SET 1:

Run Like an Antelope: awesome opener!!! Should be in this spot a lot more often - I understand why it rarely is because they go for easier tunes usually in the opener slot, but I’m loving the confidence of this call. Solid standard version. Crowd goes nuts at a few points.

Backwards Down the Number Line: I’m happy with this here, another unconventional placement that I can get behind. Good energy and really pretty solo here! Nothing to complain about at all. >

Tweezer: BOOOOOOM! That’s what I’m talking about! The elusive first set Tweezer tells you to buckle up because this is gonna be a night to remember. Composed section is passionately played. Jam starts off funky early on, all four members are totally locked in. Feel turns a little more plinko ish at 6:40 with Page leading the band in a more driving direction. Trey then pushes a move towards a conventional peaky direction, which he executes reasonably well, then returns to the head, then gives a brief indication of a true plinko at the end (Fish’s playing here, holy hell!) This sadly doesn’t last, but this version on the whole is a good time. Standard greatness. Gets ripcorded for >

Fluffhead: wish that jam had continued but you can’t ask for a better ripcord than this song. Played okay, maybe a little bit flubby. >

Roses Are Free: cool. Standard, maybe a bit better than usual - triumphant. >

Funky Bitch: looooove this placement. No cool downs here, no sir! Page’s solo is absolute hellfire and Trey matches him all the way. >

The Moma Dance: awesome. Any placement of this that isn’t opener or song #2 is very welcome with me. Standard. >

When the Circus Comes: not my favourite slower tune but they’ve earned one. >

Theme From the Bottom: sure. Standard.

Golgi Apparatus: sure. Standard, passionate.

Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan: ha! I like this more as both a song and as a closer than Golgi, cool stuff! Good set that admittedly tapers off a bit towards the end.

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SET 2:

Golden Age: definitely not my choice of a set 2 opener (or anywhere in any set really) but we’ll see where this goes. Composed section is played at a good pace, Fish’s drums sound incredible here. Damn this might be the best performance of the actual GA song they’ve ever done. This tempo almost makes me like the song. Standard soloing for a brief period then Trey signals for a hard pivot into funk around 6:30 (kinda leaving Page especially high and dry for a moment there.) We’re in the dark murky waters here for a while. Lots of funky strumming from Trey including some riffs that sound like Alumni and a great theme around 8:30 that Page picks up on. Band sounds really great actually. It’s LA at 1am. A more choppy sort of funk at 10:15 and this too sounds great. After a bit of uncertainty Trey pushes the band towards straight-ahead rock and he solos for a bit, compellingly too. The Trey-Page interplay in this jam is dialed in! Around 13:15 you can hear Trey push for a transition and from there the ripcord is inevitable. Jam is super cool while it lasts. >

Prince Caspian: not big on that ‘transition’ but let’s see what this one does. Standard Caspian soloing for a while and then Trey just decides to go apeshit from 4:30 until around 6:30 with some wild fast playing. Mood darkens following that though only slightly. Trey must’ve had some caffeine at set break because here he is at 7:00 with fast chordal riffing, egging the band on. Finally this ends and we start up into a floaty ambience similar to last night’s Farmhouse. You think it’s going to transition, but nope, not yet - just like the days of old Trey strums some chords and they’re back into a rocking jam! Good stuff. This doesn’t last though, Trey goes > Light almost straight away. Good jam nonetheless. >

Light: two kinda rough ripcords to start the second set. Oh well, is what it is. Anyway: the Dick’s Light. Let’s do this. Sounds like it’s going to move in the same direction as any other Light until Trey starts playing with some strange modes around 5:15, with the rest of the band struggling what to make of it. Effects on at 6:00 and they work towards a very strange funky groove - almost Beefheart esque? - at 7:00. Very interesting stuff. Mike powering up his meatball tone at 8:00 or so brings the whole package together and the jam for the next few minutes is total money. Suuuuuper strange for early 3.0. Looooove Trey playing around with the weird tremolo pedal around 10:00. Then!!!! Fish cuts out like in a 1.0 Tube!!!!! And we get a Trey-led breakdown!!!!!! Awesome! Fish back in at 11:00 ish with a more conventionally funky groove. Sick. They’ve found whatever they were looking for. It’s like plinko mixed with early Meters stuff. Moves into a more contemplative funk for a moment, all members locked in. Then I think Page? or Trey? pushes for a new syncopated progression with a bit of a lighter sound at 12:30 ish. The other members adapt perfectly. It’s clear we’re moving towards something joyful now. Sounds as if Fish is gonna attempt a move into transitory space at 14:00 but instead he just downshifts his drum part to something a little quieter and lets the blissful ambience take the front seat. Mike in the driver’s seat here with an awesome melody. Then - all the sudden - the darkness drifts back in in a single, coherent shift. The funk is angry now, and out for blood. Oh boy, once Trey settles on those chords at 17:30 ish we are WELL and truly on our way. Spaceship to the moon, friends. You’re just waiting for Trey to start soloing, and then he does at 18:50 with some soaring leads. Sounds like a moodier version of Tweeprise. Trey dials it up and up and up and brings this jam to an absolutely CRAZY peak with Page’s dutiful support in the background. Not as manic as a 1.0 peak but this is blues rock brilliance. Absolute guitar hero on display here folks. Peak ends at 22:40 and moves towards a denouement that uses the chords Page was playing during the peak - awesomeeeee. Perfect. Slow down and then a hard stop on a major chord. Yesssssss. AWESOME jam. This outclasses everything from 8/31/12 so hard it’s not even funny. Perfectly executed with a nearly perfect peak. In the absolute highest echelon of 3.0 jams, what more could you want?

Boogie On Reggae Woman: YESSSS!!!! Don’t think Trey missed Mike’s meatball tone during that Light! Time for a little more of that action. Nothing better than a celebratory tune after crushing it in a terrifying jam. This is even a really fun Boogie On, with Trey clearly feeling on top of the world after nailing Light. Nothing crazy, just a four headed funk monster. Rhythmic and goofy. Recommended! >

The Wedge: love it. Really digging this tune lately, more than ever before. >

The Horse: nice, standard. >

Silent in the Morning: standard. Pretty fast. >

Mike’s Song: woahhhhhhh! Not a closer just yet, friends. Great raging Mike’s, worthy of a relisten IMO. Gotta be Hydrogen next, right? >

No Quarter: NOPE! Siiiiick. Such a good call and one that they should make more often. Played great. >

Weekapaug Groove: this is a REALLY good Paug for 3.0. Played fast and executed fantastically in the classic Paug manner, a spritely groove with some ripping soloing from Trey. Recommended big time! Wow! Great set closer!

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ENCORE:

Sleeping Monkey: Trey ribs Fish eating a banana during the intro of this song and says that Fish rocked so hard last set he needed some sustenance before the encore - lol. Absolutely a Sleeping Monkey type of show. >

Tweezer Reprise: Trey flubs this a bit but who cares.

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OVERALL: possible hot take incoming here: this show is better than N1. Yes, N1 has the gimmick and the overall momentousness, but pound for pound I find N2 to comfortably be the better show. All eyes naturally go to the Light, and they should - it’s an exceptional jam, one of the best of all of 3.0, with so many well executed passages and a goosebump-inducing peak. But don’t sleep on the rest of set 2! Golden Age, Caspian, Boogie On (funkiest version ever?), No Quarter and Paug are all well above the era’s average. There’s a celebratory looseness that looms large over that set, definitely one of my favourite sets of the period. Combine that with a competent, energetic set 1 and a hilarious encore and you have a winner.

This show is bundles of fun. A 4.3 for me, very few complaints.