This is a great August 93 show with sharp playing and improvisation and teases popping up all over the place. You should not hesitate to listen to the entire show, but if you're just hunting for noteworthy performances check out the Bag, Reba, Chalk Dust, Split Open and Melt, Landlady/Tweezer, and Possum.

AC/DC Bag - Great opener. Includes the old intro and hot playing from Trey. The end of the jam is unusual too.

Reba - Type 2 jam with lots of tension that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Some nice interplay between Page and Trey. If the release from all of the tension was better, I think this would be an all-time version.

Chalk Dust - Can't You Hear me Knocking teases and played with a lot of gusto. Definitely a plus version.

Split Open and Melt - Classic SOAM jamming mixed with some type 2 action as well. Every August 93 Melt should be heard!

Landylady/Tweezer - Lots of signals and great communication. An interesting version to say the least.

Possum - More teases and a raging jam.

Lots of highlights. This show begins one of my favorite runs of all time. The following week's worth of shows should all be heard. No reason not to pull this one down if you're looking for a great mid-90s show.

THE GOOD: Although outshined by the following night, there is a lot of good in this one, especially in the way of eccentric jamming. The early first-set Reba has a wonderful DEG-inspired building jam and a good 4 minutes of Hey-jamming. In Guelah, Trey jumps back and forth amongst keys throughout the song. SOAM also gets fairly wacky - it diverges onto a unique path around 9 minutes in and hardly looks back. Tweezer, though, is the star of the show. After a chug-a-lug jam, the band finds themselves playing a slow reggae-inspired groove, then jumps back and forth amongst tempos (slow to fast), and then even amongst songs (Landlady then back to Tweezer). It's a Frankenstein of a jam, but is a great representation of the wild stop-on-a-dime mentality of the tour at this point. For more energetic and typical shredding songs, the Chalkdust, Maze, Possum, and Fire are scorching and worth a spin. Even Golgi seems particularly pretty on this night - the boys were on!

THE BAD: I have no idea what was going on with Trey's rig, but for 2001 and parts of the Landlady, he can't seem to play anything right. Sounds like technical difficulties to me, but it's a weird contrast to how solid the show is otherwise.

ETC: ACDC Bag is "For Lodi". There's a bunch of teases in this show - DEG in Reba, Can't You Hear Me Knocking in Chalkdust, and Mystery Achievement in Maze. Take note of the wide use of language signals, key change signals, and Get Back/return signals in this Tweezer. Mike is introduced as Mik-Ha-El in Poor Heart. Mike yells 'Rastafari!!' during Tweezer. If you're interested in seeing shades of other jams appear for the first time, check out Reba @ 10:45 (Tinley Park Antelope).

Caught amid a swath of official releases from August '93, I feel like this beauty gets unfairly overlooked by many Phans. Fire up Relisten and put this one on, cuz there's plenty to love right out the gate with an original-intro AC/DC Bag that jams out for a tiny, uncharacteristic moment. With no time to spare, Reba follows with magnificent gusto. The jam hear evolves quite a bit, with every member of the band pushing the mold of the tune to unrecognizable territory, but when it re-enters the Reba troposphere--hoo boy, the band is HOT and hits a massive splash landing. Check this one out on Live Bait Vol. 19. CDT shreds and Guelah has a few fun signals baked into the standard format. SOaM is our next slugger (SBD available on the SPAC From the Archives release)--choc full of fiery soloing, full-band teetering between Type I and Type II territory, some really awesome harmonic variance for some atypical major key jamming, and a pretty but subdued finish. The band sticks around a little longer on Page's Coil solo, adding some nice ambience that sort of reminds me of Fukuoka Jam at times.

The star of the show comes in Set 2: Landlady/Tweezer mash-up (available on Live Bait Vol. 4). Tweezer jam has some really swanky riff play between Mike and Trey, under which Fish works a nice off-beat groove. Some quieter, slightly dissonant passages pepper a more traditional Tweezer jam, alternating at the guide of Trey's Get Back signals. Very August '93. Just when things are slowing down and you think it's over, Landlady comes back for one more rent payment--the band is quick on this one! The rest of Set 2 has some fun song diversity and closes with a killer, improvisational Possum that just doesn't quit. Fishman's energy is out of control. Really excellent shit on this one.

Beautiful opener. AC/DC bag is one of my sleeper favorites. Maybe one of the better openers of 93 Summer (can I edit this later if I need to adjust that opinion after more research?). Anyway, moving on the Reba has a nice vibe control at 2:36. Also later in Reba has an amazing amount of jamming by Page, it sounded very clean and organized. It breaks down nicely into a little slow hip wiggling dance grooves. Then a wicked(need a thesaurus) little whistle. Just a great way to help start the engines.

Then oh sweet Chalk Dust Torture. Always a lifting dance tune. The next bit just keeps the dance vibe going.

Trey just absolutely shreds it on SOAM. He just really does his thing as per usual and the band carries him around on that magic carpet out running the melt he leaves behind as he just shreds it at light speed. Page puts out the fire and lands the ship(yeah it was a carpet now it's a ship - get over it) with the help of the always steady, the calm, cool, collected Fishman. This jam was so hot, Trey had to sit the guitar down and grab the acoustic for a couple minutes as he rode The Horse.

Silent in the Morning and Poor Heart carried the set toward it's inevitable close with Squirming Coil. But this one did not get away, as this Squirming Coil was set free ladies and gentlemen.

A much deserved set break follows. If you listen to this, give yourself a break here, grab some water and a sammich. You'll need them for set 2 coming up. Seriously, stop reading, get a drink...

...Okay good now that you're refreshed let's continue.

ASZ gets you back up off your ass, are you eating a sandwich? what were you thinking, save that for later. The Landlady/Tweezer dance is solid, though I wouldn't quite take the trouble to list them each out twice, seems like track (stat) padding to me.

The Lizards are such amazing creatures. Shows with a glimpse into Gamehendge are always worthy of a listen. Speaking of lizards, I bet you need to drain yours for being an idiot and drinking all that water earlier. Well good news, you aren't at a live show you can hit pause and do that real quick. There might not even be a line.

The Sloth, probably the most honest and trustworthy member of Gamehendge came in nicely to keep the set alive. Nice little breakdown jam in the 2:30 area for a while. Get that dance going to the next level you'll need it when it breaks back at 3:10.

Dare I be so corny as to say what happens next is a MAZE ing? Yes, I'll allow it. Such a tasty intro to Maze, as can be expected. Whoever woos in this crowd instead of laughing, God bless you, that is what makes a show truly epic. Maze always dances in me as much as I dance to it, and I like that it f*cks with me like that. Fans of Maze, like myself, will appreciate this one.

Maze gets into me so well that I was probably 43 seconds into Lawn Boy before I realized I was about to open my sinuses and be overwhelmed. I think this Lawn Boy is worthy of a highlight, should be given the "recommended version" tag or whatever voodoo sorcery is used to make a song link green.

It took some stones to do what came next. Big Ball Jam started off a little rusty, but then the clouds opened and and and and finished strong. I love some Golgi, this little roller coaster finally stabilized thanks to the Apparatus. The Apparatus always delivers a nice clean hit and this one was double filtered with crossover carbs. Trust me, you won't regret it.

Possum, great way to end a second set. Especially this one. They really made an excellent point about the believing it in the first place. I mean really if your mind is closed and set, you need overwhelming evidence, and even then so many remain clueless.

Well, all the yelling of "FREEBIRD!" while drunk at every show for every artist has finally paid off. This encore set is proof that if you just keep yelling it, you hillbilly hippies, it will be rewarded eventually. When playing Freebird, any band at any place in the universe instantly becomes THE.GREATEST.BAND.EVER. for the duration of the song.

Nice crispy AUD, very nice stereo separation.
S1 thoughts: The Reba is a must hear, it has a lotta of that August 93 spice/pizzazz phans know. A signal-heavy, very playful Guelah follows. Playing nice and loose with the song's structure, a band so in command they are re-writing the song at will just for the hell of it. Another nice SOAM follows, very extended, free part in the middle where Trey takes off from the time signature and the band keeps the tempo, very melodic playing from Trey. Squirming Coil outro is a lovely Page fantasia with some full band playing. Worth your time! August 93 baby!

S2: Begins with 2001 as it usually did back then, get hype. Landlady is very loosely played, continuing the vibe from S1. Tweezer is a monster: melodic and creative passing through various mood ultimately culminating in a reggae jam. Reggae Tweezer reads as ridiculous on paper and frankly, it's that way on audio too. But I loved the ever-living hell out of this one, anyway. Quick detour to Gamehendge with a pair of crowd-pleasers. Hot Maze follows, the ensuing jam briefly flirting between coming off the rails vs sticking to its normal structure, the latter prevails but a lovely Maze, nonetheless. BBJ > HHYU imo. Strong Possum to dance the night away.