Summer Tour 1993 - one of the band's most transformational tours and one filled with highlights nearly every night. I'll try to showcase the high points, the 'low' points, and add some random facts/tidbits too.

THE GOOD: For those Meters fans, you should definitely take a listen to the sound-check, as the band plays Pungee for a solid 4 minutes. Take a listen to the Sample here, as it really smokes, more so than most versions from the time period. Foam, also in the first set, is worth a listen as the band follows a Page-led dynamic bit of splashing before Trey's solo takes off. The rare Leprechaun debuts here, and although not as well-played as the 7/17 version, is nice and leads into an fiery and chaotic Jim closer. In the second set, the Trey Acoustic-Horse is beautiful, as it is extended more than usual (to me the extension almost sounds like some acoustic Metheny from his work in the early 80's and One Quiet Night). This is also a fantastic version of Lizards, extremely fast-paced and lots of tense-staccato from Page. Of course, if you have never heard an a capella Freebird, it closes the encore and should be heard immediately.

THE BAD: Being an opening show, there are some tempo issues evident in Rift which really detracts from the performance. Bowie also has some missed cues. Faht, while a short-lived little number that would be an exciting surprise these days, doesn't translate that well to tape here. No extended jams that would occur later in August yet, but I don't know if that can be considered 'bad' particularly since at this point in time, a long extension wasn't common at all.

THE GEEKY: Of course, like most sound checks, this one has some interesting banter, a run through of Leprechaun, and an interesting poppy number with a few lyrics that never made it to the stage in full form (sounds like Fish or Mike singing). Listen for Wilson teases in the build-up to Possum. For the time, this show had a few breakouts, particularly MMGAMOIO and Faht, as well as debuts (Leprechaun, Daniel, and FreeBird. There's some banter after Divided Sky as well as during Daniel, where Trey mentions that he hopes that he'll see folks at the next few nights.

OVERALL: Hard not to give this show a 4 just from the extremely solid playing, the variety of the setlist, the novelty of several of the songs, and the solid encore choice. However, it lacks the 'hey'-jams that would occur later in the tour that would give it a 5-star rating. I'd give the sound quality on the spreadsheet a 7/10.