2011-08-06 George, WA

 HOLY FREAKING HELL THE ENERGY!!!!!!!! JEEZ LOUISE!!!

They are HOPPED UP tonight!!! Trey is just laying waste to everything in his sight and the band is keeping pace.

Possum
Moma Dance (Dynamic jamming with the best peak ever)
Sample In a Jar (FRIGGIN STEAMROLLER)
Limb By Limb (Exceptional type I soloing. Liquid butter. Incredible)

Yea this is goin good so far

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 Wolfman's Brother>Almost Type II jam>Maze

This is a perfect example of what has been going on in 2011 so far.

2011 has seen the guys easily going Type II, BUT almost every time as soon as they "cross that threshold", they/Trey immediately reigns them in by segueing into something else or doing a nasty ripcord.

Thankfully here we get a nice ambient segue! Wolfman's had a great 5 or so minutes of jamming. Got very funky and was about to go full '97 on us when they instead killed the jam and slid us into Maze. This here is a perfect example of the "sound" of 2011 thus far.

They seem have confidence in their jamming, but they/Trey apparently are still worried about being self-indulgent and stretching the length of said jams, if I had to guess.

Overly self conscious? That's my guess. Cuz the music is great! THERE JUST AIN'T ENOUGH OF IT!

 

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 I could only make it through set 1 last night, so today I kick off set 2 and the Chalkdust Torture>Tweezer bananza.

Chalkdust is hot as hell, but it gets real wonky in a good way. Trey makes some mistakes with incorrect note placement and ends up trying to get back in key for a bit, lol. But it works a little bit and the energy is there so it's all good.

Then we segue directly into Tweezer.

Tweezer gets going and you can tell its gonna be a good one - a 12 minute Tweezer in 2011 is a good sign!

Eventually they start jamming hard and going for that Type 1.5 kinda stuff. Trey is tearing it up with a wah pedal getting some good honky tones. Page is raging on the clavinet (?). The stuff you'd expect but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable!

Eventually the blissful Type II ambiance comes forth. They ride this gentle stream for several beautiful minutes before, unfortunately, derailing us for Caspian...


Grr....

Again, this is 2011 in a nutshell - As soon as they cross that Type II threshold they get spooked and retreat to another song.

To be fair, this was a genuine segue though. Whale calls abound, this was not a ripcord. Trey is absolutely getting better at doing proper transitions instead of yanking the chain.

The segue into Caspian is pretty dang PERFECT! 

 

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Prince Caspian>Sand

Caspian was absolutely SOARING in the skies of bliss tonight!!! Near the end they start to hit that transition point but instead - extremely perfectly and tastefully, I might add - wind the jam down and execute the most absolutely perfect segue into Sand that you can't even imagine.

Seriously, that segue was some next-level patience, lol.

See, Trey ain't really ripcording much this summer. He's learning the art of the subtle transition more and more it seems

 

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Finishing up 8/6/11 George, night 2 at the Gorge

Holy freakin hell. I'm not even gonna bother trying to rave about it more. As with night 1, nearly the entire show was top tier.

8/5 and 8/6/11 are top-notch, foot-to-the-floor, banger shows of the highest order (at least for early 3.0).

The Rock and Roll of 8/5 is easily THE jam of the year so far (by a wide margin!) but the entirety of both shows is worth hearing.

If you pick some 2011 to listen to, do yourself a favor rage to these 2. You will not regret it!  

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8/6 George ** (INSANE energy out the WAZOO! Almost as good as 8/5. Set is bonkers Segue-fest)
Possum
Moma Dance (Very sick dynamic jamming! INCREIBLE PEAK! HOTTEST MOMA EVER!)
Sample In a Jar (SMASHING with ENERGY! MACHINE GUN TREY)
Limb By Limb (Trey giving unique lines)
Ocelot (Trey on FIRE. Interesting soloing with lots of sustains)
On Your Way Down (Sick bluesiness)
Wolfman's Brother (Lengthy jam! Goes 1.5! FUNKY! Ambiant segue into...)
>Maze
Wilson
Fluffhead (LIFE IS JUST A BUNDLE FULL OF JOY!)
Chalkdust Torture (Wonky!)
>Tweezer (Goes Type II for several glorious minutes)
>Prince Caspian (CHECK THAT SEGUE! Absolutely SOARING version!)
>Sand (FRIGGIN NAILED THAT SEGUE INTO IT! Very nice and JAZZY! RAGING! EXCEPTIONAL SAND!)
>TWEEPRISE (Gets slower and slower before hitting a dead stop and then...)
>Birds of a Feather (BAM out of Tweeprise!)
Waste
>Golden Age (Sick jamming)
>Reba (PEAK CITY)
Run Like an Antelope (TEASE CITY. MACHINE GUN MANIA!!!!!)
Suzy Greenberg
Sanity
Tweeprise 2

 

2011-08-05 George, WA

After a reprieve from the lengthiness of Superball, I move on to the rest of 2011.

8/5/11 George, WA

A chiller vibe than usual tonight. Probably just start-of-tour jitters.

Kill Devil Falls rips
>The Wedge - very breezy, dare I say, but it builds to a hot peak

Bathtub Gin - This was absolutely terrific. They slowly and patiently built it up, reaching the verge of Type II. Then Trey signaled a return to the theme and everyone slowly worked their way down to earth. Not a ripcord, but a perfect landing, I must say!!!!!

Nellie Kane is Nellie Kane
My Friend My Friend - ooh, a letdown. The song portion is pretty flubtastic by 2011 standards. It does reach the usual hot peak but this is not one to recommend.

Cavern - brought back some energy. Rocked good and hard
Taste - continuing the energy, but still with an underlying chill vibe. Extremely fluid playing from Trey. Great jam, again!!!!

ROGGAE! - TYPE II AMBIANT JAMMING ALERT!!!!!!!! THIS is what we've been waiting for!!!!!!!


I'm very much enjoying this set so far  

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8/5/11 George, WA

Rock and Roll>Meatstick


THE GREATEST JAM OF 3.0 TO THIS POINT.

PERIOD.

END OF STORY.

IF YOU HAVE NOT HEARD THIS WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE.

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8/5 George************************************ (THE RETURN OF TYPE 2! X FACTOR ABOUND! ROCK AND ROLL!!!!!! THE BEST SHOW OF 2011 SO FAR. EASILY.)
Kill Devil Falls
>The Wedge (Very chill and breezy but gets hot)
Bathtub Gin (Very patient and building. Perfect conclusion. Great jamming.)
Cavern
Taste (Wonderfully fluid Trey. Terrific dynamics. Spectacular jam and build up!!!!!!!!)
Roggae (ONE OF THE BEST JAMS OF THE SUMMER!!!!TYPE II AMBIANT CHILL JAMMING!!!!!!!)
Walk Away (WORLD DESTROYING)
Funky B
Roses are Free
David Bowie
ROCK AND ROLL (20 MINUTE TYPE II EXTRAVAGANZA. NO HYPERBOLE, THIS IS THE GREATEST JAM OF 3.0 SO FAR. NO JOKE. NO OVEREXAGGERATION. THEY UNLEASH THEIR FULL POTENTIAL! BIG CYPRESS DARK SPACE AMBIANT GALAXY FUNK. HOLY MOTHER EFFING CRAP.)
>Meatstick
>Reggae Woman
Farmhouse
Julius
Loving Cup
 

 

2018-07-22 George, WA

 The Curtain With was a fantastic opener. I'm not as intimately familiar with it as I am Fluffhead or Divided Sky (yet!!!) but for the most part all the sections I recognized sounded great and there were no obvious flubs anywhere. Great start to the show!

The Birds (only the 5th one ever and the last one to date!) was interesting - I've actually never beothered listening to this song before as I haven't sat through the 2014 Halloween set, but this was kinda boring. It was enjoyable, but the song itself never really goes anywhere and instead of letting loose and jamming it felt like the guys were tethered onto the structure of the song.

Nice to get a wonky BOAF next then. It's pretty ragetastic but nothing special other than "just another really hot BOAF".

Now we get Waiting All Night. This is one of my favorite songs off Fuego but this set is kinda weird so far. This WAN, however, is pretty excellent to my ears. Really great soloing from Trey and lovely backing from the rest of the guys! We got us a winner!

WAN goes very smoothly into STFTFP. I wouldn't call it a segue but it was surely planned. Faulty Plan is surprisingly funky tonight (or at least funkier in 2018 than teh 2009 and 2010 versions I've heard!). Trey is using cool effects and its pretty dark and brooding. Very nice.

Faulty Plan comes to a stop and almost-segues straight into Reba. No stop at all! THANK YOU! I enjoyed the previous 30 minutes, but it was all kinda a downer for the most part. Reba is performed very well (For 2018....) with the composed sections being nearly flub-free. Yay! AND, Trey is mostly picking loud enough to hear (though still not as loud as I'd prefer...).

Trey lets it RIP in the Reba solo. Page is POUNDING those keys! At the end of the day though, as with BOAF, this is just a "very good, worth hearing Reba". Nothing more, nothing less. Not incredible, no flubs within. Pure middle-of-the-road. But sometimes that's ok. If there's anyone that can make middle of the road enjoyable its Phish

And then...WOMBAT!

WOW! This little critter gets OUT THERE! It's only 11 minutes, but it feels like 20 glorious Type II 1999 minutes instead! Just...outer space funk of the highest order. I'd say this is the first true MUST-HEAR of the evening

Thankfully the greatness continues into Tela. One of my favorite Gamehendge tracks, this version reaches quite the climactic peak! Awesome version worth seeking out!!!

Walls Of The Cave closes the set in monster fashion. Truly one of the best tracks in the entire canon of work, imo. Hell, just the ballad first-half is great. But then they smash us in the face with the raging, rocking and rolling 2nd part of the song. And tonight its as powerful as can be in 2018.

Great end to a so-so set. Some up, some must-hears, some just-ok's.... YMMV

First Set Must-hears:

The Curtain With
Waiting All Night
Wombat
Walls of the Cave 

 Set 2:

Crosseyed and Painless

Words can't describe. Best jam of the run so far. Easily. Takes that 24 minute Chalkdust to the curb and pulverizes it.

 

So, C&P was beyond mind blowing. Twist doesn't reach quite that far but it tries its best and gets 3/4 of the way there. Definitely must-hear, for sure!!! And that's saying something as Twist is one of my least-favorite songs

And like butter we segue into Waves, one of my favorite songs! Awesome, awesome combo!  Wow! This 2nd set is absolutely phenomenal!!! Waves went into Miss You perfectly. It's my first time hearing the song and it feels like Waste 2.0 That is a VERY good thing. And this version KILLS! JUST TERRIFIC!!!

SICK

Up next is a near-flawless Fluffhead that just RAGES!!!! Freaking loving the heck out of this!

THIS FLUFFHEAD IS FREAKING INCREDIBLE!

 AND THEN A WORLD DESTROYING SPLIT OPEN AND MELT!!!! CAN IT GET BETTER THAN THIS?!?!?!

A simple Wilson to close, what a freaking show!!!!!!

 

Ok, so, in review of The Gorge 2018

7/20 - best overall (as far as full show experience goes) in my opinion and my favorite of the 3. It's, as they say, "just right"
 

7/21 - Pick and choose the highlights. Great song selection and some unexpected surprises. Debut of Infinite.
 

7/22 - Best 2nd set of the 3 by a wide margin. Just balls-to-the-friggin'-wall insanity. If you want to be blasted with fire, get this set.