2025-07-19 Chicago, IL

 7 19 25 Chicago

The Seven Below Show

Set 1

Absolutely KILLER opener tonight with a raging 13 minute Life Saving Gun!! Very cool version. Very groovy tonight, around 7 minutes it goes type 2, moving into a psychedelic space rock kind of zone that's pretty awesome. It kinda just fizzles tona close unfortunately, but thats ok. This is must hear!

Steam is next and feels perfectly placed out of that slightly grimy LSG. Chillest, most laid back version ive ever heard, it does have a strong finale, but never expands past slow bubbles. Fluid is a good way to describe this version.

McGrupp kicks things back up. Loose around the edges, tightening up as it goes along. Strong version that almost hints at jamming, but they resist. Bummer.

One of the ultimate WTF moments of th year comes with the ridiculous bustout of The Line!! First version since Fall 2018, the crowd reacts appropriately with zero applause. Its pretty hilarious, lol. Its a surprisingly strong and non awkward reading. Even the annoying woooo background vocals are on point. Honestly? I kind of dug this version! It almost rocked and sounded pretty darn good. I'm going to give it the Novelty Factor must hear award.

The first TRUE piece of magic though is the following version of Seven Below. Trey completely botches the vocal entrance instead of trying to go for a second round and begin singing, he instead leads the band into an eight or nine minute long instrumental version of the song. Absolute x Factor! This jam is sick!!! It just builds and builds into a swirling magical storm of hosey peakage. It's purely type one but it's downright beautiful. The best stuff always comes when you least expect it, eh? Wow!!!!

Ocelot and Ya Mar are both excellent type 1 readings that cool the set off nicely in a good way. They follow those with a perfectly placed Mountains in the Mist. This one really hit me hard this morning, coming on as the sun was just creeping above the horizon.

All 3 are nothing special but also typically great at the same time.

The set ends on a high note with the double whammy closer of a VERY strong Golgi into Most Events. Golgi super tight and rages hard and of course MEAP brings the house down as usual.

All in all, this set felt a lot like Charleston N1 S1. A very colorful set list, with a lot of average strong readings and no disappointments, but few truly incredible moments also.

LSG and Seven Below and (I can't believe I'm saying this) The Line are the must hear material in my opinion. The Ocelot>Ya Mar>Mountains trio was super solid though, feeling like someone took the fader switch of a light and slowly slid it downward.

I highly enjoyable set with a nice chill vibe to it that isn't sleepy but doesn't need to be fiery either. Not the strongest of the tour but a fine listen.

Set 2

The second set opens with a 15 minute version of Tube!! Is this the longest version since Chula Vista '21?! And thank God it ends up being a FANTASTIC reading!!! Fiery from the outset, the initial jam sees Trey kicking on some subtle robo effects, chorus etc, patiently taking his time and building this thing easily. Slowly it increases in intensity, he begins to set loopers and the whole thing lifts off as you pray and hope. Unfortunately, smack at the 8-minute mark, he leads them into upbeat bliss rock and it's out of deep jamming from there. THANKFULLY, there is some definite magic in this section, with everybody syncing up like a well-oiled machine playing together as if they were one total piece. The jam eventually builds to a massive and powerful conclusion that is well worth the ticket price of admission. Total x Factor on this sucker, absolutely must hear. This was sick!!

Keeping things going perfectly, they then launch into a 17 minute ASIHTOS. And its another must hear killer!!! Initial rocking QUICKLY turns into a weirdo type 2 exercise in "wtf how did we get here?!". Blissful rocking starts to swirl, Trey begins a cavalcade of loops, and the jam spends 5 glorious, insane minutes morphing into this utterly psychedelic swirling wormhole of light. Dude, wtf this is amazing!!! Unfortunately, right at the 9 minute mark, Trey axes it and leads them back into rockville. It takes on a very rhythmic and driving feel, slowly working its way to a conclusion, eventually peaking and exploding as hoped. Absolutely killer and must hear!!!

Even better is the following Disease>Seven Below>Disease!!!!!! HOLY CRAP WHAT IN THE MOTHER OF X FACTOR LETS GO!!! For the love of God, Disease ACTUALLY goes full-blown proper type 2 for the first time since, freaking Hartford 2022 I reckon?! The Charleston disease is an abomination compared to this. Quickly askewing the usual boring type 1 Bliss Rock, things get funky with synthesizers and robo wah taking over. A gloriously lengthy section of funking robot type 2 ensues. Slowly it starts to get weird turning into a heavy snarling psychedelic kind of vortex jam once again. Things go full on into outer space. Just as you think we are going to really go over the edge, somehow we step back and we morph into a brief Seven Below jam before returning to Disease and out. Yo that was sick AF, total magic. That was one of the coolest things played all year. Again the unexpected things are where the magic lies with this band. Moments like this are the kind of things. that makes us keep returning to shows. Of course this is must here what are you kidding?? Dang!!! Basically, Disease goes full blown Fuego-meltdown on our asses. Hell freaking yes.

Following that, we get the TERRIFIC combo of 20 minutes of Pillow Jets>2001. Neither are "unique", but both are basically as strong as type 1 versions of either can possibly be. Pillow is down right monstrous in its girth and execution tonight. Just pure fire beyond the perfunctory readings of much of this year. The ending sees it dissolve into a giant HAZE of growly feedback. Fishman starts the 2001 drumbeat beneath and its on, til the break of dawn, ya dig, ma boy?!

THAT SEGUE WAS SO EFFING BADASS!

And 2001 is just spectacular - A+ on all fronts. Tight, high energy, exquisite and lengthy funky robo destruction. This version is SLAMMIN!!!! This duo is absolutely friggin must hear. They both kick so much ass.... Wow....

Just like 2001 out of Pillow Jets, along comes a giant 10 minute Chalkdust ripping out of the ending feedback of 2001 to close the set with a bang. Hell freaking yes let's go!!!! Just make it part of the must-tier trio with PJ and 2001. This thing is NUCLEAR!!! Basically, it's a do-over of the set ending Charleston version turned up to 11. Absolutely screaming from the damn sky like a missile set to destroy you. 10/10 type 1 for a 2025 Chalkdust. Hell yes.

Terrific encore again of While My Guitar and a burning First Tube

All in all, this was a really great show. Set two was entirely must hear from start to finish. It wasn't the perfectly created from God voodoo magic of that one Boulder show with the Tweezer, but it was the next best thing.

Easily the show I've enjoyed the most since probably Charleston number 3. Also easily probably the best show since Charleston number 3. This currently sits at a 4.1 rating. I'd say that's accurate, but if the first set was better I would feel fine bumping it up to maybe a 4.2 or even a 4.3!!