Review by: Virak S.
San Francisco's Slim's has been a place for great performances over the years.
Josh and Co. return and just may have played one of the best performances
ever at Slim's. The Show kicks off with Monsters in the Parasol which pretty
much warms up the band and gets the crowd in a get-ready-to-be-rocked mood.
After the song, Dave throws his red and white shirt off and does his
trademark water bottle spray out. And this signals his pure adrenaline kick
into an agressive version Feel Good Hit of the Summer, which is followed by
Quick and to the Pointlesss matching that same energy. You Would Know is
followed and really gets the crowd into it as it is a fan favorite. The
pumped up adrenaline fest returns with Millionaire where Nick's voice reaches
screaching magnitudes a lot like his Mondo Generator songs. Josh announces
that the next few song are new ones as the crowd roars with approval. Then
Mark makes his first appearance in a quiet flash to sing on great back to
back leads on Hanging Tree and Songs for the Dead. Marks great tone is a
sonic amazement that left me in awe. With the Screaming Trees, Mark has also
played a number of great shows at Slim's in the past. Dave's awesome drum
solo at the beginning of Dead is reminiscent of a John Bonham is his Led
Zeppelin prime (also leaving me to wish I was older so I could've heard him
in person in Scream and Nirvana days). Josh also greatly compliments Mark's
vocals on these songs. As Mark leaves, the band goes into a thoroughly long
and energetic tempo-changing pounding in I Think I Lost My Headache. Not
only is the band drained of energy and sweat but so is the crowd. After the
conclusion of Headache, Dave, a little exhausted, showers a bottle of water
I was happy to get splashed by some water as Dave uses his bottle like a
wand to splashes the crowd to cool off a little. This is followed by Avon,
which I noticeably leaves Dave unable to play the drum solo probably due to
the energy spent on Headache. Nonetheless, a great performance solo or not.
Then the band plays No One Knows which had an incredible beat by Dave. This
is followed by Nick's song Gonna Leave You. When I first heard this song, I
thought Josh was singing lead, and found it pretty interesting to find out
that Nick has a song where he doesn't scream. Then Mark makes his return to
the stage to sing on Walking on the Sidewalks. As always, there is heavy
thrashing of guitars by Josh and Troy. This followed by by three great
performances of gems Old to Clarissa, Tension Head and Regular John. They
were all flawless versions. Of course with Dave Grohl these songs have added
flavor. Then, the band plays Do It Again where the crowd chants along "Hey."
The band leaves the stage for about a minute and returns with Mark to play
God is Radio for the first encore. Noticeably funny, during the interlude,
somebody from the crowd shouts out "You Guys are Sooo Sensitive!" Josh
immediately shouts back "Shutup or Your gonna hurt my feelings" sacastically
to make the crowd laugh. Josh plays awesome guitar to finish out the track
as Mark leaves prematurely before the song ends. The band leaves again only
to return with one final encore of The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret. All in
all, this show was amazing from beginning to end. I'll never forget
it....--Virak S.
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