S1: Thought the show started really strongly with a great cover, that a lot of people will have been chasing, into a high-energy My Soul. Seemed perhaps a little bit rushed thereafter from my perspective (not quite Charleston N3 (you know which run I'm talking about), but a little bit of 'play the hits'). Wombat and Evolve were fun and bouncy. Guyute was played well relative to some other recent renditions, which was a great treat. The ripchord Mercury into Moma sort of sums up my feelings on Set 1: a lot of great classics that are welcome in most 1st sets, but perhaps not quite as welcome in 1st sets that are absent any notable exploration of the material.

S2: SAND...this is one of those moments, for me, that justifies why we go to such lengths to see these guys. I'm not sure if the english language even contains the right words to describe the genius on display in these 35 minutes. Please listen to this if you haven't yet. There was evil, there was tension, there were builds to more tension, and there were tension releases so good that I got goosebumps. It was just one of those jams where, stone-cold sober, I felt like my face had melted off onto the cement under the pavilion seating and my brain had been catapulted back into the lawn somewhere....
...okay...I don't want to talk about the rest of S2 because it just feels harsh to say a bad thing after that sand, but it seemed like the band maybe ran out of steam by the time Sigma Oasis segued back into Sand. I love 20YL in that spot, but thought it deserved some cathartic, mellow, soaring meandering to give everyone some time to collect themselves instead of a choppy Mango. Rise/Come, Free were good energy tunes to end the set without them being noteworthy renditions.

Encore: Grind, Slave. Loved it. Beautiful Slave, as ever, to send everyone home with some nice tingles.

Sand made all 8 of these shows worth the price of entry, so always grateful and can't wait for late July!