Though Fall '09 tour ended on a high note with some satisfyingly weird moments in Miami, it was mostly underwhelming after the brilliance of much of the Summer '09 comeback tour. So, coming in to Summer 2010, I was hoping to see the boys hit the reset button, as it were. I was at 6/12 live, and know it's a good show, but how would the tour opener on 6/11 be? Reports suggested it was the best tour opener since the 90s. I haven't listened to everything in-between to be able to make a comparison, but it's a damn good show, and a great place for the band to start (over).
How better to open a summer tour than with a "Disease"? This is the first song I ever heard Phish play live, so I'm partial to it being put in the opening slot. Besides, it's not like we didn't get enough of 'em in the early second set Monster Jam slot in '09. This version is not jammed, of course, but it's everything you could want in a 9-minute "Disease": great runs from Trey, little tension-and-release builds, and a perfect rock peak. "Wolfman's" is short as well, but the playing around the band does within its compressed structure comes as close to outright jamming as possible before descending from minimalist, plinko-y funk back into more Trey shredding. Trey especially stays on point through "Possum," linking together very purposeful but speedy lead playing that sounds much more attentive than most of his playing during the previous fall.
The hits just keep on coming with "Boogie On" and "Reba." The "Reba" features the first overt use of the whale pedal of the tour, which is a bit of a turnoff for me (I like it applied tastefully, but not broadly because of how it smudges the usual Trey tone, which sounds out of place on classic songs like "Reba"), but it's still a solid jam. "Jesus Just Left Chicago" is surprisingly light on Page, and is an odd version because of how much Mike dominates the instrumental sections. Worth a listen.
"Divided Sky" is pure energy, and the "Golgi" > "Bowie" set closer doesn't let up, either. "Bowie" starts off with a mellow, slow, melodic noodle-jam, but eventually the whale rears its head...so I'm probably not qualified to comment at length on the quality of what occurs in the main part of the jam. Like "Reba," it's well-played...Trey's guitar just sounds out of place.
Anyway, it's a near 90-minute first set in nine songs, the entire thing hangs together really well, and the energy never lets up. After largely lackluster first sets in the fall, things are looking up here. And it only gets better in the second set.
We start with a "Light" jam full of whalepeggios...but eventually it settles down into a darker space, and, led by Page and Mike, we get a preview of the "Number Line" jam coming up tomorrow night in Blossom. There's a solid -> into "Maze," which features some extra-special Trey/Page action. The meat of this short(ish) second set, though, is "Ghost" -> "Limb By Limb."
The "Ghost" jam starts off with some neat tempo-shifting action from the rhythm section before moving into more standard noodling territory for a few minutes. Eventually the whale rears its head, but in this case it's deployed pretty responsibly, and the effect is what I immediately began thinking of as "dark whale" jamming. This still isn't my favorite thing ever, but it's an interesting listen. But then, just as we reach the point in the jam that would have meant a definite ambient dissolve in '09, Trey takes this "Ghost" to an absolutely obscene peak. Like, "you have no right jamming like this on opening night" good. The wind-down after sets up a perfect -> "LxL," and the "Limb" itself features, rather than the typical Type I solo "jam," an actual mini jam that features all four players pretty prominently, ended with an impromptu vocal jam. It's an excellent segment of what's already a great show even without it.
This set's a little front-loaded in the sense that the rest after the "Limb" is basically just a winding-down. But, the energy never wavers, and it's more just that the first half of the set was so good, making the second part seem slow by comparison. Anyway, "Caspian" is surprisingly Mike-centric, the "Silent" is well-played, and the "Antelope" is back in early '09, massive-peak form. The "Julius" closer is another version of the song that's so good it's threatening to make me actually enjoy hearing it.
So yeah. Great tour opener after all. Great setlist construction, some patient segues, excellent jamming, and great all-around, high-energy playing throughout. Throw a vacuum solo in here somewhere and you've got the perfect Phish show. I still have some whale-related reservations about this tour, but here's hoping it keeps on rolling!
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