This first set definitely lives up to the hype. NICU and The Curtain starts the show off really strong, and it is obvious the crowd was ready to let loose. Then the face melting begins to take place. The Halleys goes way out of its normal territory and just before is comes crashing into Roses are Free, I swore I heard a tease, possibly even just a single note of Carini. The Roses carries over the energy from the Halley’s, and the NO2 with the jam at the end is a perfect period on that trio of jammed songs. Lawn Boy cools the place down for a minute, and is basically all but forgotten about once Reba kicks in. Another song with a higher than usual jam akin to the Halleys and Roses earlier. And then it happens, the Carini. Maybe I wasn’t so crazy earlier when I thought I heard a Carini tease. And as if the place couldn’t get any pumped up, this leads right into Funky Bitch. Pure energy from the get-go with this set, and easily the finest of the year to this point.
Second set starts off with a very funky Wolfmans, pretty high tempo throughout until the end when it starts to get quite spacey and leads nicely into Piper. Love me a Piper that has the slow build up, and this one did not disappoint. More of the same high energy playing which is a major theme this show, and the jam reached a peak which I would describe as chaotic. Reminded me of Stash’s from 94-95. They quickly hit the brakes and went into Bug which brought the energy down, but the song was performed really well. Another cool down with Mist, before launching into Antelope. Not too much to be said about this one, pretty straight forward rock n roll, I was hoping for a bit more after the Bug>Mist combo. Same thing with the Possum, even with the guest it just never got incredibly interesting. Tuesdays Gone encore was excellent, if a bit sloppy. A nice period on this two night stand that started off with Foreplay>Longtime.
First set makes this show the best of 99. The train keeps on rollin’.
