It's perhaps to be expected, but still a bit of a bummer, that after such a great run as the three-night stand at Randall's, the band would turn around and drop a show straight out of '09 or early '10 on us. That's basically what CMAC boils down to for me.
Oh, you know what I mean. Well-played first set, with a surprise opener ("Buried Alive"), a few very well-shredded but strictly-Type-I jams ("Twist," "Gin"), a composed classic ("Divided Sky") and just enough improvisation to forcibly remind you what's missing ("Wombat").
Then there's the second set that features one big, opening jam ("Disease") that gets aborted just as it's going really deep for a song nobody really likes to hear in a second set except, apparently, Trey ("Back On the Train"). The rest of the second set then proceeds to play out like a normal first set, except they close with "Antelope" so that everyone can throw in some "Fuego" teases and make it feel like something more than one 20-minute chunk of the show was interesting.
Oh, I'm not really upset about this. The guys have delivered in spades every show since 7/1 (hell, since pretty much 7/26/13, for my money), so they're allowed to have an off day. Just so you know, you're not really missing anything from this show if you just watch this video and then move on with your life.
The Live Review:
7/15/14: Well, a Buried Alive opener is always a great start :)
7/15/14: Twist in the 2 slot. A solid little jam for this early in the show, even if it's not as weird as some of the other recent Twists.
7/15/14: Heavy Thangs.
7/15/14: Page taking a turn on the organ while Trey chords. Neat!
7/15/14: Trey is just begging to rip into 555. Someday, perhaps.
7/15/14: On the other hand, when he misses with the harmony (as he's doing now), he sounds like a guy falling down a cliff really slowly.
7/15/14: Halley's! Great S1 so far, with Page's organ solo and Twist jam to mix things up a little.
7/15/14: End of short Halley's B> Gin.
7/15/14: Wow, so they just SLAYED this Gin. Not in the uber-awesome category of the Randall's version, but worth a mention.
7/15/14: Wingsuit. Great setlist call.
7/15/14: DSky! The one thing missing from the Dick's run. But that's what fall is for, I guess :)
7/15/14: Trey doing some really fascinating chording here in the outro to DSky.
7/15/14: WOMBEAT
7/15/14: Great little bass-and-loops-and-clav jam going here.
7/15/14: Pretty average Bowie to close a pretty excellent S1.
7/15/14: DwD kicks off S2. Opens w/ Pop Goes the Weasel tease, then some standard Type I jamming. Trey starting to work in some loops.
7/15/14: Things getting a little spacier now. Page on electric piano.
7/15/14: Stays really spacey, but Fishman keeps it driving. Usually a stickler for jams needing to 'go somewhere,' but I like this.
7/15/14: Now Trey adding some melody.
7/15/14: Mike pushes 'em into a funk space.
7/15/14: Trey is using his new 'just play chords' jam style to great effect here.
7/15/14: Were headed into a really arrhythmic space when > BOTT.
7/15/14: Sounded like they were going somewhere interesting, but those spaces usually just end in circling the drain, honestly.
7/15/14: The necessity of the ripcord is estimated to have been ~ 63%!
7/15/14: BOTT is being played at approximately 14 times its usual tempo.
7/15/14: Ooh, they wrangled a pretty great BOTT -> NICU segue out of that!
7/15/14: Long, great Type I Jibboo to follow up. Next, Theme.
7/15/14: MEATSTACK
7/15/14: Standard Meatstick > Fuego.
7/15/14: Just a little noodling at the end of Fuego, no full-blown jam. I like when they play the album version outro live, though.
7/15/14: The Wedge. Why the hell has The Wedge become such a second set song this year?! I don't mind, it's just weird.
7/15/14: Standard Wedge also, > Antelope.
7/15/14: Lots of Fuego teases in this Antelope. Quiet breakdown at the beginning of the middle section. Slow building, now.
7/15/14: Nice close, still heavy on the Fuego teases and a 'Diego' mention in the lyrics.
7/15/14: Aaaaaaand...Zero'd.
7/15/14: I can see now why people were frustrated by this show. Super-strong first set, second set falls mostly flat.
7/15/14: Except for the Disease, which was solid though doesn't stand up to most big jams of this summer.
7/15/14: Basically, S1 with flashes of brilliance to build up hype for S2. S2 features mostly Type I jams and S1-style songs.
7/15/14: Then they finish with a brilliant, tease-heavy Antelope as if to say 'Hey, we could have jammed, but didn't feel like it!'
7/15/14: 'Oh, and have a Zero encore, in case your nuts don't feel kicked in yet!'
7/15/14: Rare show where I liked the first set better than the second. Disease was good, though. Will play that bad boy again later.
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