@Dianna_2Ns said:

@FACTSAREUSELESS said:

Was not there for the show so I've only seen it on paper but it looks to be a burner.
Wish there was more musical analysis in the review but I did enjoy the write-up as you did a nice job describing your experience.

Finally getting a chance to do a FULL relisten of the 2nd set in order which I unfortunately did not have time to do before writing this recap in my shell-of-a-human-being state this morning so here's some more thoughts and musical analysis!

After the vocals in Waves end, the band immediately dives down into a gorgeous, Page-led jam, with Mike dropping some body-shaking bass bombs and the whole band gelling together so well. They're in a solid pocket together but before the jam can really develop further, it quickly dissolves and they launch into "Wingsuit." Like I said, it seemed to fit much better in this slot, after a blissful "Waves" jam than after a raging "Birds of a Feather" like at Mansfield earlier in the week. Additionally, since it was in the 2nd set, I think people were a little more forgiving of the slow-developing beginning of the song, hoping that a serious jam would develop out of the second half of it. While it does develop a certain a huge sound to it, this jam has a lot of Trey repeating the "time to put your Wingsuit" on notes which isn't terribly creative or exciting. Hopefully this jam will grow and mature the more it's played. After Mike "Drillex" Gordon does his little drill bit, they slowly launch into "Piper" & I secretly hope we're in for SPAC Piper: Part 2. With the intro a little over a minute long, hopes for a slow build "Piper" were quickly destroyed as Trey prematurely starts the vocals after that. Fishman is on fire, pushing this jam at an impressive rate and the other 3 are keeping up. Clocking in at 13:23, this Piper is the longest version since the last SPAC Piper in 2012. Building and peaking numerous times, this jam is an absolute must-hear. Seriously. Go listen to it now.

After an incredibly energetic and satisfying 13 and a half minutes, the segue into "Fluffhead" is smooth as butter and provides a welcome few moments to regroup. The "Fluff came to New York" lyric received it's usual roar from the NY crowd which will never get old to me. Trey struggles a bit with some of the composed section but nothing too bad. Page's playing makes up for it. The ridiculously huge glowstick explosion during the last "FLUFFHEAD!" brings a smile to my face and I'm ready for whatever's next which, prompted or not by the shower of said glowsticks, is "Heavy Things." The usual mass exodus to the bathrooms and or beer tents happens but this version has a nice little Page/Fish duet which is worth hearing.

"Heavy Things" comes to a close and thus begins the "Slave" that I was hoping and waiting for. I am overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for such an amazing three days of music and really just soak it all in, figuring this will close the last set of the weekend. This "Slave" is unrelentingly gorgeous as it almost always is. The last notes ring and the crowd starts to cheer as if it were all over until Trey counts off and launches into "YEM" which causes the entire place to completely erupt. A couple of botched notes in the beginning had me grimacing a bit but really, it felt like a surprise, extra YEM so I'm pretty happy, regardless. Everything's going well until the crowd starts clapping (still don't understand why people feel the need to do this...) but Trey walks over to Mike and the two of them start to riff off each other which is really fun to watch and even better to hear. Trey starts plucking these high notes which almost sound like Fishman's woodblocks which have been expertly utilized numerous times this tour already. Mike's bass solo at the end is top notch and the vocal jam includes one of those mouth pops from Trey that he was finding so funny the night prior. "Suzy" sends the run off on a high note and that's all she wrote. Looking forward to the Mann!

Thanks Dianna! The extra effort is appreciated and worth it! I'll be hearing the show today at some point so your detail on the Waves and Piper is intrigueing. My thoughts from your description led me to think of the Gorge run from last year. I'll be curious to see how it compares. The Fluffhead at the Gorge was one of the best, if not the very best, that I've heard them play in 3.0. The test for me will listening to YEM. The YEM's have been rather weak the last couple of years.

So what does everyone else think? Does this show rank with the Gorge or is more along the lines of MPP '13? Or somewhere in between?