Never miss a Sunday show, sort of?

The good: Sigma Oasis, Sand, Wave of Hope, ASIHTOS, Tube Encore

The bad: Wow, that setlist was awful. For a pretty well jammed show, the song choice was perplexingly poor. It’s rare that a show with this many duds has such quality jams.

I really don’t know what to think. The crowd was visibly turned off when 90% of these songs started, it was only when things went Type II that people got amped. I appreciate that the band is constantly trying to break their own rules, and break the expectations that Phans have come to bestow upon them. However, song placement is crucial. I’m all for cool down songs, but The Wedge, Farmhouse > BDTNL was painful. CTB, Breath & Burning and The Final Hurrah was also a tough look. And for what it’s worth, I thought both B&B and Hurrah had some decent jamming going. It just felt like the crowd never clicked and became one with the band tonight.

The Sigma Oasis jam was tight as all hell, I love seeing it get the jam treatment and going deep recently. Sand set closer was gold, but why not play that Sand earlier and close out with something different? A Wave of Hope went the distance tonight, and so did ASIHTOS, but the placement for these, and just about everything else felt so off. Good setlists on paper with no jamming is the same as bad setlists on paper with jamming as far as I’m concerned. The shows need to have a flow and rhythm to them.

In the end, it’s all good. Just happy to be seeing this band doing what they do. See y’all at the next one.