The Gorge Night 3

This show goes toe to toe with the previous night and in my opinion just barely edges it out as the best of the 3-night stand. The opening four-song run of RAPUNZEL > GREY ST. > GRANNY > IF I HAD IT is fantastic. The SEEK UP > PROUDEST MONKEY > TOO MUCH > DITCH > LIE IN run is transcendent, especially the bookends of SEEK UP and LIE IN (the latter being one of my favorite performances of the song). I adore Stefan's solo intro to DREAMING TREE; I wish he'd do things like this more often as his bass lines are the hiding-in-plain-sight element of all great DMB songs. The song itself is a mess and they made a smart decision to abort it. WATCHTOWER is a great closer, but the real treat in this show is the encore. VEIL is one of the most beautiful performances I've heard; Dave should do more solo+1 E1s like this. HALLOWEEN is rocking, and TRIPPING is a great ending to a magical 3-night run. If the audio quality of these releases were higher I think I'd have rated this show a 3, but alas, it's middle of the road at best.