The Verdict:
Night two at Dick's falls short of the heights of night one, mainly because of the disposable nature of the first set. In a year where many first sets have been don't-miss affairs, and most others have at least offered up compelling versions of expected songs, this one falls pretty flat. The one enormous exception is the angry, droning, personal favorite version of "Split Open and Melt," which is likely the highlight of the show. The solos in the two tunes that follow it, "Limb By Limb" and "Roggae," parallel each other in some neat ways, but neither one is a legit highlight. I haven't said this often during this tour, but for this first set, you'd be fine to just skip everything but the "Split."
At first glance, the second set really seems to center on the "Chalkdust," but there's actually much more
going on here. "ASIHTOS," like many of the proto-jams from night one, seems to be ready to open the set with a deep jam, as Trey and company get mellow and weird with it right off the bat; however, nothing happens after three minutes or so of noodling, and they bail in favor of "Chalkdust."
I enjoyed this version of the tune much more the second time than I did in person: there's a lot going on, and it's all good. There's a driving echo-rock section, a great melody solo by Trey, a catchy descending progression that seems destined to drive the jam into bliss territory, they a really interesting, turn-on-a-dime lick from Trey that cuts the bliss short and drives the jam toward a more unique, dark, echo-funk conclusion. This jam definitely stands alongside the first night's "Golden Age" in terms of quality and variety. And the slow, gooey transition into "Twist" is magical.
Another "What If?" moment, here: if "Twist" goes super-deep, we have a top-shelf 2015 set. But, alas, it's not to be. The short, minimally bluesy "Twist" that happens instead is honestly pretty great, but not in the magical category a "Chalkdust" -> "Twist" monster jam would have been.
"Mercury" is next, and it gets an extended dark rock outro (which is new) before "Light" takes a short but deeply satisfying jaunt into darkness.
In case my review hasn't already driven home the notion that you shouldn't ignore the middle of this set because the song timings are shorter than you'd like, the encore offers up one of my favorite "Hood"s in a long time (and in a long line of great 2014-2015 "Hood"s) despite the fact that it's under ten minutes long and stays firmly in Type I mode the entire time. Trey and Page's interplay, and then Trey's powerfully building solo really make this version.
In short, don't sleep on the back half of this show. You'd be missing out.
Set two starts at 1:19:00:
The Live Review:
9/5/15: Finally back for Dick's 2. No Men opener.
9/5/15: Short and sweet No Men's > Martian Monster.
9/5/15: Page going a little sample-crazy here.
9/5/15: The chewing samples during MM are always a little creepy.
9/5/15: Short MM, too. > NICU.
9/5/15: Stealing Time is next. S1 is fast and sort-of furious so far. Not going for any big surprises early.
9/5/15: Bouncin' is next, followed by an extra-punchy 555.
9/5/15: Winterqueen continues a very hit-parade-style set.
Woo! https://t.co/oY1mjgqn18
9/5/15: Well, there have certainly been worse Winterqueens than that one.
9/5/15: It's like the band wants to cut lose, but they refuse to play a song that lets them really do so.
9/5/15: Split starts off typically enough, but really quickly descends into an angry, arrhythmic mess in the best way.
9/5/15: Trey bending notes into the groooooound.
9/5/15: Lurching, ominous soloing from Trey. I love this version of this song.
9/5/15: It's even better with the lights... https://t.co/P684Jg48aQ
9/5/15: Slowly working back to the Split outro now.
9/5/15: LxL is next, featuring a great solo from Trey with a bit of Trey/Page interplay near the end.
9/5/15: Roggae!
9/5/15: LxL-style solo in Roggae now. That's pretty neat. I did not notice that the first time through this show.
9/5/15: Typically great take on Roggae. Set closing with Zero.
9/5/15: First set was about as plain as they come, especially in 2015...*except* for that excellent SOAM, which is one of my favorites ever.
9/5/15: (Favorite SOAMs, I mean)
9/5/15: LxL and Roggae were both strong versions, but nothing I'd put on a highlight reel. Surprisingly plain set, all told.
9/5/15: ASIHTOS opens S2.
9/5/15: Trey going super-distorted early on in the jam.
9/5/15: A few minutes of murky jamming doesn't coalesce into anything, and Trey wraps it up. CDT next.
9/5/15: BOAF-like intro to Chalkdust. That was neat.
9/5/15: Band blows right through the end of CDT and keeps going. Trey switches on the echo almost immediately. Page to clav.
9/5/15: Echo-jamming, but it's kept different than most echo-jams so far this year by Fish's continuing driving beat.
9/5/15: Trey switching to melody now. Fish picking up the beat even more. Page to piano.
9/5/15: Bass bombs.
9/5/15: Descending three-chord progression pushing things further toward bliss-rock territory.
9/5/15: Trey just pulled a 180, pushing things back into a mellower, darker space.
9/5/15: Move into echo-funk territory now.
9/5/15: NICE segue into Twist.
9/5/15: The way that jam slowly morphed into Twist (with Trey singing the opening lines over the jam, even) was awesome.
9/5/15: Wind-down breakdown over the chorus instead of the usual chords.
9/5/15: Soft, mellow, blues jamming during this Twist.
9/5/15: Fish mixing up the beat now.
9/5/15: Rather than propelling the jam, that shift in beat seems to have killed it. Fading out, > Mercury.
9/5/15: Love Mercury. I hope there's a studio version coming in the near future.
9/5/15: This version gets an extended, dark rock outro tacked onto it.
9/5/15: Page moves over to the organ, but Trey starts up Light instead.
9/5/15: First few minutes of the jam here are the usual arpeggios.
9/5/15: Shifting to distorted chording at about 6:00.
9/5/15: Page with some jazzy stylings on the electric piano. Very 2001-sounding, with angry chords crashing over it.
9/5/15: Distortion getting less angry and more spacey. Page continues his 2001-esque playing.
9/5/15: Jam winds down and makes a nice transition into Wingsuit.
9/5/15: Rock and Roll is a neat call here.
9/5/15: This Rock and Roll jam is pretty much guitar-shredding madness immediately. Wow.
9/5/15: Page: 'Thank you, dicks. All of you.'
9/5/15: Sleeping Monkey.
9/5/15: Monkey > Hood.
9/5/15: Got distracted, sorry. Back for Hood.
9/5/15: Really, really gorgeous interplay between Trey and Page to start this jam.
9/5/15: Great ending, with Page-only piano -> Day In the Life.
9/5/15: That is the first sub-10-minute Hood I've heard in a LONG time, and yet it was fantastic. That solo. Wow.
9/5/15: https://t.co/rHIgPadXGr
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