2014-07-03 SPAC I

The Verdict:
The second show of the summer picks up where the strong playing (and jamming!) of the first show left off. The first set is a great mix of new and old first-set style songs, bolstered by an extra jolt of whatever it is that makes those tried-and-true first set tunes still sparkle after fifty or three hundred plays. "Farmhouse" is a bit of a surprise in the opening slot, I'm glad to hear that "Yarmouth Road" is still getting played, "Devotion To a Dream" is growing into a "Heavy Things" or "Jibboo"-esque mini-jam live, and "Strange Design" takes the rarity slot. The pairing of "Mound" and "Roggae" is a great idea, and this "Ocelot" trumps my distaste for the song by heading into a bit of a blissful jam space instead of going the usual blues-rock route.

The second set is a monster in the mold of 7/1's latter half. So far, Phish has been including the typical single "big" jam in each second set, but have started surrounding it with more clever segues and short-but-effective jams than they did in, say, '11 or '12. The thing is that they can get so deep so fast nowadays that filling the second set with 12 and 14 minute songs might not look, on paper, as good as a 35 minute jam, but many of these jams get more mileage than their minute-age let on. It's true here, for sure.

"Gin" seems a strange choice to open the set, but it delivers on its promise by heading into Type II funk territory that oddly resembles "Waiting All Night" before switching to an ambient space that sets up a great segue into "Limb By Limb." This "Limb" also goes Type II, heading to a dark space that is inundated with Trey loops before segueing into "Winterqueen." "Winterqueen" and "The Line" both feature nice little rock and roll mini-jams as outros and keep the energy of the set rolling along. Then there's a late-set "Tweezer" that, like the "Limb" is short but manages to cover a number of different, very satisfying jamlets before dissolving into a pedestrian take on "Caspian." The rest of the set is pretty standard, but we've got three legitimate jams here and some thoroughly enjoyable takes on a few new songs. For my money, this show easily tops 7/1. Onward and upward!

The Live Review:
7/3/14: Farmhouse opener? Well, even if S1s are getting played mostly straight still, at least the song choices are interesting.

7/3/14: Wolfman's in the two-slot. Dives straight into some clav-heavy funk.

7/3/14: Like the placement for Maze.

7/3/14: Woo! Glad to see that Yarmouth Road hasn't fallen by the wayside.

7/3/14: Trey's outro solo is not great, but still a treat to hear.

7/3/14: Strange Design next!

7/3/14: Actually love the studio Devotion b/c of the 'overproduced' sound. But the live versions so far have been great, too.

7/3/14: Ocelot next. So far, the set's fun, but nothing remarkable. Liked the mini-extended take on Devotion.

7/3/14: Ocelot jam is actually sort of neat. Veering into bliss-rock territory instead of the usual blues vamp.

7/3/14: Weird to hear a short version of CDT, after the recent monsters.

7/3/14: Like the pairing of Mound, Roggae.

7/3/14: Page and Mike doing a lot of the heavy lifting on this Roggae. Trey keeps trying to derail them with some spotting whale pedal.

7/3/14: Page heavy again on Possum. Great stuff!

7/3/14: Bathtub Gin is an unexpected opener for S2. Even the crowd seems confused.

7/3/14: Developing this a bit more than it usually gets in its S1 slot.

7/3/14: Still Type I, but building up a hell of a momentum.

7/3/14: Nevermind. We just peaked and then went funk Type II. (11:00).

7/3/14: Sounds like a fast, funk version of Waiting All Night. If that makes any sense.

7/3/14: Ambient-ish space > LxL.

7/3/14: Oh boy. Looks like Limb might be going Type II.

7/3/14: This jam has hit about three distinct spaces in four minutes, all of them good. Now it's a sort of dark, rolling thing.

7/3/14: Trey is looping over this madness like crazy.

7/3/14: This is the weirdest thing I've heard Phish play (for more than 45 seconds) in a long time.

7/3/14: Nice > Winterqueen.

7/3/14: Wow. Great, rock and roll outro jam to Winterqueen. Makes me not even miss the horns :)

7/3/14: Page leading The Line outro jam now. These new songs lead so well into these neat little rock and
roll outro bits. Keep 'em coming.

7/3/14: Oh boy. You know how I feel about late-set Tweezers.

7/3/14: We're getting some dark-stadium-funk here. Not sure if that makes sense either.

7/3/14: Trey's picked up a cool riff and is running with it.

7/3/14: I don't have any half-cocked adjectival trainwrecks to describe what the band is doing right now, but the interplay is incredible.

7/3/14: Slick, natural segue into Caspian.

7/3/14: Quick version of Caspian, > Sparkle. Sparkle seems like an odd choice for late-set action.

7/3/14: And it's the 'Lope to close set two. How often does that happen nowadays?

7/3/14: Standard Antelope, but after most of that set, I'm not complaining.

7/3/14: Sing Monica is one of those songs that lends itself more to that overproduced album sound than the live setting.

7/3/14: Still nice in the encore slot, though. Still sounds like Tuesday.


7/3/14: Tweeprise to close, of course. Great second set.

2014-07-01 Xfinity Center

The Verdict:
What we have here is a heck of a tour opener. The first set especially is Fuego-heavy, as you might expect, but the new songs play well with the old. While none of them go deep, "Fuego," "Halfway To the Moon," "Wingsuit" and "555" are all energetic variations on their studio versions. "Wingsuit" is especially solid, with the (slightly) extended jam at the end adding extra punch to the song. The oldies are all played competently as well, with "Stash" even getting a short little bliss jam that's above and beyond the usual 3.0 treatment.

The second set is mostly made up of a unique Mike's Groove that runs from "Mike's" > "Simple" to a better-than-average "Free," a first-time-sandwich "Waiting All Night," and then a "Ghost" that packs a huge wallop for its short running time and then ends in a brilliant Fish-driven segue into "Weekapaug." The centerpiece of the set, though, is really the late "Hood," which is 18 minutes of jamming in a style that's reminiscent of the best parts of late summer '13 and fall '13. This is that turn-on-a-dime, wide-open jamming that the band excelled at last year, and it's back in spades. This is an easy tour highlight, and it's only the first show. Things are looking up.

The Live Review:
7/1/14: Stealing Time seems like an odd choice for a summer tour opener with a new album just out. But there it is.

7/1/14: Stealing Time = totally standard.

7/1/14: Ooh, Fuego at number two. Great to hear these songs live, but strange at the same time that they're lacking the studio polish.

7/1/14: Weird to say that about a Phish album as if it's a bad thing, but that is just a damn well-made album.

7/1/14: Viking warriors with animal heads.

7/1/14: Fuego is played pretty by-the-book. The BOTT that follows has a little extra swagger to it, though. More full-band than just Trey.

7/1/14: Halfway To the Moon! This and 555 are probably my album favorites.

7/1/14: Trey just did a neat harmonic-style fill at the end of the first verse that I don't think is on the album.

7/1/14: Solid live version of the song, all told.

7/1/14: It's fun to see how the old songs mix with the new. The Wedge is next.

7/1/14: The Wedge gets a slightly extended jam, as seems to be a trend lately. The guys are sounding pretty
tight for a night one.

7/1/14: Hell yes. 555.

7/1/14: Much faster tempo than the album version. I like it.

7/1/14: Stash is next. Maybe we'll get a first set jam?

7/1/14: Neat, seamless transition into a brief blissed-out section in this Stash. Major key (I think).

7/1/14: Okay, yeah, this has turned into a legit jam. Wow. That happened fast. We're like half a set into summer.

7/1/14: Bouncin' is a nice interlude. Next: Birds of a Feather.

7/1/14: Birds sounds a bit more democratic than usual, too. Trey doing some interesting chording, Page is sort of leading the charge.

7/1/14: Wingsuit to close S1. That drop into the outro jam is just the best thing. Can't wait to hear it live.

7/1/14: Great to hear that jam extended just a little bit, too. Though at some point soon, it's gonna go DEEEEEEEP

7/1/14: Second set starts with Mike's.

7/1/14: Drop into the jam here is a lot funkier than usual. No sign of Trey until about 30-45 seconds in.

7/1/14: No second jam in the first Mike's of the year, at least :)

7/1/14: Appreciate the classic > Simple, though.

7/1/14: Really solid, though short Simple jam. Usual style, but departing into something spacier in last two minutes.

7/1/14: Fish with a jazzy beat, everyone else is in ambient mode.

7/1/14: Pretty tasty segue into Free. The first true test of '14 Phish. Will Free be slow and boring?! Let's find out!

7/1/14: Okay, that was somewhere between a 1.0 Free and a 3.0 Free. But not a 2.0 Free. Good, though.

7/1/14: Long pause, then Waiting All Night.

7/1/14: Trey's expanding a bit melodically on the middle part of the song.

7/1/14: Ghost next! The opening seems heavier on the clav than usual. Early jam is slow, exploratory.

7/1/14: This is a really interesting space, and they got there without the obligatory 6-7 minutes of Trey noodling.

7/1/14: If 2014 turns out to be the year of the Instant Jam, I will do the opposite of loudly complaining.

7/1/14: Oh. Awesome, AWESOME segue out of the Ghost into Groove. Holy hell, I'm sorry I missed that one live.

7/1/14: Super funky take on Groove here. Seems like Fish is driving the jam direction a lot more than in the past. In a good way.

7/1/14: Harry Hood just immediately went out into left field, in a really good way. Super-spacey jam. Hollywood Hood reprise?

7/1/14: Jam sounds like a Round Room outtake.

7/1/14: Maybe this show has been a bit jam-lite, but I'm stoked to see a marquee jam show up near the end of the show.

7/1/14: As opposed to in the first and/or second slot in S2, like every other show since 2004.

7/1/14: Wow, that was some serious late summer '13/fall '13 jamming there. Easily on par with the Hollywood Hood. Slamming away on Cavern.

7/1/14: A typically swinging Julius to close.

7/1/14: Overall, this was a great tour opener. Consistently good playing, excellent set construction, good use of new songs.

7/1/14: Pretty much constant energy throughout, some interesting little jamlets (Stash, Simple, Ghost), and of course that Hood. THAT HOOD.