1999-06-30 Bonner Springs, KS

 6/30/99 Bonner Springs

Set 1

The show wastes no time getting going with a 20 minute Gin to open proceedings. Full on type 2, it quickly dissolves into that ultra hazy, screaming-seagulls style of deconstruction that 1999 jamming is well known for. Wonderful rebuild back into the song and out. Hot damn. Remember when crazy stuff like this was a dime a dozen and noone batted an eye?!

Farmhouse in slot 2 actually works great to bring us back to terra firma. Nothing special but the placement really did wonders for it.

The following Tube is way too short but delivers the type 1 goods. Horn is Horn.

Up next is the Phish debut of Back On The Train. Not exactly a complicated song, but it sounds excellent from the get go. Funky, down home rock and roll. A strong version by any measure. Great debut! Funnily, they completely butcher the ending and it just kinda collapses upon itself.

And into a 14 minute Maze we go! GET YOUR SUNSCREEN! WE GONNA GET FRIED! Absolutely MASSIVE organ solo from Page on this sucker followed by the wah pedal guitar mutilation you expect. This one deserves it's jam chart status - Trey rips SO hard he nearly fumbles the whole thing himself. Absolutely nuclear.

A beautiful Limb By Limb chills us out after that razing. Limb stays type 1 but seems to have extra fire and turns in a particularly strong performance.

The set ends with a nicely played Golgi.

All in all, this was a surprisingly varied set! Excellent flow as well - it felt constructed! The Gin and the Maze are must hear with a special nod to Limb. Great start to Summer 99!!!

 

Set 2

Shock and surprise Coil opener!!! Pretty well played and chock full of energy, it actually gets everything going very well, if you can believe that! Great version and the placement is very refreshing. The outro jam is awesome - instead of dying into a piano solo, they just keep on going, working the song, slowly building back the energy. It dies down for a while and we do eventually end up with a piano solo, but then, slowly full band ambience emerges with tons of feedback and the guys LAUNCH into that opening D chord of Free!!!!

UNEXPECTED SEGUES FOR THE WIN!

Free is 14 minutes of spectacular awesome sauce. It aint the 7 23 Columbus masterpiece but itll sure do until we reach Ohio! Trey goes all outer space robo funk rock on this sucker. Textural synths galore. This is SICK!!!! They bring it down heavy and thick like its the late night groove party. Stuttering backwards robo fx, etc. Then it explodes and they rock it to a massive conclusion. SPECTACULAR!!! MUST HEAR!!!

Whats that? You need more fire in your ears? Ok, Birds of a Feather it is! Pure unhinged insanity. Basically, Maze Part 2. Holy hell. Nuclear annihilation....

Simple rises from the destruction and keeps us going, the blissful outro giving way to upbeat, hazy ambience! This in turn morphs, incredibly, into one of the best placed Swept Away>Steeps ever. THIS SET WAS CONSTRUCTED, I TELL YOU.

That pair in turn fizzle perfectly into Piper! The build up into Piper out of Steep is the definition of "peaks and valleys perfected". Setlist creation 101 right here, boys and girls! And of course Piper just shreds blissfully to the heavens and back as expected.

After a short break, the boys cool us down again with the Phish debut of Bug. All 9 minutes of it. Powerful as ever, great for a debut. Absolutely soaring, very hazy and FULL of that "1999" sound. Screaming seagull Trey in the best way. Fantastic debut!!!!!!!

And holy mother of Satan are we in for a shock when Bug melts into a ridiculous, evil, ambient jam, aka the debut of My Left Toe. Full on "2 23 24 Chalkdust" evil on steroids. People in attendance must have been losing their minds. I'm listening in a friggin dump truck and lord knows I just lost mine! Dude!!!!

As if we didnt just debut a new song and descend into the pits of hell and back all within 20 minutes, we return to finish the set with Stash. Stash is a gnarly beast. Not must hear, but it sure gets dark and foreboding. Evil Stash is best Stash!

Nice encore of Bouncing and Sample to keep us from having a heart attack after all of that stressful music

All in all...HOLY CRAP THAT SET WAS INCREDIBLE!!!! Set 1 was a good warmup, but set 2 was top to bottom perfection! They NEED to release this show!!! The Free was ridiculous, the Simple>Swept/Steep>Piper was nutzo, the Bug>My Left Toe was insanity... EVERYONE NEEDS TO HEAR THIS SET! Good golly talk about coming outta the gate swinging - there was SO much going on!

Wow!!!!!

Im exhausted! Awesome show!

2019-09-01 Commerce City, CO - 2024 revisit

 Finishing Dicks 2019 with 9/1/19 this afternoon.

The final Stray Dog to date opens proceedings (Plague Dawg, amirite?). It, Stealing Time and Turtle are all solid, if un-noteworthy.

The animal set continues with a 14 minute Wolfman! A must hear version that funks hard before going type 2 into a lengthy space bliss section. From here it soars to the absolute heavens. Insane. MUST HEAR!

A red hot type 1 Birds keeps the animal momentum going strong. Fantastic little version!

The show really seemed to "lock in" with Wolfman and WACTOOB keeps the quality going. A gogeous, patient version. Great stuff.

Set does a bit of a backslide with a very clunky Taste. Tries hard but not a great version. Standard MyFe gets us back on the right track.

The darkness of MyFe moves excellently into a great 20 Years Later. This song always feels like a treat, whether its jammed out or not. Trey rips a great little tasty dark solo on this.

A goofy as usual Sparkle sees the set doing a 180 before we get a rare Crazy Sometimes to funk things up. Excellent key soloing from Page the Rage!!! Pretty extended soloing on this - this is terrific!!!!

Set ends with a giant 15 minute Bathtub Gin! Wonderful version full of patiently esoteric jamming. Slowly it begins to build and the fire begin to burn until we are ragin this beast full bore. SPECTACULAR GIN RAGER! LETS GO!!! But then the raging dies down into a dark kind of funkiness! This Gin is terrific! They move out of the funk and back into the rock and wind their way on out from there...

All in all, this set was all over the place. Wolfman and Gin are the must hears with a nod to Crazy Sometimes. Note the animal theme!! Not an amazing set but it got the job done. 

Set 2

The debut of Sightless Escape opens set. There is zero reason we needed to wait until Nashville 2023 for the 2nd version! This is a great little rocker and it sounds great! Really surprised this one didnt stick around!

Fuego in the 2nd spot. It begins a little shaky but coalesces into a smashing, powerhouse rendition, full of absolute flaming hot rock and roll fire. Pure, unadulterated HEAT. The final 4 minutes or so see it move into darkish psychedelic kind of playing before quietly blissing to a calm conclusion. Wonderful kind of "in the box" version of Fuego that stretches the boundaries without going off the deep end.

As Fuego dies, a 15 minute Piper slowly arises from its ashes like a phoenix!!!! After a rough, out of key beginning phase, the x factor kicks in and we get about 10 minutes of ridiculous, outer space, alien, anti-jazz super ridiculous type 2 in the extreme. If you dig the free jazz Runaway Jim from 7/31/97, this will be right up your alley.

Insane.

And, perfectly on beat, we then segue into Tweezer! 13 minutes in length, this is pure, X Factor orchestral, multi-sectional extravagance!!! Funky jamming gives way to a terrific loop jam heavy on the percussive side. Things slowly get mor growly and angsty until a full blown Fuego reprise occurs. The boys jam this HARD until the jam disolves into several minutes of FULL BLOWN type 2, outer space, non rhythmic ambience!! POWER DRILL SUPREME!! After a long time in the ether, the greatest segue of all time happens and they launch into 2001....

I cant believe this Tweezer is not Jam Charted. It's omission is a complete and utter failure on the part of the JC Team. This Tweezer was pure "deviation from the norm" in every way. An unbelievable piece of music.

Anyway, 2001 is a good 5 minute funk reprieve before a SICK Challdust to knock us sideways! 11 minutes on this one, the song itself is VERY well performed - absolutely blazing rendition with nary a flub. The jamming begins interestingly by immediately dipping quiet and deep before building back into a red hot and funky type of heat!! FUNK FIRE! This is unhinged!!!! This quickly morphs down into a quiet duel between Page and Trey. Slowly they begin to pick up the pace and the jam rebuilds itself from the ground up. Full blown Type 2 strangeness at its finest! From there it morphs back into raging funk! They ride that to its conclusion, slowly fading out into....

Yet another "how in the F is this not charted" beast....A must hear Chalkdust - certainly one of the most unique ever played! ABSOLUTELY MUST HEAR!!

....Waste! Waste is very good, as are the Cavern and First Tube that end the set.

SITM, Life and Tweeprize encore. Eh.

All in all... Holy hell what a set!!! One of the most awesome sets of the year! Set 1 was just ok but set 2 was like X Factor on the loose!!! The entire Fuego>Piper>Tweezer>2001>CDT was ESSENTIAL listening of the highest order, especially that Piper and Tweezer!!!

 

2019-08-31 Commerce City, CO - 2024 revisit

 Onwards still with my 2019 replay.

8 31 19, Dicks #2 in the truck this mornin.

HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP WHAT A FIRST SET!!!!

The opening Moma is pretty much the only thing that isnt downright exceptional!

The Final Hurrah blazes, Gumbo is extreme wah abuse, a rare Access Me into a next level Funky B....

Then we get a 16 minute, type 2, Star Trek outer space odyssey Ghost that is a top 8 or so jam of the year so far - complete X FACTOR MAGIC on this one.

Strong Tube and Mountains with the DEFINITIVE Drift to end the set with a bang. Seriously, its must hear.

WHAT A SET! 

Set 2

An old school Mikes Groove opens. Excellent version of the trio, Weekapaug gets strange and goes type 2 for a minute or 2 then morphs perfectly into a beastly 46 Days.

46 Days is NUCLEAR PSYCHEDELIC FIRE! X FACTOR MAGIC! MUST HEAR!!!

After a good SYSF that flirts with type 2 but doesn't commit, we get a nearly 18 minute Disease. Disease is terrific, featuring a multipart jam that stays out of outer space while still remaining unique and interesting. Definitely must hear!

Disease goes into a funky zone and somehow Trey manages to segue everyone into...NICU!!! Awesome! Great version as well!

A must hear Bug into a so so Wedge follows before a just ok Slave to close the set.

Subpar encore of Bri/Rob into a heard-better C Zero.

Man, 3/4 of this show was downright fantastic and then after NICU its like they lost all energy!!! Bummer!

Still, for set 2, the Paug>46 Days and the Disease>NICU are must hear. The Ghost in set 1 is probably the jam of the show - its THAT good.

Overall this was a sick gig until the final stretch.

2019-08-30 Commerce City, CO - 2024 revisit

 Back on the train with 2019.

On to Dicks!

8/30/19

Set 1

A blazing Cant Always Listen opens the show (why is this only the 2nd version ever?!).

Free follows and Trey completely butchers the arrangement but come solo time things get grimy and they CRUSH it!

No Men is even better - HOTTER THAN THE SUN! FIRE!!!!!

A terrific opening trio! No Men and Cant Always go in the Must Hear pile.

The following 555 is just ok but BOTT picks things back up. Great version, with patient soloing evolving to the expected explosive conclusion.

A very strong (damn near flawless!) version of Rift keeps it going great! Awesome!

Steam cools us down next with some great "mood music". Really spectacular type 1 version, imo. Really lays into the laid back darkness of the song - must hear! No, really, this is an exceptional version! Wow!

After a clunky Poor Heart we get a fun Undermind. An absolute party rager. It just builds and builds and builds. Very strong peakage on this. Definitely delivers the goods.

Train Song is up next and is kinda clunky like Poor Heart. Thats ok.

A very oddly placed Wingsuit is up next. Huh. Good version but nothing special. Actually, the Trey/Page interplay in the back half is downright beautiful - give this one a listen!!!!

Strong type 1 Blaze On sends us out.


All in all, this set doesnt reinvent the wheel, but it has a number of damn fine selections that will just tear your face off. CAL, No Men, and Steam and probably the must hear material, but this was an excellent listen. Sure the guys had some "rust" here and there, and the flow wasnt always perfect, but this is nitpicking. Great kickoff to the 2019 run! 

Set 2

A fantastic 17.5 minute Everythings Right opens the set in grand fashion wasting no time getting down to dark, funky business. This sucker GROOVES! The dark groove soon evolved into a calm bliss though. This bliss turns into a RAGING rock and roll peak fest of epic proportions!!! Holy crap! The peak subsides and we move into a synthy kind of area. Strange outer space type 2!!! HOW IS THIS NOT JAM CHARTED?!?!
MUST HEAR!!!

And then the greatest segue ever into....a 24 minute Mercury!!!! A stellar reading of the song proper gives way to excellent type 1. Around the 14 minute mark they shift into Type 2 and just take it to another level for rhe final 10 minutes. Psychedelic peakage supreme. Absolutely must hear - one if the finest Mercury's ever played and a GOAT contender. A++++

After a lovely Shade we get the gobsmacking duo of Light>Party Time. Light is a great little version and begins to jam nicely. Trey sees his chance and pulls off one of the slickest segues of all time and the whole thing shifts flawlessly into Party Time. Party Time almost falls apart though as they have a hard time syncing up, but eventually they do abd they RAGE that sucker to a massive hose finale! MUST HEAR!!! SICK!

A RIDICULOUS, face melter supreme hose annihilation Sand follows up and destroys worlds. Again, must hear.

After an extra nice WTU we get THE Hood of Summer 2019 to close the set. Absolutely spectacular in every way, toss this one in the must hear pile as well. Good golly.

Show closes with a raging SANTOS.

All in all, that was one of the best sets of the entire year!!!! ER, Mercury, Light>PT, Sand and Hood are ALL MUST HEAR! WHAT A FRIGGIN SET!! I LOVED IT AND YOU WILL TOO!

2019-07-14 East Troy, WI - 2024 revisit

 Note: see original review from several years ago. I pretty said all that could be said in that review. :P

Finishing my summer 2019 replay this morning with The Big One, 7/14/19

See my blog site for the Idiot Review, lmao

In set one, that Meatstick is surprisingly rocking and Vultures turns in what might be the guitar solo of the summer! Exceptional Vultures!

Spocks Brain and Pebbles were both excellent as well.

Strange Design was gorgeous and the Good Times Bad Times to close was nuclear.

Good stuff.  

Set 2

I had to replay that Ruby Waves twice before continuing on . Its so amazing!

What to say. A damn classic show and the King Supreme of summer 2019 (I think it deserves that status).

Not overrated in the slightest. A titan. 

2019-07-13 East Troy, WI - 2024 revisit

 Onward with 2019 with 7/13 Alpine #2

Other than a few rarities popping up and about 3 minutes of excellent jamming out of Blaze On, set 1 is very good but nothing overly memorable.

That's harsher than it sounds. Its a perfectly enjoyable set! There is just very little that goes beyond "first set warming up" material.

Funky B and The Final Hurrah are both very hot and the aforementioned Blaze On is worth a listen as well.

Also, Trey absolutely goes OFF during C Zero. Good stuff. 

Set 2

Set 2 is an absolute rager!!! Everything gets it done!!

Jim goes full tilt psychedelia and Ghost breaks down to gentle bliss before rebuilding to a majestic, soaring climax.

Back On the Train is an all timer - legit nuclear bomb version beyond the norm. Insane.

This set was just one punch after another with no let up

Killer set on the whole, I cant help but feel its underrated in the wake of the next nights show.

Hot damn! 

2019-07-12 East Troy, WI - 2024 revisit

 Been a few weeks away but its back to 2019 with 7/12 East Troy #1

Set 1

Absolutely fantastic opening trio of Sand into Tweezer into Free.

Sand rages hard, Tweezer has a great melodic jam and a wonderful segue into Free, and Free packs a wollop.

Hot damn! None are truly must hear, but taken as a trio, what a way to open a show!!

Up next an excellent Turtle get us up and grooving hard again. Terrific. Rages hard. This one is SO good! Maybe the best one yet!

The following SYSF is a standard type 1 rager but it absolutely SMOKES. Pure fire. Probably must hear. I mean it just annihilates.

Lawn Bow is the nice cool down for us before picking back up with a funky Camel Walk. Solid but unremarkable.

The following Theme kicks it back up 5 notches with a superb solo from Trey. He just lets it rip in the best way. Very strong Theme!!! This is must hear!!!!!

Strong Rift follows, but dang it Trey, stop playing so quietly!!! Some flubbage but overall pretty good.

Strong Wolfman closer.

All in all, taken as a whole, this was an excellent set. The first part REALLY brought the fire. There isnt much essential music in this set but that is ok - the sum is greater than the parts, etc.

Tweezer, Turtle, SYSF, Theme and Wolf are what Id check out.
This set was a great listen!!!! 

Set 2 is fantastic. Not in a reinventing the wheel kinda way, but in a "lets just friggin party and rage" kinda way

No Men is a nice intro but Caspian is ridiculous. A truly must hear rendition, 1.0 worthy. Insane!

Everything's Right is must hear as well, turning in 12 minutes of dark, heavy funk, sounding more like a jam out of a Carini!

Roses and 2001 are excellent crowd pleasers and the Light-Plasma-Light sandwich is a delight (if a bit light on toppings).

The Wedge was outstanding.

The 46 Days shreds to hell and back. Another must hear!!!

Sloppy Coil to close the set.

ALBTD, Tube and Grind for the encore.

Awesome show. Wont win any awards, but a total party. Go in with no expectations!!!
Caspian and ER are must hear for set 2!