Bertha
Greatest Story
Jack-a-Roe
Wang Dang Doodle
Loose Lucy
Queen Jane Approx.
Lazy River Road
Let It Grow
Dough Knees

Eyes of the World
Looks Like Rain
Way to Go Home
Truckin
drums/space
The Wheel
Throwin Stones
Goin Down the Road
Johnny B. Goode

Rain

Samson & Delilah
Here Comes Sunshine
Walkin Blues
Broken Arrow
Ramble on Rose
Memphis Blues
Deal

Box of Rain
Victim/Crime
Crazy Fingers
Playin in the Band
~MAJOR jammin~
drums/space
Corinna
Playin Reprise
China Doll
Around & Around

Liberty

Shakedown Street
Same Thing
Dire Wolf
Beat it Down the Line
High Time
Masterpiece
Cumberland Blues
Promised Land

Picasso Moon
Fire on the Mountain
Wave to the Wind
Cassidy
Uncle John's Band
Cassidy
drums/space
The Other One
Wharf Rat
Sugar Magnolia

Gloria

The three show run at this wonderful venue has brought us face to face with the awesome power The Machine now finds itself commanding...from the first beat the Groove is strong and hot, not letting up for an instant....Tuesday we are treated to rock-n-roll mania, Jerry in particular pushing the envelope of expectation to ever more amazing heights ..Bertha/Greatest is a screamer right out of the box...Jack-a-Roe is quite lively, the riffs freeflowing...the jam in Let it Grow stretches way, way out, Phil clearing the way with precise low frequency sonic detonations...I wish Might as Well was as easy to start as Don't Ease, but Jerry turns up the wick and the turf is pounded by the dancing multitudes..Eyes continues the streak, the intensity increasing with each round of the jam...LL Rain builds to a shrieking climax...Jerry defers the song selection to Vince, who looks at his list and finds...ah, let's see ...Way to Go Home!...from which Bobby punches the Truckin button and The Machine surges ahead under full acceleration...the drums pound around for a few minutes, then Mickey takes a major headlong dive into the Weird Zone..Big Time NOISE...The Wheel takes its time coming around, the better to sense the approaching maelstrom...Throwin is towering, though the thought of a "standard" ending is disappointing...but Jerry says NO WAY! and the strains of GDTRFD push us over the edge ...Total Pandemonium as The Machine hits wide open cruising speed...the pedal is pushed to the floor as JB Goode comes online...Vince is a madman, thrashing the keys to stoke the fires higher...the dust is allowed to settle and the evocative call of Rain soaks us in gentle harmonies....quite lovely.

Wednesday night...Even though we arrive earlier than last night, we are still in line, 25 feet from the gate when the band starts...could it be?? yes!! Samson!...a strong forward surge...enter to a jammin scene...Jerry back on his heels...yow..the serious threat of rain disappears with the strains of HC Sunshine ..powerful...Walkin rocks...Phil has way too much fun with Broken Arrow...Ramble On Indeed!!! Sing , Praise and Be Healed!!!....Memphis - Jerry is rippin...then, watch out, here comes a Killer Deal...the licks pierce the air, throwing searing flashes thru the synapses...looks good for a towering second set...Phil gives a big push with Box of Rain and things start to seriously happen... Victim comes back from storage bigger and more impressive than ever...Jerry positively nails Crazy Fingers, probing the inner space with a surgeon's finely tuned precision ...Playin takes off and we become part of an experience that travels the hyper-space highway for a timeless stretch of major proportions. ..on and on, the jam cruises hard without letup...I'm melllllllllllllting...crushing drums ...far-reaching space-out...the mind reels from the possibilities...slide right into Corinna, which carries the expanded mind games further and further...Jerry leads the thread back to Playin and the band takes its time setting up the thunderous return...the waves subside and a spectacular China Doll is drawn from the void, deep and touching ..Bobby jumps on Around and the Party shifts into Warp Drive...full bore, mainline rockin...too, too much...Liberty wraps it up and the dazed masses head for home...a brain bending second act that still reverberates constantly through the collective consciousness...

Thursday...the jones for a Shakedown is answered with a full-bore dose...long, hot and satisfying ...neatly transitioned to viscerally gripping blues action on Same Thing...then comes a string of not-often-heard favorites..these guys are pulling out all the stops in an effort to entertain and amaze ...Jerry is positively buoyant on Dire Wolf, playfully throwing down the riffs...eleven beats into "Well this job I got..." and the whole place boogies along...Cumberland (YES!!) into Promised is a supremely excellent set closer, leaving the buzz hanging like an electric mist over the crowd...Picasso may not be everyone's idea of a great set opener, but this one takes off big-time and sets up a monstrous Fire on the Mountain, delighting the adventurous spirit...Phil pumps up Wave>>Wind and the boys start to take on this difficult task with gusto, Jerry finding some nice jammin space and Vince filling in the gaps with a perceptive hand...a second set Cassidy!!...now this is getting interesting...the slide to Uncle John's is clever and smooth, turning into an outstanding rendition...when the whole affair turns back to Cassidy, the fuses start popping... can this really be happening??...intense - vibrant - real time musical mania...the Threshold of Belief has been shattered, much to our joyous delight...the space takes its time coming around and from the murky soup emerges The Other One, Phil clearing the way with a precise, if not frenzied, front-end entrance...up, down, boom, crash, the Sound carries us along with the flooding tide...Wharf Rat sets us down, then rises up with a thunderous jam...peaking right into Sugar Mag....Bobby fires The Machine to white hot while the entire scene screams along at blazing speed....images flashing by in an incomprehensible stream of sensory overload....Gloria is a wonderful surprise, the crowd singing along with impassioned frenzy....we leave physically drained and spiritually overamped...what a satisfying combo.....

What else can I say, other than this was the Run of the Decade, the absolute best in my 16 years of Continuous Weirdness...the full power of potential was unleashed to maximum effect...this is the cutting edge, this is what the band is capable of doing when the pieces all reach peak performance ...absolutely seamless from beginning to end...each jam reaching further than the last, daring to stretch our capacity for amazement to the breaking point...once again, we have reached a point that only yesterday couldn't even be imagined...Total Mastery displayed in a virtuoso performance that only indicates more to come...standby for a long, hot summer!!!!