2021-10-16 San Francisco, CA

 Off work again today due to weather. Resuming Fall 2021. If anyone recalls, I heard the 10/15 Sacramento show then promptly aborted mission to hear the 6 "COVID" TAB shows (4 with Fishman), then I got through 2023 in prep for my trip to New York, so....

Back on the 2021 wagon with 10/16/21 San Francisco today

10/16/21 San Francisco, CA

Set 1

Possum - To open. Great stuff. Terrific as always. Possum is Possum, and Possum destroys. 'Nuff said. No need to highlight it, but it's great.

Halley's Comet - The song itself is a dang powerhouse tonight. The guys sound INTO IT! The jam gets going hot. Trey even kicks on the RoboHonker Deluxe around 6 minutes for some excellent robotic soloing! I wouldn't say this Halley's is must-hear (it's too short for that, honestly), but what's hear is killer. Awesome stuff. ROBO HALLEY! I mean, it gets going good to where they take it Type II, only for Trey to abandon ship and force a segue into 46 Days.....

>46 Days - Cool jam on this. It gets robotic quick, and instead of burning down the house, they take it to a chill area instead. Kinda unique for 46 Days. Really great use of the "bullfrog" throughout. Gets kinda dark. Around 5 minutes, Trey sets a bullfrog loop then proceeds to wah pedal solo atop it. Wonderful Mike in the mix on this, really bombing it up. This is sick - it's like a chill, dark-space 46 Days. This is killer. Go read the jam-chart reading on this - it sums it up perfectly. SPOOKY SCARY ROBO NIGHTTIME 46 DAYS. MUST HEAR! Then the darkness subsides and we close the song with a wonderfully uplifting, feel-good chillout. Wow.

>Slave to the Traffic Light - Wow. First set Slave! Didn't see that coming! And that was a great segue as well! The solo begins rather unimpressivley but by the end you'll be going "dang, Trey, get it!!". One of the best recent Slaves for sure and it doesn't overstay it's welcome either! NICE!

Simple - 12 minutes on this sucker, and in the middle of the first set?! Around 7 minutes, the Simple "bliss" turns into a driving rock and roll stomp. Page on piano going all honky-tonk on us. Fishman and Trey keeping things locked down rhythmically beneath him. This is different! This goes on for a long time, before slowly turning a bit funky. Around 10 minutes, Trey jumps on the SuperRoboWah 5000 and begins honking it up like there's no tomorrow before going back to a regular tone for some excellent noodling. This is killer. I'd call this must-hear. It's a lot like 46 Days - deviates from the norm and doesn't last too long at the same time. Sick stuff.

Shade - Is Shade. See Possum. Good stuff as always.

Winterqueen - Perfect placement out of Shade, imo. Does a great job staying chill but also getting the "power" back up slowly in preparation for the next tune. Awesome version. Like Roggae or Moma, is Winterqueen ever NOT fantastic?! Seriously, stellar set placement. The way it just rises out of Shade is *chef's kiss*. Really awesome full-band interplay on this - the whole band acting as one unit. It's not just a solo outfit for Trey tonight. A+++++ Winterqueen!!!!

Meat - See Winterqueen. Stellar, A+ version

Run Like An Antelope - to close. See Possum.



All in all, a very strong set for the most part. Pretty chill overall, but they went out there good on both 46 Days and Simple. Halley flirted with it but didn't truly deliver, but Winterqueen and Meat were both must-hear as well. So, basically, Simple, Slave, 46 Days, Winterqueen and Meat are what you need from the set.

Good stuff!  

Set 2

Holy crap, this looks like a beast!

Bathtub Gin - A rare 2nd set opening version tonight, nearly 18.5 minutes in length! Typical Gin jamming until around the 7 minute mark. Things start to get more driving in feel. You can tell they are gonna go deep. Around the 10 minute mark, this driving feel gets a blissful element to it. Things have become decidedly cheerful! They spend the next few minutes in this zone, very slowly increasing the abstractness of it, Trey slowly sneaking in robo FX and loops, etc. Around the 13 minute point, Page jumps back to the piano and the jam develops a more rock and roll, Type 1 kind of feel again. Then around 15:30 Trey goes back to the robo fx and the jam starts to dive back into barrelling-through-outer-space Type II once more. From here they do another cool slow wind down and end the song, going into a cool segue into...

That was not my favorite Gin. It did a lot, but didn't really do any of it all that well, if that makes any sense. Nothing wrong with it, but it never had a "blow you away" moment at all. Very underwhelming despite everything it did accomplish. Still definitely worthy of a highlight, but there are far stronger Gins out there.

>Everything's Right - 11 minutes on this. Off the rip, ER sounds way more enthused than Gin did. The chill vibe is replaced with a fiery energy lacking in the Gin. Hell yes. This sucker rocks hard! Trey proceeds to absolute tear it up, ripping our damn faces off, doing a wonderful sustained note of the gods in the process. Hell yes. The x factor is flowing hard on this one tonight. No, seriously, this thing is DESTRUCTIVE!!! Trey is ripping it up all evil-like, like we're back at those 6 COVID TAB shows!!!!! Then, all of a sudden, at the 10 minute mark, the jam dissolves into a watery bliss, sending the song on it's wow....WOW!! THIS WAS MUST HEAR!!! HOT DAMN!!!!

>Frankie Says - Perhaps the first "wtf?!" jam of Fall 2021, we get a massive 17 minute Frankie Says!! First version in 5 years and obviously must hear. Also, that segue!!! The jam start slow and low before evolving into a major key bliss bananza. Then around the 8 minute point the jam backs off and turns into a funkier kind of thing. Trey vamping it up on the wah with super tasteful delay thrown in for good measure. Sick delay! This turns into the sickest RoboFunk wah jam you've ever heard until around 14 minutes when it gets real low and dirty, like a great Death Don't Hurt Very Long jam or something. Stylistically, this is right out of the crazier moments of those "Jon Fishman's Almost TAB" shows from before the tour began!! This is X FACTOR MAGIC!!! MUST HEAR IN THE EXTREME!!! Things stay in this low and GRIMY area for a good while, and there are plenty of Bathtub Gin teases from Trey and Mike!!!! Then at 16 minutes a brand new Bathtub Gin jam appears out of nowhere and leads this psychedelic masterpiece to a refreshing and complete close!!

DUDE!!! THAT WAS FRIGGIN INCREDIBLE!!! GO LISTEN TO THAT NOW!!!! THAT WAS AMAZING!!!

>The Wedge - Is The Wedge. Nice breather. See Possum or Winterqueen. Terrific as always! Trey tears it up. For the sake of not highlighting everything, I won't highlight this, but it's every bit as worthy as anything else in this show. Fantastic.

The Moma Dance - 13 minute Moma to end the set!!!!! This sucker rages so hard that Fishman even throws in a couple "IM A MONKEY" teases from "Monkey Man" for good measure!! This is absolutely destructive!!! Moma is always must-hear, but this one especially so!!! HOLY FRIGGIN CRAP ITS NUCLEAR LETS GO!!!!!

Carini - Very first Carini encore!!! And the only one until 12/29/23!! ABSOLUTELY EPIC!! ONE OF THE JAMS OF THE YEAR!!! A multi-part, Type II MASTERPIECE OF THE HIGHEST ORDER!! X FACTOR MAGIC DEFINED!! WHERE DID THIS COME FROM!??!?!?!


All in all...holy crap that second set!!! Gin was a nice warmup, but ER showed they had the heat in their arsenal. Things got turned up 20 notches jam-wise with the incredible Frankie Says and the nuclear meltdown Moma Dance before the "this was probably the best thing played so far in 2021" Carini. Set 1 had its strong points, but honestly? You can probably just skip straight to set two!!!

My god, what a set!!!!