Continuing to head further north, the 44th show of the tour finds us in Washington for the only show at the Mt. Baker Theatre. I have mixed emotions about this one for a few reasons. First off, I love the tapers and everything they've done, but somewhere along the line transferring this one down to 44.1 through Sound Forge was a bad move and made this show almost unlistenable to my ears. Sorry, just an opinion. I would love to hear the original recording untouched off of the DAT. Second, It almost seems as if this is a hangover show for the boys, most notably Fishman, who seemed a little off all night. Too much Fools Day partying? However, the back half of the second set is freaking sweet! Mostly the Mike's trio, but even Bike is pretty good. And the word of the day is Rock! Flat out ROCK!!!

Buried Alive opens up and is kind of timid and a little off from Mike. Right into an ok Poor Heart, complete with digi-noise from the recording source. They just don't sound locked in yet. Foam was a little sloppy at times, but rocked by the end. And as lame as Bouncing usually is, this one also kind of rocked. I'm not sure if Page got some new contraption to simulate the chimes at the beginning of Divided Sky, but it is ear piercing. Sky itself is also a little off and disjointed at times, but rocks hard. IDK brings Fish out on washboard and actually had a YEM style vocal jam at the ending Doug part. Ice was ok; maybe a few spots off from Mike, and the middle just came to a dead stop for some reason. Trey and Page seemed to have miscues in Sparkle, but Fishman kept good control. Maze rocks, a little sloppy, but super rocking. Golgi was an ok closer, dynamic, but a little off all the way through.

Pretty good Jim to start off second set, nice jam. Fishman has a big oops in the bridge of Sample, but oh well it's still new. He also misses the end part of an ok Pen and they are still not locked in. Llama starts to change that and completely rocks. Horse was actually pretty good with a much tighter, groovier Silent to follow. Here's where it gets good; a nice Mike's with a great jam, a pretty decent Hydrogen, and a whopper of a Weekapaug. Really stellar jam as we start to see a glimpse of the future jams we'll hear! Lizards is good on the front end, but got a little off in the transition to Trey's solo, and had an ok end. Then the Balls come out... HYHU brings Fish back out for a solid Bike, and even if you don't like vacuum solos, check this one out. A rocking Chalk Dust closes out a pretty good second set.

Everyone gets shushed for a pretty good Grace, and then rocks out to the perfect encore for this show; Rocky Top! Nicely done!

Not to speculate too much about the band, but it seemed like somewhere in the second set they just said F-it! And they woke up and rocked until they couldn't rock any more. The Weekapaug alone moved this one up to four stars for me, but the show itself should settle in around three and a half.