2019-12-28 New York City, NY

 Onwards to better things!

12/28/19 New York City

Set 1

Evening Song - Although I generally dislike opening a show with a ballad, this felt heartfelt and sounded excellent. Pretty much nailed it for a debut version. Love the tune and remember digging it at the time. Great stuff!

No Men In Man's Land - Energy! Yes! A straight-ahead Type I rager version. Absolutely perfect to get everyone dancing their tails off. Great playing from all - Trey sounds on point with his leads tonight. Absolutely raging! Starts to jam good around 6 minutes. You know it's on when Trey hits that Soul Planet delay Eventually it naturally finds its way to a conclusion rather than going for 25 minutes. That's ok!! Great version!!!

Down With Disease - Right off the bat, this is the most energetic Disease I've heard all year! The tempo is good finally and Trey is nailing it. This thing stays Type I pretty much but hot DAMN if this isn't THE HOTTEST THING THEY HAVE PLAYED ALL YEAR! THIS IS LAVA IN THE EARS! THIS IS INSANITY! THIS IS WORTHY OF 1.0!!! ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING DISEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

20 20 Vision - A cover of a 1950's Gene Autry country tune. What. Ok, this is happenning and it's very fun and obviously well rehearsed! For the bluegrass spot I'll take it! Great stuff!

Ghost - Alright! 2 heavy hitter classics already! Extremely cool little Ghost. Around 4 minutes things start heading for Jam land with hints of ambience and excessive Cactus Bombs creeping into the mix. Everyone sounds locked in together tight, playing off one another. Very hot - Trey is just crushing it. This sucker follows the template set by Disease - It never goes full Type II, but does a strong Type 1.5 kinda. Extremely energetic, everybody in sync...DONT SKIP THIS GHOST! IT KICKS MORE TAIL THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE! IT CRUSHES!!!!!!!!!

Gumbo - Extremely murky and funky as all hell. Dank, yo. GET IT LEO!!! That piano solo!!! The crowd is going NUTS!!!

Rift - It's pretty strong!!! By 3.0 Rift standards I'd call this excellent! For the Trey nails it best he can and Leo absolutely crushes. A+ for a 2019 Rift!!! GET IT LEO!

Weigh - Absolutely fantastic. Funky as hell! Trey definitely practiced for once. Weigh+wah pedal=magic!!! Also, yet again, GET IT PAGE!!!!

Dog Faced Boy - Is DFB. Excellent but not really list worthy. Great little interlude and points for rarity.

Twenty Years Later - Very short by 20YL standards (barely 7 minutes), but what's here is excellently performed and full of energy. Terrific little version. Gnarly and dark.

Tube - Short but very, very sweet. Lots of wonderful noodling from Trey with Page syncing up with him and the two building the jam together. Very cool!!! They are listening to each other! This Tube is not one for the books but its absolutely worth a listen or 2!!!

SANTOS - THIS IS WHAT SPACE SMELLS LIKE!!!!!! Fantastic. Absolute banger of a way to close the set - this is my current favorite set closer for a reason. It always kills.


All in all, this first set was absolutely terrific. It wasn't the greatest of all time, but it was a strong 4.0-level set if I were to rate it on .NET. The jams were short but the playing was terrific. The energy is through the roof throughout and there is nary a flub to be heard. By 2019 standards this is right at the top of the heap for first set greatness!!! Absolutely DO NOT MISS DISEASE, GHOST, WEIGH, and SANTOS!!!! But really, the whole set was just a wonderful listen from start to finish. Good job, guys! Talk about a run-opener!!!

 

Set 2

Everything's Right - Not even gonna try to describe it. A wacky Type II beast that takes us on an adventure into weird-ville. Terrific. 14 minutes of primo Type II jamming. Just fantastic. Must-hear, imo. Also, I had one of my best-ever bedroom guitar jams along to this, so it gets points for that

Beneath a Sea of Stars - Just beautiful. Glad this one is sticking around. Really great Trey on this as well. This sounds like some 1991 Grateful Dead Bird Song stuff or something. Descends into unexpected scary territory. Gets dark. Returns to the light. Great little peaky bursts of intensity. Very, very cool.

Set Your Soul Free - Perfect song choice to lift us back up after that beautiful interlude. Very awesome Type I rocker beast. "On Broadway" teasing from Trey. Page picks up on it and we end up getting a full blown OB jam. Pretty cool. Then Trey hits the delay slashes and Gordon TEARS IT UP with some absolutely FILTHY soloing!!! This was really only 10 minutes?!?! Awesome version!!!

Gotta Jibboo - Looks like this is one of those shows where pretty much everything is worth hearing! Great choice out of SYSF. Always love me a Jibboo!! It's exactly what you expect out of Jibboo, staying squarely in the box, but it's darn great. But then we get a Set Your Soul Free reprise from Trey!!! Awesome! He just tosses the riff back in full force! Full on SYSF Reprise! SICK!!! Then right back into Jibboo. THAT WAS AWESOME!

Free - The song portion is definitely not the best ever. A good tad on the rough side, unfortunately. The energy and spirit is still there though. Awesome solo from Gordo. Pretty cool full-band jamming on this. Another "everyone is listening to each other" outing. Not the greatest Free ever but worth a listen, I'd wager. It's list-worthy, let's put it like that

Piper - GET IT TREY! RIP MY FACE OFF! ITS ALREADY MELTING! HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP!!!

Drowned - 13 minutes! Fantastic. Smashing hot dance party rock fest. Is Page on the Keytar?? Lots of crazy sounds and delay from Trey, etc. A malestrom of awesomeness. Sounds like a swirling, spinning whirlpool vortex of sound!!! Incredibly cool!!! DONT MISS THIS!!! IT IS BONKERS!!! After the crazy Type II disco dance party we return perfectly to the song proper. THIS THING IS MASTERFUL!!! DO NOT MISS THIS!! DONT!!! GUY FORGET JAM!!!!!!!

Ass Handed/Reprise - It's AH. But the "reprise" is hilarious and they actually jam this out for like 2 minutes. Dang, even the most throwaway number in the catalogue is must-hear tonight! This is hilarious.

Character Zero - Is C Zero. It smashes.

A Life Beyond the Dream - Absolutely killer

Rocky Top - Is Rocky Top


All in all, an absolutely OUTSTANDING show in my opinion. The jams were mostly in the 5-10 minute range, but the playing was top notch, the energy through the roof, and everyone was audibly having a friggin' blast. A higher energy 2019 show I truly can't recall! Just fire from start to finish! Absolute BLAST of a show! If this was .NET I wouldn't hesitate giving this a 4.2 or so rating. Spectacular show!!!!