, attached to 1998-04-04

Review by TweezingSpaceRanger

TweezingSpaceRanger I'm a huge island tour fan (who isn't), and for a long time I crowned 4/3/98 the king of the island tour. The Roses>Piper is still the best one-two punch that the island tour has to offer. However, after giving this show my first start to finish listen, I have to play the role of Jaime Lannister as kingslayer, and give the island tour crown to 4/4/98. The Birds>2001 combo from this night is nearly as enthralling as the Roses>Piper from the previous night. Throw in the insane, "what song are they playing again?", version of Brother, and I'm having a hard time choosing the Roses>Piper combo over the Birds>2001>Brother triplet. Following humorous radio banter is an underrated Ghost that should easily be on the jam chart for the intense psychedelic voyage "turned loose" into head-banging rock & roll before winding its way into The Lizards! How crazy is that? The band absolutely brings the house down with a portion of this Lizards where you can hear how much the band is loving the groove they're in. Wrapping up the set is a straightforward but well played (it's 97...) version of Bowie, which is just an awesome song. Throw in another straightforward but fantastic version of a fan favorite in Harry Hood as the encore, and this is a set for the ages.
Don't sleep on the show opening Tweezer>Taste combo either. To my ears, this Tweezer is a more accomplished version of the 11/17/97 show-opening Tweezer and engulfs the listener through an even more hypnotizing groove than the 97 Denver Tweezer, while reaching a similar, but more explosive peak. In my opinion, the 11/17/97 and 4/4/98 Tweezers are basically brothers similar to Payton and Eli Manning with 4/4/98 being the superior brother, yet each wins a super bowl ring. The rest of the set has good versions of Funky Bitch and Limb by Limb, which is enough support for the set.
At the end of the day, I would still give 4/3/98 the odd over 4/4/98, but the first set of 4/3/98 seems like less successful version of the 11/22/97 first set which featured a true Mike's Groove and a Harry Hood that I prefer to the Reba from the 4/3/98 show.


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