So, the acoustic set is just about sublime. The song selection is a little weird: considering this might be the only acoustic set we ever hear the band play, they stick mostly with songs you'd expect to hear an acoustic setting anyway, but the few surprises are big surprises.
A lot of the expected acoustic songs feature neat little mini-jams, and (at least on my recording) Page's piano stands out over Trey's acoustic guitar, which means when the interlude on, say, "Water in the Sky" hits, Page and Mike are actually up front for once. In addition to the very fact that the band is playing on acoustic instruments, this set also represents a sort of different "order" of hearing the band members than what I'm used to during electric shows, and that in and of itself is a small but incredibly important detail. "Brian and Robert" is excellent in this setting, as is Mike's "Invisible," a song I'd never heard before. "Mountains In the Mist" and "The Curtain With" are the two big surprises here, and they're both played to perfection. "Mist" includes a short outro jam that features a lot of gorgeous acoustic interplay, while "The Curtain With" translates wonderfully into this setting, showcasing the boys' ability to play composed pieces precisely and beautifully without any electronic frippery.
Yeah, I just used the word "frippery."
The rest of the set sounds pretty much like you'd imagine it would. "Let Me Lie" actually sounds better in the acoustic setting, "Train Song" is excellent, and though I could take or leave "Sleep Again" as it's already been played acoustic by Trey ad nauseum, it's not badly played. "McGrupp" is the obvious highlight of the second part of the set, though, featuring some wonderful ivory-tickling from Page and setting up a wonderfully schmaltzy encore.
If you like occasionally indulging in acoustic cheese (like I do), then this encore is for you. "Driver" is great, hearing "Talk" at all is fantastic, and "Secret Smile," like "Let Me Lie," actually comes across better in this setting than in the electric sets it's been used in. Overall, this is definitely not just a gimmick set, and is well worth a listen. It's a wonder that they don't do sets like this more often.
Oh, and here's the beginning of a set of videos of the entire set, again. Thanks, internet!
The second-set-opening "Bag" is pure fire from beginning to end, and set a tone, early on, that the band was in Crush-Everything-Out-Of-The-Park Mode. Unfortunately, that never really translates into anything beyod strong, song-based playing, but when this show does excel, it's mostly because Trey's in full force. "Rift" is the trainwreck most, if not all 3.0 "Rift"s are, but the following "Jibboo," "Heavy Things" pairing showcases more amazingly precise and energetic shredding from Trey a la the opening "Bag." This pair is worth a listen if you have any sort of positive feelings toward these catchy-as-hell Farmhouse tracks.
"Reba" gets a surprisingly exact reading up through the end of the composed part, where everyone suddenly accordions into each other and then everyone sort of takes their own path into the jam. Again, here, it's Trey's guitar pyrotechnics that make the jam itself a satisfying recovery. "The Wedge" and "Guelah Papyrus" are neat setlist choices, but neither one is particularly solidly played, but the "Undermind" that follows makes up for what has come before.
"Undermind" actually clocks in at under 8 minutes, but it's easily my favorite "jam" of the show, and quite possibly the festival. Things get spacey as soon as the lyrics drop out, with Trey, Page, and Mike all altering their tones accordingly. The boys continue in this semi-plinko space-funk vein for a few minutes before Trey just decides to up and shred the shit out of everything (in a good way), driving the song to a surprisingly explosive end. "Sparkle" is a nice bridge to a weird, winding, almost slow-motion "Melt," which ends the second set, which on second thought is probably the best non-gimmick set of the festival. Again, if you're a jam-hound, I'm sort of damning with faint praise here, but there's a lot of good playing buoyed by some great playing on "Undermind" and weird playing on "Melt."
The final set of the fest looks awesome on paper, but in execution is just more of the same: high energy, low improv. If you've enjoyed the run so far, you might as well head down the final stretch. If you've found yourself wanting more, you can probably skip this and head straight into Fall '09 proper. The "Tweezer" clocks in at 15 minutes, but it's pretty standard funk all the way through. There's a great, sudden jump into more ambient space at the 14:00 mark which turns into a solid segue into "Maze," which turns out to be a high-energy affair driven by Fish's manic drumming and Trey and Page slamming away for all they're worth on their respective instruments...though again, it's more energy than innovation.
The rest of the final set is pretty straightforward, save for an extra-strong "Limb By Limb" until "Light." About 7:00 in to the song, Page leads the band via weird-space-organ washes into an ambient space that just gets more and more abstract for the next eight minutes or so. There are points where the percussion drops out completely, and Trey eventually gets what sounds like a few different loops running. The end result is a solid few minutes of legitimate late-90s ambient jamming. It never really "goes anywhere," but I don't think that's the point of ambient jamming. If you're a fan of the band's ambient phase (and I'm slowly becoming one), you should check this "Light" out. Eventually, the ambient space coalesces nicely into a "Slave" that's long, patient, and features a very satisfying, weekend-ending peak.
The encore features a nicely-played "Esther," but all told it's a pretty weird closer...I sort of prefer to think that the show ended with "Slave."
Anyway, overall it was really fun listening to Festival 8 for the first time. I feel like in writing my reviews, I became a bit of a broken record and maybe ended up sounding like my ultimate reaction was "Meh, no jamzzzz!" when in reality the entire run was pretty satisfying. I think, hypothetically speaking, had I shown up for this festival and gotten a set of acoustic Phish and an Exile on Main Street cover along with six sets of generally well-played, high-energy classic Phish songs with a slight jam sprinkled in here and again, I would have been more than happy. It's just a little mystifying, honestly, why the band - who have been exponentially increasing their jamming prowess since Hampton - would play a festival - arguably where they have, in the past, been prone to indulge their jammy tendencies the most - and play all three nights straight. I guess I feel like as a Halloween run, this set of shows succeeds, but as a Phish Festival, it's probably my least favorite. Which, again, is not to say it's bad. But, if you haven't got the time to hear everything, just check out the acoustic set and the Exile set. You won't miss much else, except maybe that 10/30 "Wolfman's" > "Piper" and the 11/1 "Undermind."
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