The kids make noise for the Wolfman's Brother jam, and it was indeed a thing to see, but the final ten minutes are just about insufferable on tape. Oh well: the twenty minutes preceding the lights-out rock riffing are majestic Fall '97 Wolfman's Bro material, and the 15-minute Funky Bitch lead-in is even better - stiff competition with 11/22/94 for best-ever status if you ask me. Page takes out some weird sexual anxieties on the keyboards, it seems; Trey tears a hole in the Centrum roof; and the outro is gorgeous wedding-reception stuff. And you've gotta love that a quartet capable of doing those terrifying math-nerdy things with their instruments can still belt out the final cadence of Love Me like every middle-aged barroom dude band in America.The second set might not be better but it does go deep: the dark-as-the-ocean-floor Stash > Free > Piper run can stand with the rest of the winding segue sequences of Fall. 11/28 circulates as a tasty SBD and 11/29 has the once-in-your-touring-lifetime Jim Symphony, but this is the strongest Worcester show of the run. It's hard to avoid hyperbole when talking about Fall '97; it was just that deep, varied, and exciting. This isn't the marquee show of tour but it's bold material from the middle of a three-week-long minor miracle.
Score: 7
