3/23/74 - San Fransisco, CA - DP#24
The debut performances of Scarlet Begonias and Cassidy are both tonight. Also, it's the very first Wall Of Sound show. First set starts energetically but then moves into a more relaxed and laid-back groove. Deal is excellent but surprisingly laid back. The debut Cassidy is very "tropical" sounding. China>Rider is sick! 3rd and final PITB>UJB>MD>UJB>PITB. Overall, this show is kickass 1974 goodness. :)
2/24/74 – San Fransisco, CA – Dave's Picks Vol. 13 (up and down, but the highlights are mega)
After a Bill Graham intro, US Blues is a totally rousing opener. Candyman is the next highlight worth mentioning. Excellent rendition! After Jack Straw, we get a really nice and interesting China>Rider.
Chian Cat is much slower and mellower than usual and it's definitely interesting. The jam before Rider is just AWESOME. Overall, this China>Rider is SEVENTEEN MINUTES OF SICK!
The next point of interest is an eighteen-minute PITB! Great stuff! PITB is frickin awesome and goes way ouy into jam-space like the previous night's TOO. Killer. A rousing Cumberland opens set two rockingly. Roses and Big River are nice, but next up is a ROCKING Bertha. This is a “perfect” version. Awesome.
After a wicked WRS, set two closes with a rocking Promised Land. Set three three begins with the mother of all Dark Stars. It takes about 10 minutes to coalesce from pure space, but once the rhythms get going, it's a great exercise in free jazz jamming. Also, if you can believe it, THE MAIN THEME DOESNT COME IN UNTIL 18 MINUTES IN!!!!! At 24 min Jerry breaks out the wah pedal while the rest of the guys go full on Spanish Jam up in this bitch! Overall, the Dark Star has great moments, but in the end it feels less than the sum of its parts.
It segues seamlessly into a chill 13-minute Morning Dew. DEW IS FRICKIN SUBLIME AND PERFECT. Things get rocking again with a great Sugar Mag! Overall, great moments, but the show is too up and down for my personal taste. :)
2/23/74 – San Fransisco, CA *******
With the opening songs of set one, it's already apparent that the sluggishness of the previous night's warming up has now faded and been replaced by a calm and relaxed coolness of the best sort. A/A is a great and rare opener. Dire Wolf is rare and very welcome, as is the also-underplayed Bobby McGee. Great opening trio!!!
Sugaree is very nice but it is not yet the monster from the years to come. Overall, the rest of set one continues in a good-but-nothing-special manner. However, the conclusion of set one kicks off with a bang with the unexpected opening Promied Land>Bertha>GSET trio! Rock!
Set two opens calmly with an 18 minute WRS. Not calm for long, though! It eventually “devolves” into a free jam that is just wicked. Billy is all over the place, Jerry is serving noodles, Weird is accenting stunningly....This is the stuff we sift through the doldrums for! :D
But then out of nowhere, you don't see it coming, but they slam on the brakes and give us a wonderful Stella Blue. Ahhh yes.... The boys then kick it into 4th gear with a shit-kicking Big River. MAMU just RIPS tonight! Jerry is just going for it! But then we realise all this was simply a warm up for the REAL meat of the show.
63-MINUTE HE'SGONE>TRUCKIN>TOO>EYES>OMSN. God damn, son!!! :D
He's Gone is just stunning. It's like 3/21/90 with a massive acapella crowd-singalong portion at the end. Truckin is RAGING. TOO is 21 minutes of amazing. God damn!!!! HOLY SHIT THIS TOO!!!!! MOVE OVER MIAMI 1989!!! The boys go FULL on ELP-style Seastones space jamming free-jazz on this. Holy mother of feedback!
Eventually we come back into Earth's orbit and Jerry starts playing Slipknot again around 14:30. Eventually the maelstrom comes to an end and we are rewarded with a typically-relaxing and gorgeous '74 Eyes. Best year for the song, no doubt. :) And this version is no exception. It rules! Great stuff!!! After OMSN, Casey and Johnny, they Bid You Goodnight and this unbelivable second set comes to a close.
2/22/74 – San Fransisco, CA
The first show of this legendary year is, appropriately enough, held at Winterland. The show starts sluggishly until BE-Women, which is really enjoyable. I hesitate to say great, but it's good. Mexicali is downright smashing! Wow! From Mexicali onwards, the energy is much better.
Eventually we get an awesome 21-minute PITB. TEN MINUTES IN JERRY PLAYS A FULL-ON SLIPKNOT RENDITION!!!!! :D :D :D Other than that, compared to something like the Godly Boston '74 Jam Of All Jams, this PITB is purely tame. It's enjoyable and all, but it never really goes anywhere and just kinda feels like a way to kill 20 minutes with little in the way of reward.
I should probably end the review here – what I said about PITB basically sums up the rest of the show: Pleasant but unrewarding, if that makes sense. Truly a warm-up gig in the biggest sense of the term. B+ :)
Onwards to Outside Lands 2011!!
This looks like a great straight-ahead-rock-show type of gig. That is fine by me (besides it being a festival setting).
Currently in the middle of this jazzy-yet-machine-gun-Trey Tweezer.
Great show so far! My "expectations" for this set are low, but that
doesn't mean I expect poorness, just that I'm pretty sure I get what
type of gig this is and that is totally cool by me 
Energy out the wazoo tonight (as always - don't you get tired of me saying this? 
)
The Type I jamming is just terrific. There seems to be a little bit
extra Rocket Sauce going on - things are just a tad more adventurous
than the usual Type I, if that makes sense. Just lots of little moments
that are making me perk my ears up and go "ooh, nice!"
And into Mound we go.
Thoroughly enjoying this first set. Had a crazy hard day un-bricking a
driveway and then cleaning said pile of 400 bricks. Sometimes its nice
to have a straightforward show that doesn't require a lot of thinking to
go along with it 
Continuing onwards with 2018 I move to 7/25/18 San Fran, night 2
Odd looking setlist with a Roggae to open (?!?!?!). Very nice and an interesting opening choice.
Wow, this Tube is SICK!!!
It's only 6 minutes but they go straight Type II (or 1.5, at least) and
rage the heck out of it. Lots of funky, groovy piano and watery
effect-laden playing from Trey
Awesome
After the ragin Tube, NICU was fun as always but nothing special tonight.
Runaway Jim - feels like I haven't heard a version of this song in forever for some reason.
Good version but a little too chill seeming for me to call it great -
Jim needs that fire! Great jamming for about 5 minutes though. Lots of
gorgeous sustained notes from Trey throughout.
No real complaints though - very enjoyable set so far.
Spoke too soon!!!
This Jim is AWESOME!!! The jam is must-hear if you are a Page fan and enjoy Trey tastefully ripping it up!
SERIOUSLY SICK
Debut of Keeping It Real - This is another of my favorite recent new songs. Wish it would get played more because this one is ROCKIN. Good stuff!
Ocelot - Wonderfully chill and laid back version loaded with quasi-1999/2000 ambience
The guys are really, really bringing their A-game with their jamming tonight!
Trey is ON and everyone is gelling for sure. This is maybe even better than the Jim I raved about earlier. Want some great stuff? Check'er out
On .NET people are kinda...not bashing but not exactly raving about this first set.
I'm totally lovign it though. It just keeps getting better and better - or at least it has remained consistently high.
After that incredible Ocelot we get an excellent reading of Waking Up Dead
It is just BEGGING for a jam but unfortunately they end it literally right where I thought it was about to blast off!
Darn man, but at least I get lovely Number Line to make up for it.
Monster 24 minute Set Your Soul Free kicks the set off with a bang.
It ain't really the greatest jam of all time - it's basically just a
super extended dance party (nothing wrong with that!) - it never really
goes beyond "Type 1.5", ya know?
Still excellent though maybe a tad too long.
Very, very nice - and SMOOTH - segue into Twist! No ripcording to be found here!
A for effort guys!
Almost done with Twist - this is a great show!
Not an all-timer, but it totally gives me the "this woulda been a BLAST to attend" vibe. This show is super relaxed in the best chill way. Not sleepy chill, but "let's just take it easy" chill It's awesome. Great late night listening here, actually
Scents and Subtle Sounds
NOW THIS IS WHAT IM TALKIN ABOUT!!!
It's only 10 minutes, but this thing ragers way harder and covers way more ground than that entire SYSF did in 24. Sometimes less is certainly more, kiddos!
Sick, jammed out 46 Days to open, a RAGING McGrupp that is really powerful, and now my favorite TAB-Done-By-Phish song, Pigtail
Awesome.
Nellie Kane and Gumbo were entirely uneventful, but HOLY CRAP THIS GUYUUTE RULES!
Well, this Bowie absolutely destroys the tepid outing I got in Charleston '19
A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing - major rager!
Rough transition back into the song "reprise" after the jam, but the jam itself was sick
Mercury - rough compositionally, but the jam is terrific! Spacey and melodic without being too noodly
Just right
And then BAM! into Carini like we are hit by a car
IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER!!!!
THIS CARINI IS INCREDIBLE!
Dude, I could listen to this major key jam all-frickin'-day
CRAP
I think 7/20/18, Gorge 1, was my previous "favorite show of 2018 so far"
but this gig is either tied with it or kicking it to the curb.
Incredible.
