, attached to 2017-07-26

Review by n00b100

n00b100 Coming on the heels of a benchmark show in the band's history, you had to wonder what the band would have left in the tank after a Jam-Filled excursion into the beyond. Let's find out, shall we?

Set 1: After a pleasingly austere start with White Winter Hymnal, the band settles more into what we consider a "typical" first set (sadly, no half-hour improvisation out of My Soul), but there's two highlights worth speaking of here - and I'm not just talking the Pebbles and Marbles bustout - that help give this set an extra kick in the pants. The first comes in, of all things, The Very Long Fuse, as Trey apparently loses the thread a little bit, allowing for the band to vamp a nice extended groove before returning home. The second comes in an absolutely wonderful Tube, one of the finest ever played; I'd say the fine fellow that cranked out the jam chart entry described the Tube pretty well, so go give it a listen, won't you?

Set 2: Carini opens the proceedings and continues the 3.0 stalwart's march back to the spotlight after receding a bit after 2014 with a jam entirely deserving of the cute little .net setlist headphones. The band makes a nifty turn to major key about halfway through the proceedings, Trey and Page working well together as Fish bashes away with some tasty fills. The jam seems to maneuver towards darker waters, then slides into an offbeat groove as Page teases either Halfway to the Moon or Beatles song If I Fell as Trey moves to chords and Mike pushes to the forefront. Fish suddenly kicks into a tasty beat and things gets icy and weird (that's all Page, baby), and then with a wink and nod we move into Mr. Completely via a gin-u-wine segue. This Mr. Completely eschews the massive super-hose of Pittsburgh's version, instead maneuvering into a fun weird groove with Trey playing with the main theme and Page tinkling the ivories, before they head to a nifty peak and bring the jam to a close.

Then, entirely out of nowhere (it has nothing to do with the donut theme, right?), 1999 makes its return, and a somewhat sloppy version is redeemed by a wonderful jam that touches briefly on dark weirdness before Trey pushes for a new key (almost Mr. Completely-esque) and the band gins up an absolutely killer anthemic jam, Trey ripping it up with Mike burbling happily away and Page hammering the keys as Fish sprouts those handy extra arms of his to really hit a new level. They segue neatly into Steam, and this Steam is wonderfully dark and weird, a nice way to offset all the bliss and major key of the rest of the set (I again turn your attention to the jam chart entry; a different fantastic fellow wrote that one, though), before giving way to another shot of darkness with No Quarter. Character Zero would be a nice capper to a gigantic set...but instead it's a tremendous capper to a gigantic set, thanks to Trey bringing the band on down behind him, boys, leading to a 12/29/03 Free / 8/3/14 Hood- esque duet between him and Mike before casually heading back to the Zero we all know and love. All in all, one of the finest sets of the modern era, and Powderfinger is an awesome encore to the show.

Final thoughts: The second half to one of the greatest back-to-back-show duos of this or any era. This is the sort of download you pull off the "percent of cents" scam in Office Space to buy.


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