Summer '09: Inconsistent setlists, sloppy playing, but with big jams.
Fall '09: Better but not great setlists, pretty consistent playing, but with no jamming.
Summer '10: Very well-constructed setlists, spot-on playing, but no sign of the jams.
SPAC II just reinforces this summary, really. The first half of S1 is just a fantastic run of songs, but there's nothing really to write about if you've heard any of these songs before. "Brother" functions well as a fun opening number, "Bag" > "Back on the Train" is a solid pairing, and "Undermind" and "Cities" are both great S1 songs, though hearing them back-to-back just made me reminisce about some of the more interesting places they've both gone recently.
"Gotta Jibboo" seems like it will be promising, with Tony Markellis on bass and Mike playing a second guitar; however, I'm not sure if it's just the Live Phish mix, or the live mix itself, but I don't hear Mike at all during the tune, and the bass riff is straightforward enough (and Tony does so little with it), that this sounds like your typical version, despite the interesting setup. Trey takes it through its usual Type I paces and that's that.
"Roggae" is one of my all-time favorite S1 songs, especially after the '11 Gorge version and the fantastic '13 Gorge version that still, alas, only exists in my imagination. This take features some really great jam-leading action from Mike (who seems to be leading jams more and more these days), but its undercut a bit by some generic whale jamming from Trey. That's the easy highlight of a consistent-but-straightforward S1, unless you like "Sleep Again" like I do, in which case there's another rare Phish version of the tune here that Trey predictably fumbles on (even his own side project songs are unlearnable, it seems).
If Summer '10 has been all about the consistently good setlist-building, then a surprise like "Carini" > "Mango Song," is actually welcome. This "Carini" doesn't do much new until its last minute or so, when it spins out of a Type I jam into a half-hearted reprise of the Blossom "Number Line" jam, but the "Mango Song" segue is hilarious (just because it's so unexpected). "Drowned" is the centerpiece jam of this show (as much as there's been a centerpiece jam in any show since Toyota Park/Blossom), and it's a good 'un, all things considered. It follows the typical Type I rock > Space Funk > Ambient Fade template that I've complained about so much lately, but with a few flourishes that makes this take on the form sound new. There's some very Oysterhead-y Trey soloing in the funk section, for instance, and Mike lays down some great bass melodies over the ambient fade, and a series of overlapping guitar loops set up a fantastic segue into "Swept Away" -> "Steep." There were many better jams than this in '09, but this is one of the first few must-hear pieces of Phish music in '10.
Phish - 6/20/10 "Saratoga Jam #2 > Swept Away > Steep" from Phish on Vimeo.
"Makisupa" blends cleverly into "Piper," with some "Policeman!" lyrics overlapping with the "Piper" intro riff, but "Piper" itself is more or less a standard take, minus a quick fadeout that sets up a > "2001." "YEM" is fast and satisfying, if a little sloppy.
Sorry if this review seems a bit perfunctory; I keep running into this problem of feeling like I'm saying the same things about every show lately, and through doing that implying that all the shows are interchangeable and therefore bad. They're not bad, though they might well be a bit interchangeable.
Anyway, I'm listening to the Mansfield show now, and while it's hardly a return to improvisational form, so far it's quite an improvement. So that's good. Oh, and this whole show exists on YouTube. So there's that, too.
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