Onwards to the 420/Earth Day run!
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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