Summer 99 was my longest tour to date. Of those shows, this was by far my favorite. The band was loose, experimental and ready to freak out the House of Blues webcast audience. I was lucky enough to have seats Page side about 12 rows back and survived a run in with the NJ State Police earlier in the day (sorry Corey!). Any show that opens with Punch has a lot of potential. When Ghost followed, we knew the band was motivated. Ghost had a hurried pace, a sense of urgency that continued in jams the rest of the night. Instead of letting the band gallop through a long repetitive jam, Trey's spacey effects told a chilling story. Even the slowed down ending (ritardando) showed the band was moving together as a unit. This was just a warm up of things to come, but the Ghost set the tone for the rest of the night.

The set continued with a song based theme (thanks for The Sloth) until the opening notes of YEM. This is still my favorite version I have ever heard in person (Thanks for releasing the sbd!). Trey was on a mission to shred and peak after peak threw the crowd into a frenzy. The vocal jam that followed was much better in person. The recording can't replicate the lights, dynamics and vocal experimentation that the band engaged in. I have heard vocal jams that I like more, but none that were so much better in person.

1999 was the year of the Meatstick, but by this point, I didn't want to hear it again. How does the band remedy this? By playing the most jammed out version to this point. 9 minutes of inspired Meatsticking made me rethink my opinion of the song. Slow, methodical and breezy, I had a grin from ear to ear. The SOAM that followed was one of the craziest musical roller coaster rides I have ever taken. About 5 minutes into the jam, after Fish had changed tempos about a million times, Corey says, "This sure ain't the blues anymore," in reference to the web cast. When the dust finally settled, I actually needed a BATR to find my way back to Earth. The Chalkdust wasn't 7-10, but along with Frankenstein, provided a rock and roll ending to a show that was all about outer space.