The Verdict:
The first set of night two at the Mann is sort of an inverse of the 7/8's first set. Where 7/8's first set had great song choices that were played, overall, at a bit below average quality, 7/9's first set is a sort of weird disaster in set construction that gets by anyway because the songs are played with such gusto you forget how little sense they make together. This set features takes on "Stealing Time" and "Alaska" that even got my attention, there's a "McGrupp" in there, and the closing "Antelope" hearkens back to those crazy early '09 versions in the best way.
S2 is a lot like the night one in the sense that there's not much there except for when there is. Specifically, the "Chalkdust Torture" and "Twist" jams are amazing, and the rest might as well be in a first set somewhere. Like the "Fuego" and "Ghost" from the first night, if you get a lot of mileage out of the jams here, you won't miss the consistency, but if they don't click with you, the whole thing will come off feeling inconsistent. For my money, the "Chalkdust" jam is incredible and the "Twist" is another deconstruction of a song that's really getting shaken out of its stale shell this year.
The Live Review:
7/9/14: Glide opener. Brave decision. Trey's actually handling it pretty well so far.
7/9/14: Spoke too soon :)
7/9/14: The vocals of Sing Monica never quite have the punch live of the studio version. The outro jam on this version is hot, though.
7/9/14: Really good S1-type version of Birds here, too. The lack of energy I was complaining about last night is definitely gone.
7/9/14: Great Wolfman's next. Nice minimalist funk breakdown in the middle and Trey firing on all cylinders for the climax at the end.
7/9/14: Trey's even nailing the ever-elusive Sugar Shack solo. The Glide opener aside, maybe this is going to be one of *those* Trey nights.
7/9/14: Spoke too soon again. Trey falls to the behemoth known as Sugar Shack.
7/9/14: Huh. That was even a decent Alaska. And you know how I feel about Alaska.
7/9/14: McGrupp!
7/9/14: This is the set where there are lots of songs that I don't like but have good versions. Stealing Time was pretty great.
7/9/14: It's mandatory to like Horn, though.
7/9/14: I'm having a lot more fun hearing Devotion To a Dream evolve than I thought I would.
7/9/14: Silent > Antelope to close a S1 that was way better than it looks on paper.
7/9/14: Trey doing some awesome loopy, tension-building stuff in this Antelope.
7/9/14: This is my favorite Antelope in awhile.
7/9/14: RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN
7/9/14: S2 kicks off with what I believe is the first of many outer space CDTs from this tour.
7/9/14: Yup. Track length is way up there. Yum yum.
7/9/14: Actually, the early Type I soloing at the beginning of this CDT is really, really good.
7/9/14: Oh my shit this is good. At the 7:00 mark now.
7/9/14: This jam is managing to be both dark and driving at the same time. Page is adding some great synthy accents.
7/9/14: Trey is having no trouble at all just generating piles of memorable improvised melodies throughout this jam.
7/9/14: REALLY good > Wingsuit. There's that use of Wingsuit as a 'landing pad' everyone was hoping for.
7/9/14: Love Wingsuit, but don't like how quickly Trey returns to the main melody in the outro jam. Deserves a real Dark and Down style jam.
7/9/14: Winterqueen! Been a fan of this one since seeing the 7/25 version.
7/9/14: This one's nice, too. The jam is a little less effortless, if that makes any sense, but still purty.
7/9/14: Another slow, syrupy Twist is next. Everyone playing around a bit with the intro.
7/9/14: No huge jams, but based on the versions I've heard so far, Twist should be considered the 'MVP' of the tour for sheer inventiveness.
7/9/14: Wow. That was an awesome 10 minutes of Twist. Little section in the middle that departed from the usual structure for some space.
7/9/14: Trey bending notes like crazy at the end.
7/9/14: Twist > Crosseyed?! Oh shit, yes.
7/9/14: A little loop action making its way into this Crosseyed.
7/9/14: Great, weird fade-out, with 'Still waiting' vocals and atonal guitar > Waste.
7/9/14: That could probably be construed as a 'ripcord' by those who can't hear when a jam has run its course. I thought it was purty.
7/9/14: A nice Waste breather before B> Mike's.
7/9/14: For those of you playing at home, remember that translates to 'Waste, butt-slammed into Mike's.' :)
7/9/14: Mike's is staying funky, which actually plays more to 2014 Trey's strengths. More chording, less sort-of-limp-sounding shredding.
7/9/14: Sneakin' Sally out of a strong Mike's. This S2 is killer.
7/9/14: Pretty standard Sally, but a great choice for set closer.
7/9/14: No, #phish fans! Stop cheering for the Julius encore! It just encourages it!
7/9/14: Ah, nice move to close that Mike's Groove up before ending the show. Pretty funky Weekapaug.
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