. Killer Hood. Absolutely beautiful and very impactful tonight.

>Suzy Greenberg - MOTHER EFFING STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN SOLO PLAYED BY TREY. MUST HEAR

Loving Cup - Is LC

Tweeprise - Is Tweeprise




All in all, color me freaking gobsmacked!!!!! On paper this second set looks disastrous in a bad way (for obvious reasons), but the vibe of the whole show contributed greatly to making it one of the most COHESIVE sounding sets I can remember hearing. That Mike's Chill Groove sandwich was incredible and the songs on either side of it were great as well. A MUST HEAR SET. ONE OF THE BEST SETS OF THE YEAR!!!!!!! A+++ SET!!!!