What a weird show. I think the Birds and Taste are great.... tight and feisty....I don't hear any drunkenness at all. Cavern's good and the beginning of Reba is crisp and uptempo. And then, all of a sudden, the wheels fall off....all four members! Mike in particularly starts missing (or omitting) the roots of the chords all over the place. Very uncharacteristic and it seems to get Trey distracted and pulled offsides. All of this happened roughly 30 minutes into the show. My theory? Edibles. Mike seems the most off his game of all of them and is known to be an infrequent partaker. He hacks his solo in Lawnboy too. Just not like him AT ALL.

But this show isn't a total waste at all. There are segments scattered through the show that are at peak July 98 levels (one of my favorite months of their whole career). As I said the Birds and Taste are really good....the solo section of Taste is top notch. The Fee is a keeper for it's comedic first half and its really cool second half jam. I love the way Trey aborts the mission... "and he jumped over the side of the ship and the sharks ate him...thank you". You can hear him stifling giggles for the next minute or two. The Water in the Sky is a really nice version...Page shines. Then, the Gin.... pretty good but not too exciting. Until the 11 minute mark when they soar into a jam segment that's as thrilling as any particular moment in the legendary Riverport Gin a few weeks later. It just doesn't last for 24 minutes this time. McGrupp is a cool, unique (if a little sloppy) version...another worthy moment.

It's a sub par night for sure...particularly for this tour. But it's not dull and still worth a listen for the high points.