May 07, 2022

I listened to this show since Mr. Zan ranked the first set pretty highly in his Best of '22 list and I've been revisiting some 2022 shows to see how they compare to this year now that it's almost over. I came away with the opposite conclusion that he did. The first set is just above average, but the second set bangs hard.

Story>Running>Bombs>Story contains some pretty cool moments, for sure. However, there's a lot of filler and treading water in between. The transition from Story to Running is great, and Bombs is probably the best segment from a consistency standpoint. A lot of the rest was a little too plodding for me, and I am usually someone who likes a well-placed midtempo jam! I actually loved the very brief jam in Shelby and wish that could've gotten some more airtime. The standalone Jigsaw was incredibly aimless and dull, sucking the air out of the end of the first set.

Aquatic Ape is usually a deeply annoying song to me, but the d&b jam caught my interest. M1>Orch>M1 is the pinnacle of this show, though. Whereas the first set felt like it took a whole lot of time to go nowhere, this sequence rewards patience. Orch Theme explores a lot of ideas, but it never sounds desperate or uninspired as it floats from concept to concept. The ramp back up into M1 is top shelf stuff. 4th of July feels like such a placeholder any time it pops into a setlist, but it's kept mercifully short this time. The concluding Basis isn't quite as revelatory as what came before, but it's a nice cap-off.

I'd give this show a 3.75 that I'm rounding up to a 4. It's a bit better than average, but there's a not-insignificant amount of fluff that drags down the score. Definitely not sure why the first set was so highly ranked.