this show is one of the hottest of a very hot tour. the fox run was pretty damn good, but they found a way to step it up the next week.

being a university show, the chalk dust opener is quasi expected. they execute foam really well before slowing down with a solid billy breathes. the divided sky provides the boys their first opportunity to really take off. trey comes out of the silent part blazing. esther slows things down again before cranking up free. i love these nice 95 versions. they have a slightly harder edge. julius is played with a lot of energy. then continueing this odd combination of songs, they throw out a nice little i'm blue, i'm lonesome, cavern closer.

they come out of the gates hot in the second set. page really buries this maze, so they give him another chance to shine in gumbo. this ends with the fun rag time solo. i like this, but i'm glad they started taking this one out there. stash is more of a first set tune, but when you see it in the second set, you better watch out. this one seems to have a slightly darker tinge right off the bat, but once trey starts playing the stash riff in harmonics, it is lights out. it gives such a cool tinge to this song. trey really burns through this stash jam as trey tinkers with the harmonics. eventually, him and fishman drive the jam into manteca. after exploring the jazz/funk of manteca they drive back into the stash theme. they begin to space out a bit, leading to dog faced boy. now, after this dog faced boy, they just come screaming back. trey comes lurking out of the shadows, just shredding this stash. strange design gives the boys a much needed and well-earned breather, but they aren't done yet. the execute the composed portion of yem very well. technically sound with some serious energy/passion. then as they enter the "jam section" trey starts to shred some zeppelin'esque riffs. fishman picks up, and then they are in a full on immigrant song jam. if this were a part of any other show, it would more than likely be the highlight, but considering the stash from earlier in the set, this is merely the exclamation point of a killer set. on top of everything else, they pop off a very rare for the time wedge. it sounds really nice; they had worked out some of the kinks. rocky top sends everyone home nice and rowdy. pretty ballsy to be playing the tennesse vols fight song in florida.

highlights:

set 1:
free, i'm blue/lonesome, the divided sky

set 2:

maze, stash(must hear!!), yem