On Sunday morning, I got up bright and early to run 20 miles from the Cherry Hill Mall, through East Camden and Camden, over the Ben Franklin Bridge into Philadelphia, through downtown Philly, up the steps of the art museum (like Rocky!) and back again. I conked out pretty hard in the 14th mile, struggling to the end, but I hope I can blame that on the hot, sunny morning and the fact that I was tired from dancing all night, rather than a deficiency in my fitness level.
The general consensus about the 6/30 show follows suit with the "never miss a Sunday show" rule (as already evidenced this tour with the previous two Sundays - 6/23 at Merriweather Post Pavilion and 6/16 at Bonnaroo). Most people I spoke to and overheard after the show said it was the best of the three Camden shows.
I disagree. There's no doubt that some great things happened this past Sunday, but for my money, Saturday ruled the Camden weekend.
The main problem was execution. As I noted yesterday, playing the songs well still matters to me and that was not happening during the first set. "The Curtain With" opener was slow, sloppy and lacking any energy whatsoever. Not much better can be said for "Buried Alive", "Camel Walk", "Pebbles and Marbles" and "The Mango Song" (all of which I was admittedly extremely happy to hear, regardless of uninspired playing). That's not to say the set was a total mess. "Fast Enough for You", "Tela" and "Driver" kept the slow stuff pretty, "Reba" showed that they could nail the intricate composed parts if they really try, and "Sample in a Jar" brought some big energy that was lacking elsewhere in the set. The set-closing "David Bowie" was effective enough, but nothing about which to write home.
With the exception of "Pebbles", the first set could have been from 1993, and a comparatively lame one at that.
Thankfully, the second set rebounded in a big way - enough for folks to forget the first half and deem this show a winner.
It is easy to see why with three huge jams - the fifth-ever "Mr. Completely" to open the set, followed by the longest-ever and most varied "Twenty Years Later" jam that was a total contrast to some of the plodding versions of the decade and the trippy psychedelic version from Albany on 10/16/2018, and after a brief excursion into "Big Black Furry Creature From Mars", a tight "Tweezer" that got some more serious jamming in during its relatively short 13 minutes. My favorite 3.0 ballad "Shade" got me all gooey, but "Most Events Aren't Plannned" (pilfered from Page McConnell's band Vida Blue during 2017's Baker's Dozen and played for the fourth time since) got the dancing shoes moving again. Once they got their white-boy reggae out of the way with "Makisupa Policeman", the powerful one-two punch of an excellently executed "Chalk Dust Torture" that stayed grounded yet raging and "Suzy Greenberg" that probably would have sounded even better if Page's piano was higher in the mix (a constant problem throughout the weekend), but was still awesome and rocking.
A three song encore put the button on the Camden run of shows, with the surprise selections of "Punch You in the Eye" and a gorgeous "What's the Use" (which got ever so quiet) before the surprising lack of "Tweezer Reprise", eschewed for one of the better versions of "Julius" I have heard in a while - slow, yes, but swinging hard.
It was a fantastic second set and encore, indeed, making the show well worth the price of admission and making up for the flat first set, but not enough to change my mind that 6/29 was the champion of the Camden weekend.
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