before you read this review, i will tell you straight up, musically, this second set was the best of the year. talk about tension and release... holy cow!

run away jim: this was a nice lively opener. they took it for a little bit of a ride before popping into...

free: rowdy back to back opening songs. this free had a touch of the 'ol funk factor going. very good show opening sequence.

driver: decent slow down song. what have preferred to keep the momentum rolling but hey....

taste: pretty standard taste

dirt: one of my favorite slower tunes, but i was ready to pick it back up...

nellie cane: it was nice to get a little blue grass flavor going. this got people back up and moving before...

stash: this one got out there a bit before moving through the can't turn you loose jam, which seemed very memphis appropriate. this one worked nicely into...

theme from the bottom: good multi textured theme jam. this is one of my favorites, and this take does not disappoint

tweezer (re)reprise: they re-reprised the new orleans tweezer. i don't think anyone saw this one coming, but it was a lovely set closer. sure beats character zero any day.

set 2:

jibboo: this would become the standard 2000 set 2 opener. this one had some really lively funky exploration. it was not super extended but it did work well going in to...

2001: very strong also sprach. this one went way out there before coming home, and they revisited that 2001 climax a couple of times before working their way into...

dwd: this wasn't the most exploratory version, but it was still pretty damn hot. nice 3 song opening sequence

billy breathes: good breather after 3 hot ones....

gbott: this got back into that funky groove, and many hoped they would stay there the rest of the night....

mike's: while this is typically not a funky monster, tonight it was. here comes the jam of the night. after doing the typically mike's jam, they stay with in the mike's framework, but they give it a really nice funky reworking. then the music just stops and they recicite catapult. then bam! they slam right back into that funky mike's funk jam. like catapult, the music stops and they delve into kung. then without missing a beat, they slam right back into that funky mike's jam. they work that over before dropping off again into...

i didn't know: woah doggy... fans needed this one after such an intense mikes jam. fishman sure did blow on this one.... or did he suck....haha

weekapaugh: after a firey mike's jam, they played their cards a little closer to the vest on this one. nothing to crazy out of this weekapaugh, but as usual, there were some hot little mike's licks.

enc:

cities: very good choice for encore, playing right on the river and all. also they referenced rendeveous (sp?) bbq in this one, which is my personal favorite bbq joint in the country... right on!

overall:

the first set was above average but not mind blowing. they played strong, but outside of stash, nothing too fancy happened. the second set was hot from start to finish. they lulled a bit in the middle but that was an acceptable breather going into that killer mike's song. very strong set.

highlights:

set 1:
stash>theme

set 2:
jibboo>2001, mike's groove, cities (novel but fun none the less)