SET 1:

Cars Trucks Buses: BIIIIIG fan of this as an opener! Time to get down! This is just a totally raging version too. You can tell Trey is chomping at the bit to take over during Page’s solo and then when he gets his chance he rips it to shreds, good stuff. Very good version – the show is ON!

Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan: perfect follow up tune, really feeling this here. This one has another just totally ripping solo from Red. 4:00 and on is pure rockstar material. Maybe the best version of this song if you want the jam section to stick to the blues rock feel of the original, which this one very much does.

Ginseng Sullivan: hahaha fucking hell I’m such a big fan of this setlist right now. Recently come from listening to a lot of summer 2014 and the setlist quality is just so high here in comparison. Tight version of one of my favourite bluegrass tunes.

Wolfman’s Brother: fine by me, fun choice here. Clav-and-wah-heavy affair for quite a bit of time at the start of the jam, then Trey starts soloing but the other members stay in their funk bag for a little while longer. AWESOME held note from Trey in the six minute range, then when it ends they go into a typical short rock outro and then close. I enjoy most Wolfmans jams and this one is no exception, the peak isn’t special but everything leading up to it is primo stuff. They’re four for four so far. Page talks to the crowd after this song ends.

Sparkle: sure, no issues with this here really. Standard. Page’s messy playing in his solo is cool. >

Walk Away: there’s no way! Awesome! So much conviction from Trey with these calls! Page’s voice sounds good and outside of one or two eh moments from Trey in the song proper this is done well, good soloing as usual.

Divided Sky: holy hell. As good as a 3.0 setlist can get really. Composed section pre-pause is spotless and fast. Enjoying the LivePhish mix having Page’s organ so high in the lead-up to the pause. Small Fish flub at 9:08, no biggie. Really lovely Trey solo and a good version all round. Not quite a highlight as is sometimes claimed but really no issues here at all.

Split Open and Melt: great call again. Tight and energetic in the composed section. Rides standard 3.0 Melt territory for a lot of the jam but Trey’s playing is a lot more vaporous and sickly than usual especially in the section starting around 8:00, he starts messing around with his delay and loop pedals and creates a crazy droning soundscape for a while there. There’s a feeble attempt from Trey to push into the ending but the space has become so weird that he bails and Fish pretty much has to reform the jam from scratch. They ride some mellow space here then Trey hard ripcords > Julius. This is a super unique version in that Trey just has no idea how to land the (really fucking unnerving) jam and has to totally bail on the song altogether. I feel like 1.0 Trey would’ve worked out a way to put the pieces back together, but as it stands I’m a big fan of the risks the band took here and it sounds great while it lasts. Bizarre and recommended. >

Julius: yeah I wasn’t crazy into this call when it started up but man Trey does everything he can to prove me wrong here. Very good soloing, ripped. Forgot how good this song could be in early 3.0. Great set closer to a real spotless set.

—

SET 2:

Down With Disease: LOL @ Mike(?) playing Pop Goes the Weasel in the intro to this. Trey is unusually active in the intro too – something is up here. You can practically see the grin on his face, ready as he is to melt faces. Trey is immediately on top of the jam in the early going with spirited playing. The first 9 minutes of this goes past pretty quick, then things fade into a quieter, more contemplative section. Funky-ish motif from Trey at 10:30 that leads into the next phase of the jam and it’s a really solid, coherent, riff-based one. Trey takes the lead with a chordal riff that sounds great in his tone, bit mellower overall and a little dark. They then collectively bring the jam happier and bliss-ier but still mellow. Then around 14 mins in you can juuuuuust start to hear things ramping up. Full band upbeat Allmans jamming starts up here but not in the usual BD era way, this is REALLY good. God I’m just so in love with how full-bodied the jamming is at 16 mins in. So awesome, every member pulling their weight. Once Trey takes the lead it’s game on! He proceeds to play a gorgeous triumphant solo with a ton of defined melodies, really just fantastic bliss peak here – absolutely hosing down the audience. Love hearing the crowd explode at so many points here. Once they’ve finished laying waste to the venue they fade out into a fantastic outro full of psychedelic arpeggios, this bit is really underrated in discussions of this performance. Could have honestly sat in this space for a little while longer but Trey goes (smoothly, to his credit) -> Taste. This is fantastic stuff and one of the best DWDs you will ever hear and this includes ALL eras, with a peak that deserves all the hype it gets. An essential listen if you can only hear a few 3.0 jams – hose central. ->

Taste: really solid follow up choice, would have actually loved more of a cooldown here but kudos to Trey for keeping the energy high. Solid and well-played version outside of the very end.

Twenty Years Later: sure, if you’d like. Not my favourite song but it’s not like it isn’t earned here. Immediate thought to take this on a ride during the outro from Trey with his crazy ominous wah and delay. This combined with Page’s organ, extra funereal here, is an incredibly intimidating combo. Pretty sludgy for a while until it takes more of a rocking turn with some great bluesy playing and interplay between Page and Trey. Reminds me of one of those old Pink Floyd blues jams from the early 70s. God they’re really just perfectly locked in this set and show aren’t they? Then on a dime they move to a borderline plinko jam at 9:30, so incredibly percussive and funky. So sick and importantly very different to the DWD jam. What I wouldn’t give for Page to stay on the organ for this long these days. Trey’s chordal riffing at 12:00ish is so fire. Trey switches things up at 12:30 with some new chords and now we’re in a rocking Allmans type jam??? Big big fan of this outro, almost Camden CDT ish for a minute there. The move > Piper feels so logical and earned after that. What a journey. Very good jam, covers a lot of territory with very little in the way of aimless wandering. Recommended of course. >

Piper: fast and driving out of the gate. Trey is on some FIRE cold green tea tonight. Upbeat jamming out of this is as you’d expect and then there’s a turn towards funk, LOTS of Page on organ. Love the organ chord he holds for a solid 20 seconds about six minutes in. Bit sparser than the funk jam in 20YL but still solid. Then Fish, with no warning at all, starts playing a bluegrass beat(???????) at 7 minutes in and for about a minute and a half we get this manic space jamming????? It’s really good????? Great stuff but such a tease, another 5 minutes of that would’ve been just fine for me. Instead Trey hits the only properly questionable song choice of the night by going >

Backwards Down the Number Line: yeah I’m not sure about this here, and I DO like this song for the record. That Piper had gas left in the tank. Not that I’m complaining too much lol this show is primo and this isn’t a set-ruiner like some other bad calls can be. Anyway I hate to say it because it makes me sound like a fluffier but even this performance is great for the song! Trey just has a ridiculous amount of pep tonight. Check out the trills at 5:40 and then the effortless peak. It’s a good run-through. I’ve forgotten why I didn’t want him to play this.

You Enjoy Myself: YES!! Bit of an awkward intro with the rest of the band seeming a bit unprepared to go into this, Fish and Mike especially. The whole composed section is kinda clumsy actually, just rough around the edges and sounds like they’re hanging on for dear life until they can hit the jam. Funny hearing Fish scream ‘motherfucker!’ in the Charge section though. Once the tramps section hits it’s like Trey and Mike get a moment to recalibrate and center themselves and then you can just tell the jam is going to be rock-solid. They sit on an ominous funk groove from minute one that sounds to me like Trey is messing around with some early Your Pet Cat ideas. God damn Mike is absolutely popping in this mix! They’re really firing on all cylinders here. So much confidence needed for Trey to hold back and throw out funky licks for minutes on end like he does. Great held note with whale call at 14:30 which signals to the band that a peak is coming. Page switches to the piano and a more traditional YEM peak is clearly incoming. Peak is below average but B&D has some uniquely frantic playing from Mike and is good. Vocal jam is equally frantic. I’m going to recommend giving this a listen but it sadly falls short of the true rager that this set deserves. The body of the jam is great and highly recommended, whenever I relisten to this I’ll be skipping straight here, but sadly the composed section is well below average and the peak is surprisingly timid considering the rest of the set. It’s still a good experience overall and a good call in this slot. Risks were taken.

Grind: great end to the set. Very much into this placement for this show. It’s earned.

—

ENCORE:

Bouncing Around the Room: standard. I honestly would’ve been fine with this as a solo encore, but then… >

Reba: NO WAY! That’ll teach the people bitching about Bouncing! I wonder if Trey planned this with the others or if he called an audible here. Either way this is such a cool placement and I love this band. There’s like one small flub at the beginning of the instrumental composed parts and then from there on out it’s golden, no issues at all. Jam section is standard but peaks triumphantly and Trey plays well. Must have been a blast to be in the building while this was happening. Whistling et fin.

Good Times Bad Times: ripped to absolute shreds by Trey. This is utterly demolished by 3.0 standards. Seriously. Fantastic end to the show.

—

OVERALL: absolutely fantastic show front-to-back. I’ve been working my way in reverse chronological order through the 3.0 live material on Apple Music and the sheer difference in the band’s – but especially Trey’s – energy in Fall ’13 and earlier compared to ’14 and later is pretty shocking. But even for the tour Trey really is in incredible form tonight. By the era’s standards he just crushes nearly every solo he gets a chance to play, so many coherent melodies and dextrous fast arpeggios and all-round brilliance that reminds me of an only-slightly diluted 1.0 Trey. When you add that to a great setlist (out of this entire setlist only Numberline feels even remotely out of place), an absolute all-timer DWD jam, probably the best 20 Years Later and a bonkers encore, it’s impossible to think of this show as anything but brilliant. The crown jewel of Fall ’13 I’d say.

4.4 stars. If YEM composed section wasn’t botched I’d be prepared to put it even higher. Up there with the best of the era.