(1) Madhuvan - 02/07/2025 vs. (4) Rockdale - 06/27/2025

Milwookie by a dredlock!

Tonight (while watching Cotter sitting in with Neighbor!) I will pour one out for my JOTY, the Rockdale. How many jams give you goosebumps for 10 minutes straight? How many jams bring you to tears? Not many but this one does.

Really don't understand how this is so close.

Top tier Mad (high bar to clear). vs very good Dale (much lower bar to clear).

I like the Dale but the Mad is legend -wait for it--dary

Way closer than I expected this to be. Went Rockdale, but ok with my fav of the two beast Madhuavans squeaking along.

The Madhuvan from 2/15 in Grand Rapids over in the Royal bracket is like "hold my heer". Much stronger than this one IMO. We need this Rockdale in the Elite Eight.

I enjoyed the Milwaukee Madhuvan live, but Grand Rapids was better. Need me some bliss in the bracket. Vote Rockdale

The is a beast and the spontaneous 2nd ovation by the crowd sums up how thrilling it was to be in attendance. This Rockdale is so positive and joyful. Two great jams…I went Mad by a hair

Can we just stop and appreciate the cool things Trevor is doing on both of these jams? Our bass player has really leveled up this year and I’m all for it.

Whatever...this is stupid hard. Rockdale is better. Everyone that voted for Madhuvan is wrong.
🤘😁🖖

Opinions are a beautiful thing like that!

@Cptn_Incredible I have listened to the Cleveland Rockdale and I think this one is a lot better.

This Rockdale is a thing of beauty but EMG has to take it here. While listening to EMG keep going and take in the vastly underrated Modern which deserved a spot in the bracket

Regardless of whether there are arguably better versions of either of these, head to head it comes down to if you prefer the chaos or the dancy jam. I definitely prefer the Rockdale jam of these two.

One of the two most thrilling/unique peaks of the year tacked onto an otherwise top-shelf Madhuvan

vs

The Poor Man's Cleveland Rockdale

Folks, this one isn't even remotely close for me. I'm not even sure how this 'Dale made it into the 2nd round let alone the Sweet 16. Go listen to 3/10/22. You're welcome

Rockdale is the best 20 minutes of 25 IMO. Emotional, joyous, variety. It’s amazing.

Madhuvan. Usually Don’t really care for chaos jams unless they go into the melt down space and chill. But this one turned into a freight train in your face Llama ending jam!!!
MD gets the vote because it was unique. And Rockdale meandered and noodled around too much. I’m surprised to see it at about 43%.

After re-listening for the third time each, and now head to head, this Rockdale takes it and should go all the way.
Grateful for all the jams!

The Rock was very good, but WOW, this Madhuvan....even if it is less than the 2/15 Mad, its still such a unique, varying jam with details and complexities beyond just vibes and bliss. It's dark, and scary, and deep and complex. It is the shape of Goose improv to come. Embrace the future, vote Madhuvan

Definitely a super close matchup here. While I do think I like the dark and unique direction of the Madhuvan a tad more, I'm voting for Rockdale simply because the 02/15 Madhuvan is the far superior version and we don't need two of the same song mucking up the final stretch of the tournament here. Rockdale keeps things interesting

Rock fucks

Entire show at New Hampshire was criminally underrated. Second set was some of the best stuff I’ve heard in my life.

I think this Madhuvan is great, and is probably the stronger jam here (it was my number eight pick, and Rockdale my number 25). That said… I think both Wysteria and Rosewood are stronger than this Madhuvan (I had Rosewood as my top pick, and Wysteria as my number three pick)… and would REALLY like to see one of them in the Final Four. Giving my vote to Rockdale…. not necessarily because I feel it’s the better jam, but because an upset here clears the way for either Rosewood or Wysteria to make it to the Final Four. Sometimes it’s just as much about strategy 🙂

This Rockdale is awesome Vote Vote Vote 🍕

This rockdale was my #5 overall and this Madhuvan was my #2 overall. I am all for bliss jams, and this rockdale is absolutely amazing and makes me feel such joy. But when it comes down to it, I find it to be a less exciting MSG Thatch (#4 on my list). This madhuvan, on the other hand, makes me feel a certain energy like I can bash my head through a brick wall every single time I listen to it. This is a unique, top tier goose jam that I thought was going to be the no question number 1 jam through all of this bracket. 5/28 Dustin snuck to the top of my list at the end of the year, but I fully expected this mad to be the winner. Voting mad here. We shall see how it all plays out!!

The peak of the 2/7 Madhuvan jam was the most crowd energy I’ve seen during any rock show live in my life - an all timer kinda memory!

Rockdale has a nice section of full band imrov, then turns into a bliss jam. Nothing super unique here. This Madhuvan is the bee's knees.

This was tough, I could have gone either way on this one but tilted to Madhuvan. Sorry Team Rockdale.

Rockdale excels in jam quality and the level they reached with creative input from every band member in this song, pushing it to an impressive second set in every song after. No disrespect to this Madhuvan but I'm not convinced it’s more creative or deserving of JOTY. I think this Madhuvan is overseeded and others are better, TBH 🤷‍♂️

Like deja vu here but the Rockdale deserves the love

Give me the 2/7 vs 2/15 madhuvan matchup!!!!

Exactly what Neville said:

“Madhuvan will easily win this one but I honestly prefer this Rockdale bliss jam over the AIN two nights later. Don't sleep on it!”

New Hampshah Rockdale 💪🏻

“The Madhuvan before THE Madhuvan” - Handini 😉

@NHROCKDALE Rick rocked out and broke a string!

NH Rockdale for President!

These are two of my favorites from 2025. They are both so so so so so good. Both have been heavy in my rotation since they were played.
And I love how completely different they are.

As far as voting... gahhhhhhhh what a difficult choice. I repeat- these are both amazing jams. I'll go with Rockdale, only because the notes that Rick hits from 17:05-17:12 absolutely pierce my soul.

Whatever wins will probably be getting my vote next round too. I have a feeling I'll be able to say more about this Madhuvan in later rounds.

JNeimer has it spot on. The Gilford show went from fine to incredible because of this Rockdale, but it's a lightweight compared to what it's up against.

Madhuvan will easily win this one but I honestly prefer this Rockdale bliss jam over the AIN two nights later. Don't sleep on it!

Respect to this Rockdale, it saved a set and kickstarted what became a memorable jam-heavy show from Rockdale forward, but this Madhuvan is my favorite Madhuvan in a year full of awesome Madhuvans.

This may be the best Rockdale of all time.

Hardest matchup of the bracket so far for me. This Madhuvan is AMAZING. But this Rockdale is just absolutely incredible. GOAT version. I'm going for the underdog here.

No upsets here. The Milwaukee Mad is the truth.

Voting for the greatest madhuvan left in the bracket and my #2 overall joty easily over a still very great rockdale

Madh time

Gilford Rockdale supremacy. Time for an upset people!

GilforDale pulls off an upset on the weakest #1 seed!