favorite favorite favorite

The “Retirement Show”. The boys had already developed a reputation for blowing the big ones, so they went ahead and pre-named this a big one. This was the only show to have a shot at the Mary Lou Retton perfect 10, per my scoring system.Cold Rain & Snow opens the show. The balance is great, no issues.Mama Tried is a good push to get energy going, but it doesn’t get all the way there.Deal is rather slow.BIODTL, “last ever”…During the crashdown for Loser is where I can pin point the set getting some more energy.Jack Straw is quite psychedelic, the jam at the end is awesome. There is some kind of reverb/delay they didn’t typically use.TN Jed has the same effect and gets into the X factor zone during the climax, A+ Jed.El Paso gallops through successfully. I can’t figure out what the effect is still, but it seems to be a delay on the drums, which is funny considering the other drummer will later be joining the band again.Brokedown is rather strangely placed in the setlist. Effect, slows things down a bit more than I would like.China>Rider, a great, extended transition here. Jerry rejects the first attempt to go into the feeling good jam and keeps noodling. He does take the second attempt, changing his scale appropriately.Bobby goes to old reliable in Around & Around to close the set in proper rock ‘n’ roll fashion.PITB opens the 2nd set, Donna blessing it with a heartfelt shriek. The energy is nice, Mickey back out with the boys to help out! There’s a fine moment of mutual guitar jamming around 6:30, and this kind of interplay is in and out of the entire jam from that moment on. It falls into drums around 14 minutes in. Staying drum-centric, they launch into a NFA, which kind of plods along. We get the first hints of TOO at 11:30 of the NFA, and they do make an effort to have a nice NFA outro. At 14 minutes in Bobby signals TOO, Jerry joins, as does Phil, but it disintegrates into another drummer segment. Phil bombs bring us out, and they go into another rather lackluster jam segment until the 6 minute mark, where it gets the legs that carry it through to the verse. Thankfully Bob doesn’t wait long to start strumming the opening chords to what developed into a fine Wharf Rat. PITB reprises right out of the outro jam of the Rat, which stays at a nice pace to end the set without having paused.Good Lovin’ to open the third. Unfortunately, the sound quality is so poor here it diminishes what otherwise sounds like it may have been pretty good, though one can’t be sure. Things improve moderately after that, though there is still some issue I can’t accurately name. Through the problem you hear what sounds like it was probably the most energetic of the sets, as told by Promised Land. It’s frustrating, and kills any chance this show had of making top spots. The Eyes>Stella combo is a particularly upsetting “casualty”.________________________________________________Performance SummaryThe first set is hit or miss, with more energy building after a slow start. Brokedown really brokedown the momentum. The second set is similar, with less awesome moments, and just as many slumps, unfortunately. Third set is basically unlistenable due to SQ issues.Sound QualityPretty awesome in the first set, as this was likely recorded by a lot of people! Set 2 was great too, as the outtakes of the GD Movie. However, there is a nose dive when you hit Good Lovin’. Warbly Bob. It becomes unlistenable. Through the course of the set it gets a bit better, but not a lot. Amazing that this was so bungled. 1st Set = A, 2nd A+, 3rd = D.