My first experience with moe.
Mellow but rockin'.
Spacey but focused.
I guess I'm a fan now!

First things first - a caveat - I downloaded this show without noting which source I downloaded, so I will not make any reference to sound quality, only comments regarding content. Also, a technical note: the segues render a 3 CD burn disjointed because the segues will get split between discs, interrupting the concert flow. 4 discs will mean shorter discs but a better overall concert flow on your stereo (especially if you have a multi-disc player).

The band starts off the concert with 12 minutes of pretty but aimless ambient noodling which I know from personal experience is the kind of thing that sounds best when heard in person but translates as somewhat inconsequential when listening back at a later time. Head kicks in on a promising note but doesn't really go anywhere. It just drifts along nicely, innocuously. Good enough for me. Big World continues the groove. Then a newer tune (no comment). And then some more ambient noodling leading into Mexico. Happy Hour and Sensory come out this intriguing but portentious rendition of Mexico and salvage the first set with a flourish. But the mood has been set - more "vibe" and less "rock." Not a bad thing, just different from the majority of moe concerts I've heard. Set two continues the trend with more of an emphasis on the collective improv jam head-space as opposed to the break out fireball jam, to good effect. The second set is quite adventurous and hypnotic, a weaving of introspective jamming which lead, self-consciously, back into Head to tie things up nicely for the conceptual continuity moerons wondering how the concert would end. But wait that's not all. We're treated to an indulgence of encores, unusual, and well appreciated. And mercifully short on bar band classic rock covers, I might add. Not a bad concert on second listen. But, I might add (also), not the best either. This is one of those concerts that should come with the disclaimer "you had to be there..."

first of all, great quality from jon merin, thanks and kudos to him. this show has some of the trippy feel to it, but is not without the flat-out rockin grooves. couple of solid versions of new tunes, and the double encore is an added bonus.... would highly recommend this one, you'll not be disappointed!

Mr. Merin I have no idea who you are but I must say your recordings of moe. are absolutely perfect! Sonic perfection! And this show is no exception, 5+ stars for sound quality.

And the show itself isn't too shabby either. The boys do some interesting noodling to open the show and some more ambiet type stuff into Mexico.
The entire show is pretty tight, and there're a few new tunes mixed in as well which, IMHO, are all very cool, especially 'Puttin' the Boy Down.'
And to top it all off, there's a 4 song encore!
If you have time, definitely grab this show, as well as the rest of moe.'s winter '04 shows. These guys never cease to amaze me!

this show is nice. very good sounding recording. the set itself is good as well, although not the stringest i've heard them (but hten again, they are os friggin' good lately, that maybe that is being hard on them - only the most critical/knowlegable of moe. fans would find this show anything less than rockin'). the meat was one of the most......uh......experimental of the 40 or so i have heard in my life. definitely trippy. worth the discs (and i agree, keep it on 4 so as not to break up sweet segues). enjoy.

Another great sounding recording from Jon.

OK, I wrote a review of the Friday night show from this two show run and now have had a chance to listen to Saturday. All I can say is awesome! Jon did a great job with this recording. Interesting how I thought this one turned out quite a bit nicer than his Friday night effort. I just thought the bass sounded just a tiny bit hot/jagged for Friday nights recording, but this one is smoothe as silk.

It's interesting, but I like Saturday nights show ALOT better than Friday night...usually the shows that you witness personally tend to have more impact. Even though I was there Fri and not Sat, I still like the Saturday show alot more.

I agree with the previous raters on the sound quality...this one is second to none and I also feel it is very close to sounding like an audience matrix.

I know setlists and favorite songs are fairly subjective, but I really enjoyed this setlist a ton. The flow of the songs for this show was REALLY great. Everything really flowed well, which is why I decided to entitle this review as being 'cool' and 'smoothe'. This show was more from the classy side of moe. than the rockin' side, IMHO. There's a whole lot of really cool jamming on this night. In fact, the show opened with a very soft and surrealistic sounding 12 - 15 min jam before launching into Head.

I love the setlist and even though there's none of the real headbanger songs (okayalright and plane crash come to mind) that I love so much. I have to give this show equal top billing for both sound and performance quality...5's on both counts! Get it!

One comment is that you will notice that the show is tracked as 4 discs. The length of the songs is such that they can easily fit onto 3 discs, but if you do that, you'll end up with odd breaks between discs because of segues between songs. I recommend keeping the 4 disc tracking to maintain the consistency of the feel of the show, especially because I think that's one of the real strengths of this show.

Love it. Its tripy, and great sound quality! Thanks for sharing!

the sound on this show is outstanding! it's crisp with next to no crowd noise. this source is well worth the D/L