This show reminds me a lot of Gorge I in 2011. The first 75% of that show was chock full of amazing moments that made it far and away my favorite Phish show I'd attended to that point (and it might still be my favorite). The final 25% of the show, though, was a solidly-played if boring set of songs that weren't at all bad but left a bad taste in my mouth, just because I kept thinking that if the guys had just managed to string 2-3 more great songs together, the show would have gone from being amazing to being One Of Those Shows.
After listening to SPAC I 2010, I feel the same way. This show starts off with one of the best first sets (if not the best first set) I've heard since before Hampton, flows into a great second set...and then just sort of peters out at the end. But it's still mostly awesome, and as a show in a tour that's so far been mostly about great setlist construction and consistency without major jams, it's even more epitomier than the last few (except the end, but I'll get to that).
The show starts off with "Tweeprise," an obvious reference to the previous night's two-fer encore. This seems to light a fire under the band, as they proceed to rip through "CDT," "Funky Bitch" > "Jim," "Ya Mar," "Sample," and "Axila I." None of these songs have any real surprises, but they're so solidly and confidently tossed off this part of the first set could just be a studio album, albeit with a "for newbs" theme.
This "Fluff" is not my favorite version: the composed section is mostly spot-on, but the jam just a little generic and the long song sort of takes some of the punch out of the set. Fortunately, the "Gin" that follows is a pitch-perfect Type I jam, switching things up just enough so that it's not just Trey soloing for eleven minutes, while maintaining the momentum and technical impressiveness that made the rest of the set so great. After my first listen, I called this one of the best Type I jams of 3.0 so far, and after a relisten, I'm sticking to it.
Perhaps sensing greatness, Page absolutely destroys the set-closing "Suzy," and Trey throws in a Judas Priest quote just for fun.
The second set opens with Rock and Roll, which quickly moves into a sinister, nearly ambient space, with Mike leading the way. The highlight of this jam is the point at which Fishman starts fading in and out repeatedly with a particularly "tribal"-sounding drum roll. It's a really neat effect. There's a lot more guitar looping and such here as well, and the whole thing seems like a natural evolution of the last few minutes of the Blossom "Number Line" jam. While it doesn't hang together quite as well as that jam, it's definitely the kind of sound I hope the band continues to explore throughout summer.
There's a pretty effective -> "Free" at the end of the song, and this is the band downshifting from jam territory back into slaying-the-hits territory. Again, it ain't a bad thing. "Free" is solid, "Number Line" features a "typical"-type jam with everyone firing on all cylinders, and then we get the debut of "Halfway To the Moon," a great Page song which I'd like live even more if Trey could ever figure out what to play in the background.
There's a neat little outro jam to "Halfway To the Moon" that reminds me of "Rift" a little (have they ever jammed on "Rift"?), but it segues into a "meh" version of "Caspian," and here's where the show starts to finally lose it's amazing momentum. I suppose that's to be expected when three of your four closing songs are "Caspian," "Joy," and "Show of Life." Arg. Fortunately, the penultimate song of the set is a face-destroying "Bowie" that starts off minimalist and sinister and hits its peak in a really 1.0 sort of way. There are a few distinct mini-sections to this jam, and they're all good. Highly recommended.
A three-song encore is something to write home about, I suppose, but "Coil" and "Zero" are just average-great. Of course, the closing "Tweeprise" (as opposed to the opening one) is fun, and a nice way to bookend what is largely a fantastically energetic show that anyone but the direst jam-hounds will love.
No comments:
Post a Comment