, attached to 1994-11-25

Review by Campster

Campster This is a great show and the SBD sounds awesome.

Llama opens the first set and is a fine version. Excellent start. Trey makes some great use of the sustain and pitch shifter to deliver some major tension before a fiery conclusion.

Guelah is a nice choice in the two spot. Well executed and a personal favorite.

Reba occupies the third slot and is a first taste of some of the band's '94 era compositional and jamming chops. The song itself is played very nicely, with good work in the composition by Trey & Page. The jam kicks in nicely with a bit of syncopated playing from Trey and the band crafts a nice little pocket. They build a strong but linear jam that produces a fine climax. This Reba is not too long, nor in the pantheon of Reba jams, but is nonetheless a fine version with strong playing and a nice whistle ending.

Bouncin' is a solid enough follow up and is played cleanly.

SOAM is a great call after some blissful tunes. This one is not the longest, most exploratory, but it is plenty wild and plenty thrilling. Great jamming and tons of tension set up a great release. Definitely a highlight.

Esther is not my favorite song, but this is a nice version. Fits ok here for me.

Julius > Golgi is a nice closing combination. Both are played well and finish the set in good form.

Overall a pretty darn solid set. Very nice jamming in Reba and Melt as well as a couple other well played tunes make this one a nice listen. Nothing over the top great, but not too shabby indeed.

Set II kicks off with a perfunctory 2001. It’s more ’93 than ’96 and no where close to 97/98/99, but it’s fun and a strong opener with good energetic execution.

Mike’s is up next and is a rock out. Very nicely played version, albeit quite short. I think it’s under 8 minutes, but it’s still plenty fierce and lands nicely into Simple.

Simple is the big jam of the show. The song is well played and the outdo jam is nifty. It leads into a broken-down rocking jam that gradually grows weirder and more dissonant. Soon enough we are in DEEEEEP space and there’s some vocal calls over the atmospheric noise the band creates. We then get some tempo & dynamics jamming which they toy with nicely and add a few more vocal cries. The jam stays weird. Landing delightfully into the “oom pah pah” of Harpua.

Harpua features a cool Thanksgiving story about various light beams and dogs etc. Good stuff. This is a good fun version of the song with a good narration.

Weekapaug gallops out of Harpua and gets a good workout right away with some fine soloing from Trey. They then go more rhythmic with Page leading a good funky jam. This jam (like the Simple) goes deeper and deeper into space. By 5:30 we’ve got the rhythm section only reminding us of Weekapaug, but Trey emerges with some good soloing at around 6:15 brining us back from the depths. There’s another shift at around 7 minutes (Fish still on the drumbeat) where the band downshifts and Trey plays some frenetic notes. Mike is laying down some cool bass work and Trey is droning a bit, while they ratchet up the tension. By 8:45 Trey takes a victory lap back to ‘Paug land, but instead of staying in the Groove, he climbs crazily upward before brining back the chording at speed. They then down shift into syncopated landed that sounds as if it’ll pop into Sanity, but Trey picks out the Mango riff and they segue nicely into the tune.

Mango is a good version and feels nice after a bit of a zany ‘Paug.

Purple Rain & HYHU are fun.

Antelope is the ender and seals the deal with some fiery playing. A cool intro lands nicely into the jam. This is your standard great ‘Lope (which means is surpasses most modern renditions easily in fury and execution). There’s an epic build at around 6:30 that’s really great to hear, with a very nice and patient release. A great jam yields a super spacey lyrical section, which is totally neat. This is followed by a great push to the conclusion.

GTBT is a rocking encore, ‘nuff said.

Overall, I prefer the first show of the release to this one. That said, this is a great show. The Simple and the ‘Paug are the surefire jamming highlights, with great versions of Reba, SOAM & Antelope adding requisite firepower. The 2001>Mike’s is also quite good and Harpua is always a treat. Damn fine show.


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