, attached to 2010-10-19

Review by n00b100

n00b100 Here's another darn good show from the strongest 3.0 tour outside of 2012/13, the Fall 2010 jaunt. Set 1 features a nice mix of songs, a Bathtub Gin that spirals out of the Classic Gin jam into something darker and more contemplative like a Stash or Bowie jam before returning to its upbeat self (I'd actually petition to have it returned to the jam chart), and a fierce Jesus Just Left Chicago. But, as always, Set 2 is where the money is made, and this Set 2 holds up as well as anything from the tour (save, say, 10/26 II, which is a true classic), starting with the then-recently resurrected Fuck Your Face, a song that you'd think they'd been playing for years, instead of having shelved for most of their existence.

Mike's Song makes an appropriate follow-up to FYF, and it's the typical "hey, this is pretty good - whoops, I guess it's over" 3.0 Mike's Song, but with a pretty neat (albeit sloppy) return to FYF, which then leads into Light. And this is a very strong Light, which alternates between crazed atonal soloing from Trey as the band leaps from key to key like a mountain climber moving from foothold to foothold, a snappy Manteca-esque jam (we'll get to that in a second), an odd uptempo jam where Page's B-3 and fog-laden synths melds nicely with Trey's weird notes, and the lovely calypso finale (which, of course, brings to mind the classic 8/7/09 Light) that @ericwyman mentions which comes to a buzzing close and neatly makes its way into 20 Years Later. This is the sort of jam that shows you what 3.0 is all about - the restless jam-hopping of 1994, only with much more fluidity and grace (if, perhaps, not quite as much experimentation).

20 Years Later and Fast Enough For You are quite nice (don't quite understand why there isn't a -> there), especially FEFY, and Weekapaug brings the Groove to a superb, energetic close. The rest of the set is pretty bog standard, a typically pretty Hood aside, but that's not the drawing card for this show - the encore is (and how often can you say THAT about a show???). And that encore is an absolutely staggering Reba, truly one of the best (I will forever love @TheEmu for giving this one the red treatment, considering how infrequent that is for 3.0), and my own personal favorite. Not only is it very sharply played from start to finish, not only is the regular Reba jam as nice as always (hinting a few times at what's to come), but when Page starts playing those minor piano chords and Fish goes back to the Manteca beat, we get one of *those* grooves that just sticks in your memory and can only be popped out with repeated listens, like the Hampton Carini or 12/2/99 YEM. It's dark, it's gorgeous, and it sets this version apart from the rest of the Reba pack; yeah, they bobble the transition from Dark Awesome Manteca Groove to Reba a bit, but that's like eating prime rib and getting a bit of gristle in it. The Reba, on its own, is enough to justify a download to my ears.

Don't let that mediocre rating fool you (something I can write for so many 3.0 shows, but that's another story) - this is a strong show with some really noteworthy highlights, including a non-optional Light and one of the truly great Rebas, a song with no shortage of great versions.


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