Truth be told, I was left a bit underwhelmed by tonight. My expectations are mine but how often does one get to play to a crowd that is obviously 4/20 friendly and not play it up a bit? Of course, still, it could be the 12/31 “gag”, but tonight it just felt like an opportunity lost.

Carini always feels like a “shock” opener to me and tonight was no exception. It was jammed well enough for its 15 minutes or so and segued into a pretty blazing Possum. The Mona Dance got stretched out some and seemed to be keeping everyone happily dancing. Leaves was…interesting and I’m not familiar enough with it to want to say anything about its performance. Stash got the crowd adrenalized again and sounded pretty solid at the moment but an eight(?) minute Blaze On had me scratching my head some when I realized they were actually going to walk off after it. The song itself didn’t feel any different than any other version considering the circumstances.

I was psyched for Sigma Oasis once it opened the 2nd Set but my idea of the extended working it was not theirs and it segued relatively quickly into the jam vehicle of the night, Down With Disease. To my ears it did not feel like it got fiery until the last five minutes and then it was raging but it might have taken too long of a road to “get there”. The rest of the show was uneven at best and pretty much “composed” songs. I personally like Drift While You’re Sleeping but felt like I’ve been in the building for tighter versions though it crescendoed nicely for the Set ender.

I enjoyed the 1st Set more than the 2nd. And totally loved being in the building. If you had told me exactly what and how I was going to get tonight in advance there’s still nowhere else I would have rather been than the greatest arena in the world in my hometown born and bred. But…maybe it was my expectations but it ultimately played like a “typical” opening show of a four night run and even by those “standards” it fell a little short to these ears. I’m still a whole lot tired from dancing, I would have preferred to have walked out sweating a ton from their musically demanding me to rage hard because they did but it didn’t and because I’m missing tomorrow the 21st I’ll come back on the 22nd because I know better days and better shows are a comin’. Peace out.