Tonight’s show was an absolute heater, top to bottom. Excellent song selection, inspired jams, and incredible energy. The return of Strawberry Letter 23 ignited the crowd right at the jump and the band never let up. Blaze On went deep in the two hole and while Mock Song caught everyone by surprise a bit, it was an unexpected treat, not to mention fun watching Mike read the lyrics off cue cards on the side of the stage.

Divided Sky, Roggae and Meat were clear highlights of the first set before Walk Away nearly brought the whole place to the ground. The crowd was just erupting at that point.

And then the second set. Boy, oh boy, that second set. An inspired section of improv that felt like nearly an hour, with the 20+ minute Golden Age serving as the biggest launchpad in a string of outstanding jams. Carini > Sand > Golden Age > Twist was the stuff dreams are made of last night. The Shipwreck quotes late in the Golden Age jam transported the mothership to a different dimension.

When we are all ready for a breather, Mountains in the Mist did the trick and was played beautifully before Split closed the set with a fiery, psychedelic journey.

And if all that wasn’t enough, a pristine Lizards encore showed the crowd that the band was as happy with the first night of this run as the fans were. Incredible show!

5/5