Onward with 1999. Lax day in the truck allowing for sub-par (echoey...) AUD listening....
7/3/99 Atlanta, GA
Set 1
An absolutely blazing Chalkdust sets off the show with a bang. All fire,
just face melting. This one really, truly goes the extra mile in that
regard. Its downright apocalyptic in the amount of heat given off. Sweet Jesus, say your Rosary!
Up next is an 11 minute Gumbo in the 2nd slot. Gumbo is TERRIFIC!!! Well
deserving of its Jam Chart entry, it quickly (and SMOOTHLY!) morphs
into a dark, funky type 2 that is kind of tense, keeping you on the
edge, guessing what they are going to do next. Dark Gumbo, if you will.
Absolutely fabulous!!!!! Spooky Gumbo!!! It proceeds to dissolve into a scary, ambient space outro and fade itself out of existence....
Wow!!!
Unsure what to do, they awkwardly launch into Sparkle and, it kinda,
well, is awkard! Lol. I dont really think it fits here tonight but maybe
it was great in person.
Cavern fits nicely out of Sparkle. Smooth transition like its 1992 or something. 
Cavern is standard.
After that dual setlist "interruption", we reach the next heavy hitter
with an 11 minute Taste. Trey takes his sweet time with the solo,
beginning slow and quiet, milking it for everything its worth. Absolute patience on
this sucker and its glorious! He takes minutes before the whole thing
slowly builds to an EPIC and fiery nuclear bomb explosion of a finale!
BRING ON THE HOSE! This was absolutely ridiculous!!! Must hear!! Shredtastic!!!! Oh my goodness!!!!!
A too-early Circus appears next, but ill forgive the placement as we
just had our faces melted by that insane Taste. Circus is Circus. Its
actually really nice but nothing special.
This up and down set gets going once more with a slightly lengthy Tube
(almost 8 minutes). This thing is all over in the best way. Terrific
"kaleidoscopic" playing where they bounce from sound to sound. Keys to
piano, loud to quiet and dark. For 7.5 minutes, they cover a lot of
ground and turn in a terrific little version of Tube. Definitely a major
highlight, if not must-hear completely.
A typically killer Funky B follows and builds on the heat of that Tube.
Now its a party! Trey absolutely tears this sucker a new one times
infinity like that opening Chalkdust. Absolutely awesome!!!! Probably
must hear!
A fun NICU keeps the "old school" vibe of the set going. Not essential but its always great to hear! A bit flubby but thats ok.
After an ill timed Waste (2 ballads in set 1?!), the set closes with the
US debut of Meatstick. The first since that one 1997 Euro "version".
Meatstick is actually really nicely played with a good solo from Trey.
But it so WEIRD to close with it and the audience mustve been like "wtf
is this?!".
In other words, slightly anticlimactic, I guess, lol
All in all, this was a flawed but still enjoyable set. Id say
Chalkdust, Gumbo and Taste are what you need, with Funky B and Tube
being enjoyable side pieces. A very up and down set, it felt like it had
a hard time achieving liftoff, lacking "flow", in my opinion. Gumbo was
the only true JAM and the other stuff was on the "incredibly hot" side
of ordinary. Id rank this a B+ set.
Good but not incredible. 
GUMBO AND TASTE! GET THOSE!
Full disclosure, Im preparing to "suffer" through this 2nd set just based on the song selection/placement. Forgive me.
Set 2
A Twist opener. Definitely not my ideal choice. And its not anything
noteworthy tonight. It basically stays in an unimpressive type 1 vamp
for its rather boring duration. Let me put it like this, every version
of 2023 is better than this.
And this enjoyable but utterly unremarkable Twist concludes and they
move into Piper. EXTREMELY long intro - this Piper is 10 minutes and
they reach the halfway point before beginning the vocals! Ok, get to the point.... Unfortunately,
despite the raging power, this Piper, like the Twist before, is a
complete and utter snoozefest. As soon as it begins to lift off finally,
the damn thing is over. And they didnt "do" anything with it AT ALL
except just play the song faster and faster! Im not sure which
Piper is worse - that 7/3/97 one I complained about the other day or
this "huffs and puffs but goes nowhere" version.
Ugh! What a lame double whammy to ruin the start of this set! 
10 minutes seems to be the buzz term of the night as thats the length of
the following Moma Dance. Interesting to see it in set 2. NOT
interesting to get it after the previous two songs....Moma is just ok.
It neither offends nor impresses. Solid with some average heat. If this
was early set 1 Id be kinder, but after the double whammy of crap that
opened this 2nd set, we deserve more than a lukewarm reading of a
typically first set tune!!!
What is this B.S.?!
Oh goody! Now we have to sit through a dang Mountains In th Mist! Ugh! I
love this song, its beautiful as ever, but this is NOT what this
sinking ship needs right now! To be fair, this is the best thing of the
set so far by quite a margin. Its exquisite!!!!
Thank christ we get a 14 minute Antelope next. Will this finally be the shot in the arm this set so desperately needs?! And thank Icculus it delivers!!! This sucker is nuclear!!! I
mean, its Antelope, you expect as much. But they really take it next
level, Trey coaxing squealing seagull sounds and dying cat shrieks from
his guitar. The whole thing just explodes like you cant even imagine. Even by Antelope standards, this one is next level. Essential listening!!! Must hear!!!!
Revisiting the old school vibe of set 1, the scorched earth Antelope
gives way nicely to a rare Contact. Good stuff. Contact is Contact, but
they do a fun Little Drummer Boy outro jam which is a hoot.
Double encore tonight - Pretty noteworthy to mention we get a rare Bill Bailey with Page's father at the helm. Very nice!
And of course Hood to close.
Yo, screw this set. Set 1 wasnt perfect but it was always pretty
good. The first half or so set was just purely NOT up to snuff at all!
Twist and Piper were shockingly boring/uninspired and Moma was ok but
not even up to the level of most first set versions. Bad ballad
placement yet again led to the final stretch feeling like they were
grasping as straws..... Thankfully, Antelope is terrific and worthy of
Must Hear status. Insane version. But ONE great song does not redeem one
of the most flawed sets Ive had the displeasure to sit through.
UGH!
Maybe on another day Ill enjoy this show but today I friggin hated it!
No comments:
Post a Comment