My first trip to this venue. I have to say - it's up there with the best. So small that any spot on the lawn feels close to the band, beautiful water views, and just a mellow small town vibe. Plus VA was my adopted home - so nice hometown feel.

We got in pretty early to scope the pit area, where we started out. After a while it got super packed, so we just boogied up to the lawn, which was big and open but so nice and close to the action. Beautiful up there.

Set 1 opened with Timber, which was a great opener. I love hearing it, and its always packs a nice punch. This was a fine version, although nothing overly exceptional.

Undermind was another I didn't expect. Another solid version, but pretty short.

Bag kept the energy high. Galloped along at a nice clip.

Sidenote: Nice opening three tunes! Lots of fun.

555 was pretty good. I didn't think it was great though.

Divided Sky was beautiful (glad I moved up to the lawn for that). Great atmosphere, just really really pretty. They've played this well in recent years.

Ocelot was sort of it's usual self. Kind of felt like it fit the vibe here. Breezy lazy weekday in Virginia with your favorite band by the water.

KDF gave us a little dose of rock and roll energy. Nice pick me up.

Split Open and Melt was a fine version. This one headed toward the major key and gave it a nice distinctive feel. This was a great bit of jamming at the end of a relatively jam free set. Worth a listen, but not an all-timer.

GTBT - woo hoo! That's how you end a set. Trey left no face un-melted on this one. Take no prisoners.

Overall Set I: It was a good set, but nothing extraordinary. Some cool song choices and a well placed Divided Sky. Melt gave us something to write home about.
Highlights: Split Open and Melt

After taking it in during set break they opened up with CDT. They'd been taking this deep on quite a few occasions at this point. This was definitely went out for a spin. I found it to be very relaxed. Maybe it was just the vibe, but this one hit a ton of different spaces without really elevating to some pinnacle or peak. I really didn't love it at the time, but on re-listen, I think there's a lot to enjoy in simply listening to a patient band that is able to move so cohesively through so many jam spaces. It's like an amorphous sort of organism that just kind of pushes and pulls into different shapes. Pretty cool.

If I Could was an awesome breather after a long and winding jam. I love this song, and I think this was the first time I caught it live.

Well I didn't think we needed two breathers, but we got the Line. Hey, they are the band not me, so I'll give 'em a pass.

BOAF kicked up the energy, but was nothing special (I was hoping it would go deep after a couple slow tunes).

ASIHTOS also carried the hopes and dreams of jam lovers. This one gave us a taste, but was more of a tease than anything. It hit a cool ending that threatened to go into the beautiful Virginia deep space, but it kind of fizzled into Mike's (as much as you can fizzle into that one!).

Mike's was not super inspired to my ears and the Caspian that followed was nothing great either.

Waves was my last shot but this version stayed by the book. I love hearing it and it fit the proximity to the water nicely though.

'Paug>Cavern Golgi>Antelope was a speedboat through the chop after that Waves. Lots of fun, but again nothing distinctive. Pretty darn "songy" set.

Wingsuit>Coil in the encore slot was a treat. Hey, that's a bonus 20 minutes of gorgeous music for complainers like me!

Overall set II: This was uneven. CDT>If I could was the highlight, with not much else standing out. Pretty good songs, all pretty well played made for a pretty average night. Good encore though.
Highlights: CDT, ASIHTOS (had a moment or two)

Overall: This was a relaxed show. Plenty of fun, but those seeking the best of the best from a pretty good year will find themselves looking elsewhere.
2.25/5 Fun, but flawed.