SET 1:

The Moma Dance: party started. Clav is immediately very high in the mix, as is common in 2014. Fishman’s vocals are through the roof too! Pretty standard and has a couple flubs but the band is audibly having fun in this one.

Wolfman’s Brother: more funk, why not? A classic ‘let’s shake off the rust’ placement after a similarly straightforward show opener. Jam IMMEDIATELY goes to a one chord 98-style funk jam - Mike slapping away, Page on the clav, Trey stomping the wah. The crowd responds with a slow roar, this has taken them by surprise. Jam slightly mellows and becomes less percussive as Trey starts his solo, but then they return to the hard funk. Trey strutting all over the place. Nice! They then build up the intensity to a rock space pretty seamlessly. Trey ripcords the end perhaps a little too quickly but the body of work here is spot on. Great little Wolfman’s. Show can go anywhere now.

Devotion to a Dream: fun, well placed. Underrated tune this one. Really feeling this in this spot actually.

46 Days: sure. Feels funkier than usual in the composed section. Standard rocking jam though.

Yarmouth Road: hilariously bad song but I guess I’m in a good mood today because I don’t hate this placement. Enjoying laughing to it today. The band holds on until the bridge whereupon the whole thing kinda falls apart. Fish and Page miss the transition into the bridge, Trey has no idea what he’s meant to play, and the vocals are shocking. One of the rougher Yarmouths out there, and that’s saying something for this song.

Brian and Robert: not great out of the end of a butchered Yarmouth. Backing vocals are a bit shaky though that’s not uncommon with this tune. You’ve gotta hope something is gonna get the train back on the tracks next.

Wingsuit: lol. Yeah that’s not what anybody would have wanted at that moment, but I can appreciate they’re cultivating a chillout vibe in this passage. Somebody requests Harpua after this ends.

Tube: good way of getting back into it. Good tempo from the outset. Jam is just about entirely clav led, then they launch into a full band Smoke on the Water tease! Nice! After that it’s quick to get to the shuffle section and out. Happy with how well this brings back the energy. >

Free: reset complete. Taken nice and fast just like Tube. Very standard and short though with no Trey solo. >

Roggae: okay. This jam doesn’t really come together. Meh version.

Heavy Things: love this song, just not here and now. Page on the organ for the solo - fun. They sing the outro over Page going nuts.

Run Like an Antelope: Trey plays with Smoke on the Water a few times in this one and then finally plays it in the Rye Rye Rocco section, while Fish sings Istanbul (Not Constantinople). Very manic version from the start, the whole band is raging. Recommended if you want a good 3.0 version!

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SET 2:

Carini: some rage to kick off set 2. Jam is very short and aimless. Trey brings it down to a quiet space but doesn’t seem to find anything worth pursuing and ripcords >

Waves: there’s a bit of a type 1 peak here led by Page, but nothing crazy and it ends before it really gets going. Ambient outro space with Waves lyrics goes >

Fuego: a short mid second set Fuego - nothing more 2014 than that. Pretty fiery Trey during the drum break though, one of the better takes on that section I’ve heard. >

Twist: nothing is sticking so far this set, song choice isn’t too bad though. Nifty little Twist here. Page rages on piano for most of it and Trey brings it back to the head well enough. Hopefully this gets the band locked in. Some extended ‘woo!’ing at the end leads >

Light: cute, good placement. There’s the feeling that this one is going to do something. The ‘woo’s from the end of Twist continue all through the intro of this one and the crowd responds in turn, very cute. Page is insistent on making this one a plinko jam from very early on, taking the lead like he has all summer. The rest of the band doesn’t really bite and the jam transitions into a meandering stormier space. At 9 mins in things get interesting, Fish starts up a tribal tom groove, then a snare groove, and the band takes on ominous, brooding play. WOW @ Page’s synths at the 10 minute mark, sounds more like an Ondes Martenot than anything else. Super eerie, very droney. Trey compliments it well with some rhythmic playing that eventually falls away into delay. The back end of this Light is good stuff, very very creepy. Page once again showing himself to be the MVP of this tour. Seems to foreshadow the Wedge from the following night too. >

Twenty Years Later: it’s Twenty Years Later. Standard. >

Harry Hood: nice. A good amount of quality effects-driven exploration in the intro from both Trey and Mike, with a great searing bass solo from Cactus. Good composed section, taken nice and fast. Listen to the crowd reaction, they’re very excited for this. Pressure is on the band to respond. Trey initiates minor key play at 7:30, but Page doesn’t bite just yet. They bring it down and then a hard edged Trey rock solo begins around 10 minutes in. Good stuff! Rock and roll at 11 minutes in, baby! Trey ripping. Trey brings it down again at 12 minutes, switches to major key, and begins another build more typical of Hood. Major Fuego tease at 13:30. Climax is mellower than usual, but that’s typical of the era. Good version for sure! They put in the effort. >

Cavern: nice and peppy. Set in the books.

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ENCORE:

Grind: standard.

Bug: standard.

Suzy Greenberg: standard. 3 song encores for the win!

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Overall: solid, very standard show. Would’ve been perfectly fun at the venue. Wolfman’s and Light jam very nicely, Hood they put in effort and Antelope has some uncharacteristic quirkiness. Nothing here is truly mind-blowing and there’s a lot of mundanity, but the whole thing flows well enough for my tastes.

3.6 stars.