2022-02-27 Quintana Roo, MX

 Finishing Mexico 2022 this morning.

2 27 22 Mexico

Set 1

Surprise bustout of Fat Man in the Bathtub! Was it realy 12 effin years since 2010 already?!?! This sounds great and rocks hard. Honestly, they could add this to regular rotation and I wouldnt complain!!!

Up next is a classic Mikes Groove. Mikes Song never gets super hot, yet at the same time their is this heavy energy all the same. Like a restrained heat. Nice version. Hydro is a little sticky, but Paug is great. A really terrific type 1 version that positively EXPLODES to a climax!!

Mikes Groove probably isnt must hear night, but its still very nice and Paug in particular is great.

46 Days is great. Pretty lengthy, it deserves its Jam Chart but at the same time still feels ever so slightly underwhelming. Interesting.

Rift is....eh. Everyone is killing except Sticky Fingers Trey over here who kinda sinks the ship a good bit. Bummer. Not a good version - just yucky. Trey COMPLETELY botches the fast ascending lick and straight up just gives up!

Thankfully a must hear If I Could follows. Stellar version, Treys extended solo is just downright magical. Killer.

Unfortunately, MyFe returns us to Shakey Trey territory. Thankfully he picks up but its just a solid type 1 reading with a short peak. Nothing special in the slightest.

The set gains new momentum again with the much welcome and very fresh Clear Your Mind. Great stuff. Grab it. Great jamming!!! This thing smokes! Best thing of the set so far!!!

The set ends with a massive 18 minute Melt into a partytastic Suzy . Melt is essential, not much to say. Just dark and melty and spacey and gnarly. A definite BEAST of a Melt!!! Essential listening!!!

Suzy is Suzy.


All in all this wasnt a great set, but it wasnt BAD either. It just felt "undercooked" most of the time. 46 Days and Mikes Groove were both REALLY GOOD but neither truly transcend. Clear Your Mind, If I Could and probably Melt are the must hears. Rift is a complete butcher job up there with the Coventry Glide....

Extremely UNEVEN 

 Set 2

Great start to set 2 with a raging No Men. Just 10 minutes of pure high energy rocking. Awesome.

Immediately following is a 16 minute, chill fest Everything's Right. This one stays in laid back, chill groove zone for its entirety. However, the playing feels inspired and I would venture to call this GREAT!!! Borderline must hear. Not sure what I think of it, haha.

Big sin committed by leaving it for Caspian, but fear not! Caspian puts on its big boy pants and turns in an outrageous rendition!! Total X Factor all over!! It just explodes! And it even pretty much melts down for a good while going proper dark type 2. Wowzers! Must hear!!!!

They follow that with a freaking spectacular Sea of Stars. Holy mother of must hear X Factor Magic, this one stays type 1, but this has to be, hands down, the finest reading I have ever heard. Imagine if 1973 Dead played the song. Thats basically what this version is like. Just astounding in its perfection. Holy crap. It gets dark in the final few minutes but BASICALLY you could call this an "in the box" version. Absolutely a 10/10 MAGICAL rendition!!!!!

 From there we slide into a massive 20 minute Golden Age. Nice. Terrific grooving and full band interplay throughout. Listen to the jazzy back and forth between Page and Trey. Sick. The only downside is that, like ER before, it never goes anywhere. By the 15 minute mark they are still in a decidedly Type 1 Golden Age jam. Thankfully it IS genuinely excellent so I will forgive it. Hell, its not until the damn 17 minute mark though that it finally starts to deviate and goes into a dark robo jam fo two minutes. I'd call this sucker must hear regardless!

Even better though, seriously, is Lonely Trip. This is an astonishly great version. Extra Page all over. MUST HEAR.

And finally into Hood we go! Terrific Hood worthy of its chart. Extra mustard.

The show ends with average readings of ALBTD and First Tube

All in all, set 2 had the makings of greatness but struggled to achieve liftoff. What they DID play was excellent, its just that very little actually trancended into true greatness, ya know what I mean? Id give the set like a B+ or something. Actually, Caspian and Sea of Stars both absolutely did - somehow just forgot about those 2!!

 This show is better than the paltry 3.3 rating it has. Id probably give it like a 3.7 or 3.8. Solidly good but rarely GREAT.

 For set 2 grab Golden Age and Lonely Trip, maybe Hood or ER as well. Definitely the Sea of Stars and Caspian though! Those are the two shining diamonds of the whole show!!!!