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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...

Sunday, November 16, 2025

2025-09-16 Alpharetta, GA

 9 16 25 Alpharetta

Set 1

The show opens with a - more than usual - blazing Buried Alive. This sucker absolutely CRUSHES. Trey goes bonkers and holds one note for a solid minute like its Divided Sky. Must hear all day - wow!!!

Coming after is a nice Bag>Slave combo. Bag is red hot but unfortunately extremely short (barely 5 minutes) and Slave feels very badly placed, immediately deflating the energy built so far. After a long time of boring noodling though, it "clicks" and turns into a fantastic resding! The sucker just explodes and shoots straight for the sky. I won't call this must here but the back half deserves some recognition.

A major surprise, we get a super rare Peaches En Regalia. It's ever so slightly rusty and hesitant but that's nitpicking. This is one of the most well played versions I've heard in a long while. Page nails his parts and Trey almost nails his. Awesome.

An 11 minute version of Tube follows and keeps the show on track. Must hear all day, it's super high energy and delivers a lengthy and punishing hose explosion back half. Sick.

Following that we get a punchy and tight type 1 reading of 555. Nothing special but keeps the energy going great. Even more tight and punchy is an absolutely Barn burning My Soul. Like the Buried Alive that opens the show it absolutely destroys. Hot damn. Let's give it a light must hear.

From here on out the rest of the set is basically essential and must hear. Reba and Maze are both exceptional for any era readings!!!! Reba is played close to flawlessly thankfully and solo is just insanely magical. It's a perfect slow build. It feels much longer than usual and is perfectly measured and constructed in the best way. The final couple minutes of finale explosion are absolutely incredible. A magical reading.

Basically all of the above goes for Maze as well. Yes of course it's always played really hot yeah yeah, but this one is like five levels above that. I don't know how to describe how nuclear it is but it's absolutely essential shredding of the highest order. Tight and fast and just ripping. My god.

Following Horn, the set concludes with an extra strong Coil featuring a lengthy outro with the drums included.

All in all for the most part this was a very very strong set. It dipped a little bit early on and then gained major momentum and exploded to a finale.

Buried Alive, Reba, Maze and My Soul, with special nods to Coil....This set wasnt perfect all the way through, but more often than not it excelled majorly.

Wow. 

 

Set two

The second half of the show opens with a 17 minute Oblivion into an 11 minute Bowie. Now if that ain't fresh then I don't know what is. Unfortunately it's not that great of a jam in my humble opinion. Initially going bright it quickly dives into a darkly aquatic robo-funk zone. Unfortunately they don't do anything with it and they meander aimlessly for several minutes taking the jam absolutely nowhere. Going for broke, they instead move out and into the standard type 1 Rock raging. Thankfully that is very very strong and kicks total ass but on the whole this jam is not my favorite. Others will likely get more mileage out of it than me. The back half of it kicks total ass but the whole thing is just kind of disjointed and slightly unsuccessful overall.

Bowie on the other hand... Holy moly it's like Maze on steroids coupled with a nuclear bomb tonight. It's hard to describe it without making it sound like it's just another red hot type 1 version. This one deserves a jam chart entry in my opinion if it doesn't already have one. I would definitely call this must hear!!! There is some kind of connection in x Factor going on on this one for sure!!!!!

And on into a 17 minute Fuego. Hopefully we get a good jam out of this one! AND HOLY MOTHER OF NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION WHAT A FUEGO IT IS!!!!!!!! This has to be the hottest type 1 version I've ever heard. It never gets strange instead opting to grab you by the back of your head and slam you face first into the concrete crushing you into oblivion over and over and over and over until you are begging for mercy. 10,000% must hear there isn't much to say about it except it is the definition of destruction.

They follow that with a nice version of Leaves. This one also has heavy overtones about it and the jam out of it gets nice and darkish. Threatening to go type 2 they instead switch on a dime into Sneaking Sally. Sally is merely a transition piece however into a massive nearly 13 minute version of The Howling.

Oh my effing God what in the name of Columbus 2025 Piper is this. Take the Fuego from before and times it by a million. It's super up tempo and the Segway out of Sally is pretty damn awesome. The song is the most ridiculous dance party rock face melter ever. About halfway through the funkiness gives way to straight up shredding and ripping and hose explosion annihilation until it's conclusion. If this isn't considered the greatest of all time yet then I don't know what would be. 10,000% must hear as well. Oh my freaking God this show is killing.

Finishing the set proper with decent Number Line into a rusty but extremely energetic Drift, we then get a burning encore of Monsters and Antelope. Not much to say, I don't know how essential any of it is but it all blows up and destroys as expected.

All in all this was one of the most energetic, fire-laden, nuclear hot shows I've ever heard. If someone labeled this the hottest show of 2025 I probably wouldn't disagree.

Musically it was one of the least adventures of the year, but the non-stop overkill fire/lava in your ears makes up for it to a very large extent. Show as a whole was rather uneven but 2/3 of it I would say you could call excellent.

Also how long was this show?! I swear it felt like it took me forever to get through it this morning....

For set 2 grab Fuego, Bowie, Sally>Howling
 

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