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 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 16, 2025

2022-06-01 Charleston, SC

 6 1 22 Charleston

Set 1

Holy crap what a trio of songs to open the show!! Cool It Down is great - energy already and no sticky fingers from Trey. Not essential but its excellent!

The next two songs are definitely must hear though!!! A rare Foam is executed flawlessly. No, I mean that seriously, no exaggerating. Easily the best played version of all the ones Ive hard from 2021, 2023 and 2024. There is NO flubbage, its quick and tight, and they NAIL the outro that is usually a total trainwreck! Wow! MUST HEAR!!

Up after that is the 2nd and final version of Knuckle Bone Broth Avenue for two damn years, and that is a total mystery why as this things is tight, ripping hot, and just perfectly extra. Think of a perfect type 1 Moma with lots of robo wah. This kills. No clue why they shelved it!!!!!

Dirt follows and is just terrific. Ill call this must hear as well - Treys soloing is so POWERFUL. Just a killer Dirt!!!

555 and Gumbo are both great tonight. Neither are must hear, but both are picture-perfect "go to" readings with nothing but tightness and energy. Sick.

Numberline, however, is absolutely essential!! A magical version, Treys solo is spectacular, almost a mini jam in itself featuring a few different little parts/sections. X Factor Magic all over this one, the delay jamming is just insane. MUST HEAR!!!

After a terrific, killer type 1 Wedge of the Gumbo and 555 variety, About to Run comes knocking. See 555 and Gumbo. Excellent but nothing special.

The set concludes on a spectacular note with a must hear Divided Sky!! Talk about a climax, eh?! As with Foam, its nearly flawless, aside from about 5 short seconds of disconnect at one part. Trey is on fire, giving tribute to the gods of sustain. Just POWERFUL tonight. Awesome.

All in all, this set was awesome!!! Not ONE single weak link! The boys are playing TIGHT and enthusiastically. Trey is ripping. The song choices were killer.....

Foam, KBBA, Dirt, Numberline and Divided Sky are all true must hears and the rest of the set never dips below baseline excellent. Just killer. 


Set 2

Wilson is a fresh and high energy opener, but that is quickly forgotten about by the following 24 friggin minute multi beast Simple! Simple is fantastic. It never goes as deep as you would like, constantly flip flopping back and forth from slight dives into type 2 jamming back into melodic type 1. Over and over. But thats ok as the actual music is terrifc! The flow is outstanding. The peak finale is sick and the best part is when Trey reintroduces Simple higher up the neck and they start trying to sing it too high, lol. Good stuff. Must hear!!!

The following round of music will just blow your damn face off. A killer type 1 Caspian (seriously, Trey annihilates!) somehow slowly winds down and heads for either an outro or the start of some jamming. Out of friggin nowhere they segue PERFECTLY without any hiccup into Egg In a Hole! What in the love of hold my beer is going on?!?! This is SICK!!! Egg goes for 3 or 4 absolutely glorious minutes before finishing up and leading into ....

....a 14 minute Piper that isnt just a bliss rocker! This sucker uses its time well, jamming excellently and rocking hard to a close before Trey yanks them back into a Caspian reprise to tie a knot on top and send us out :)

Holy mother of x factor magic this sequence was FREAKING AWESOME!!!! DUDE! If you want some "WTF is going on?!" Phish, this is the set for you, lol

The following Lonely Trip is one of the most perfectly placed things ever. Another absolutely beautiful reading. I would call it must hear, but just about every version is fantastic....

The get us up and moving again with a red hot and robowah-laden BOTT. Normally Id say BOTT should never leave set 1 (along with Wedge!!!!!) but this is just killer. Perfectly patient playing, extra "eyebrows" all over, super tight, heat when it calls for it ....is it really must hear? Probably not? But know that it is a GREAT version worth your time!!!! This smokes.

Oh hell yea, Most Events is up next. Bring on the fire! Listen to Treys fantastically longing background fills during the verses. Extra mustard all over this bad boy. Listen for the stretched out Page playing during the start section of the jam. Then Trey starts doing cool stoccato delay stuff before he begins soloing. Must hear!! This was one of the best Ive heard. The whole thing was TIGHT and felt super....practiced? Everyone was just giving it extra. Killer.

Blaze On closes the set proper. In the words of our beloved Chris Farley: HOLY SCHNIKES!!! Fire from every angle, this thing is a nuclear bomb!!! Maybe not must hear, but christ on a cracker this thing is FIRE!!! Terrific close to the set!!!

Terrific 4 song encore that opens with only the 8th ever played version of Nothing, and the first version since friggin Mexico 2017. It sounds great, no rust. Play this more!!!!

Circus and Oh Kee Pah follow before a ragetastic party of a Suzy closes out the night for good.

All in all, HOLY CRAP WHAT SHOW!!! THIS SHOW WAS SICK!!! How in the hell does this barely have a 3.7 over on .net?! If this wasnt a 4.1 or 4.2 level show I dont know what is.

EVERYTHING was loaded with energy and the playing was as TIGHT throughout as ever in 2022 to this point. That 2nd set Simple and the Caspian>Egg>Piper shenanigans were just ridiculous. Hell, you even get a dang 4 song encore with a huge bustout...

Go give this show a listen, please! It will kick your ass! :D

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