2025-09-21 Hampton, VA

 9 21 25 Hampton

Set 1

The final night of the tour gets off to a surprisingly sleepy start with a supemely average First Tube. Nice pick as opener but I think it works better late in the set or the show when you've already worked up a strong head of steam and it can work as a kind of peak to a set.

In one of the most baffling moments of all time, they choose the 2nd slot to keep the energy low (non existent) with the worst-placed 20 Years Later ever. Look, I love this song, but this is even more average than FT was. Wtf was Trey thinking, putting this in the damn second slot?!?!? Dude. Total energy suck....

Thankfully they quickly write the ship with an average but enjoyable AC/DC Bag to finally get some momentum going. Nothing special or must here in the slightest but it's a much welcome or spite from the doldrums we began with.

The first highlight of the show is a perfectly played Foam! Everyone is totally on their a game and it sounds extremely well rehearsed. It's a tad on the slow side but who cares when all the parts are nailed this well. Pages playing is absolutely beautiful and Trey completely sticks the landing on the ending. Good enough that I'm going to give it a light must hear!!! Sick!

The following Life Saving Gun continues the upward trend. Not as strong as the Birmingham version but it's still an absolutely worthy addition to the Canon. They jammed the crap out of it with some really nice seagull sirens stuff going on and some very tight group playing. It's not the greatest version in the entire world but it's definitely worth a listen. Great stuff.

The following Roggae I would say does reach must hear status and I would consider it at least as good as Foam. Stellar as always just absolutely soaring with a wonderful solo. Nothing you haven't heard before but man does this song always deliver or what?!

After a very lengthy but ultimately average 2001, we get another must here with a pounding version of Meat. See Roggae. Nothing you haven't heard before but it's just super excellent and gooey and funky and heavy tonight. It absolutely delivers in the best way.

The set concludes on a mixed note with a 14 minute Melt that I'm iffy on. The sound mix on this show is so bad making it a giant echo chamber that it's very difficult to make out any details of the jam. It sounds like one big wall of noise in a bad way. I think it's really good but I can't really tell so I'll let you be the judge on this one.

But wait there's more it's actually not the end of the set! We get a very cool and unexpected triple threat set conclusion with it continuing on into Golgi and Most Events. Both are great as always nothing much to say.

All in all this wasn't the strongest set of the year but it also was very very good at the same time. Hard to explain. Kind of on the very strong side of average if that makes any sense. It's definitely better than average but it's hard to explain it's like in the crack between average and great.

Just pretend the set begins with Bag and you are off to the races. Foam, Roggae, LSG and Meat are the music that you need to seek.

 

Set two begins with a rare old school proper Mikes Groove! A strong type 1 reading. Nothing special but definitely worth your time. Good stuff, particularly Weekapaug.

Up next is a 20 minute Mind. Everyone's going to hate me but I'm really really really not a fan of this one. Jam starts nicely in a darker minor key zone noodling around, but unfortunately Trey soon switches them into upbeat major key bliss rocking. The jam very hesitantly gets stuck kind of meandering around for a long time, doing a whole lot of nothing. Eventually in the last third they all sync up finally in it just rages to a giant type 1 conclusion. But when all is said and done this was a big disappointment for me. I really can't stand these boring, "one note" long jams that just don't do that much. I'm not saying this is bad but I'm saying that personally I'll be fine never hearing this ever again.

The Jim spends a minute or two slowly deconstructing into some psychedelic ambience and moving into a 22 minute Scents. And thankfully it's a million times better!! Total X Factor on this one, it never gets strange but the boys are completely connected and it's one giant flowing beast of a jam. The initial dark type 1 quickly gives way to patiently bliss rocking. The jam deconstructs in almost lines to a close but they build it back up and keep it going. Taking on almost a vaguely Latin kind of feel, it sllloooooowwwwwlllllyyyyy #slowridetakeiteasy builds to the most ridiculous peak rage section of maybe the year. Honestly this is probably a top five peak finale section of 2025. It just goes on and on and on and on getting hotter and hotter and hotter as the minutes tick away. Like someone extremely slowly turning up the heat on an oven until eventually it's full blast and they rip the knob right off. This is an essential version of the song and one of the essential jams of a year loaded with essential jams. Wow.

The fun continues and the combo of Ghost>Chalkdust is just pure an adulterated fire to the effing face. Both are must hear, all day long. Two of the strongest, gnarliest, most blazing nuclear bomb 10,000 Sun hot versions I've ever heard. Chalkdust especially is a Hall of famer type 1 version. There have been a few versions like that this year and this one easily tops them all. It just goes on and on and on and on and on and on. Then you think it's over, and did they pick it back up and keep on MELTING THE UNIVERSE FOREVERMORE.

MY GOD THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE VERSION HOLY MOLY.

The show ends with the appropriate emotional duo of Life and Hood. Life is not a great version tonight unfortunately - the placement feels right emotionally in terms of the vibe of the show and it being the last show of the tour, etc. but Trey sounds positively uninspired and delivers one of the worst solos of the year. Shame!

Hood is thankfully fantastic. Up there with the best of the year and I'm very worthy closer for the show and tour. I've got goosebumps all down my neck during this version. Terrific!

All in all this was a very mixed bag of a show. I'm really not sure how to read it but I'd probably give it a solid 3.9 ish or 4.0. The Scents through Chalkdust as well as Hood are what you need from set two.

There was a TON of "really good but excessively average" stuff in the show, but the highlights were huge and made up for it all (almost). Definitely definitely definitely not one of my favorite shows and it started to feel like a chore to get through until Scents came along.

Your mileage may vary but I'm glad I got through this tour as it was not one of my favorites, if I'm being honest.