Well, I found the second set to be a bit oversold here. The Bag has a few transcendent moments mixed in with a bunch of noise. Noise is nice and everyone likes long meandering jams... but this was a bit excessive, no? Believe it or not, I found that the most interesting moment was the Farmhouse--this song had come a long way in a year.

What got me excited was actually the first set. (Yeah, I was surprised, too.) Both the Mike's and the Weekapaug are very strong: the former features a slow, patient build followed by one of those patented (though recently rare) F-major jams while the latter has two or three absolutely explosive peaks that just keep spilling over. In between is a song-oriented clump that includes an acoustic Brian & Robert where the band strips down an already lean song, revealing some of the quieter melodic elements. (Page's piano counterpoint on the late verses, for example, comes to the fore a bit more when it's not swimming in the muck of sustained Rhodes blanket tones.) The Wedge wants to scream, as was its habit in those days, but Trey's not quite as surefooted as he is elsewhere in the set, falling out of key a few times. He was, however, totally anchored during While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

(PS: Isn't that a Dear Prudence tease in Ghost?)