Well, the SPAC run definitely delivered on the promise hinted at by 7/1's tour opener. Each show was a little different: N1 was consistent throughout with the "Gin" > "Limb" jam highlight; N2 was a bit rockier but delivered a few huge jams to make up for it, and N3 is lacking as many quality jams but features a great first set, lots of the AWOL-so-far composed classics, and an early tour highlight in "Piper."
The first set is the epitome of a great setup. Things start off a bit rocky, but by the time Trey starts to warm up in "Undermind," we've already had a "Crowd Control" opener, a "Myfe," and a marimba lumina jam, so I'm willing to give it a pass. "Foam" makes a rare appearance and Fish gets to bust out the vacuum for "I Didn't Know." For me, though, the brief "Wombat" is the easy highlight of this set. It's a lot heavier and has a lot more momentum to it than the studio version or earlier live versions do/did, and the funk outro hints at great things to come.
S2 starts off with a "Carini" -> "Waves" pairing that's almost, but not quite as good as it looks on paper. The Carini modulates from a quiet breakdown of the Type I jam into a bliss space before Trey starts (prematurely?) strumming the chords to "Waves." "Waves" stays standard, pretty Type I until after the outro vocals, where the song continues, moving into a surprisingly jazzy mini-jam. Maybe the highlight here is how perfectly the end of this jazz jam lands in "Wingsuit." I was just a little disappointed by the "Carini" -> "Waves" pairing if only because neither song really seemed to reach its full potential, but that's not a complaint that I can level at this "Piper":
It's just really good.
Anyway, "Divided Sky," "Fluffhead," and "YEM" all make appearances in this show on top of an above-average first frame and the seriously deep "Piper" jam. Though I loved me some of that 7/4 "Fuego," I've gotta say that is the best show of the three-show run, all things considered.
The Live Review:
7/5/14: What is it with Crowd Control openers on the third night of three-night runs? I'm pretty sure that's a thing. #phish
7/5/14: Great little Trey solo here to open. Page playing off it on piano.
7/5/14: My Friend, My Friend is next. Rougher intro than the 7/25 version, but nice to hear early on in the show.
7/5/14: Speaking of things that are nice to hear early on in a show, Scent of a Mule is third!
7/5/14: Great pre-duel jam by Page. I say only Page because Trey sort of just sat it out. Now some marimba from Fish.
7/5/14: That was a great three-member version of Scent. If this is anything like 7/4, Trey'll need 3-4 more songs to warm up.
7/5/14: Okay, I'll eat my words now, thanks to this Undermind.
7/5/14: Ambivalence = hearing ASIHTOS and Undermind back-to-back, but having them each be < 8 min. versions.
7/5/14: 'Moses DeWitt' performing a vacuum solo now for I Didn't Know.
7/5/14: Foam is one of those songs that I always forget about b/c they don't play it that often nowadays. Then it starts and I'm like YESSSS
7/5/14: This version of Wombat sounds a lot fuller. I like it.
7/5/14: Oh man. And the jam is just waiting to morph into something straight out of '97. Sort of does here, but just a little too short :)
7/5/14: Divided Sky! Just to remind us that not all Phish songs are either 6 minute ditties or 20 minute free-form jams :)
7/5/14: Had a moment the other night listening to Velvet Sea on a midnight drive home from Portland. Like it as the comedown song here.
7/5/14: Bowie to close S1. Not sure I'll ever get enough of hearing this song, even in its current, somewhat hobbled form.
7/5/14: Pretty standard Trey-led run so far, here. Fish is keeping the momentum rolling, though.
7/5/14: Great song choices, and (after the first three songs) solid playing throughout S1. Good to see DSky, and an average-great Bowie.
7/5/14: CARINI OPENER. That can't possibly be a bad sign, right?
7/5/14: Major fadeout at 6:00. Trey starting back up with a quiet melody.
7/5/14: Neat sort-of proggy-sounding bliss jam coming out of this breakdown.
7/5/14: Trey just started a new song over the still-developing Carini jam, but the new song was Waves, so I guess that's okay.
7/5/14: Waves is standard Type I until after the outro, where it's switched to a jazzy sort of thing. #wavessecondjam
7/5/14: *Perfect* slowdown into Wingsuit. Wow.
7/5/14: That's some 90s setlist-placement shit right there.
Happy birthday to the Hollywood Hood! The perfect conclusion to an amazing run. #phish
7/5/14: Piper, out of a Wingsuit shredfest. Slow intro build, by 3.0 standards at least.
7/5/14: Lotta momentum here. Heading confidently into funk-land.
7/5/14: Typed 'fuck-land' at first. Don't think I'd want to see a show where the band went to fuck-land.
7/5/14: This is really good. Modulating between a lot of spaces quickly, but confidently.
7/5/14: This jam almost sounds like the outro to KDF. Waiting for Trey to sing the lyrics.
7/5/14: Piper -> Fluff. BOOM.
7/5/14: Maybe the shortest Heavy Things ever, but the majority of it was a great organ solo from Leo.
7/5/14: Page continues to dominate through the first half of this Slave.
7/5/14: Okay, Trey came back to dominate the second half, so it's all good. Fishman, of course, is just dominating everything.
7/5/14: YEM!
7/5/14: Trey having some serious trouble with the arpeggios at the beginning.
7/5/14: Funk jam breaks down into a really quiet space. Crowd clapping along. On the beat, actually.
7/5/14: Pretty interesting Mike-centric thing going on here now.
7/5/14: Mike and Fish basically pulled that YEM from 'mediocre' territory into 'awesome' territory through sheer force of will.
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