this was a pretty solid show. i thought the 98 show in this venue was pretty solid, but compared to some of the other shows they had been playing, see uic and michigan, it was unspectacular. the 99 shows were less than stellar. they had their moments, but trey seemed a little zonked out for a good chunk of that run. he was in better shape in 2000, and while this won't be remembered as one of the best of the year, it's still pretty darn solid.

they start things off nice and funky with a little run through ctb-wolfman's-jibboo. none of these tunes are taken too far out there, but wolfman's in particular, sound really good. a rare first set mike's song gets the house jumping. this one is solid but it does nothing too spectacular on the way to simple. simple is nice and it slowly flows into tmwsiy/avenu. this one is always a pleaser. i have yet to seem them finish this sandwich in ohio. they shot into twist around out of avenu 2 years before in columbus, and now, gordon leads the charge into a firey weekapaugh's groove.... no complaints here. gordon really blazes all the way through this tune, while trey sprinkles some nice licks here and there. finally, they smoke through wmmggw, closing down a very fine first set. the set list on this one almost reads like a 2nd set, so its tough to go into set break with any complaints. sure, mike's didnt soar like it used to, but it still rocked. better than seeing gbott for the 30th time in 2 years.

first tube gets the crowd honed back in, and it spaces out a bit before finding a really nice limb by limb. they jammed this one out nicely without straying too far from the limb theme. dirt is played well, but i did not really like it in this slot. i don't think anyone really needed a "breather" song here, but it's all good when they follow it with a nice deep it's ice. then they do it again, with velvet sea this time. searching for some flow, they delve into a good funky sand. i'm not a fan of the mini key board, but i still like these sand jams. not the best, not the worst. at least trey stayed awake for all of this one; i am quite certain he nodded off for a minute or so during sand in cincy in 99. fishman and gordon really shine on this sand. guyute was well-executed. as it was played so frequently at this time, it was one of the few "composition heavy" pieces they were consistentley nailing in 99-00. bbfcfm almost comes out of nowhere on the back section of this guyute. personally, i kind of like this song, as long as it is kept to about once a tour, but this is a fun version. then they fire up a rare set closing drowned, just to remind everyone that yes, it is raining pretty damn hard. trey takes a nice solo, but this is not a world changing drowned here. it's the thought that counts sometimes. cavern sends the fans home happy.

this is one of those very rare shows that i think the first set was a little better than the 2nd. the setlist was stacked in the first set, and the quality of play was about equal. plus, the second set seemed to lack direction and flow. after sand, they found a bit of a groove, but the first half of the set, it seemed a little up and down.

highlights:

set 1:

wolfman's brother, mike's groove

set 2:

it's ice, sand, guyute>bbfcfm