Really exceptional show! Multiple peaks throughout, but also subtlety, texture, thoughtfulness and pure high energy…
Gotta say, the show really took off with a truly great, raucous Gin.
Tweezer>Sparks was just perfect, or close.
Ghost got really dirty and took us through the gutter. It got kind of (almost annoyingly) grating, and on one level was losing the crowd, and on the other, made the crowd uncomfortable enough that I thought fights were going to break out. I was thinking, ”I hope they bring some melody back soon, because some people are starting to freak out,” namely the guy in the aisle to my left that was starting to yell at people to dance…that is never very productive. Ha! But really, what a tremendous exploration of tone and texture
Something I thought was happening during Light (I think it was Light), was a composed sounding, deliberate jam that I was sure was a pre-planned and coordinated light show jam. Kuroda shot down light beams at points along the 100 level, ringing the floor. Then he made them dance! The jam seemed too simple and too well timed with the lights to be something that came up in the moment…but then the cohesion of that jam gelled into an explosive, melodic guitar rock solo/jam that eventually became the mightiest of Party Times.
And I know Velvet Sea gets a bad rap because of its ridiculous chorus, but its melody is endearing and this was a truly great version. I was so impressed how Trey built the solo very un-Morning Dew like…instead of slowly building from quiet sweetness to blazing brilliance, he used an economy of notes to sweetly dance around the melody, then Trey started making veritable stabs at peak notes that created a whole different kind of Velvet Sea Jam…by the end Trey seemed to be having a hard time singing the chorus while raging on guitar…just how it seemed to me.
Rocky Top was a slap in the face to Nebraska fans (being an alum), as much as a nod to the Tennessee fans for their sound whipping of the Huskers earlier that day. OK, so I doubt they meant to rub it in, but it was salt in MY wound. I felt, at least, that I was in on the rationale for the “breakout”.
Really looking forward to re-listening…I think it will hold up as one of the better shows of the year and maybe all of 3.0