The ninth BD show shares a lot of DNA with the eighth. Again, the first set is heavily (surprisingly) song-based, while all the magic happens in the second set. This time around, though, there's a lot more magic than in the past few shows.
I actually don't have a lot to say about the first set. I really enjoyed Trey's Jimi-fied take on "O Canada" to start the show. I liked hearing "Guelah" and Page inserting "Maple Leaf Rag" into it (even if it came after an awkward few seconds of silence instead of as a true segue). Sure, some of the other songs are nice rarities, and Trey ended the set in shreddy fashion with "Walk Away," but this is another of those sets that just doesn't have that special feeling that so many of the opening frames had earlier on in the run. Maybe it's just the no repeats gimmick necessarily resulting in some stilted setlists? YMMV.
The second set, however, is a monster. "Golden Age" is the twenty-minute jam of the night, and it explores a few spaces: what I'm affectionately calling "new plinko," a mellow, melodic groove, and a darker 2.0-like space that recalls the "Drowned" from the previous show. There have definitely been jams during the BD that I've liked better, but during a normal tour, this would be in the absolute upper echelon.
From there, a slightly extended take on "Leaves" serves as our cooldown tune before we jump into the real meat of the set.
Yep, that twenty minute "Golden Age" was sort of the warm up.
What we have next is a "Swept Away" > "Steep" sequence that sees "Steep" get built out into a shrieking Type II blues jam, a "46 Days" that sandwiches perhaps the best instrument switching jam thus far in the midst of a solid Type II jam (with regular instrumentation), a "Piper" that eases into yet another darker, abstract space like those the band has been so fond of lately, and a tension-heavy, high-energy "Possum" to wrap the whole thing up.
In short, there's not a note wasted in this second set, unless you have absolutely no soul and hate "Leaves." It's really good, and the improvisation is notably unique in the three songs post-"Leaves."
My gripes about the first set's arrangement aside, this second set really deserves a full listen.
The Live Review:
8/1/17: O Canada a capella opener.
8/1/17: Nevermind. Not a capella. Played solo(ish) by Trey a la Jimi's Star Spangled Banner.
8/1/17: Into Crowd Control.
8/1/17: Nice little Type I jam coming out Crowd Control here.
8/1/17: Hopefully that Crowd Control solo got Trey warmed up for Sugar Shack!
8/1/17: When the Circus Comes next.
8/1/17: Daniel Saw the Stone!
8/1/17: Army of One! Man, this set is a bit disjointed, but I'm loving the rarities that they're pulling out.
8/1/17: The Wedge.
8/1/17: Starting to feel as if the BD is separating into two halves (or thirds?)...
8/1/17: ...the first five shows were really well-constructed, quality shows back-to-front, while the following four shows at least...
8/1/17: ...have been more in the vein of the 'typical' great 3.0 show: mix of short tunes in S1, big jams in the 3rd qt, jukebox ending.
8/1/17: I still really appreciate the commitment to the no repeats gimmick, and the jamming when it happens is absolutely top-shelf...
8/1/17: ...it's just that everything post 7/26 has felt a lot less well-constructed and 'special' for lack of a better word.
8/1/17: Maybe I've just been spoiled. This is still my favorite tour since ever.
8/1/17: Guelah Papyrus.
8/1/17: Page sandwiching some Maple Leaf Rag in the middle of Guelah.
8/1/17: They go back and finish Guelah after the Maple Leaf Rag break. Now, McGrupp.
8/1/17: It seems like they've been playing McGrupp more often lately...maybe? I wouldn't mind that at all :)
8/1/17: Trey throwing some echo chording in behind Page's jazz solo in McGrupp. That's interesting.
8/1/17: Fun take on McGrupp. LxL next.
8/1/17: Great build in that Type I LxL jam.
8/1/17: Walk Away!
8/1/17: Trey is taking Walk Away to town.
8/1/17: End set.
8/1/17: Set two starts with Golden Age. That's gotta be good, right?
8/1/17: I'm gonna go on record as saying hearing Trey try to get through Golden Age is worse, every time, than him playing Sugar Shack.
8/1/17: Page on clav almost right away going into the jam. Early almost-plinko feel.
8/1/17: Band doing a great job of staying in this toned-down space, exploring thoroughly.
8/1/17: Got a 2.0 feeling going here, similar to 7/30's Drowned.
8/1/17: Great additions on the synth from Page.
8/1/17: Trey building in intensity, working toward one of those loop-based sort-of peaks.
8/1/17: Shuffling little wind-down from Fish at the end of that peak. Now some ambient growling in addition.
8/1/17: Lands in Leaves. I've been really digging this song lately.
8/1/17: Love the back-and-forth vocals between Trey and Page.
8/1/17: Leaves outro jam getting extended a bit here.
8/1/17: Second time around for the 'Breathe' refrain.
8/1/17: Swept Away > Steep.
8/1/17: Mike leading a spacey extension on the Steep jam.
8/1/17: An almost reggae-style jam coming out of the drone.
8/1/17: Steep now developing into a great blues jam.
8/1/17: Trey turning this into a 46 Days jam, now.
8/1/17: Huh. > 46 Days. Great minds, I guess.
8/1/17: Type II Steep ftw, btw.
8/1/17: Rather than continuing the same jam direction, 46 Days almost immediately goes quiet after the lyrics.
8/1/17: Instrument switching! First time for the BD, I think?
8/1/17: Neat jam. Trey on marimba I think, and some extra percussion happening.
8/1/17: After everyone returns to their standard instruments, they continue the flow of the percussion jam. Really cool.
8/1/17: > Piper
8/1/17: Really propulsive beginning to the Piper jam.
8/1/17: Things getting murky and chunky now. Page laying down some creepy runs on the organ.
8/1/17: Really eerie tones from Mike's bass now.
8/1/17: Trey singing the 46 Days chorus over the Piper jam.
8/1/17: I've really enjoyed what they've been doing with Possum lately. This version and the Dick's version are both full of crazy tension.
8/1/17: S2 ends with that raucous Possum.
8/1/17: Great set two. Weirdly at odds with S1.
8/1/17: Oddly enough, the least interesting jam in that set was the twenty minute one :)
8/1/17: Encore is Rock and Roll Suicide
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