9 14 25 Birmingham
Set 2.
Another 2025 Punch opener tonight!! Nicely jammed intro as usual, some
cool rhythmic back and forth going on. Its energetic and played pretty
perfectly. Not the version of the year, but absolutely zero in the
negative with this one aside from about 10 seconds of uncertainty from
Trey in the Landlady section. I can't believe we've entered an age where a well-played Punch opener is a regular reality again.
14 minute Mikes Song in slot 2!!!! Heck yes! Off the bat this one is
cookin. The jam takes a long time to do much though - its very high
energy, but Trey lays back a lot sounding slightly unsure at times,
reverting to loops to fill his gaps. The jam reaches a solid peak but
Trey feels like hes forcing it and its rather ramshackle. This Mikes
gets a pass but its nothing more than average strong, imo
They quickly rectify this with a Roggae-tier Ocelot!!!! Very long at
nearly 11 minutes, Trey takes a long time constructing his solo.
Eventually everyone links up and they spend several minutes exploding in
a massive hose peak from heaven. Must hear this was one of the best versions I've ever heard, holy smokes!
And into a 12 minute KDF! Unfortunately it turns out to be a slight
disappointment. The energy is there and the rest of the band sound great
but Trey is very hesitant sounding in his playing. It never leaves type
1 and doesn't even peak that fantastically. It's not bad or anything
but it's nothing you need to rush out to hear.
After the world's most dragging and tired sounding version of Ginseng,
we get Halley. It sounds pretty bad for the start section and then locks
in decently in the back half before segwaying out of nowhere into
Weekapaug. Trey seems to finally wake up during Paug and it turns out
pretty strong version.
The set concludes on a high note with a 15 minute Stash into Cavern
combo like it's 1992. Stash is killer - sounding average at first it
eventually clicks and the jam takes off. Briefly going robot type 2 they
instead take it back to home base and rage it to an absolutely nuclear
finale . Definitely strong enough for me to call must hear. it's
fantastic!
Cavern is Cavern 
All in all this was a humongous step down from night one. The rest
of the band sound great and the energy is there for the most part, but
Trey is absolutely having an off night. It sounds like he changed
something with his settings because his tone tonight is really bad
compared to night one.
He has sticky fingers, is hitting a lot of bad notes and is very
hesitant for much of the set. Not a horrible set but definitely not one I
can recommend either. A solid B/B+ imo.
You do need that Ocelot and Stash though!
Set 2
The second half of the show opens with a large and in charge 18 minute
Wave of Hope. Unfortunately it is basically a waste of time for 2/3 of.
In meanders along doing nothing pretty much until the final section
where it locks in and they peak it to oblivion. Dang this was a
disappointment....
Even worse, if you can believe that, is the following 17 minute version of Mind. An even WORSE jam,
it spends a solid 10 minutes or more just doing nothing. I mean really
nothing. Trey doing chord vamping non stop, Page doing nothing (maybe
he's just inaudible on soundboard?)... It ends with about 2 minutes of
ambient whatever you want to call it but at that point it's way too
little way too late. This was almost as bad as the Philly Sand. Yuck! 
Mercury is a great set call after this. The song itself sounds excellent
and the whole thing reaches 15 minutes. Unfortunately it continues the
"nothing jam" theme of the set. It stays firmly type 1 and not even a
particularly hot type on it that.
FINALLY, the band clicks and the following 15 minute Golden Age
into WTU delivers the genuine highlight of the whole show. GA sounds
terrific quickly going type 2. It spends its time in a psychedelic and
hazy kind of looper funk whatever you want to call it. It's extremely
cool and must hear. And the WTU that follows is The perfect landing pad
and is extremely powerful. MUST HEAR!
Same goes for Good Times Bad Times!!! Put on your radiation suits
because things are about to get nuclear! No, seriously, this is a damn
MELTDOWN!!!!!! HOLY SMOKES TREY!!!! Must hear!
Great encore of Fee, Twist and More.
All in all this was one of my least favorite shows. It wasn't bad
it just felt very disconnected and/or uninspired at times. Very weird.
For set two all you need is GA>WTU.
There isn't much more to say about it. It's an a for effort b minus for
execution kind of show. I'd say the 3.7 rating it currently has is
accurate.
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