So the Sunday/Funday cliches have been revalidated for a few months…

During the hours leading up to the show, my touring buddy and I relistened to 7/28/23 MSG (the first night of 7 at the Garden), and I remembered thinking during that MSG show that slotting AWOH into song #2 was a good sign (even though it’s not my favorite song) “OK LETS JAM THEN.” The MSG appetizer show also featured a bunch of mid-length type 2 exploratory jams with a bit of darkness, foreshadowing for us a terrific finale to a fun weekend at Great Woods, in which the 2nd song AWOH didn’t quite reach the heights of its MSG counterpart, while it’s 2024 companion, Bathtub Gin, was for me a weekend highlight, with a lovely melodic peak and a also ~4+ minutes of a cool-down jam that AFAICT Trey insisted on elaborating. There’s an extended riff on Sand from 10:30 to nearly 11:00, more distinct and longer than most teases and should be footnoted accordingly.

You know what’s an even better sign that a long jam vehicle like AWOH teed up early? When there’s the anti-ripcord, when Trey’s the one extending a jam that was potentially petering by just trying something new and turning a corner. I thought I caught another anti-ripcord during the later stages of Tweezer as well.

Wilson, believe it or not, was the first Gamehenge song performed since NYE; obviously we can still have fun, and did. Rarity time? The Connenction was a personal debut, and as far as I’m concerned, Thread can keep following me around from Jam show to Shoreline to wherever, really one of the best of the newer songs, I don’t even try to to play the drum part b/c part of it is in 15… proggy delight! ALL ALONE. ALL ALONE. Was the bit that followed related to the as yet unplayed Epitaph? (I honestly have no idea, but I feel like that debut is waiting for Mondegreen.) While the Split Open probably brought the darkest storm of the weekend, Thread and a few other moments sprinkled into tonight returned to those ‘not all jams have to pretty all the time’ places that have been a welcome complement to the programmed yet sincere explosions of joy.

A joyous Runaway Jim and darker LSG were well placed solid versions and it felt like we might be in for another short setbreak… 23 minutes indeed. They want to play close to 3 hour shows at the expense of setbreak? You love to see it!

Coil is a lovely choice for “get yer ass back to your seats dammit” while not 100% clean on Trey’s part, the Tweezer that followed followed a funky start through some atmospheric build into a soaring part and eventually something that sounded like a cross between “Listen to the Music” by the Doobie Brothers and I’m not sure what. While the 20 minutes goes by quick, the different phases of the Tweezer jam will each sound reasonably familiar to any phan, with good flow and whole-band interplay.

So far, so great, and the SASS to follow is even greater, my favorite jam of the night/weekend for its creative range and totally-out-there strand of improvisation.

I believe this was the jam when I noticed Trey leaning over Page until Page switched from synth to piano and played co-lead instead of just vamping along with Trey not sure exactly when that was in the show, but you absolutely love to see it!!

Twist descended into type 1.5 time warpy but not too crazy space for a spell before things went berserk with Crosseyed and Painless. At this point I asked out loud whether we’d get First Tube or Slave to close out this classic, nearly 90 minute set in style, and the Slave chosen for the occasion rose to the moment. The crowd got it’s ya-ya’s out with the Possum-Reprise encore… a generally much quieter group than Saturday night’s sing along raucous-caucus, but that’s also because there was more active listening required on Sunday.

All in all a great, nearly classic show, with well balanced, well constructed setlists & a good variety to the improvisation style and overall sonic palette.

5/5 stars (4.53 to be exact*).

*My scale assumes that obvious all time great shows like NYE23 and Big Cypress are actually 5.00 and a “bad concert” by other bands would be 1.00-2.00, a cancelled show 0.00. Great Woods 24 N1 and N2 are both tough calls in that 3.8-4.2 range with N2 being one of those ‘why listen to a recording’ but exceedingly fun shows in person people like to argue about. This review based on mental notes taken while attending and an informal relisten while recuperating in Boston on Monday.