As someone who took the time to write a lengthy forum entry about how Trey fucked up the descending riff into the jam of Antelope TWICE, I’d like to take a minute to describe a moment from the other side of the coin.
The jam out of soul planet is pretty awesome, with everyone cooking at a nice tempo with great flourishes all around. Right around 7:30, Trey starts to get bored with the minor key and very abruptly modulates into a major key. Mike and Page are really thrown off. Fishman has the presence of mind to recognize what’s happening and immediately downshifts into a half-tempo rhythm, which gives Page and Mike enough time to realize what happened and regain their footing. One minute later everyone is settled again and fishman kicks it back into the original tempo. That’s A+ Awareness on his part right there and it saves what could have been a jam-killing moment in a less talented drummer’s hands. Check it out.