, attached to 2010-08-14

Review by keytar

keytar Haven't had a chance to go back and listen to the sbds yet, but that will be a best way to determine how good this show was. I'm not sure if it was just in the pavillion or all over the venue, but there were some serious sound issues going on. Page was nonexistant in the mix and there were times where Mike was blasting. The former being a big problem considering that 1/4 of the band is inaudible. The latter wasn't so much of an issue, but just at certain points, especially when he'd climb the neck and really pull on the string, we were just getting blasted with it. We even switched from Mike's side to Page's side at set break AND moved up about 20 rows and it didn't change. Everything just got louder.

So, not sure how much the sound issues have to do with my initial opinion, and that is that the show was a C+/B- overall. The song selection was really fun. Definitely some rarities in there, but there seemed to be a lack of cohesiveness all night. The Tube opener was so short it was disappointing. The funk in that needs some time to develop which they didn't give it. Next five tunes were solid, first set tunes. Good stuff. And yeah, Trey tore up Alaska and Back on the Train, but that didn't make them great in my opinion. We all know he can solo, and raging out a song like Alaska seems more like a wank-fest than making for a good tune. Gumbo was alright, but the transition to Page's outro was totally forced. I will say this, that was the best Antelope I've heard live since they came back (Jones Beach 09 and Chicago 10 being the others). Trey was able to really rage.

Second set also had some highlights in What's the Use, SOAM, Mike's and Sally, but DWD really seemed lost with Trey just raging the whole time. The transition into WTU was pretty freakin' tight though. Just all of the sudden, there it was. Scent was awesome. The jam didn't get too far out. Some great work by Page. The Dirt after Mike's was down right lame. Horrible. Mike's was raging so hard and after the outro transition it just stopped and hit, well, dirt. Sally was pretty funky too, but the show pretty much stopped after that. Groove, Bug and Quinn are all just okay. More Trey just going off without any real gelling going on.

So, this is definitely a "live" review, meaning what I was hearing in the moment. I leave room to change my opinion after hearing the sbds. And hey, they're definitely entitled to an off night, especially since they have been playing so incredibly well lately, and this wasn't even entirely an off night. Just not a great one.


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