An intro to this review archive!

PLEASE READ!! - Welcome to Warewolf95's "Idiot Review" archive!!

 Howdy folks! As the title says, welcome to my archive of live show reviews as I have posted on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums website! I pr...

Sunday, March 9, 2025

2022-04-20 New York City, NY

 Onwards to the 420/Earth Day run! :D

Been dying to hear these shows since they happened!

4/20/22 New York

Set 1

Certainly a massive 19 minute Carini opener is a good sign of things to come, yes? Wow. Good bliss rock type 1 until around the 9 minute mark. Things shift to a darker, funkier and more laid back vibe. More rhythmic, Pages fancy keys come out to play, Fishman is in Fill City, etc. Unfortunately they quickly abandon this new direction and return to chill major key dad rocking. Around 13 minutes they shift again into funky, upbeat jamming. Love Pages watery keys throughout! Gotta say, the band interplay has been fantastic - everybody is definitely paying attention to each other closely. Just a million "blink and youll miss it" synch up moments between everyone! Around 15 minutes they slowly begin peak building. The crowd erupts (anyone know why???). Around 17:30 the jam explodes into a massive, triumphant peak. Trey hits one of those Divided Sky notes and just holds it for like a minute. Slowly the peak subsides and the jam winds down to a natural close....

Wow!!! That was awesome!!! This Carini wasnt the black hole type 2 space monster we always want, but instead it was a majestic, slow working version that highlighted the tightness of this band while subtly shifting here and there. Fantastic peak. I feel like this Carini is probably underrated - for me to wax poetic about a "mostly major key bliss rock" jam should say enough.....must hear!!!

And so Carini ends and Trey leads us into Possum. Possum is average good. A little lacking in energy at times.

Up next is a lengthy 12+ minute Moma. This version is fantastic. Extra chill and slinky during the song, then Trey kicks into the robo wah and it takes off. Slowly it morphs into an extremely fiery and explosive yet still kinda laid back area. Machine Gun Trey comes out and melts faces big time. Wow. This Moma is SUPER sick!!! Havent ever really heard another like it!!! Definitely must hear!

Moma has an odd conclusion and kind of fizzles out. From here we go into Leaves. On paper this is a terrible placement, imo, but it actually flowed great out of Moma. YMMV. Leaves is always great to hear. This version is average good but nothing special.

And into a super rare Strange Design!!! 2 ballads in a row is an interesting call but who cares when they are Leaves and Strange Design?! This sounds awesome. Lovely and delicate and powerful. Grab this!

Stash is pretty good tonight. The song itself is pretty rusty, but thankfully it has a very cool jam. Darkish and chill, Gordo all over his bass fx while Trey patiently builds his solo. It just builds and builds and builds into a WILD, crazy and explosive "tear your friggin head off" Machine Gun Trey explosion before leading SEAMLESSLY back into the song.

Yo, grab that Stash! That was SICK!!!

The set concludes with a terrific Type 1 Blaze On. Maybe not must hear but know it is excellent.

All in all, this was a weird set!! The energy was there but there was also this weird kind of chill undercutting everything as well. I would say Carini, Moma, Strange Design and Stash are the essential music. Very hard to judge this set - just know that it was great regardless, if not incredible. 


Set 2

The 2nd half opens nicely with Sigma Oasis. Solid version, nothing special.

And into a damn 23 minute Disease we go from there!!! The song sounds good aside from a serious snafu in the middle. 80 million miles removed from the Mexico 2022 atrocity, however! Aside from some brief funkiness, we rage type 1 bliss rock all the way to the 14 minute mark. At the point the jam quiets down. The watery keys come out to play along with some synths. Trey is patiently picking out melodic lines. Slowly they work it back up and Trey goes all Stevie Ray Vaughan on our asses just shredding this sucker to a conclusion.

Definitely a face melter kind of version. Way too "stuck in the box" for my taste, but at the same time it DOES kick ass.

The Howling keeps the party going. Good god does this one FUNK. Super laid back late night groove supreme. Im calling this must hear. Its sick.

And the segue into Twist is just fantastic. And Twist is just an explosive nuclear bomb shredfest once again. Really great. Grab this.

After a lovely Mountains, we get a rare late set 2 Reba! Reba isnt technical perfection, but it's about 95 percent there. Ill take it! Magical solo on this. This rips. It aint MSG95 but this is a great little Reba!

The set proper concludes with a slighty rusty Drift. Ok version, nothing more. Special note to the fantastic climax, however.

Inspired encore of Gumbo into Slave. Not much to say. Good stuff.


All in all this was a strange feeling show. Somethings were terrific, some things were rusty, some things were chill, others were blazing hot. I FEEL like this show is worthy of a light 4.0 rating, imo. Its a million times better than the "good but undercooked" 2/27/22. But neither is most of this show amazing either.

For set 2, Id say The Howling is THE main highlight though Disease was excellent, if boring by the time it was done.

If 2/27/22 is like a B/B+, Id give this a solid, firm, B++

 


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