[My last pre-hiatus show attended, I'm reviewing this off the spreadsheet version which is very high quality]

Nice, tight type I Wolfman's to start off the set. Slightly chill finish with some cool clav work by page. Fades out and then Scent starts up. Mule was standard, as always more fun to hear live than on tape. My Soul was My Soul, with the exception of some brief bluesy noodling to start it off. Ginseng seemed slightly more uptempo than usual, but not that different from a typical electric version. First Tube raged, but not any more than it typically does. Some screaming guitar riffs from Trey at the end, then Divided starts over some residual First Tube noise. The pause in Divided is at least 2 minutes, with the crowd going crazy. A standard Wilson closes out the set.

Highlights from Set I: Do I have to pick something? If you are going to listen to anything, try the Wolfman's. Maybe Divided.

DWD lights a fire to begin set 2. Extremely high energy type I jam at first, really up tempo, screaming solo from trey.Starts to mellow a bit around 12 min, with some amazing work first on the piano, then the organ by Page. Trey might be on his little drum kit here, can't remember, but sounds like it since I can't here any guitar. Great bass playing by Mike, subtly changing up the bass line to slowly evolve the jam. Trey comes back with some delay loops around 18 minutes in, but this jam is still firmly grounded in DWD territory, not devolving into space like a lot of 99-00 jams. Mike is really the all star of this jam, interesting to have such a long jam where Trey kind of backs off a bit. About 21 minutes in, Trey comes roaring back with some power chords (note: I am not a guitarist, may not actually be power chords). Trey takes it back to the main DWD riff and sings the closing lyrics to finish what must the best type I Disease ever at about 24 minutes. Some spacey noodling closes out DWD, and then a big downbeat begins Heavy Things. After the improvisational heavy lifting in DWD, I'm sure the lightness of Heavy Things was a welcome respite for the band. SOAMelt kicked off with the promise of another epic jam, but was just a very tight raging typical version. Bike was so great to hear at the show, one of my all time favorite Fishman tunes and I thought I would never get a chance to hear it. Fun band intros just before the vacuum solo. 2001 follows, in kind of an odd placement, but well played nonetheless. The Mike's that follows is a huge surprise, I recall being excited at the time because it meant at least 2 more songs to follow in a set that was already pretty awesome. Hydrogen signaled an old-school Mike's Groove was in store, and was played beautifully. A fiery Weekapaug closed out the set. Great machine gun Trey here as kind of a throwback to the early 90s. Coil encore closed things out nicely.

Highlights from Set II: DWD!!!!, Bike. The entire set is a blast, really.

Show rating: 6 (standard 1st set, but a great DWD lifts it above average)

Well unfortunately I don’t have much to say about the 1st set (aside from some interesting improv in Wilson). I found it rather boring.

The 2nd set opens with a blistering Disease. Trey shreds his way out for about 9 minutes before settling down into an uptempo funk jam. Normally this would give way to space/loops/mini-keyboard but instead Trey ops to guide the jam back to a shredding finale. Spacey loops abound out of Disease and then... Heavy Things! The drop made me laugh out loud. Good cool down with melodic playing. SOAMelt gets the job done with some nice tension from Trey but not super memorable. Then some silliness from Fish claiming “I know like 2 songs anyway” followed by the vacuum solo. 2001 is fairly standard but good nonetheless. Mike’s is above average but nothing to write home about despite the jam chart mention. A well played Hydrogen leads into a standard Paug for the set closer. Coil of course might be the greatest encore song ever.

Not much to say about this show in general. Just not very memorable outside of Disease. I think this is what is meant when complaints are leveled at 2000. Blandness. Not god-awful like 2004 but very forgettable. That being said the next show would be an all timer!

Decent show. The first night at Great Woods is probably more interesting, and certainly Darien Lake two nights later towers over this one.

Still…that’s a different kind of Wilson to close set 1, Disease has some, I repeat some, of the same flavor as Darien’s Drowned jam, Split is worth a listen and come on, even if there’s little to no jamming, are you telling me that a Mike’s Groove to end the show and a Squirming Coil encore aren’t welcome?