absolutely brilliant review. I mean brilliant. Awesome use of metaphor throughout and I thought everything you did while experiencing the show at home. My frustration with the ripcord (throughout the night, whether Birds, Waves, Mike's, BOTT, et al) was quickly and effectively tempered by the fierceness, intensity and overwhelming power of the jams in the songs themselves. Little bits of Type 2 sprinkled nicely into sparkling, orgasmic type 1.

I too was deflated when Ocelot started, but then I thought, "let's give this a chance now, Trey kills this song" OMG I thought my head would explode as the song peaked, then peaked some more, then went past that...I was bouncing up and down in my living room waking up the whole house.

The best of the show though, as someone said above, was Piper and Slave. The Piper jam was so dirty/nasty and hole-ripping powerful that I felt undressed and violated. I actually started weeping openly during the beauty of Slave, which was absolutely NAILED. I haven't wept during a show since Bathtub Gin into Sleep at Nassau on 2/28/03. There I was crying like a baby as the boys worked through the crescendo of Slave. What a set of music.

Agree with everything else you said about it too. Thanks so much.