TL;DR: Tube, Melt, Sand, Carini, Boogie

Night 2 of SPAC 2013 turned out to be MUCH better than Night 1. The first night was a generally discombobulated show with a few nice jams here and there. This show, however, was tight and highly energetic the whole way through. Everyone played well and sang well most of the night and there was excellent communication between members. Even some of the 1st set bathroom break songs were pleasers; Heavy Things was long and well done, for example.

Anyway, the highlights..

Set 1 started out nice enough. Nothing special, really, besides good vibes. The Wedge was a nice version and played well. The real joy began with Tube. The only bad thing I have to say about this is that it was over too soon. I felt like I was on Summer Tour 1998 again. I was hoping they'd drop back down into the fast funk after the last verse, but 'twas not to be. Julius was Julius, then comes the best Melt I've heard in a good long time. They very quickly dropped the standard beat-skipping meter and descended into some really wild type II jamming, here. I can't really describe it; you'll just have to listen to it. It sort of faded away into nothing in a weird way and the band really didn't know what to do at that point. They sort of limped back into the main Melt theme and ended it. It was so weird it was kind of funny.

Set 2 started with a standard BDtNL and into a fairly standard, but pleasant Tweezer. I'm a hopeless Tweezer snob, so I could be wrong. I'm not saying it was a bad version, because it wasn't. It was just a standard "good" Tweezer for 3.0 -- nothing fancy. The Sand was a really nice one, though. Fishman kept the tempo very fast on this one, and it wasn't nearly as spacey as those I remember from 99-2000, nor was it overly long. Just a great, upbeat version. Carini, as expected these days, veered off into uncharted territory immediately. You could literally jump into the middle of this Carini and have no effing clue what song you were listening too. It was strangely mellow and delicate in places, in complete contrast the the beginning of the song. Just very cool. Architect was a new Trey song... better than the average new song, IMHO. It was nice, with some good harmonies, but nothing mindblowing. The last real gem of the show was the Boogie on Reggae Woman. I guess it wasn't groundbreaking, it was just nice and funky for a nice length of time. I just love hearing Mike go to town for a whole jam like that.

In summary, pretty much the entire show was great... and I'm a jaded old fan from the 90's who's been to 50+ shows. I've learned that setlists aren't as important as the mood and feel of a show. The boys were feelin' it tonight. Fantastic!