Well, after the nuclear detonation that was the second set of 11/28, fall tour '09 has mostly settled back into its "groove," a jukebox-style approach to the band's catalog that I described earlier today on Twitter as "aggressively underwhelming." It's not that there's anything wrong with the band taking a fun, by-the-book victory lap at the end of their comeback tour, of course. As I've said before, I'm sure if I'd been in attendance for these shows, I'd have been perfectly happy with most of this fall tour. But on tape, four years later, and especially just after fall tour '13, it's hard to listen to this much "just-so"-ness.
Anyway, 12/2 is the first show of three at the Garden, pre-NYE for once. With that in mind, Trey comes out of the gates blazing...or at least trying to blaze. All three of the first trio of songs end in peak-y, trilling madness, but only "Wolfman's" really carries it off at all well. The middle of the set, honestly, is just flat. Good song selection for sure, and it's good to hear a (flubby) "Peaches," but there's not much that can be said about this set beyond a neat little funk space in "Wolfman's" and a solid-but-inessential version of "Divided Sky."
I feel like I'm failing to do my due diligence as a reviewer in only giving that many words to the first set, but that's sort of the space I'm in currently with this fall tour. Hopefully there's a reason for change soon. The first half of the second set makes me hopeful, in that it features some of what made the end of summer '09 so amazing, as well as at least one really unique soundscape.
The band rips into the second set with an energetic and perfectly-played "Golgi," which is followed by a monster "Light." Now, I'm not talking Dick's '12 "monster 'Light'" here, but it's still pretty great when you consider that at this point the most abstract reading the song has gotten so far in '09 was during the Gorge run. Trey starts off the jam with some strong leads, and the band follows along until a space reminiscent of "Timber" results. This unfortunately dissolves too soon into whale-pedal theatrics, which eat up the middle section of the jam. In the last few minutes, however, things get really interesting.
There's a dark, melodic section that kicks off at around 13:00, and it seems like the guys are headed for a spacey, minimalist sound similar to the end jam of the Blossom '10 "Number Line." Instead, though, things get darker and angrier. Trey and Mike double up on a deep, burbling effect, and there might have been a guitar loop in there during this section as well. Things stay murky for a few minutes before splintering apart (in a distinctly different way than the trademark '09 Ambient Dissolve) and then reforming into "Slave." This "Slave" is a worthy follow-up to the interesting "Light," as it features a really patient build and then an interesting and perfectly executed (how often can you use that phrase to describe an '09 jam?) drone-like build to the peak. And as if that wasn't enough, we get a quick segue into "Tweezer" next!
With all the weird, complex, and downright jaw-dropping "Tweezer"s of '13, this one might seem a little simplistic by comparison. But really, it's Type 1 "Tweezer" shredding of the highest caliber, invoking some serious mid-90s Trey licks at its peak, and featuring a funky, spacey breakdown near the end that hints at a greater jam to come before "Joy" rears its pretty, but frustrating head.
The rest of the show is by the book: standard versions of admittedly well-chosen songs, especially the closing "Day In the Life"/"Tweeprise" combo. "Velvet Sea" features an interesting solo, but the song proper is badly botched by a few band members, and "Antelope" is a solid jolt of energy that nonetheless fails to compare to any of the excellent summer '09 versions.
In the end, this show's really just about the "Light" > "Slave" > "Tweezer" sequence, and everything else you've seen before. But that's really enough, at least by fall '09 standards. At this point, I'm happy to have a standard show with one major jam feature, but I don't actually know if that's because I've lowered the bar due to fall tour in general being disappointing, or because the first half of 12/2's second set is really that good. It's probably a little of both.
I suppose it doesn't actually matter because I'm moving on to 12/3 tomorrow regardless. That's the spirit!
No comments:
Post a Comment