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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...

Saturday, April 26, 2025

2022-07-29 Raleigh, NC

 7 29 22 Raleigh

Set 1

Good start with the double whammy of Moma into Possum. Nothing special about either, but Trey is playing hot and both are on the excellent side of average.

Immediately after, we get the first surprise of the night. Steam is slowly rising to a boil, but Trey decides to instead - somehow!!! - segue them into Stash!! Yo, wtf was that segue and how the hell was that NOT a trainwreck!! That was AWESOME!!!! Stash itself is an excellent type 1 reading played flawlessly. Great version, nothing to say. But then, during the Stash jam, Trey sees his chance and moves them BACK into Steam!!! Wow. Awesome. Musically, there isnt anything special about either, but that segue business was nuts and both were played excellently. Basically, see Moma and Possum.

Before we have 2 seconds to catch our breath they IMMEDIATELY rip on into Funky B like whiplash outta Steam. And Funky B freaking rips! Id call this must hear!! It just goes and goes and goes!! It just EXPLODES!! Killer!

The Wedge and Horn are both good but positively average.

The set closes on a tremendous note with a ridiculous, X Factor magic, 21 friggin minute type 2 Rise/Come Together!!! And man, this really is all that and a bag of chips. Full of power, they quickly deviate and spend a long time flitting in and out of funky major key type 2. Around the 13 minute mark things get strange for a bit before they return to type 1, absolutely going nuclear bomb on us. Absolutely terrific segue back into the song and we are out ......

All in all this was definitely a really good set!!! Funky and Rise are the only things - purely musically speaking - that truly EXCELLED. However, the rest of set was nothing less than base level excellent. Special note to the Steam sandwich!!!

The "boring" setlist definitely hurt this one, but thats nitpicking. There is NOTHING bad about this set. Its just few on the truly must hear stuff.  


Set 2

The 2nd set opens with an excellent BBFCFM! Taken at an oddly slow pace that almost feels deliberate, this is an excellent rollicking rendition. Great stuff!

Even better, they follow it with a 16 minute Carini. It never escapes type 1 but it is still a genuinely powerful and rocking rendition. Really really good!!! It fizzles out just as its going type 2 and moves into the most inappropriately placed Waste ever.

Waste is very good but Ruby Waves is magnitudes better. 13 minutes, it wastes no time getting down to business. Extremely hot and loaded with X Factor, it goes strange into a crazy, crystalline type 2 outer space kind of area. Absolutely essential, this is incredible!!! It finishes with two entire minutes of demonic, evil, robo hellscape, complete with power drill!!! Now this is TYPE 2!!!! HOLY CRAP THIS RUBY!!!

Seriously, that was an all timer Ruby Jam. SERIOUSLY. Dude, wtf was that?!

Great choice following the evil with Sea of Stars. Perfect. And its a doozy, turning in maybe the finest "type 1" (if you will) version Ive ever heard. Just astonishingly great. Also, tell me this doesnt sound like a damn 1972 Dead space jam out of Dark Star or something. MUST HEAR!!!! X FACTOR FOR DAYS!!!!

And then, like butter, out of Sea and slowly into Piper. Awesome transition! AND PIPER IS FRIGGIN RIDICULOUS!!! PSYCHEDELIC INSANITY!!! The thing goes dark and somehow mutates into a strange and extremely bonker BBFCFM jam. Basically it straight up becomes a type 2 BBFCFM. Must hear at all costs!!

Featuring one of the greatest seamless segues ever played by humans, the go into Light and deliver a spectacular bliss fest type 1 reading. A+ across the board.

To top it off, they then go into a burn the friggin house down Shine a Light. Another must hear, this one is nuclear, holy crap.

Super inspired 4 song encore of Strange Design, Heavy Things, Sneaking Sally and Wilson. Hot damn. All excellent and worth your time. GRAB SALLY! SALLY IS MUST HEAR!!! IT SMOKES!!!

Man, what a show!!! The first set was excellent if unremarkable aside from R/CT, but set 2 was almost entirely all killer no filler aside from that horribly placed Waste.

The ENTIRE run of Ruby through the end of the set is genuinely must hear. Just magic across the board!!!

Id give this show a solid 4.1 or 4.2

GREAT SHOW!! :)

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