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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 23, 2025

2022-06-04 Noblesville, IN

 6 4 22 Noblesville

Set 1

The show opens with a very nice Turtle. Nothing special but the energy is there and the tempo is up. Excellent.

They immediately kick it into HIGH GEAR with the following Undermind. This baby coookkkssss!! Maybe not truly must hear but its terrific! A definite highlight!!!

And believe it or not, Drift While You're Sleeping in slot 3 was spectacular tonight!!!! Somehow it kept the energy of of Undermind going and built upon it!!! An absolutely explosive reading, one of the finest I have heard. What in the F?!? A Drift in slot 3 that not only does not ruin the set but straight up elevates it?! Must hear!!! Holy crap!!!


After a fun Strawberry Letter 23, the hits keep coming with a blazing hot, X Fsctor Stealing Time. They jam the CRAP outta this one!!! A spectacular reading, hear this at all costs!!! No, seriously, the jamming in this is just absolutely inspired. Must hear. 10/10. THIS IS MAGICAL!!!

What the hell is this set so far?!?!

Runaway Jim is the perfect followup. It never fully "explodes" but the energy is sky high regardless and the back half is one big full-band interplay love fest. Maybe not must hear, but its terrific!!!!! Killer. Definitely a highlight and worth s listen.

Camel Walk gives us a slight breather. Terrific type 1 reading. As Brent Mydland would say, silky, silky smooth!! Definitely a highlight but probably not must hear.

Id say the following Timber is, however! It stretches wonderfully, just about going type 2!!!! The initial build up jam is stretched mightily by Pages colorful synths while Trey slowly builds his solo atop. Patient in the BEST way, the full band interplay is killer on this. Just listen to everyone listening close to each other!! Short but must hear!!! Wow!!

Julius and Melt close the set perfectly. Julius is absolutely BLAZING LIKE A COMET BRIGHTER THAN A FULL MOON!!! Holy crap. Nothing special but good lord it just rips!!!

A solid Melt sends us out. Not very long, barely passing 11 minutes. Despite the length, this has an awesome jam. For a Melt, its surprisingly cohesive, going into a 1999-style "tensely ethereal" zone flirting with ambience but really flying through the clouds instead. Wonderful stuttering synths and patiently building Trey. This is wonderful!!! Then they slowly move into a deconstruction zone for a bit before perfectly segueing back out into the song again. Id call this must hear. I thought it was surprisingly great, especially considering its relatively brief runtime!

All in all, this set WAS KILLER!!!!!! Everything was baseline excellent and Trey was very much "ON" with his playing. The band are definitely having a good night on the musical communication front as well.

Id say Drift, STFTFP and Timber and Melt are all must hear, while Camel, Jim and Undermind come close.

I can see why the setlist would turn folks off, but look past that and go LISTEN instead!! This set blazes, featuring spectacular Trey out the wazoo. I understand the "flaws", but for me personally this was a smashing set!!


Set 2

First 2nd set YEM opener since 1989?!?! And it reaches 23 minutes including a post vocals jam?!?! All that out of the way, the technical parts sound very good but arent "perfect". But zero complaints on that front - sounds great. The lengthy initial round of funk jamming is just oh so good!!! Pages keys give it an exceptionally laid back "take it easy" vibe and Treys soloing is just completely on point. Then of course they build it back up and tear the roof off accordingly. Right around 15 minutes Trey unleashes one of the most ridiculous explosions of fury Ive heard in while. Holy freaking crap!! Then Gordo funks it up and we go into the vocal jam. The vocal jam barely lasts a minute before being 86d. They quickly and smoothly move back into low key funk for a bit. Eventually the jam goes type 2 and they spend the remainder in a slow building, upbeat melodic bliss heaven kind of area. Just wonderful!!!

Holy freaking crap! X Factor ALL OVER that magical beast!!! That is an all-timer-since-2009 version, hands down. Many modern YEMS are real good, but few are truly GREAT like this one....wow... 

Following YEM, we get to finally witness the birth of Wave of Hope as a true jam vehicle!!! Nearly 19 friggin minutes on this one. The song itself is surprisingly funky and thumping tonight!! Total groover! The first section of the jam is an excellent and inspired aquatic robo bliss rock section. Genuinely killer. Around 10 minutes, after some delay action and a brief peak, the jam goes properly type 2, moving into a more low key, late night rock zone. They quickly move back into inspired upbeat bliss rocking of the non-generic variety. Wonderful and perfect melodic playing leads up to a killer peak at 15:30. The jam explodes with some massive, patented Big Red Sustains, lasting a solid 90 seconds of "kicking into overdrive". Around 17 minutes a stomping groove appears but Trey instead decides to reign them in and close the song proper...

That was DEFINITELY must hear!! It never got "strange" at all, but despite being 15 minutes of "upbeat bliss rock", basically, it all felt very inspired, not "searching" or lacking. This was just terrific for the most part. Killer!!

Great pick of a wah infused Bug to give us a cooldown yet still keep the heat going!! Trey is just soloing the crap outta this one. Awesome lil Bug. This version is SICK!!!! Must hear!!! Strangle that guitar, Trey!!!

We get a nice doubleshot of the Farmhouse album with Jibboo following up Bug. Jibboo is terrific, just loaded with extra pizazz throughout. Not must hear, but comparable in quality to the Jim from set 1.

The Howling is up next and boy does this sucker CRUSH. All hail our robo overlords!!! Total robot annihilation throughout from Trey, this is the funkiest thing Ive heard in a hot friggin minute. Seriously, I think this is must hear. Its FANTASTIC!!! This thing is WACKY!!! If Jibboo set the ball on the tee, this Howling absolutely knocked it out of the dang course!!! MUST HEAR!!! THIS IS KILLER!!!

The set concludes with Good Times Bad Times to complete a fiery trilogy of awesomeness. And by god is this fire - listen to Trey absolutely nail that solo!!!!! Freaking fire, thats what this is!!! Holy smokes!!! Im calling this must hear. This just annihilated...MACHINE GUN TREY!!!

In the encore we get something really unique and downright weird - SSSLLLLOOOOWWW MMMMAAAAAZZZZEEEE. This is so damn strange and I'm not entirely sure if this even "works", lol. A++++ for creativity and effort and doing something oh so Phishy! The playing is killer and Pages keys REALLY stand out in a big way on this - man those keys just crush on this. And then Treys terrific slow burn solo is just ridiculous. This is actually super awesome!!!
I dont know if Id want this ever again, but this lone outing is pretty friggin COOL!!!


All in all, I loved the hell outta this set!!! I would say YEM, Wave, Bug, Howling, GTBT and Slow Maze are all must hear!!! (That only leaves out Jibboo, and an argumen can be made for that one too).

This show was HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!!! Trey was having a great night solo wise and the whole affair just brims with "extraness". Hell, Id say the 4.1 rating might even be a bit too low - Id give this a 4.2 or 4.3 most likely. All it really "needed" was, maybe, one more big improv piece and the show really could have gone next level!!!

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