Tonight's theme: Jam-Filled. Ooooh, sounds interesting!

Set 1: Oh, hmm, Sample opener? Well, that's not really keeping with the cool opener theme they've set so far for the Baker's Dozen, but I guess I'll give it a listen...

...wait, this isn't the normal Sample jam, is it? This is more soaring and majestic? Page's piano work is ruling it? And then they rolled into a really sweet rockout before returning home? Well, shoot, that was a nice surprise to kick off the show! Hey, Lawn Boy's always a fun Set 1 song, guess I'll kick back and...

...wait, Mike's taking an elongated bass solo? Page pulled out the keytar? He doesn't do that ever, right? And now...hold up, they're kicking into a tasty funky groove? What the hell? Now Trey's turning it dark and inwards as Page goes to work on his synths? And...shit, it's picking up steam, and really growing in power on top? This is fucking amazing??? Fishman is absolutely wrecking shit? Well, wonder what song's coming next...

...oh, they're STILL going? They've gone major key now? They're touching on the fabled 9/6/15 Disease jam? Okay, that was a massive peak, guess they're gonna wind down and...oh, they're not? Trey's speeding up??? Now they're moving into brooding effects-laden spaciness? Mike's really stepping up as they're hitting a brand new gear? Jesus, ANOTHER peak? This is still Lawn Boy, right? Okay, it's collapsing into weirdness and a chilled-out groove, it's gotta be over now, right?

...Jesus, that was 30 minutes??? Holy shit, what a hell of a ride that was! Hey, love My Friend, My Friend, great call for a landing pad after that j...wait, shit, we're not going into "Myfe"? They're jamming THIS out, too? Oooh, it's heading to major key land as well? Man, that was really lovely! Three awesome jams in a Set...wait, One? It's still Set One???? How much time is left???

...ah, just enough time for strong versions of Stash (really tense in the middle!) and Gin (really supercharged Type 1!). Well, I don't smoke cigarettes, but I'm off to buy and smoke an entire pack during setbreak. See you in "fifteen minutes"!

Set 2: Set-opening Fuegos tend to either be a way for the band to get warmed up for the rest of the set or a statement of intent, and this bad boy is somewhere in the middle - not quite on the 7/30/14 tier, but certainly a cut above the typical Fuegos of the world, as after the typical gnarled late-night Fuego jam Mike whips out the drill and the band use that as an entryway to a quicksilver groove that Fish pushes while Trey makes motor-riffing noises and then pushes the band to a nice little peak. You can hear the willingness to continue with improvising (honestly, something we've heard a lot of the last three shows), and that pays off in exactly two songs.

So, this Crosseyed and Painless. The second longest jam of the modern era, it's one of those jams that feels borne just as much out of sheer bloody-minded perseverance as God-given inspiration, and is all the better for it. The band drops into a lower-key groove out of C&P proper, Page on electric piano and Mike leading the charge. Trey and Page then slide into sweet blissfulness, the same warmth that they've delivered in spades this tour, and they head into Allmans-land with a brilliant patience before absolutely crushing the peak. But just when you think the jam's over, Fish decides to push the band along, a creepy fog floats over the proceedings (much like Sunday night's Waves), and the band floats off into space as the drill reenters our lives and a bevy of effects get fired off like we're back at IT or something, a perfect way to end the jam. Well, until Trey kicks into a lovely chord pattern, the band rebuilds itself like a friendlier version of the T-1000 reassembling itself in the factory at the end of T2, and the band rebuilds to yet another monstrous peak. The rest of the jam is a weird stramash, maybe not the most successful jamming moment (Mike first decides he wants to head back to C&P, then Trey decides HE does after Mike returns to improv mode, and we all know Trey's gonna win that battle), but that's hardly the worst thing after roughly a half hour of high-class hose jamming connected by scary 2.0-style weirdness. The beautiful Makisupa -> End of Session sequence is a wonderful way to close out the meat of the set, Tuesday/Cavern make for a head-banging end to Set 2, and Julius is always a fun encore, *especially* when Trey yanks the Lawn Boy riff out of nowhere and we get a reprise to end the whole dang show. I'm not sure Set 2 outdoes the first set (and how often can you say that about a show in ANY era???), but when both sets are this good, that's really just picking nits.

Final thoughts: An absolute no-doubter all-time classic show. Wonder if the next couple billion years ahead of us will prove me wrong on that count. Kinda doubt it!