This 11/29 show is the last non-MSG, non-NYE show of the year, and it epitomizes the ambivalence I've felt for much of this fall tour and, in a way, for much of '09 in general. You've got some great technical playing, some fantastic energy, but a noticeable lack of improvisation compared to later years of 3.0 and (obviously) earlier eras of Phish. I certainly don't listen to Phish exclusively for the jams, but when you're listening to 50+ shows to rate the band over the course of a year, you really, really want something more to sink your teeth into than just the fifteenth "well-played" version of "Cavern." The first leg of summer tour provided the occasional excellent jam amidst all the standard takes on well-practiced classics, especially when it came to "Tweezer," "Disease," and "Piper." The second leg of summer tour expanded the improvisational content to encompass some truly great jams, especially near the end of the run, but by Alpine, the blueprint for The Summer Jam was starting to show a bit, and it's obvious that by fall, the boys were looking for a new way to get into weird jam spaces. It's just as obvious that, by 11/29 at least, they haven't found it yet.
This show is stellar in terms of energy. If I wasn't a jam-hound and was just going to a live Phish show to have a good, fun time and hear some top-notch rock and roll, a show like this would blow my socks off in the flesh. As it is, it's fun enough on tape but largely nothing I haven't heard yet this tour, and it's a bit of a bummer to keep following this tour when the real highlights (like 11/20 S2 and 11/28 S2) are so few and far between, especially compared to the end of summer when it seemed like the band couldn't be stopped by a brick wall.
Anyway, enough griping. "Possum" > "Disease" as an opener is pure fire, and the sort-of-segue is pretty neat, taboot. "Weigh," for such a heavily composed tune, is played really loosely here and is, strangely, the better for it. "When the Circus Comes" and "Water in the Sky" are both played faster than usual, and "Stash" is drawn-out and stays within its usual confines, but is a hard-charging version.
The real meat of this set (sorry) comes with "Meat" and "Undermind." "Meat" starts to descend into goofy Phish antics, with Mike changing his name from "Cactus" to "Prince," but then things get weird when the band heads into a space jam instead of a funk jam. "Prince" and "Princess" (Fish) both get solos, and then there's some fantastic minimalist Page/Trey interplay. This sonic weirdness carries through right into the "Undermind" jam, which is also top-notch guitar-led space. Clearly, the guys have the chops to go deep at this point, but they rein it back in and stay in jukebox mode for the rest of the show. Trey and Mike give "Mike's Groove" the nuclear treatment, and we're on to the second set.
You can pretty much imagine how the rest of the show plays out by reading the setlist. Hot versions of "Moma" and "Rock and Roll" are followed by a potentially phenomenal "Light": halfway through, Trey and Page lock together on a set of fast, bubbly arpeggios and it seems like things might really take off, but the band quickly falls back on the ol' '09 ambient fadeout trick, and though "Light" is followed by a surprise "Crimes of the Mind" which Trey rocks into oblivion, that's the extent of surprise you'll feel listening to this second set, unless you really like "Pebbles and Marbles," in which case this could be the best version from 3.0 (which isn't saying much).
The encore is a weird one. I absolutely love the band's "cover" of "Free Bird," so it's impossible to go wrong there. It was hard to listen to this five minute "Carini," though, after listening to the song grow into a ridiculous hydra-headed beast over '13 tour. Finally, after the cacophony of "Carini"'s screaming (literally, thanks to Fishman) peak, we end the show with..."Waste." I like the sentiment behind ending a show this way, but especially at the wrong end of a three-song encore it feels a little flat.
I feel bad complaining so much about a run of what are essentially energetic, solid Phish shows, but I'm looking forward to getting to '10 in hopes that there's something more interesting around the corner...
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