In the midst of the Riverbend show, the band hits a groove they've been sort of stumbling around outside of since...DCU, maybe? The tour opener? I dunno. All I know is that I like this show a lot.
For the first few songs, the band has some trouble finding its collective rhythm; on the other hand, in terms of song choice and energy they come out of the gates blazing and never really let up. "Wolfman's" > "Peaches" is just a great pairing, and the "Shaggy Dog" > "Jim" > "Light Up..." > "Wilson" sequence just keeps things rolling. "Light Up Or Leave Me Alone" in particular features Trey absolutely throwing down as the brief take morphs into a Type II jam.
After the breather that is "Alaska," the rest of the set proceeds with a series of rare tunes instigated by Fish and Trey trying to think of songs that start with Fish's drums before closing things with an extended but somewhat wandering "Bowie."
Set two is a frustrating, stop-start affair that nonetheless hints at improvisational brilliance at a number of points. Of course, the most frustrating ripcords are the ones that abort promising jams. And that happens a lot here.
"Disease" starts off with a beautifully propulsive jam that develops into something mellower just before getting aborted for "Guelah." A "KDF" with an ambient ending sets up a gorgeous "Twist" jam that starts dark and then modulates into a proto-2015-bliss jam before sputtering and getting cut in favor of "Halley's."
"Sand" finds a rock-solid groove but then crashes awkwardly into "Roggae" instead of continuing to explore it. And, finally, "Carini" launches into a deconstruction-style jam...that is quickly "resolved" by another car-crash segue into "Chalkdust."
Overall, these hints at improvisational brilliance are more satisfying than a show like 6/19's straightforwardness...it's just frustrating to see them get cut short one after another, and in such obvious out-of-sync fashion.
The Live Review:
6/22/12: Cincinnati show kicks off with Wolfman's Brother.
6/22/12: Nice, clav-led groove established early on.
6/22/12: Some deft soloing from Trey makes that a great take on Wolfman's to open the show. > Peaches.
6/22/12: Shaggy Dog!
6/22/12: > Jim. Band sounding oddly out of sync on a few songs so far.
6/22/12: Page was off time a bit for a chunk of Peaches, and now everyone's struggling with Jim.
6/22/12: Syncing up a bit better as the song goes on.
6/22/12: Some more fantastic playing from Trey as the band works Jim up to a boil.
6/22/12: Timing issues aside, this is a heck of a way to open a set, especially for 2012.
6/22/12: Light Up Or Leave Me Alone!
6/22/12: Light Up pretty much immediately morphs into a pretty Type II jam. Wow.
6/22/12: Page laying down a great canvas with the electric piano.
6/22/12: On-a-dime > Wilson.
6/22/12: Alaska.
6/22/12: Particularly languid jam in Alaska. So languid that I apparently stopped listening for like 90 minutes.
6/22/12: Stash is next.
6/22/12: Nice little tension section in the middle of Stash there.
6/22/12: After Stash, a false start on what sounds like it was supposed to be Poor Heart.
6/22/12: Now Trey starts up Moma Dance then stops it, apparently to give Fishman shit.
6/22/12: Fishman starts with Llama, and the rest of the band (messily) jumps in.
6/22/12: 'Another one that starts with the drums' is Buffalo Bill.
6/22/12: Streak of drum-led songs continues with Saw It Again.
6/22/12: Streak continues yet further with Bowie, possibly to close the set.
6/22/12: Bowie is being played well, but is wandering a bit in the middle. Band picking up the intensity a bit at a… https://t.co/HQQdOxC1zr
6/22/12: End set.
6/22/12: That set was a great mix of Type I jams and a lot of neat rarities. Felt like a quintessential summer lawn opening set.
6/22/12: Set two starts with Disease.
6/22/12: Trey kicks off the Disease jam with a great lick and then a bunch of awesome building guitar work. Damn.
6/22/12: Bass-led section now. Mellowing out a little.
6/22/12: Jam gets oddly cut by Guelah Papyrus.
6/22/12: KDF after Guelah.
6/22/12: Standard KDF ends with a nonstandard (though brief) loops-and-noise jam. > Twist.
6/22/12: Twist gets weird almost right away. That's a good sign.
6/22/12: Band still dancing around the song's main progression, but doing so in really interesting ways.
6/22/12: Page's organ signals the end of Type I. Trey now mirroring his own riff using loops.
6/22/12: Really dark jam unfolding now.
6/22/12: Dark jam building up to a poppy chord progression...holy shit did we just time travel to 2015?!
6/22/12: Great jam. Fizzled kind of suddenly. Halley's next.
6/22/12: Nice, quick Halley's > Sand segue.
6/22/12: Solid funk groove happening here.
6/22/12: Plinko-leaning now.
6/22/12: I've neglected to mention just how nuts Fishman has been during this show. Destroying Sand right now.
6/22/12: Trey hijacks the Sand groove for a sort-of -> Roggae.
6/22/12: So, as I'm often saying about these mid-3.0 shows: great segue, but also there was literally nothing wrong… https://t.co/RsAnPhgoiY
6/22/12: Carini after Roggae is a weird choice.
6/22/12: Carini jam getting a little out of sync...
6/22/12: Awkwardness is 'resolved' by a really sudden move into Chalkdust. Huh.
6/22/12: Looks like Golgi will round out set two.
6/22/12: Great run of songs in the second set by 2012 standards. Some interesting bits of improvisation here and th… https://t.co/zDFNVprkj4
6/22/12: Show would likely get ripped apart these days, though, for the ripcord out of Disease, the aborted ambient… https://t.co/VeTCUcPx2g
6/22/12: If you prefer to see those as segues, then it's a much better set :)
6/22/12: Fluffhead encore doesn't hurt, either.
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