Well, 12/4 is the show I've been waiting for since fall tour began. I guess.
My complaint throughout, other than that the shows just haven't been as good as summer '09 by pretty much any metric, has been that there haven't been any real "full" shows. That is, there have definitely been a lot of good single jams, and a few really good second sets (11/20 and 11/28, as I've mentioned before). But there haven't been any shows that have been consistently good throughout, let alone consistently great or consistently amazing. The third show of the MSG run, and the penultimate show of the entire tour, falls into the "consistently good" category.
The show starts with a rare "Heavy Things" opener that, despite the lack of a guitar loop, is an above-average version thanks to an excellent solo from Trey. "Possum," "Wilson," and "KDF" continue in a similar vein, and it quickly becomes clear that this is one of those shows that, for better or worse, is going to be Trey-centric. None of these first few songs are anything special on their own, but it's a four-song sustained peak of energy to open the show, which we haven't seen for awhile.
The first real bright spot for me in the first set is hearing "Glide." Trey butchers the rarity a bit, but hey, it's "Glide," so who cares? It's a fun song that manages to keep the momentum going while introducing some novelty. "46 Days" is a guitar assault that picks up right where "KDF" left off, and "Bouncin'" is another low-tempo but cleverly-placed song that segues into "Reba." This "Reba" is a weird one. The composed section is well-played, and the jam is yet more Trey-fire, but it's surprisingly short. At 10:33, in fact, it's one of the shortest "Reba"s I've listened to. It's sort of a novelty in the sense that you rarely hear a "Reba" jam that is this straightforwardly and unabashedly rocked-out, but it's not going to be on your "best-of" list by any means.
"Dinner and a Movie" is another nice rarity, though it seems cut a bit short, and "Guyute," with its extra-grungy and distorted ending would make for a great closer on a well-constructed, high-energy set...if the set actually ended there. Instead, we get a "Maze" featuring some extra-dissonant chording from Trey over a staccato-heavy Page solo and a "First Tube" that's surprisingly slow, muddy, and loud.
"Scents and Subtle Sounds" is, fairly or not, inextricably linked in my mind to Phish 2.0 space jamming. I know, logically, that there will probably never be another "Scents" jam like those again, but whenever the song starts up these days, I can't help but get my hopes up. That was definitely the case here, as the song kicked off the last set at MSG '09. But no joy. Or rather, a little joy: it's always nice to hear "Scents," but this seven-minute version is nothing but Type 1 Trey-action. The "Rock and Roll" jam starts off the same way, but then moves into more interesting territory, with Mike taking a melodic lead on bass while Trey, flashing back to "Maze," adds some more arrhythmic chording in an "ASIHTOS"-like guitar tone. This evolves into a rolling, burbling jam space that recalls the "Light" from 12/2 but doesn't last nearly as long; however, it ends with a great segue into "Seven Below."
After some standard Type 1 action after the song proper, the jam winds down into a quiet space at around the 7:00 mark. Trey and Page play off each other to beautiful effect, and then we move back into more sinister, distorted territory at 9:00. Trey kicks off another great segue into "Twist" from here, and the "Twist" jam immediately goes funky. It's a unusual direction for the song nowadays, but it works. That is, until Trey decides to build a tension-and-release solo into the proceedings. This goes a bit awry, but the band recovers immediately by launching into "Mike's."
The "Mike's" is definitely a 3.0 version, but it's a really good 3.0 version. The Trey-shredding that carried a lot of the first set is back in full effect here, and it's excellent. The rest of the Groove is pretty standard, and then again we get what seems like a set-closer in "The Horse" > "Silent," but then "YEM" kicks off.
And man, what a "YEM" this is. The composed section rolls along with a level of energy that sounds more like it's from the first hour of a show instead of the third. The jam kicks off with a really oddly ethereal-sounding funk section that recalls "Shafty" at one point. Then we move into a great plinko section before Trey rips loose with one final, skull-crushing guitar solo. After the solo, the entire band slides back into the plinko space as slickly as if it was pre-planned. Just amazing stuff, and precise on a level that really should be heard to be appreciated. "Shine A Light" is a great way to wrap up the run, and after an especially good "YEM" and a well-built, energetic show all the way around, it left me feeling like the entire run had been better than it actually is. Which I guess is a convoluted way of saying that I really enjoyed MSG III, though I wouldn't go so far to call it a great show. At the same time, I think it goes a long way toward redeeming this spotty, mostly lackluster run and gives me high hopes for the tour closing show in Charlottesville. Roll on!
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