Call me crazy, but I think these reviews are way too dismissive.

The Bag slips into a slinky groove at first, but by about 8:30 turns into a thematic jam reminiscent of that burning behind your eyelids when the sun is up, the party is over, and you're still trying to hit another level. Trey is exercising great melodic patience until around the 11:30 mark when he slowly tugs the jam into a more uplifting pattern. It doesn't feel like a stereotypical Millennial jam at all despite having some of the trappings of the PermaRage Pipers, DWDs, etc. More relaxed and deliberate, it still soars before ending somewhat abruptly.

The Wolfman is as relatively standard as a 14 minute Wolfman comes but Fish's drumming seems to slip in the seems in places, giving it just a hint of a Timber feel. At the peak of this sparse funk jam, Fish unleashes a battery of forcefull fills, making for a nice twist on your average Wolfmans. Trey has some missteps in this one, but also some very inspired riffs.

Whatever the reason for this Birds deciding to engage it's cloaking device and approach the Great Barrier. Who cares? Maybe Trey bungled the Type I riffs and decided to flip the switch from "Dance Party" to "Interesting"- whatever the speculation is about the cause, the result is a fucking fascinating sun snow shower of improvisation. By 5:30 we drop almost immediately to ambient spaces. This jam progresses in an almost composed fashion til 9 minutes in when the same acid casualty vibe of the AC/DC sprays technicolor all over the snow. Thankfully the snow just eats up the pigment and light around it and melts into a series of slowly shifting pastel shadows painting a reflection fractured by steadily expanding concentric waves of feedback. They feed back into each other and begin to intertwine and climb each other's faces as they crest into a crescendo that's truly majestic.

Mikes>Hydrogen is nothing to write home about, but the Weekapaug is a scorcher. It briefly goes into some interestingly weird syncopation on it's way to the slowed down ending.

ASIHTOS is unfortunately short, but Trey has some excellent ideas, including some off-kilter asymmetrical stabs that add up to too perfect of a balance to write off as sloppiness. The segue into Piper is much more concrete and invigorated than most. Well done. At 7 minutes into Piper, Trey starts up a menacing staccato chord progression, Mike & Page latch onto it. Fish's drumming shows hint at surf music without giving all the way into it. Page shifts the jam in and out of focus in a disorienting way with his organ. That almost Batman-y chord progression peaks its head up and re-submerges several times.

This is an absolutely smashing Hood for 2004. The way they peak it is as unique as it is cathartic. Trey hits an awesome effect that moves you into full blown Good Mode, and then sloppily (Yet oh so endearingly) trills his way. So much conflicting emotion in that Hood. Such drained voices in the ending lyrics.

I really like this show.