I am here to sing the virtues of this most excellent show that is always overlooked because of her prettier sister, the next night's show. However, I find that if you take away the Seven Below, the next night is not as good as this show, despite the almost perfect setlist. I get why this show is frowned upon (most of my friends think I am mad when I say I like this show better than 7/13), but sometimes the highs outweigh the lows. For me this is true as I can easily overlook a downer song(or 2 or 3 or 4), whereas some people write of an entire show if there is even just one song that they dislike. Their loss, as this show is a smoker.
There are seven reasons why I love this show. Taste, Stash, Maze, Piper, Tweezer, Ghost and David Bowie. All have incredibly good jams with incendiary guitar playing from Trey, who was having an exceptional night. Right out of the gates Taste is very good. Interestingly at the end of the song, you can hear Trey talking about how amazing the stage sound is. That is always a great bonus for the band, especially a band like this one that relies on band interaction and hearing each other clearly. Advantage Gorge. On all of these extended jams Trey is engaging from start to finish. He kind of tells a story with his guitar on each one. And if someone told you that the jam vehicles for a second set were the four from this night, you would say that that was an epic show. And you would be right. Piper and Ghost being the highlights. Both with long exploratory jams. Tweezer is good, although just a standard 14 minute (or whatever) version but Bowie is very cool.
However, the other thing that this night has to offer, that lifts it to a higher place, is the amazing Maze. Just by virtue of possessing this version should make this show the winner of the two. It is something special. Seven Below was played only 35 times so far, with three notable versions. And only two of them in 2.0. So even though the next night was incredibly special because of that notable version (and if you have not heard the seven below the next night you absolutely must it is a delicious piece of improvisation), it was not that exceptional if you purely look at the numbers. However, Maze has been played 290 times. And as most of you know all of them are excellent. Do not think there can be a bad version of Maze. But there are only nine notable versions out of all of that 290 and this is one of them. There is a reason for that. You must hear it!
I think that because they were having such a great night, they chose to just have some fun and try out some new songs. This annoys a lot of people, I understand, but I think people often miss the point that the boys like playing new songs. It's fun for them. So all you haters should just suck it up and look past the set list. Because really, it's all about the improvisation and how they are playing on the extended jams. Get this show I say. But both nights are worth it.