Even though the set-closing Character Zero brought the crowd’s energy level back up, Trey still appeared a little hesitant from time to time during the second set. His confidence was high during the set-opening After Midnight, which featured memorable, clean jamming. The song ran just over 11 minutes, and begged for more exploration but segued right into Possum.
During setbreak, stage techs were trying to diagnose a concern about Page’s clavinet and monitors, and things escalated during Possum when Trey stepped behind his rig and the keyboard rig to check if the monitors were working. The Who’s Drowned mirrored the energy and intensity of J.J. Cale’s After Midnight, and contained a focused jam section with all four players locked in with one another. As the band ventured beyond the song’s standard chord progression, Page switched to the Moog synthesizer to provide the backing layers for a more ambient jam.
The Maze that followed was loud, dissonant, eerie, and chaotic – all positive qualities when you consider the song references a nightmare of sorts. Though Trey mentioned before Tube earlier in the evening that we were “going to Page’s house,” (referencing a humorous Makisupa Policeman from the weekend in Bethel), Maze was indisputably Page’s territory last night. The You Enjoy Myself that was curiously absent from Bethel arrived to close out the second set and this time it was Mike who decided to keep things relatively short, concluding his succinct bass solo on a high point. The band clearly wants to pursue new areas through jamming and can still deliver high-energy music – all at the cost of practicing consistently.
