April 03, 2021

Surprisingly great show with an overall casual, having-fun air to it. This leans more in a conventional jam band direction to my ears, but there are still some quality untz moments. "Finger sandwich" shows like this are often pretty quality, in my opinion. The first, SOTW>Abraxas>SOTW definitely sets the mood. The funk jam out of SOTW has a little bit of a swing to it, which was a little uncharacteristic. Similarly, the Abraxas takes even more of a Caribbean tone than usual. Very fun! The second finger sandwich is even better, with a patiently building Basis that dumps into Humu in a most schizoid fashion before retreating into the duntzgeon.

Huge Jigsaws are always such a gamble for me. It's either beautiful proggy jamming or tedious wankery. Thankfully, this is much more the former. Barber's in complete control, knowing exactly when to go aggro and when to be spare and gossamer. Magz shores him up with some tasteful washes and melodic lines of his own. The Waves framing either side of the jam are blistering and competent if not exactly super far out of the box; I actually think this keeps the Jigsaw appropriately grounded. The Miles jam between Set 2's finger sandwiches is such a fun little throwaway that also hints at the general levity. The second set runs out of steam a little bit after this, with a DTTB>Anthem>DTTB sandwich that largely goes down smooth but feels a bit anonymous. Same with the Rock Candy.

There's hardly a passage in this show that sucks even if there's a little autopiloting toward the end. I'd say this is 4 and a half stars. The kind of nonchalant confidence you'd hear in a '77 Dead show.

This is a hot show!!

First set consists of 2 sandwiches. Story/abraxas has always shown to be paired well together. This one is no different. Very clean story that drops into the fire of inverted abraxas. Basis/humu is the highlite of set 1 tho. Gets nasty hea with some serious trance grooves and barber straight shredding throughout.

Set 2 gives us 2 more sandwiches and some extras. All starting with the shelved donde. Waves/inverted jigsaw is crazy and the longest segment of this set. They go deep and take us for a wild ride with these gems, since it’s traditionally two of the more complexed jammed out songs in their repertoire. Next they throw a little miles jazz improv for show. Lets you know the true range of this band to mix up styles. Then back to business with the last sandwich of DTTB/anthem. They really developing these new instrumentals and anthem seems to be getting better each time they play it. Taking it to new heights and finding songs that mesh well with it. Stand alone RC ends the set always a fan fav.

Portal stand alone encore cuz they like to do it like dat !