Ranking Dick’s: #15 09/04/2015 (2015 N1)
Setlist:
Set 1: Tube > Ghost > Halley’s Comet > Undermind, Yarmouth Road > Bathtub Gin, Waiting All Night > Horn > The Wedge, 46 Days > Run Like an Antelope
Set 2: Wolfman’s Brother > Blaze On > Golden Age > Roses Are Free > Fuego > Wading in the Velvet Sea > Walls of the Cave
Encore: Hold Your Head Up > Bike > Hold Your Head Up, Loving Cup
Quick Lowdown: We have officially entered the “all the these shows are awesome” phase of this countdown. I have a top seven I am comfortable with but numbers 8-12 are so hard to rank. I set out assuming I would rank this show much higher since I seem to argue often for how great it is. Don’t worry it is great and the highlights are incredible. Killer improv can be found in many spots here. It just doesn’t link up as well as some of the other amazing Dick’s shows. This show has a great first set and a tremendous start to the second. It just doesn’t finish strong enough.
Set 1 Recap: The “Ghost” in the 2 hole is a powerful one It provides an excellent peak and kicks the show into high gear. “Bathtub Gin” is well above average and provides more of that delicious first set improv. The highlight though is a deep “46 Days” that ends with a gorgeous segue into “Antelope”. There is a lot to love in this first set.
Set 2 Recap: This set is a tale of two halves. The first half is brilliant with a solid “Wolfman’s” kicking things off. The “Blaze On>Golden Age” segment that follows is one for the Dick’s record books. The “Blaze On” goes deep and finds a tremendous rhythmic mu-tron clav jam. Top notch stuff and I even like the “Golden Age” more!!! I wrote a small novel on this “Golden Age” but I will give you the abridged version here. This “Golden Age” took all the best elements of the exploratory summer of 2015 and went for it during this jam. It has 3 distinct sections and they all kick ass. I can’t believe I am not ranking this show higher on the quality of the “Blaze On>Golden Age” segment alone. From there the set falters a bit and never rediscovers the magic.
Encore: Fishman “Bike” is fun. Lots of fun. The fun is stopped with “Loving Cup”
The Takeaways: “Ghost”, “Bathtub Gin”, “46 Days”, “Blaze On>Golden Age”
This Show Summed Up in One Gif:
Score: 4/5