2021-10-24 Inglewood, CA

 Been a couple weeks since I hit Chula Vista and I move ever closer to finishing 2021 at a glacial pace...

Onwards to the next show:

10/24/21 Inglewood - aka, the LA Woman show.

Set 1

A Wave of Hope - Very good type 1 reading to open. Super, super strange to see a sub-6 minute rendition amidst the sea of 20 minute reading just down the road!!! It's good but nothing amazing.

You Enjoy Myself - Ooh, a 24 minute version in the 2nd slot?! Performance wise, it's darn strong. Not perfect, but not much in terms of flubbage either. Fishman is a powerhouse and the whole thing just plain sounds great! Around 15 minutes, instead of the jam dying out into the expected vocal jam, slowly, a more "aquatic" sound begins to emerge and they take YEM into proper Type II! They stay in this mode for a long time, Trey delivering a patiently emotional solo up to about the 19 minute mark. At that point, Page jumps back to the piano (with some synth on the side), and the jam heads for the sky. Trey is trilling it up and they are working steadily towards a peak! Around the 20 minute mark, the peak-in-progress disappears and the guys return to the pre-Type II portion of the standard YEM jam!!! Hell yes. Trey is playing with delays, Page is back on the synths - are they gonna go Type II again?! Check out Cactus absolutely tearing it up with his bass FX!!!! FINALLY, around 23:20 they go into the shortest vocal jam of all time, only lasting about 30 seconds before launching into....
*** YO, this YEM was the $h!t!!!!!! Hands down the best modern version I've heard in ages! Must hear in every way!!!!! Dang! ***

>The Moma Dance - Beginning with "wash uffize....", you know it's gonna be good! Terrific version. The jam gets very quiet and low-key. Almost dark, but not really. Synths creeping in on the very edges of the soundscape, but the main instrument is still electric keys. Page and Trey playing off of each other throughout. A really groovy, laid-back kind of version. Absolutely fantastic - that x factor is flowing, boys and girls. Eventually it kind of fizzles out slowly and they lead into:

>Simple - The jam gets going and quickly dives into that "late night underwater" murkiness we all love. This is excellent and goes until around 7:30. The jam suddenly takes a swing into upbeat blissfulness for a brief minute before a shock and surprise segue into....

>Waiting All Night - OUTTA FRIGGIN NOWHERE!!!! X FACTOR MAGIC!! I mean, it's not the 2nd coming of Icculus, but the fact that they/Trey actually friggin just led into like that is such an incredible moment. Fantastic. Must-hear. Wow. Also, final version of the song to date, no?

>Maze - It gets off to a bad start with a vocal flub from Trey that nearly derails the song, but thankfully Page comes and kills it on the keys before they build to a grindy and facemelting climax. Not my favorite Maze and a bit flawed but 3/4 of it was pretty darn good.

>Fee - And the hits keep coming! A very rare Fee, complete with megaphone. Fee is Fee, but the rarity gives it highlight status.

>Steam - Yup, that was a segue. One that will have you going "huh? How the hell did that work?!". And this Steam is an absolute blast of FIRE TO THE FACE!!!!! FACEMELTING AND GRINDING AND ALL KINDS OF SPECTACULAR!!! STEAM DOESNT GET HOTTER THAN THIS!! HOLY FRIGGIN CRAP ON A CRACKER WHERE DID THEY PULL THIS FROM!???!?!?!! MORE OF THIS, PLEASE!!!

Run Like An Antelope - Antelope is Antelope. Good but nothing special.



All in all...wow, what a set! I have a feeling this is probably underrated. Musically, the set was all over the map, some hits, some misses, but they took a lot of chances and they usually paid off! The must-hear YEM that actually jammed, the Simple>WAN, the rare Fee, the X Factor Magic version of Steam....Maybe a bit too much pizazz and not enough "substance" for some, but screw the haters. I enjoyed every second just about of this set. I went in with no expectations after Chula Vista and I was rewarded. You will be too.

 Set 2

Cars, Trucks, Buses - Very rare CTB to open the set. As expected, Page absolutely tears it up on the piano. Great stuff and a great high energy opener!

Tweezer - And boom, straight into Tweezer. Not sure whether to call that a segue or not. Pretty sick synth FX right at the start of the jam. Then Gordo goes to tear it up while Trey lays back. This initial Tweezer section is only 5 minutes or so. They barely get the jam going when all of a sudden it's into....

>L.A. Woman - ...L.A. Woman we go!! The Tweezer jam is rolling along all chill, then all of a sudden Trey begins singing LA Woman!!! This is awesome. This was like that Waiting All Night coming out of Simple. Freaking sick - I've got the biggest grin on my face right now. Best part? This ain't no tease, they actually play the whole effing song!! The "mister mojo rising" section is face melting energy of the best sort. ALL HAIL LA WOMAN! THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME! I CAN'T STOP HEADBANGING!

>Tweezer Jam - Then the song ends and Trey reintroduces the Tweezer riff, opting for some dark robo FX immediately afterwards. In come the synths and we get a dark, murky kind of jam going. Uptempo, shifting between light and dark, eventually coming to rest in a new bliss kind of zone. This quickly ends and they go into a new midtempo, laid back kind of jam, Trey doing "midi oboe" or whatever, sounding like 1990's Jerry for a minute. Page back on the electric keys, Trey starts to do a stompy new riff and suddenly begins to sing SANTOS....

>Say It To Me SANTOS - Bit of a "clumsy" segue, but hey, A+ for effort and creativity, lol. SANTOS rages real hard and, according to the LivePhish tracklisting is about 12 minutes, but really, around the 6 minute mark you could definitely say it goes back into a Tweezer jam....

>Tweezer Jam 2 - This jam out of SANTOS begins pretty chill and groovy. Very relaxed but not sleepy or overly blissful. They are on the Groove Train Express just riding down the line, enjoying the jam. This slowly morphs into a darker kind of sound. It's hard to describe this jam - they are being SUPER patient with it, but at the same time it is never stalling for time or lacking in direction. They are just locked in deep, riding it out the best they can. Absolutely fantastic.

>What's the Use - Eventually, the segue fun continues and Trey delivers one of the best segues of all time. So good you'll need to replay it thrice to check what you just heard. Perfectly out of that jam and into What's the Use. WTU is excellent as ever, and it feels even more potent tonight coming out of a jam than it does when it's just "randomly" thrown into a setlist. It often seems to work the best when it appears where you don't expect it. Because it's instrumental, you can almost think of it as a continuation of the jam prior, ya know what I mean? Fantastic.

>Tweezer Jam 3 - WTU comes to a close and Trey begins the Tweezer riff once more. 7+ minutes on this jam, Trey begins with some cool robo FX on his guitar atop the bed of Page's piano and the typical Tweezer jamming. Around 1:40, the guys all lock in and begin to play Heartbreaker by Led Zeppelin - SICK! This lasts a brief moment, but it goes on to inform the next minute or so of playing. Freaking killer. Love that kind of stuff! Around 3 minutes, Page moves to the electric piano and the jam gets all feel-good. Trey picks it up and starts to do lots of little repeating motifs, setting loops and what not, while doing melodic noodling. And it's VERY nice! Eventually, after several excellent minutes, this winds down into some blissful ambience for a very brief moment. Trey starts strumming quickly and then they suddenly LAUNCH into...

>Birds of a Feather - 10 minutes on this one, that's pretty lengthy for a recent rendition, haha. The type 1 rages until right at 3:45 there is a distinct shift in the jam. Suddenly, out of nowhere, it becomes incredibly uplifting. Great and unexpected mood shift, for sure. The jam goes through a couple different blissful sections, always on the move, never in search of a direction. The guys are just locked in together and it's full of great "full band" playing. It sounds like The Who, where everyone is soloing, but it coalesces together into something greater, ya know? You wont' call this an all-timer, but hot dog if I guarantee you this isn't one of the most underrated/forgotten jams of the year right here.

>Chalkdust Torture - Out of the darkness of the end of BOAF comes another unexpected segue, this time right into Chalkdust. Short but sweet, this one rages the Type 1 hard then immediately dissolves into funky robot FX land for 3 absolutely glorious, X Factor-led minutes. See BOAF - I'm sure everyone has forgotten this. Go revisit it, stat. It ain't long, but it sure does deliver the goods while it lasts!!!!

>Boogie On Reggae Woman - AND THE SEGUE HITS KEEP COMING!!! During the Chalkdust jam, Trey starts hitting those Boogie On chords and away we go! For the sake of not highlighting everything, I'll refrain from highlighting this. It's excellent, of course, but does exactly what you expect in the time typically allotted.

>Carini - In the last 30 seconds or so of Boogie On, the song gets real dark. Trey teases Tweezer and Fuego (I think) before ultimately deciding on Carini. And of course they launch right into it with great effect, not a break in sight. As with Chalkdust, this Carini is only about 5 minutes but gets the job done justly. You'll never seek this version out by itself, but it sure packs a punch while it's here.

>Tweezer Jam 4 - On LivePhish this is tracked as part of Carini, but it's CLEARLY a Tweezer jam reprise. The jam gets very nice and blissful, but Page's synthesizers come blaring in from the rear, giving this an unexpected flavor. Very strange sounds for sure, it's kind of unsettling. Only about 2 minutes long, but a very nice little interlude, if you will. Eventually, Trey starts noodling the Mr. Completely guitar lick and Fishman picks up on it, beginning the drum pattern!

>Mr. Completely - Well, hot damn, yet another segue for the books! Not perfect, but that's not exactly an easy song to segue into - they did great! Wow! As with Carini and Boogie On, this is only about 5 minutes long, but right away they get going with the robo FX and rage this sucker hard. Great little mini Mr. Completely!

>Tweeprise - And of course you have to have a Tweeprise to end the set, duh! A few minutes of pure ragetastic energy. Yea, nothing special, but it's worth a highlight still.

Grind - First encore. Is Grind.

Bathtub Gin - Show closer, nearly 14 minutes. The first 9 minutes or so are the typical Type I bliss playing you expect out of Gin. Then, somewhere around that timestamp, the jam takes on a much more driving feel. Fishman going ham on that snare drum. Things start to drift askew, slightly. They are in that transitional "type 1.5" area, if you will. It's just building and building and building. Somewhere around the 11 minute mark, the jam gets really kind of hazy and grimy!!! They are now in Type II!! In come the synths - this has an almost 1999 kind of sound to it. Very foreboding and kinda dark. THEN OUT COMES THE POWER DRILL MOTHER EFFER!!! WE ARE IN OUTER FRIGGIN SPACE!! LETS GO!!!! HELL YES!! WE ARE GETTING SUCKED INTO THE WORMHOLE!!! And then just like that they jump ship and the jam/show just....ends.


All in all....wow!!!! That set was fantastic! The way they strung the songs together was a blast - and despite the short run times, nearly everything packed a major punch, if not length in the jamming. The closing Gin was like an adventure itself and the whole show felt like the opposite side of a coin with Chula Vista - two completely different shows, both mind-blowingly awesome.

Wow.