A rare "Cavern" opener got things going in an interesting way, especially with Trey cracking himself up while playing with his octave effect during the little solo sections. He returned to that effect several times throughout the night, so it became kind of a theme of the show.
The rest of the first set was good stuff, with nothing getting too out there - "Blaze On," "555" and "Martian Monster" served their purpose of getting the evening off to a fun start with totally danceable grooves. I even got off the couch a few times to shake my booty.
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As with the previous night's "Bouncing", "Heavy Things" seemed very up and energetic, and while "I Always Wanted It This Way" also had a sprightly tempo, it did not seem to hang right until the extended jam (which was decent). Though Gloria declared a potty-break for "Ocelot", I stayed with it and intently listened to the interplay (and then complete lack thereof) during the jam. It was amazing how, when jamming on one or two chords, Mike, Trey and Page can all solo, yet the whole thing can still gel. Mike was especially doing some tasty licks. Speaking of Mike, "Destiny Unbound" - once one of those holy grails of rare songs you never get to hear - is now in semi-regular rotation, and that's not a bad thing. "Walls of the Cave" was the set-ender, and while the burst from the pregnant F# into the B was not as huge as I like it, the climactic jam was pretty darn impressive.
You never know when the big jams are going to come...and when they are not. In set two, "Sand" was relatively compact (and well executed) and so was "Simple" (a little looser), but the latter made sense because, really, how can they attempt to match the two amazing summer versions that are still fresh in the phans' minds?
It was "Chalk Dust Torture" that provided the top jam of the night, with a blissed out jam that very much recalled the classic 7/10/99 version in Camden (I was there for that one!). As with last night, the big jams were back-to-back, this time with a fantastic "Ghost", which had a brief I-vi jam that was quite enjoyable.
"Backwards Down the Number Line" can often be perfunctory, but it held up nicely in the presence of the set's heavies. And then there was "Split Open and Melt". You can read about my bugaboos with this song in previous posts, but I think I have found out one of the main reasons why the dark jams that come out of "Melt" do not seem right, when the same kind of jam coming out of, say, "Carini" registers high on my awesome meter - the problem is that they retreat to it too quickly. There is no time to dance in the jam section of "Melt" anymore. They do a few choruses, spend a few measures hitting that characteristic 9/8 and then plunge the damn thing into oblivion. It is one of the only two songs that really make me pine for the old days.
So, when that ends the set, the encore better be awesome. Well, we got "Julius", which is the other song that makes me pine for the energy of the old days. This one was more upbeat that previous clunkers I have seen in 3.0, though, with Page especially swinging it on the piano.
This show was worth it on the strength of that "Chalk Dust > Ghost" alone, but Dec. 28 is still the winner so far.
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