Wowzers, whatta show! This was my maiden voyage in Mothership Hampton, and the energy outside was palpable. The security check was smooth and easy, and as we entered the inner sanctum of the coliseum, the floor was less than half-filled, so my buddy and I got about 50 feet back from the stage between Page and Trey. Sweet place to get our groove on! A great Strawberry Letter 23 opened the show in a surprising way and soon gives way to the first exploration of the night: Blaze On. After a nice jam leads back into the lyrics, it's like they decide it wasn't enough and goes on to jam for another 3 or 4 minutes. Tasty stuff! The rest of the set is well played as well, getting the 3rd ever Mock Song was a treat and Divided Sky was well played and pretty peaky at the end. Roggae fits in just right, and the Walk Away to end it got us all jumping and raging going into the break.
Set II was just right. Carini got us started heavy with some good jamming that all-too-quickly led into Sand. Sand's jam was short but hot, and that led into a Golden Age for the ages. Soooo spacey and free, from the floor looking up at the ceiling it felt like we were being lifted off into the stratosphere in the Mothership. The Golden Age jam meandered through many phases and explored many places in it's 23+ minutes, from tasty licks to ambient spaces and gradually found its way into Twist. Twist was well played and led into a Mountains in the Mist that was so delicate and sweet, it was just what we needed to cool down and catch our breath. Meatstick was another appreciated song, and the SOAMelt that ended the set reprized the dark jammy themes from earlier in the set. Lizards sent us home with gigantic smiles on our faces, and as we all realized on the way out: the trick was to surrender to the flow.