2019-12-30 New York City, NY - 2024 revisit

 Onwards to 12/30/19 this morning, site of the 36 minute Tweezer!

Set 1

The show begins on a fun note with a rocking Wilson into a party-tastic Final Hurrah. Hurrah seems to have some extra spunk and really gets it going.

46 Days is fresh in slot 3 and whoah boy this is MUST HEAR! Short or not, this version is outstanding! Complete nuclear bomb annihilation!!! They raze the Garden!

After a well played Curtis Loew bustout, we get a wonderful 17 minute Blaze On! A terrific exercise in full-band jamming (in other words, not a solo fest), this is a bubbly, feel good jam that is all kinds of must hear. Page is all over this one.

Corrinna is a beautiful and probably must hear as well.

A fun surprise is the Mikes/Contact/Groove that follows! All 3 pieces are excellent if none are completely mind blowing. Still a totally must hear trio!

Ripping About to Run into a nice More to close.

All in all, this was certainly a much more interesting set 1 than that of 12/29. Blaze On, the Mikes Groove, maybe Corinna and 46 Days are all must hear. Slightly old school kinda "experimental" vibes on this one, which is great! The flow was all over the place but that is nitpicking. Great stuff!

 

Set 2

Set 2 opens with a massive 35+ minute Tweezer. I believe I did a "proper" writeup of it at the time and I dont dare to break it down via phone posting, lol. Its awesome though.

Worth noting I think is that this version is quite "tame" musically compared to other mega jams such as, say, the 7/14/19 Ruby Waves etc. This is not some crazy outer space adventure through the bowels of type 2 (though of course it is type 2...), this is more like a fantastic beach party, just relaxing with all your friends, letting the music FLOW in such a natur way....No crazy soloing or motifs, just pure FULL BAND interplay kind of jamming, if you will.

Its awesome, but its very much about listening to and appreciating the ridiculous ease with which they navigate the myriad of sections so flawlessly that you dont eve realize its happenning. Its like the band is unaware that anyone is listening and are just off in their own world playing totally for themselves.

This one is all about the nuance and subtlety for me. Really great version to listen to "closely".    

So, after the Tweezer, we get the funny "pan story" interlude before they launch into a 13 minute Ruby Waves. Ruby is solid but has a hard time achieving liftoff, floundering for quite awhile before Page and Trey finally sync up and drop into bubbly funk zone. They stay there for several minutes. They slowly build the heat and rage that sucker hard to a close! Pretty interesting version. Good stuff!

Ruby gives way to a blazing Steam. Trey says forget the jam and yanks them perfectly back into a Tweezer jam followed by a RW jam!!! What rhe hell?!?! That was SICK!!!!!

Following that, the set proper closes with one of the finest Slaves of latter 3.0 Seriously, if you thought 6/19 was a great one, check out this mother. Absolutely must hear!

The show closes in the most perfect way with Rock and Roll. And everybody NAILS their parts delivering a nuclear bomb version as fine as any ever played. A++++

All in all, set 2 was obviously ridiculous. My only complaint is that it felt a little short - like it needed another song or two in the middle somewhere. Other than that it was all gravy. I still vastly prefer 12/28, but im not gonna argue if you prefer this one!

An excellent show overal. The 4.5 rating is honestly probably 3 or 4 points too high if youre talking as a complete show, but the highlights were massive so it all balances out.

On to 12/31!