6 24 25 Pittsburgh
Set 1
10 minute Bag opener tonight. Very good version with great energy.
Really nice solo with some cool motif jamming that stretches the usual
Bag rocking a little bit.
They follow with the first Dogs Stole Things since 2022! You guys know
Im a DST hater, but this one is a huge exception. Super high energy and
slightly uptempo, this one absolutely slays.
Its honestly great enough for me to call it genuinely must hear!
Another bust out, now we get the first Paul and Silas since 2016. Sounds
great. A rare early 1st set IAWITW follows. I think this is a great
version. Crazy energy and it really streeeetttccchhhheeesss itself. Trey
sounds checked out at times but when he is there it's great. The rest
of the guys are absolutely smashing this. I cant call it must hear but I
do think its worth recognition.
A 3rd bustout, we get the first Water In the Sky since 2022. Terrific
version, it definitely sounds super rehearsed and the guys are all
killing. Sick!
Stealing Time is next and I WANT to say its an amazing version. I think it is but I really cant say! Trey is mixed so gosh dang low during his solo that I can barely make him out. What is this garbage?! 
Even worse, Ya Mar follows and PAGE is now inaudible!!! Even MORESO than
Trey was!!! Ya Mar without Page?! Here ya go folks!!! Its not until
halfway through his solo that he becomes audible. I'm not exaggerating, he is completely gone from the mix until about halfway through the song. This mix is a disgrace.
Ugh!!!
Hot damn though, we get a 13 minute Gumbo next! Gumbo is terrific, going
type 2 into a great Leslie bliss rock area before getting dark and
rocking to a close. Probably must hear.
The closing Walls though? Holy mother of molten lava from the sun must hear must hear must hear!!! This
one somehow goes above and beyond the usual Walls heat and delivers a
nuclear bomb that will have your jaw on the floor going "where did this
come from?!?!". Unbelievable version.
All in all, this set was very good but also definitely not to my
personal setlist preferences. Trey also was on/off from song to song.
That being said, great energy throughout with a number of standouts.
Dogs, Gumbo and Walls are what you need. 
Set 2
Fantastic YEM to open. The boys are ON FIRE delivering one of the
tastiest versions. They reach the vocal jam and Fishman refuses to stop,
keeping them going into further high octane jamming. Maybe not must
hear but damn is it good!!
And then...holy mother of insanity. 43 minute Mind (mind mind mind mind mind mind.....)!!!!!!! The
song itself sounds great. The jam begins with a lengthy section of dark
kind of tenseness. Lots of synths and Trey using his loopers to make
layers of texture. Awesome stuff. The second section of the jam sees
them patiently exploring a kind of hazy upbeat psychedelia. This goes
from 11 minutes all the way to the 16 minute mark. From there they
meander a bit until at 19 minutes things get dark. Just as quickly, Trey
leads them back out at 21 minutes into hard rocking. They reach the
most unbelievable peak section, going maybe more nuclear than that damn
Walls! This rock peak section is INSANE!!! Around 25 minutes the peak finally subsides and the jam morphs into crazy dark psychedelic strangeness. Hell yes! Just when I thought the jam was gonna be stuck, they finally junp off the DEEP end!!! The
intensity goes SKY HIGH and we spend until 31 minutes hurtling through
the friggin outer space black hole wormhole vortex from hell!!! Holy mother of hold on to your spacesuits!!! THIS IS INSANE! OUTER SPACE THRILL RIDE FROM HELL! LETS FRIGGIN GO!!! Finally around 31 minutes the craziness subsides and the jam starts to break down. X Factor. All the X Factor. Every last friggin bit of it. My word.... Thank
God for Jon Fishman - the jam reaches an obvious winding down
conclusion point, but he REFUSES to let it end!!! He keeps that rat a
tat tat going and they relaunch back into the jam. From here, they spend
10 minutes in the most gnarly, freaky kind of...what the hell would you even call this?! Think the Dicks 2012 Farmhouse taken to the nth degree!!! This wacky, dark almost kind of industrial robo jungle insanity!!!! Now THIS is
what hurtling through the vortex sounds like!!! Easily as far out there
as the 6/20 Twist and probably more so!!!!!!! Good god!!!! Eventually
they return to the song and send us out....
WHAT IN THE LOVE OF GOD EVEN WAS WHAT?!?! THAT WAS FRICKIN NUTS!!!!!!!
All in all that jam was obviously terrific, but at the same time I don't
think it beats the Tweezer from the night before. The jam seemed to be a
little more long-winded than it needed to be and slightly too
"concious" of itself. But ignore me because that's all extreme
nitpicking.
From here, the show rages to a close with a soaring Caspian, blazing
Julius and a must hear Blaze On. Blaze On is stupendous!!!! So very
extra in the best way. It just COOKS!! The jam feels extra powerful and
almost funky and the incredible peak finale recalls the Walls from set
1. Absolutely must hear!!!
Fresh encore of The Howling into Ghost. Both good but inessential.
All in all this was another excellent show. It felt a bit more
scatter shot than the last couple but musically I can't fault it really.
The only real thing is that it didn't seem as smooth as far as flow is
concerned, and Trey was having some kind of uninspired night here and
there. I'm really not a fan of the first set song choices - I dig the
songs but to have all of those together in the same set is kinda rough.
Still this was a great show regardless and I would rate it like a solid 4.2.
No comments:
Post a Comment