7/22 - Les Schwab Amphitheater - Bend, OR - Post-Show Discussion

[Lifeboy]

Didn't catch the hype at all with the second set.

Me neither... I truly wish I liked this set as much as everyone else.

:|

[Hicks]

Sup duderz, just getting my brain put back together after this run, a couple brief thoughts. . .   

The new songs threw my off on night one as I didn't know they had so much material prepared, a dude next to me said they have eight new songs so if he's right there's at least one more out there.  (Although Heavy Rotation and Scabbard aren't technically new. . . )

Anyway, night one had a cool funk theme going with Tube, Wolfman's, Ghost, No Men in No Man's Land and Boogie On and the Mike's was really tight and above average.  I hadn't seen Fuego before so that was a personal highlight.  But, with no real jamming the show left me wanting more.  Don't get me wrong, I had a great time and Les Schwab is a friggin' sweet place to see a show, but I'd be lying if I said that the first night blew me away or really had the x-factor of an outstanding show. 

The second night however brought out more interesting new tunes than the first with the Phish debut of Scabbard and Mercury and the energy in the venue during Maze was off the charts.  I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it was the best Page solo in Maze in years, at least that I've heard and Trey brought the fire too.  That Maze alone gave me the oomph I had been craving.  Even Possum was fun with a bonus Page organ solo.  I never realized Scabbard borrowed so heavily from McGrupp, definitely excited to hear them take another crack at it.   

Then there was set II, yeah not that impressive of a setlist, but everything was just so well played and mellow psychedelic tunes like Waves fit the West Coast vibe perfectly.  Then there was the Simple where shit got DIRTY.  Was the best ever anything?  No, but it was fucking awesome and satisfying in a major way and the following First Tube blew the lid off the amphitheater again.   

One of the friend's I was with mentioned that Gin was her favorite song and we even discussed how they rarely played it in the second set anymore where they traditionally really take it out, a la the excellent Gorge 09 version.  When they started it up for the encore, she flipped out and it was so awesome to share in her joy, at the time I thought it may have even been the first Gin encore ever.  It was the perfect capper for a show that was exceptional in unexpected ways.     

While I was underwhelmed with the first show, the second show was the soul cleansing affair that I needed. 

Had a great couple of days, even if I only got to see the Portland paugers briefly.  Played some disc golf with a buddy I hadn't seen in years, crushed Black Bear Diner for breakfast and hit up some excellent brews at Crux.   

On a side note I took my first hit from a proper dab rig back at the motel and I gotta wonder how people really enjoy that stuff.  Personally, I felt like I was gonna pass out and had to go lie down and watch some eyelid movies until drifting off to sleep.  Certainly not an awful experience, but it did effectively end my night.  I guess I'm just too old for whipper snapper weed.   

[blatboom]

sick writeup hicks

[mattstick]

Thanks Hicks, nice review. I think the dabs are a tolerance thing, I had a similar experience at Dicks a few years ago.

[mbw]

:still doesn't know what a 'dab' is:

[Augustus]

:still doesn't know what a 'dab' is:

Oh, just the most confusing way to get high.
What happened to just slamming a needle between your toes? AMIRITE?!

[mbw]

:still doesn't know what a 'dab' is:

Oh, just the most confusing way to get high.
What happened to just slamming a needle between your toes? AMIRITE?!

i just skimmed through a video and saw a small bong and a guy heating and cooling a nail or screw or something a bunch of times with a blowtorch and i just figured i'd rather stay ignorant.

[Hicks]

Yeah a blowtorch was indeed involved. 

I shoulda just stuck with my flowers so I could have kept partying old man style. 

[Buffalo Budd]

Dabs seems like a lot of work just to put oneself to sleep.

This Maze jam has some solid work from Page. Something about it sounds different than others to me. Enjoying it thoroughly.

[emay]

Dabs are some ser business.
I take a dab saturday morning and im good til around afternoon. esp of some indica, sativa dabs just make me feel uncomforable.
I like to dab at night and lamp out on the couch for a while, but if I only had wax during the day I would def be using a vape pen to take some smaller hits throughout the day

[Hicks]

Dabs seems like a lot of work just to put oneself to sleep.

This Maze jam has some solid work from Page. Something about it sounds different than others to me. Enjoying it thoroughly.

The crowd, including myself of course, was going absolutely bonkers during Page's solo!  Definitely a huge highlight of the run, shit was off the chain!