favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite



Of the 22 dates on E72, this is in the top 5 and is almost as good overall as 5/3 Paris and 4/14 København. Man the Bavarians were lucky bastards this night. Kongress-Saal im Deutschen is the Conference Room of the Deutsch National Museum. It's the largest science museum in the world, so it has a big lecture hall, with long boxes down the side - but not big as far as concerts go, and this night it was half-empty, so, another small venue near tour's end. It's also sort of the tour's hidden gem, in that it didn't get a lot of attention or trades for decades, as far as I noticed, though it seems to be well-discovered now since the Miller upgrade and the official box.



First Set. Truckin' launches itself full of Jer fills. Mr. Charlie is the tour's most consistent song but his night Jet just nails it right down and the band is on, on, on. Jack Straw is not the most rambunctious but anywhere else might be a set standout. Tennessee Jed is insane and the solo supernaturally inspired. A solid Chinatown but not the best example of Black Throated (Phil plays the España Cañí tuning). China Cat is a very dynamic version but Billy slows it way down after the 1st verse. Rider is rubbery and then Jer does magic. You can't do better than this El Paso. When they're this on, Jer has carte blanche (wie sagen du das auf Deutsch?) to go nuts. Hurts Me Too is a bit dry but the 2nd Pig blues in a row (You Win Again) makes up for it and has a cool little Jer ladder. Playin' has some Donnaskreech™ and is a little less energetic than others on tour, but with a good jam section. There are also two jam songs in a row, but Good Lovin' is not 4/8 or 4/16 (yet still good; it's relative!). Casey Jones is an outright perfect rendition.



Second Set. Phil starts Greatest Story but it's one of the last ever Sittin' on Tops instead. They're not sittin' on top of it yet but quickly warm up, after a false start, for a great Me & My Uncle into a whopper Ramble On Rose - sent me left at the lights. It's kind of strange to follow Beat it on Down the Line-10 with a Dark Star but the effect is from shrug to cosmic smear. This isn't my favorite tour for Dark Stars but this is the best one. I like the jazzy Rotterdam, the doodly Düsseldorf with the M&MU in the middle and the sparkly London (4/8) but this one stands out. It's immediately exploratory and has some truly one-of-a-kind sections. It's just one verse and was the first time it went into Morning Dew (see Cliff Hucker's descrip of Dew below). Some setlists list a Drums but it's really just a tuning with Billy goofing around. Sugar Mag tries hard to trainwreck then sort of gets back on its feet. Sing Me Back Home is a bit of a slog if you've heard most of the rest of the tour first, bathroom song. One More Saturday Night is played this great a dozen times on the tour. It just worked better with one drummer.



1st Set : A+

2nd Set : B

Overall = 5 stars



Highlights:

Entire First Set - Sugaree, Hurts Me2, & BTW are low points; but that's only relative. Full of diamonds.

Me & My Uncle - after a brief false start, flies

Ramble On Rose - good gods

Dark Star>Morning Dew - if you want to hear a '72 state of the art

One More Saturday Night - send 'em home happy and exhausted

- April 27, 2017You could start here