Type IV jamming and Trey

A bonkers show last night. Some truly epic moments that almost had no business being in the opening night of a run. But then again, this is MSG and NYE time so anything goes!

While I could dig into each song, in general I'll say that anytime they started a jam they ran with it and took it to a special place. It wasn't a funk night, but one filled with sheets of sound and emotional intensity. Highlights for me included Free, Back on the Train, Roggae, Chalkdust, Bathtub and Weekapaug.

Two things stand out though with this show: while I normally am not too keen on classifying a style as Type I or Type II or Type III or whatever, they seem to be entering a new phase with their jamming. I guess for simplicity sake it could be called Type IV. This is jamming in the realm of The Went Gin, Magnaball Tweezer, Dicks 2015 Down with Disease. Basically grabbing onto a meaningful, emotional groove out of thin air and running with it to tremendous peaks. They hinted at doing this several times last night and it really came to fruition during the Gin. It's like at this stage in their careers they are just saying "fuck it, let's got for it!" whenever they can. A welcome development and I just hope that they only do these types of jams when they truly feel like they have latched onto something special and not forcing it.

Secondly, I can't recall hearing Trey be so dominant throughout a show. His guitar had a larger than life feel to it. Seems like he had been listening to tons of Hendrix in the off season. It's like he has now gone from occasionally being a guitar God to knowing that he is a guitar God and brimming with all the confidence that comes with that. At times it felt like the rest of the band was just trying to keep up.

Can't wait to see what the rest of this run has to offer.