6 21 25 Manchester
Set 1
The show opens on a fantastic note with Free into Reba. Free is
excellent. Nothing must hear but still totally killer. Super high
energy. Great start!!
Reba ups things more, delivering a technically sound and spirited
reading. The solo is great - it just keeps getting hotter and hotter
until Trey is just ripping that peak. Not special enough to call must
hear, but still absolutely awesome regardless.
Again though, the energy is sky high, so even though these are "average excellent" readings, they still kick butt.
Halfway to the Moon keeps the energy goin. Everything about the first
two songs applies here as well. I'd probably call this must hear. Its a
standard type 1 reading, but its just oozing with extra "oomph". Its
tight and hot and everyone is ON. Absolutely a highlight!!!! 5 outta
friggin 5 stars. This version is a damn POWERHOUSE!!!
The party continues with the perfect set call of Halley's Comet. Heck
yes. Again, super high energy, uptempo and tight. Just a joy! And hot
damn, this sucker smokes! SO MUCH ENERGY!!! Quickly the
song dives into a slightly darkly funky heavy rock jam. And again, just
pure nuclear bomb energy. Hell, I have to call this must hear just on
the basis of how freaking blazing hot it is. My goodness!!!
This thing is absolutely NUCLEAR!! LETS FRIGGIN GO!! BANG YOUR HEAD!!!
And into a friggin 17 minute Stash!!! Stash is incredible. Total x
factor magic. Not much to say - it spends its time in upbeat major key
rocking, slowly growing and evolving bit by bit into the biggest hose
explosion peak Ive ever heard from a Stash. Absolute magic. Must hear,
of course.
Meat is also must hear! 7 minutes, this one packs a wollop. They go so
hard on this sucker, milking it for all its worth. Definitely some x
factor at play. Spectacular!!! PRIME RIB, YO.
The set concludes with a killer 13 minute Disease. Its not must hear but
it is absolute fire regardless and a terrific way to end the set.
All in all, this was an awesome set. SO MUCH ENERGY OH MY GOD!! Halfway, Halley, Stash and Meat are all must hear...THAT STASH!!!!
Set 2
The set opens oddly with the strange choice of Drift. I love the song,
but its terrible as an opener, imo. Either way, nothing must hear but it
IS an excellent reading. Tight and high energy. Just killer. Good
stuff!
And then, good lord, the next 40 minutes are just an adventure into the outer space vortex.
Well hot damn, a 24 minute Carini, eh? An extended Carini is always
welcome by me! As with the rest of the show, this version is just imbued
with extra energy and enthusiasm out the wazoo. It very much has "the
eyebrows" as Frank Zappa would say. You can just tell this is gonna a banger above the usual. Man, the boys are just locked in tight with
each other, obviously listening and reacting, not just "autopiloting".
Fishman in particular is just going nuts, constantly injecting new fills
every couple of seconds.
Right around the 4:30 mark the jam starts to take flight. Around 5
minutes they briefly venture into upbeat melodic jamming. Oh no. 
Trey is doing chord-based playing and Page is locked in right with him
as if they are playing a song (I mean, they are - you know what Im
saying). They stay in the major key melodic zone for a good long while.
Around 7 minutes Trey starts getting more noodly and the jam begins to
stretch. Page jumps on the synths and it all takes on a decidedly
"aquatic" vibe, but more...gooey than usual. VERY "flowing". Around 8
minutes Trey starts riffing but returns to the melodic playing while
Page increases his presence on the synth with Gordo keeping up on the
bass.
FINALLY, at the 9:30 mark, the jam begins to deviate again. Trey jumps
onto the wah and some robo fx while Page leans harder into the blaring
synths. The jam takes on a much darker tone and things are slowly
getting more intense bit by bit. This is sick - I mean, it develops so friggin' smoothly, like butter. In
come the robo fx! Fishman, meanwhile, is still introducing new beats
and patterns, keeping tight with his brethren, propelling the jam
onwards evermore.
At 11:20 Trey starts "chord vamping" again and Page takes the throne,
layering in some very 2021-style synth work. Super ethereal and
extended. Trey moves to the pitch shifter like it's 1999 and the jam
fully enters outer space, flirting on the line between dark and light. We have entered the Twilight Zone!! Slowly
the jam begins to increase back to a raging psychedelia. Trey is going
nuts making layers until you go "wait, hold on, how many layers are
there?!". The jam at this point is in full "ethereal outer space" mode. A
million loops, Page's synths, bubbly Gordo, Fishman going nuts unable
to hold a steady beat.
At 14 minutes, Page takes charge and ramps up the synth backing increasing the intensity further. It just keeps slowly getting "thicker", if you will. Shortly
after, Trey removes the loops and lets Gordo shine for a bit as the
crowd roars their approval. Quickly he returns to looping, however,
laying a nice little stoccato kind of bedwork atop which he does lots of
cool "volume swell" sounding stuff as the jam turns into a funky
"stop/start" machine.
At 16 minutes, the funky looper space orgy is in full swing. Man, this is a friggin' soundscape. Everyone just BLENDING together, nobody taking lead. Killer. Of course, just as I say that, Trey takes the lead.
He leads them back into melodic upbeat rocking, but the wacky
undercurrent still persists. The jam wanders briefly, sounding as if
Trey already wants to jump into Wave. He resists, however, and just
ramps up the heat. Fishman is driving this sucker like a MACHINE and
it's just steamrolling us into the ground!
Trey begins a "1-2-3" chord motif and it's off into heavy funk land. By
19:30 they are just laying into this harder than anything. The "1-2-3!"
rhythm pattern taking center stage. Then, around 20:30, Page steers the
jam again with his sustained textural synths. Trey seems to have a
looper/delay going (hard to tell) and the jam starts to turn spacey
again with robo fx returning in force. By 21 minutes, you would swear
this is a jam straight out of summer 2021 again.
By 22 minutes, the hard funk is a thing of the past as we are now
firmly in the outerspace robo wormhole. Page quickly rescues us,
however, with some classic rock organ stabbing, prompting Trey to move
into more straightahead chord vamping.
Then, just as it began, it quickly winds to a hazy close, Trey playing around with harmonics amongst a backdrop of synthesizers.
Just as quickly, the haze immediately concludes and they launch - friggin PERFECTLY - into a 16 minute Wave. Seriously,
I don't know why, but that segue/transition was just unbelievably
perfect. Perfect song choice out of the perfect musical moment, executed
perfectly.... And hot damn, does this Wave of Hope friggin fly!
Wave always soars, of course, but this one feels
absolutely....triumphant. Like a musical exclamation point or something.
At the 5 minute mark, the jam immediately dives into a
dark and, once again, heavily "aquatic" sounding jam. We are exploring
the depths, mateys. Wonderful interplay between Page and Trey, the two
of them working like one to create this darkly mysterious soundscape.
Trey doing slow melodic lines while Page interjects with bubbly keys an
outer space synths to create a, well, spacey kind of "depths of the
ocean" vibe. This is friggin' sick. Anyone know any other jams like this?
Around 7 minutes, Fishman ups the rapidfire drumming while Trey leads
the jam into more ethereal waters (There's that word again, but what
other word should I use??). Like a continuation of the first section of
the jam, just with everything gaining some "girth", if you will. Listen
to Cactus thickening it the hell up underneath!!! Dude, those synths coming in and out....this is SICK!!!! UNDERWATER ALIEN EXPLORATION!!! LETS FRIGGIN GO!!!
Then at the 9 minute mark, the jam TRULY dives into the strange when
Trey sets a looper pattern. The ethereal haze enters and it sounds like
something from Summer 1999 coupled with Beneath a Sea of Stars. Or
something like that. I don't friggin know. All I know is that this is
damn incredible. Just killer kind of "textural" jamming, everyone just
layering it all into one big sandwich, perfectly reacting and listening
to one another!!!! Everyone is TOGETHER! This sounds like one big instrument instead of 4 people on 4 separate instruments, ya dig?? In
other jams, I might get on to something like this for being too
"minimalistic", but this is that PERFECT kind where they are just laying
into it hard.....
Those synths!! MY GOD I LOVE THOSE SYNTHS LETS FRIGGIN GO!! Trey
doing excellent chord vamping laying a foundation for Page to "dart" in
and out with tons of synth stabbing and layering. Meanwhile, Gordo is
keeping rapidfire pace with Fishman back there who is, in turn, playing
exactly in sync with Trey. God, I freaking love it when they are LISTENING to each other. Greatest thing ever.... Man, this jam is just SPECTACULAR!!! Hell,
they could stay in this one zone all friggin day if they wanted to like
you're "stuck" inside a 1997 Ghost vamp or something.
Finally, around 13 minutes, the jam begins to take a major turn. Things
go askew in a big way. Page, again, leading direction with his synths,
Trey responding by layering a multitude of robo fx. Welcome to outer space, boys and girls (or is this the ocean on Europa??). About
10 layers deep into synthy robo fx, the rhythm drops out and the jam
slowly fades itself to a conclusion among a cavalcade of watery bleeps
and bloops......
Billy Breathes is a PERFECT cool down from the insanity. A great
version, id call this Carini>Wave>Billy trifecta one of the most
must hear things of recent times. Insane.
A killer and surprisingly jammed 2001 gets us back on our feet before
Meatstick. Meatstick and the following About to Run arent anything
special but the set closing Possum is borderline must hear! Even by
Possum standards, this is a HOT one. Trey is absolutely going off!!!
Inspired encore of Bold, Bowie and Wilson. Bold and Bowie are both
spectacular readings - definitely must hear. Just locked in, tight, and
both bursting with more energy than the sun. Hell, Bowie was practically
1.0 worthy. Killer.
All in all, I loved night 1, but there is no denying this show was
an obvious and major step up! The Carini/Wave combo is truly something
special. That Carini....other than that Fall 2021 version we love, what
other Carini of the last few years is this downright magical?!
Honestly, this show was awesome, plain and simple. SO. MUCH. ENERGY!!!
I feel this is worthy of a 4.3ish rating
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