Fall '09 is staying hot. (I'm writing in the early hours of 11/23 - looks like some weirdness went down last night!)

Very strong first set featuring a tremendously weird, wooly SOAM; the second set opens with a superb R'n'R > Ghost > If I Could run that's the easy show highlight. Not quite the manic run of segues from the previous night, and if you're mulling this one over you should certainly go look up at least one other classic 11/21/9x show first, but the quality is still high, and it still feels like Big Things are right around the corner.

I should note that the 2001 is as *active* as all this year's versions have been - and as short. I'm a fan of the 1997-99 take on this song, when it was just an excuse for a manic 15-minute dance party. But the band has returned to a middle ground between their early-90's performances, which were strictly warmups, and their large-scale pre-hiatus disco-funk improvisations. It's alright, but I can't help missing the old shaggy intensity. (The most fun 2001 of the year is probably the sludgy performance with Billy K. at Red Rocks - as pleasantly messy as the rest of that frustrating set.)