10/23/21 Chula Vista, CA
Set 1
Fluffhead - A Fluff opener is always a great sign and this one is
nearly 18 minutes! Fluffhead sounds super delicate tonight, but also
very tight. It sounds just exactly perfect! The song goes as expected, until right at the 14:50 mark, the song moves into a genuine groove-jam!!! Where did this come from?!?!?! This is sick! They are jamming Fluffhead again! Trey
jumps on the wah, Page is pounding the piano, everyone is killing it. A
strong, nod-your-head groove on this. It soon "dies down" slightly and
gets downright funky!!! Trey scratching away while Page solos real
chill-like on the keys. Then Trey comes in with some nice restrained
lead work. Fluffhead has gone Type II!!! Then, suddenly, all X Factor Magic-like, Trey slides us right into....
>NICU - A 17 MINUTE NICU!! And of course they had to play NICU tonight - it is the North Island Credit Union amphitheatre after all!!! Right
around 5 minutes, the jamming begins and it's very atypical for an
NICU!!! I don't know how to explain it, but they are giving it a more
"rock and roll" kind of feel, with Fishman changing up the beat every
two seconds.
---This is absolutely INSPIRED in every way! Wow!!! The X Factor is flowing tonight, boys and girls!!! Then at 6:21 Trey unleashes the RoboWah5000 and It's ON!! After
a bout of wah pedal abuse, around the 7:40 mark the jam slowly begins
to move into a much darker, more "late night" feel. You would never,
ever guess this came from an NICU only 2 minutes prior. Trey doing
patient melodic leads while the rest of the band lay down a tense and
heavy kind of backdrop. This is KILLER!!!! This is my new favorite jam!!!
---Around the 9:30 mark, the laid-back darkness takes on a decidedly
feel-good vibe and it sounds like we are now heading for that Type II
bliss we all love. Around 10:15 Trey starts to tease the NICU themes
again and the jam has this "one foot in NICU, one foot in bliss" vibe
going on. Super cool!!! Around 11 minutes Fishman even returns to the
NICU beat, pretty much, if not exactly. Do we end this jam or keep going? "YEA!".
---They decide to keep it going, moving back towards a more "tropical
darkness" flavor, if you will. Fishman doing cool drum work while the
rest of the band lay hard into the robotic swamp murk. Then suddenly, at
the 13 minute mark, Trey jumps on the Robo Oboe and it starts to sound like a Grateful Dead midi jam or something! You know what I'm talking about!! He quickly aborts the oboe, but the tropical rhythms and weirdo synths keep going strong, giving this an ultra wacky vibe.
---At 14:30 Trey returns directly to the NICU theme and keeps playing it while the rest of the guys remain in Tropical Space Land. And back down into the darkness! They are not releasing this in the slightest!!! A
more lightspeed rat-a-tat feel erupts from Fishman and we keep it going
some more! Lovely bass accents from Gordo around 15:30 that Trey picks
up. Trey and Mike playing off each other - that is new and cool!
AND WE MOVE BACK INTO NICU AGAIN! MAKE UP YOUR MIND, LOL!!! And then a
quick drop into ambience before a relaxed return to the melody played
very slowly to close the song on a majestically low-key feel!!!!!!!
YO. What the hell was that jam?!?!?!?!?!? Weaving in and out, going all
over the place....surely there is no debate that is the GOAT version of
NICU, no?!!! Dude....
>Bye Bye Foot - BYE BYE FRIGGIN FOOT COMES RIGHT OUT THE END OF
NICU OUT OF NOWHERE!!!! WHAT IS GOING ON!?!?!? THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
2.5 songs into the show and I'm already done......AND THEN WE LAUNCH
RIGHT INTO....
>Tube - A 15 MINUTE TUBE! YES! LETS FRIGGIN GO!!!!!!!!!!!! Of
course it gets going right off the rip with Trey doing awesome delay
work around 2:40 before jumping on the RoboWah Deluxe and honking it to
high heaven. Awesome held note from Trey around 4:45 before the jam
suddenly goes major key bliss and Trey friggin launches full bore into NICU! YES!! ALL OF MY YES!!! Then back into a super funky, feel-good bliss funk jam again.
---Around the 7 minute mark, a cool descending motif emerges that pushes
the jam into it's next "phase". From here, Page jumps on the synths,
lead-dueling with Trey before the two quickly back off and go into a
dual drone thing! This is short but cool and goes until around 8:30 when
Page moves back to the piano, forcing the jam back into more feel-good
territory. ---This thing is like a monster, slowly moving and growing with each second. Where will it go next?! An
absolutely wonderful section follows - very powerful, like the back
half of a Slave or Hood or something, another motif emerges that the
guys absolutely latch onto.
---At 9:45 the synths reemerge. Fishman is absolutely MURDERING his
kit, doing his best Neil Peart "hit everything at once" series of non
stop fills. This sections seems to conclude around 10:15 and the guys
move back into the Tube funk. Dude, this Tube is amazing. YO CHECK THAT DARK FUNK TEASE OF NICU AT 11:50!!!!
---A super sick "racecar down the highway" section follows. Tons of
delay used to max lightspeed effect coupled with robowah for good
measure. WE ARE BARRELING DOWN THE INTERSTELLAR SPEEDWAY!!! LETS
FRIGGIN GO!!! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!! HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING!! X
FACTOR MAGIC EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!! And then suddenly into the bluesy B
section and out to close....
WAIT. THERE'S MORE SHOW AFTER THIS?!?!??!!?!?
>Slave to the Traffic Light - Right out of Tube with no break
to speak of. Another mid-set Slave, I find that to be very refreshing!
Not that it's the most technical song in their repertoire, but Slave is
performed flawlessly on all fronts with highly inspired playing from
all. A definite highlight, and you guys know how much I bag on Slave, so
that's saying something.
Llama - Funky, slow Llama tonight. This one is like a slow-simmer
rather than a full fire explosion. It's terrific, but different at the
same time. Page is ALL OVER this sucker on his piano, absolutely tearing it up. Then Trey comes in for the kill on the wah. This was truly terrific. Must hear. A little short for its own good, but what's hear was terrific.
Rise/Come Together - To close the set. Yes, I highlighted it. It
deserves it tonight. Great version serving the right purpose much like
Drift While You're Sleeping does these days. Love it.
All in all, yea, what the hell else do I say about this set? The
best music of Fall 2021 so far, pretty much, was played in this first
set. It was mindblowing. Now THIS is the 2021 I was hoping for!!!!
Set 2
No Men in No Man's Land - A nearly 17 minute version to kick the
set wide open! Rages type I rock and roll until around the 8 minute mark
when things start to take a dive towards darker, more aquatic waters. This is like sinking into the ocean, watching the light slowly grow more dim with each passing second...
Around 9:30, Page jumps on the piano, trying to subvert the growing
darkness, but Trey goes "not just yet!" and jumps on the growly robowah
to try to stop him. Alas it's not to be and by 10:30 we are slowly
drifting into calmer, more blissful waters. Page jumps on the
atmospheric synths and we are firmly into feel-good bliss. This slowly
builds into a swirling wave of dark intensity, returning to the cloudier
side of the skies by the 13:30 mark. This swirling mess continues for a
few minutes before morphing into a laid back kind of darkness. Pretty
cool jam but it felt like a step down from set 1. Seemed to "meander" a
little bit, but all the same this is still a highly enjoyable jam worth
at least a listen!
>Free - Out of the death throes of No Men, they launch like a rocket ship into Free. And THIS one is nearly 17 minutes as well!!! Dude! Right
away the jamming is super "growly" from Trey. Almost not letting Gordo
have his space, he steps all over this sucker for a bit before laying
back and letting Cactus do his thing. And Gordo's solo tonight is LONG!!!! Around the 6 minute mark Trey does another full blown NICU reprise that the band latch onto and play with him. This is sick. By
the 7:45 mark, the jam is almost dying out, then Trey starts some
noodling and Page comes in hard with the "Meatstick" synths behind him.
From here they move into a very patient and "aquatic" sounding jam that
is super chill and all kinds of laid back. Textural synths pop in and
out, but Trey is mainly just keeping time throughout. Somewhere around
the 14 minute point the jam builds back up and back into Free. They rage
it to a conclusion. Killer. Very chill and patient for most of it's duration, this one is pretty unique but incredibly cool.
>Joy - Absolutely terrific tonight. The extra chill nature really makes this one hit HARD. Trust me, you will have a tear in your eye afterwards. Really strong version.
>Sand - Like Llama in the first set, this thing kills, but
it's too short for it's own good. Stellar Type I playing of the
"everyone playing as one" variety rather than it being a shredfest by
Trey. Actually kinda unique!!!! Strong version worth a listen!!
>Piper - 18 MINUTE PIPER AND A GENUINE SEGUE THAT DIDN'T SUCK!
An absolutely fantastic, multi-sectional jam. It's an 18 minute Piper,
what do you want?! I ain't gonna narrate all that! 
MUST HEAR!! X FACTOR AWESOMENESS!!! Dark
and synthy, tons of hose, amazing delay work from Trey, black hole robo
hellscape insanity....It's got it all, baby!!! This is what a damn
Piper is supposed to be - none of this "8 minute Type I" BS stuff you
get like a mid-set Twist these days. Absolute insanity again like a
great Split Open and Melt on Turbo Overdrive or something. Guys, help me. I'm dead. This was a psychedelic MASTERPIECE!!!!
>Scents and Subtle Sounds - The greatest set placement in the
history of mankind, coming out of that satanic hellscape wormhole Piper
like that...13 minutes on this one, it starts with a very melodic and
downright feelgood bliss jam! This sucker is the ultimate in feel-good HOSE EXPLOSION JAMMING!!! If you want to hear them just absolutely ERUPT like a volcano coming out of a classic Harry Hood or something, this is the dang version for you! X
Factor Hose Magic!!!! MUST HEAR!!! HOLY CRAP!!! ALL TIMER SCENTS!!!
HOLY MOTHER OF ICCULUS THIS IS INCREDIBLE!! HOSE HOSE HOSE HOSE HOSE
HOSE HOSE HOSE HOSE AND MORE HOSE WITH A HELPING OF HOSE ON THE SIDE!!!
SCENTS AND NOT SO SUBTLE NICU STYLE HOSE!!!!
Lonely Trip - Is Lonely Trip. First encore. Great but nothing special.
First Tube - See above.
All in all....THAT PIPER AND THAT SCENTS!!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!! What a
friggin show!!! The No Men and Free were excellent for any other show,
but the Piper and Scents just wipe the floor with them. And then the
damn shenanigans in the first set as well!!! This wasn't just the best
show of 2021 so far, this was a CLASSIC show for ANY era! Anyone rating
this less than 4.5 stars is deaf. Call me gobsmacked in the extreme!
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