2021-10-26 Santa Barbara, CA

 10/26/21 Santa Barbara, CA

This looks like a bit of an "off" night after the previous two. Let's see...

Set 1

Pebbles and Marbles - A 20 min version to open the show?! What is this, 2003 or something?! Rages hard on the Type 1 as expected until somewhere around the 9:30 mark. At this point, the jam takes on a spastic late-night kind of groove. Over the next few minutes it just gets wilder and wilder - everyone smashing their instruments as hard as they can with Trey doing nimble lead work atop it all. It's like they are VERY SLOOOOWWWWLLLLYYYY working towards a kind of peak down the line. This goes until around the 14 minute mark. Trey starts to play with delay FX while Page jumps to the electric piano. We are firmly in Type II, boys and girls!!! Around 15:30, the synthesizers come out to play. Page is doing these squiggle lines all over the place and Trey is bouncing off of him, answering his calls. ELECTRIC NOODLE BOOGLAOO! Around 17 minutes, Gordo starts singing the Pebbles and Marbles chorus refrains and the jam shifts into overdrive, going back to a "let's rock and peak this to hell" Type I sound to finish out. But alas it is not to be - Trey starts scratching like he wants to go into BOAF or something and the jam moves again into another zone. It sees the song move into a kind of slower, more groovy pace. Very slowly they notch the tempo down bit by bit until they arrive at an area suitable enough for....

Wow. Where the hell did that come from?! That was sick!

>Makisupa Policeman - Wow, talk about a segue, lol. Great stuff. Pretty lengthy and quite funny. Must-hear stuff. HELLO! HOW ARE YOU!!?? ROBO MAKISUPA!

Sample In a Jar - 7.5 minutes on this, it rages hard, then right at the 4 minute mark, a legitimate jam develops out of nowhere!! Are they taking this Type II?!?! Yup! It suddenly starts to get real chill and quiet sounding. Wonderful melodic playing ensues and the song slowly "fades out", if you will, with some nice robot playing in the final minute from Trey and Page. It almost sounds like they could transition into Waves or something. Yo, this was must hear. Absolutely unique and worth a listen. Wow!

>The Silver Light - Debut and only performance, with an actual segue into it out of Sample! Wow! Listen to how silent the confused crowd is, haha. This is totally excellent and sounds very rehearsed for sure. It definitely doesn't feel like a debut, being much tighter than you'd expect. They definitely worked on this one hard!!! Play this again!

>Halley's Comet - A nearly 12 minute Halley follows The Silver Light. Halley freaking rages tonight - I can't stop boppin' my head! Immediately, around 5:45, the jam begins with Trey on robo fx, honking it up. Page follows suit, quickly jumping onto the snythesizers. Around the 8 minute mark, the FX jamming gives way to a slightly tropical, more Twist-flavored jam, sounding like the initial Halley's jam they jumped over in the first place. Basically, it's back to the Type I you expect from Halley. Great stuff. This goes until 11 minutes when the jam goes into Type II robot ambience to close for the final 30 seconds. Beautiful....

>Mountains In the Mist - Great segue. Absolutely friggin' GORGEOUS tonight! No, seriously, this version is damn exceptional, like a 1974 Stella Blue or something. MUST HEAR!

Mull - 3rd version yet of the song. Totally excellent on all fronts. Grooves like a mother. Love this song and every version is just gravy. Great stuff. COULD YOU PASS ME A TACO?! The boys let it RIP and this version is a friggin' volcanic eruption of awesomeness. Sick. It even goes Type II robo weirdness for the final 2 minutes!!!!

>Set Your Soul Free - Trey kinda ripcords the end of the Mull jam and they go into a rocking, 13 minute Set Your Soul Free. Very uptempo! Trey's playing is ferocious and inspired, just ripping it up, hitting all the right notes at the exact right times. Fiery raging. The sucker then proceeds to go Type II, into a blissful yet strange and kinda psychedelic mish-mash of sound. Absolutely must hear, it's probably the best jam of the set besides the opening Pebbles affair. Underrated as hell, I'm gonna say. Please go replay this magical sucker. X Factor abound.



All in all, this set really surprised me! I was prepared to be let down, but EVERYTHING was worth a highlight. If it wasn't a debut, it was opening with a 20 minute jam into a rare cut, if it wasn't a blazing hot Mull it was a type II Sample or a psychedelic Set Your Soul Free. There was a TON going on in this set. If it wasn't all primo when all is said and done you can at least say they effing tried. Hard. A+++++++ for effort on this one, boys and girls. Wow.

 

Set 2

Blaze On - 13 min Blaze On to open. It spends most of it's time in upbeat bliss mode, all nice and melodic. Somewhere around the 11 minute mark this starts to take a darker slant. Eventually it comes to a close and they wind up at Sea of Stars. Definitely worth a highlight, but this version leaves you wanting more. They go deep but it leaves us just as it was getting going!

>Beneath a Sea of Stars - Pretty darn lengthy (13 minutes itself!), this is a superlative reading. It mainly does exactly what you expect, but it's the way they just grab it and refuse to let go. Around the 9 minute mark, things start to get a lot stranger and we shift into a psychedelic kind of Type II. Very cool meltdown-style Sea of Stars!!!!
This is incredible - full on dark psych meltdown!!!!! What is this, Split Open and Melt?!?!?! Must hear!

>46 Days - Absolutely ridiculous full-blown Melt-style, well, MELTDOWN!!! ROBO MELTDOWN!!!! This sucker rages hard. Eventually they make a proper return to the 46 Days theme. Trey sees his chance and twists the theme into Sneaking Sally and away we go.

>Sneaking Sally - HOLY CRAP THIS WAS THE FUNKIEST PIECE OF MUSIC PLAYED ALL DAMN YEAR! X FACTOR MAGIC! 10,000 PERCENT MUST HEAR!!!!

>Weekapaug Groove - And into a very unique, Type II, STANDALONE Weekapaug Groove! Does it's thing, goes to unexpected places, then rages to a finale.

About to Run - Nuclear Annihilation.

If I Could - Is If I Could. Excellent cooloff. 10/10 friggin' version. Just ridiculous in it's gorgeousness.

Sigma Oasis - Yet another song for the highlight reel (literally the whole show at this point...). A ragin, red hot, synth laden Type 1 reading.

F Your Face - Is F Your Face.

Meatstick - Of course it has to come after F Your Face, lol. Perfection.

The Lizards - Excellent reading as ever. Yet another worthy of the highlight reel.

A Life Beyond the Dream - See, the Lizards.



All in all, a highly enjoyable set. Lots of great jamming early on with a focus on segues and short bursts of jamming, ala Inglewood, rather than longform improv. Everything was highlight-worthy - the guys were just killing it tonight. Honestly, it's hard to find much to say about this show because they just lay it all out right in front and shove it in your face. From About to Run onwards it's basically just a run of songs played as-is, but they are all excellently performed with high energy and aplomb.

Maybe not the greatest show of all time but a solid followup to Inglewood. The 3.9 rating on .NET is probably correct. I just wish this show had a LITTLE more meat on it's bones.