2024-08-07 Grand Rapids, MI - with Billy Strings

 Set 1

The show opens with a damn BANG tonight!!! My Soul and Undermind tear th roof off and the 16 minute Oblivion absolutely annihilates!!! I guess Billy kicked them into high gear!

HOLY CRAP THIS OBLIVION IS UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! NUCLEAR BOMB ROCK AND ROLL DESTRUCTION!!! LETS FRIGGIN GO!!! X FACTOR FOR DAYS!!!!

Seriously, that was one of the finest versions ever played. Ridiculous.....

Up next is a gorgeous Driver. Pages piano solo is wonderful. This is REALLY great and definitely on the must hear list.

555 is high energy as hell but doesnt really click til the raging finale. Definitely not bad in any way but not essential either.

Birds of a Feather follows the template set by My Soul and Undermind. Its short, blazing hot, and to the effing point. Not exactly essential in the grand scheme of things, but it crushes you while its here, ya dig? Killer. Give this the "underdog" award or something. It absolutely smokes!

Ether Edge continues its recent upwards evolution with another practically jammed version. Absolutely killer. It builds and builds before turning into interesting spacey kind of bliss rock.
Definitely must hear. Massive potential with sucker. Its begging to just burst open one day!!

Unfortunately, Trey kinda ripcords us outta the jam. Fortunately, its for Its Ice. Even better, it sounds GREAT tonight. Trey perfectly nails his parts, its played at a good tempo and the whole thing sounds like a shockingly well oiled machine. Man, 2023-2024 has been the best period for Its Ice since probably the 90s. PRACTICE PAYS OFF!!!!
Screw it, its so well played I'm calling it must hear. A+++++

This excellent set concludes with the nuclear bomb duo of About to Run into Walls. Predictably, both are absolute smokeshows. Not much to say. They both annihilated. Period. About to Run is totally must hear. Just total annihilation on that. And Walls is full tilt wah drenched nuclear bomb annihilation.

HOLY MOTHER OF SATAN THIS IS THE HOTTEST WALLS IN YEARS. INSANE!!!!!! WHERE DID THEY PULL THIS FROM?!?!

All in all, this was terrific first set. SUPER HIGH ENERGY!!! Oblivion, Ether and Ice, Run and Walls are must hear, while My Soul, Undermind and Birds all absolutely blaze. Night 1 probably had the "better" overall set, but hot damn there is nothing wrong with this. Its a barnburner, facemelter kind of set.

JUST THE KIND OF SET I NEEDED THIS MORNING!!! BANG YOUR HEAD!!! LETS GO!!!!!   

Set 2

The 2nd set opens with a solidly standard SANTOS before a terrific 13 minute Wave. Wave goes deep into heavenly bliss looper land before finally robowahing to a conclusion. Killer version. Probably must hear!!

And into an absolutely glorious type 1 Caspian. Terrific segue outta nowhere as well! Extra mustard all over this one! Id call this must hear.

From there we go into a terrific 12 minute Light. MUST HEAR! X FACTOR FOR DAYS!!! The jam immediately goes into darkness and they proceed to basically deconstruct the song into some robo fx sonic hellscape like its summer 2021 again. Pure type 2 all the way. Serious type 2!! Must hear!!

After the Phish portion concludes with a ripping Loving Cup, they bring Billy back out for the Phish debut of Whats Going Through Your Mind!!!! Sick on all levels, the outro jam is pure guitar histrionics.

Immediately they top that with an unbelievably mind blowing Wolfman>DDHVL combo.

Wolfman sounds like an incredible laid back southern rock kind of jam. Wolf as played by the Allmans?! Trey and Billy just egging each other on to more and more extreme ripping heights. At one point they both hit a "Divided Sky" note and hold it - TOGETHER - for what has to be a solid minute or more. My god. This Wolf is pure insanity. X Factor Magic for days.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!!

Shockingly, Wolf drops into a totally unexpected bluesy darkness. Here comes type 2!!! Even more ridiculous is that Trey lays DDHVL atop the bluesy swamp murk basically giving us a dark blues version if the song!!! What in the love of F..... Billy pushes this one over the edge and straighr into the lava....this is a serious contender for the greatest faceMELTING jam I have ever heard in my life. This is just PURE INSANITY!!!!! MUST HEAR MUST HEAR MUST HEAR FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR FIRSTBORN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thankfully they give us time to recouperate with a gorgeous version of Evolve. Stunning. Billys solo is just fantastic!!!! Trey follows with his solo, and its a damn strong one, but good lord Billy just elevated this to the stratosphere. MUST HEAR!!!!!!!

After a gorgeous acoustic Mountains we get a ripping Blaze On. Christ, Billys fills underneath Trey just spruce the song up so much!!!! As predicted, Blaze On is a firestorm. Total annihilation. Good stuff.

Awesome encore of Ginseng and Old Home Place before Frankenstein to close it all down.

All in all, another absolute smokshow gig from the boys. Massive energy throughout. Id say, Ice, About, Walls Oblivion, Light, Evolve, and the Wolf>DDHVL are the true must hears of the show. Maybe Wave as well.

It did feel slightly inferior to night 1 in a way I cant describe, but its vague. This show CRUSHES. Period. I dont know how anyone could leave either night and not be picking their face off the floor....

On to Bethel!

2024-08-06 Grand Rapids, MI - with Billy Strings

 Set 1

The show opens with the quasi rare Strawberry Letter 23. Great pick! Very good version if ultimately inessential.

The following Sigma Oasis, however, is absolutely essential!!! 11 minutes long, this one feels incredibly inspired. Everyone is "in sync" and its basically one giant nonstop orgasm. One of the top "peak explosions" of the year. Absolutely terrific. A+++++. Wow!!!

After a super rare and well performed Peaches, we get another must hear with Tube. Only 7 minutes, and treading most of the same ground as Sigma, this Tube nonetheless turns in another positively INSPIRED performance. It just FEELS amazing!! Must hear all day!!!

Theme follows suit and builds perfectly upon the high energy, inspired playing laid down in Sigma and Tube. Trey is AWOL in his solo at first, but eventually wales up and the song just friggin EXPLODES like I havent heard in a while. Hot damn that was SICK!!!

Stash is 13 minutes tonight. Basically, its Theme part 2. Not terribly unique, but its SO goddamn powerful and explosive that it will just knock your socks off. My god.

A quick Train Song cools us off before a final trio of fire to end the set. Steam is, again, explosive. Trey absolutely dominates this poor song and delivers a DEVASTATING solo. Incredible.

Rift is another A+ version. Trey struggles ever so slightly with the fast ascending lick, but other than that it is perfect and will have you headbanging like a Slayer show!!!

The set concludes with a giant 16 minute Gin. Yet another full tilt barnburner. Not much to say. Essential - its just SO kick ass...PEAK OF THE MILLENNIA!!! RAGE IT!!! HOLY FREAKING CRAP HOLD ON TO YOUR PANTS!!!!;


All in all....HOLY SMOKES!!!! Energy out the damn wazoo! This set KILLED! The song selection was kinda boring but who cares when pretty much everything knocks it outta the damn park. This was back to Sphere 2024 overkill jamming. If you want your face MELTED, this is the set for you

Sigma, Tube, Steam, Stash, and Gin are all MUST HEAR and Theme is definitely worthy of a listen. 

Set 2

The 2nd set opens with a quick 1-2 punch of Free into Sand. Both are too short for their own good, but while Sand fails to fully ignite, Free absolutely crushes. Not must hear, but this Free definitely deserves praise. Played perfectly and molten hot. A+ little Free!

After Sand comes a big boy 18 minute Ruby Waves. Unfortunately, the song itself and the peak finale are great, but for the rest of its duration Trey cant seem to get out of the damn way and let the jam do what it wants to do. Not a bad one, but certainly not must hear and also incredibly frustrating....

Thankfully a magical, X Factor loaded Harry Hood brings it all back. Must hear.

Now the fun begins....

At this point Mr. Billy Strings joins the stage and they launch into a massive 23 minute Moma Dance. Guitar histrionics and X Factor galore! 1,000 percent must hear - this is SICK!!!!!! Even more incredible is that it goes full blown type 2 for the majority of its duration, moving flawlessly from hard funk to ambient bliss to face melting peakage....The flow on this is unreal. This is one of the finest pieces of music Phish has ever been involved with. Incredible.

Basically, apply the above for Possum and ER. Both are 100,000 percent essential. Possum even had friggin sweep picking.....Possum is indescribably hot and ER is 15 minutes of blissful, raging, psychedelic mastery at work. All hail our lord and savior X Factor Magic!!!!!

Throwing Billy a bluegrass bone, we get an awesome pairing of Nellie Kane and Beauty before a typically destructive party Carini to end the show proper.

All in all...jesus christ that was incredible!!! Dont forget the Harry Hood, but you can basically trash the start of set 2. The Moma was a TRUE all timer (not just saying that!), as was Possum and ER. Grab those and Hood.

As a whole this show was kinda all over the place, but the highs were pretty spectacular.

Hot damn....