2014-07-26 MPP I

The Verdict: 
This show is, for my money, the show that the band was working toward playing on 7/16 and 7/25. It's got great segues, (mostly) solid playing throughout, and a big jam sequence to anchor it all. Basically, there's something for everybody and after I was done listening I didn't wish there'd be more of this or more of that: everything in its right place.

S1 isn't anything stellar, but it has a consistent momentum, the song selection is great, and the Trey-Mike interplay in "Roggae" is excellent. Sure, there have been more interesting first sets this year, but this one's nothing to sneeze at.

S2 is pretty magical, with a "Carini" that goes deep, and though it never really gets that weird, the jam space the guys carve out is really brilliant in a straight-rock-and-roll sort of way. The "Ghost" that follows is one of those where Trey latches on to a riff that's so catchy you're sure you've heard it before, and then the band follows him on a weird Rolling Stones/hair metal odyssey for a few minutes before a funk space sets up a segue to "Steam." "Steam" is notable here for its "second jam" that comes after the outro lyrics and is brief but all kinds of weird. Next is the segue-of-the-night into "Mango Song." There's a bit of a lull, including an extended "Light" that is perfectly serviceable but doesn't really live up to the jam-standards of 2014, before the set closes with an amazingly powerful "Hood" that potentially dethrones 7/1's version as the best of the year.

The Live Review: 
7/26/14: Sample opener. REAL ORIGINAL, GUYS

7/26/14: Funk time as they follow Sample with Moma, Wombat.

7/26/14: Short but sweet Wombat.

7/26/14: Early Number Line.

7/26/14: Roggae next! Like 7/25, this is a rote-played set so far buoyed by great song selection.

7/26/14: Trey going a little whale-heavy on this Roggae jam, but Mike is going to town in a good way.

7/26/14: Trey ditches the whale, starts straight-up rocking. Good Roggae jam all the way around. Injects a bit of the jam into S1.

7/26/14: Short Wedge (by 7/20 standards), and then back to the funk with Wolfman's.

7/26/14: Nellie Kane!

7/26/14: Monster of a bass solo from Cactus in Lawn Boy.

7/26/14: This set's developing a little of that mid-set sag. I blame The Line, which is a great song but tricky to place.

7/26/14: Stash gets broken waaaaay down. Super mellow jam. Lots of whale and piano.

7/26/14: Set's not over yet! Suzy time! Page with a mini-talkbox-solo.

7/26/14: Pretty mellow Suzy, except for Page, who apparently thinks it's the encore right now.

7/26/14: This Carini is developing really nicely into gooey rock mess.

7/26/14: Feedback build now.

7/26/14: Back out of the distortion haze with a driving riff from Trey.

7/26/14: Neat segue into Ghost. Probably could have been done a little bit more patiently, but still cool. Great Carini jam.

7/26/14: Really Rolling-Stones-style jam coming your way from this Ghost. Cool.

7/26/14: Transitioning from hair metal-pop jam to funk now.

7/26/14: Once again, and almost-fabulous-but-still-decent segue, this time into Steam.

7/26/14: Echo-y, plinko-style jam *after* Steam. Steam 'second jam'?!

7/26/14: Trey just goddamn nailed a segue into Mango Song. Great goats!

7/26/14: Mango Song was slightly extended, and led into the best live version of Sing Monica so far.

7/26/14: Late-set Light.

7/26/14: First few minutes of solid Type I Trey soloing, now we're in the chords-and-electric-piano space that the band loves lately.

7/26/14: Manteca-sounding piano from Page now.

7/26/14: This jam has chosen 'sexy swagger' as its direction and is sticking to it.

7/26/14: Page teasing 2001...and here we goooooooo

7/26/14: 2001 &gt

7/26/14: Trey digging into a riff here early on in the jam. Great interplay between him and Mike.

7/26/14: Trey developing the riff. This is EXACTLY what I was complaining about him not doing anymore yesterday. So happy now.

7/26/14: This shit might dethrone the 7/1 Hood for best of the year.

7/26/14: OH MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN YOU'RE KIDDING ME

7/26/14: Longest, if not most intense, Hood peak in the universe?

7/26/14: YOU CAN FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD
#2000Tweets #phish

7/26/14: @phish, can we have a Hood like this one in Eugene, please? Thanks!

7/26/14: Julius'd, but who cares after that Hood?


7/26/14: Probably should have planned ahead and made tweet number 2001 happen during 2001.

2014-07-25 Charlotte

The Verdict:
The second show of the year I got to see live was in Charlotte, and at the time I came away a bit more satisfied than I'd been with the DTE show. On relisten, I found more to like about the DTE show, and was curious if something similar would happen here.

Well, the first set is one of those where nothing terribly exciting happens, but the song choice is solid enough to keep things interesting. Had it not been for the band's tendency to toss out some S1 curveballs earlier in the year, this would have been a solid warm-up set; as it is, it's a little disappointing. That said, this is by far the best "Winterqueen" yet, with a stretched-out jazz-jam. The "Tube" is its usually-short self, but there's some interestingly weird chord-chopping action from Trey that makes it a standout modern-era version for me.

The second set is remarkably similar to the DTE show, actually, in the way it delivers its thrills. One big jam, and a lot of little jamlets connected by some great segues. Only this time around, the big jam is bigger and the great segues are greater. "CDT" is once again the highlight jam here, and it stays in a cohesively dark space throughout without losing momentum, changing and modulating without the distinct and sometimes jarring "Hey! It's funk!" > "Hey! It's rock!" jam style the band ends up in from time to time. It's one of the better (if not the best) non-Randall's "CDT" of the summer for me. And there's no video on YouTube because apparently nobody on earth was at this show but me.

Anyway, "Fuego" gets a short-but-sweet outro jam that dissolves beautifully into "Twist," and then there's the segue-of-the-summer -> "Circus." "Piper" is ultra-short, but moves organically into a surprise late-set "Rift," and then the guys land in "Waiting All Night" for a great take on the song, and a necessary cool-off. "Reba" is a late-set surprise as well, but this version is pretty standard.

The Live Review:
7/25/14: Relistening to my 2nd show of the summer now. Like 7/16 quite a bit more after, let's see if I find more to appreciate about 7/25.

7/25/14: Mike's Song opener is a great choice. Remember thinking that if they went into a 'second jam' my brain would bust.

7/25/14: Mike's B> BOTT to start.

7/25/14: Seriously sexy work from Fishman on this BOTT.

7/25/14: Good chords 'n' piano jam in Groove.

7/25/14: Good Wingsuit placement.

7/25/14: Wingsuit outro solo is a little shaky, until it dives back into the Dark and Down style.

7/25/14: Pretty mellow, chord-driven Possum instead of a shred-driven one.

7/25/14: TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBE

7/25/14: Neat little Ghost-like funk jam here, a little darker than usual. Trey distorting notes now.

7/25/14: MFMF is next. Except for Tube, everything's been played straight. Song choice is keeping it interesting, though.

7/25/14: Winterqueen! this tune is really growing on me live.

7/25/14: Extended Winterqueen jazz-jam > Beauty of a Broken Heart. Love hearing Page songs live, just wish Trey would play something decent.

7/25/14: Bowie to close the set. Page teasing the Bowie riff on his talkbox-thing at the beginning of the song.

7/25/14: Surprisingly purposeful Bowie jamming so far from Trey.

7/25/14: Slow to commit to the peak at the end of Bowie. Good version, though. Better than most recent ones.

7/25/14: Set's not done. Golgi.

7/25/14: Surprised me the first time, and just surprised me again. Because I'm stupid.

7/25/14: Major Trey flops on Golgi riff.

7/25/14: Someone in the audience is having a long, one-person conversation about how #phish should 'Play whatever they want.' #crowdbanter

7/25/14: 555 opener. Was bummed when this didn't go deep. But it's a solid version. Looking forward to hearing the CDT in SBD quality.

7/25/14: Trey trying to push things into the Weird Zone early in this CDT (< 4 minutes). Rest of the band is catching on now at 5:30.

7/25/14: Space-Darkness-Woos commence.

7/25/14: Loops and echoes abound early.

7/25/14: Weird. I remember thinking at the time that this CDT was a bit prone to jumping around. It sounds pretty consistent to me now.

7/25/14: Really dark and spacey. Of course I love it.

7/25/14: I'm not sure what Mike is doing right now but EVERYTHING IS AWESOME

7/25/14: That was a much better and more cohesive jam than I remembered. Nice > Fuego.

7/25/14: Had a proper Fuego jam come next, then BOOM! But, alas. StudioFuego it is.

7/25/14: Neat jamlet at the end of Fuego here, over a guitar loop that sort of approximates the song's main riff.

7/25/14: Actually, on relisten, totally sounds like they were trying to jam this Fuego and it just didn't work.

7/25/14: Really clever -> Twist to make up for it, though.

7/25/14: Page is owning the electric piano underneath Trey's chording here.

7/25/14: Oh yeah, that AWESOME segue into Circus!!

7/25/14: One of my favorite #phish things is when they segue brilliantly into a new song but not exactly that song... (1/2)

7/25/14: ...and then continue to play the whole song in the 'new' style instead of forcing a full transition. (2/2)

7/25/14: Anyway, Circus > Piper. My second hope for a jammed-out Piper this summer = SHORTEST PIPER EVER (srsly, 4:56 on LP).

7/25/14: A whole 30 seconds longer than the studio version!

7/25/14: At the tail of this Piper, Trey can't seem to decide if he's going for Rift or Scent of a Mule, but Rift wins out.

7/25/14: Frankly, though, that was a pretty natural ->. Despite truncated jams in this set, no official ripcords yet, according to my RCI.

7/25/14: Really solid Waiting All Night after the seguefest ends.

7/25/14: Forgot about the late-set Reba, too.

7/25/14: Trey teasing the Fuego theme a bit here.

7/25/14: Really mellow jam now, bolstered by huge Mike bombs.

7/25/14: Zero'd. Again.


7/25/14: End set with Page teasing Fuego.

2014-07-20 Northerly Island III

The Verdict:
It's too bad that the band's final night at Northerly Island doesn't pay for all. It's a far better show than the first two nights, and with two more nights like this, the run could have trumped SPAC, Randall's, and maybe even Dick's. N3 likely won't end up being my best show of the year, but it's got that special something to it that's missing even in a lot of the heavyweight shows.

S1 is by turns solid-standard and interesting. The song selection more than makes up for the more rote parts, though. We lead off with "Gumbo," "Jim," and "Tela," for example. "Scent of a Mule" is even weirder than usual, eschewing the typical Fish marimba solo for a full-band marimba jam with Trey on drums and Page on candles (yeah, you read that right). The wackiness on display here is the highlight of the set, but rock-solid versions of "Gin," "Maze," "Walls of the Cave," and a charmingly mellow "Ocelot" round out the typically-weak back half of the set.

S2 actually starts off a bit slow. The "Disesase" that opens is less sprawling than other recent versions, but more interesting, as it takes a spacey, almost-dissonant tack and runs with it for the entire jam rather than jumping from "movement" to "movement." "Winterqueen," "Theme," and "Mike's" all have a little extra mustard on them but they're standard tunes...fortunately, just when it seems the set is about to fall into greatest-hits territory, the guys drop a Type II "The Wedge" (yeah, you read that right) that's not just a surprise, but also one of the more effortless and interesting jams of the summer. It's a jazz-funk synthesis that never really lets up until Trey leads the guys back to the typical "Wedge" coda. As if that wasn't enough, "Ghost" is great, too, going the blues-rock route before a perfect segue into "Groove." "Groove" conjures a bit of the old show-off-Phish magic as the band jumps back into "Ghost" for a few seconds and then into "Stash," a song which wasn't even played earlier in the night. All in all, a wonderfully solid entry and a sign of great things to come, as the band is meshing huge jams with smooth transitions with seemingly effortless abandon.

The Live Review:
7/20/14: Gumbo opener is a good sign.

7/20/14: Holy third-slot Tela! And after solid takes on Gumbo and Jim no less. Will this be the first non-shitty Northerly Island '14 S1?

7/20/14: Love that little (big) gasp that rolls through the crowd at the onset of an early-set Tela. Or any Tela at all, really.

7/20/14: I like The Line and all, but it sort of mucked up the magic of the set. Scent is next though.

7/20/14: Scents rolls along on some great Trey chording to a marimba/bass jam from Fish/Mike. Trey joining in now.

7/20/14: This is much cooler than the Fishman marimba solos from other recent Scents.

7/20/14: Scent B> Gin.

7/20/14: Trey teases the jam portion of Scent in Gin.

7/20/14: Solid Silent, Trey flubs lyrics sheepishly in Maze.

7/20/14: Really neat, almost-'Woo!' jam in the middle of Maze there for a second.

7/20/14: Super slow and mellow Ocelot. Sort of suits things after that Maze.

7/20/14: Walls! Presumably this is the set closer, since this set has been like 2 hours long.

7/20/14: Somewhere between the Gorge and Los Angeles last summer this became one of my favorite #phish songs.

7/20/14: Overall, that set was solid in a way that's been lacking in the other S1s of this run.

7/20/14: Great song selection, great Mule, interesting Ocelot (!), strong finish.

7/20/14: S2 DwD opener. Easy to forget that there's been some very good Disease jams so far this summer, mixed in w/ all the surprises.

7/20/14: Trey bringing his chording fetish to this Disease jam early, to great effect.

7/20/14: Page leading here on electric piano. Trey adding great accents.

7/20/14: That was a really sustained, interesting jam (i.e., no quick style shifts like many longer recent jams). I like it. > Winterqueen.

7/20/14: Short-but-sweet take on Winterqueen.

7/20/14: Theme, then Mike's. Already disappointed by this Mike's at 0:44, because it's not 8/31.

7/20/14: Fond remembrances of Dick's aside, Trey is tearing this Mike's solo apart.

7/20/14: Mike's > Wedge? Bold move, guys.

7/20/14: Okay, shit. Wedge just went Type II.

7/20/14: Really great jazz/funk melange going on here.

7/20/14: And Trey manages to wrap it all back around to the typical Wedge ending. Great Scott!

7/20/14: Now it's time for some fuckin' GHOST.

7/20/14: Blues-rock jam growing some momentum. Fishman stole the steering wheel.

7/20/14: Lot of awesome guitar echoes from Trey. If this was at a lower tempo, it would be a great Floyd jam.

7/20/14: Truly wild noises coming from Trey's area now. Space bass, too.

7/20/14: Holy shit, perfect -> into Groove, just as Page nails a gorgeous descending piano run.

7/20/14: Groove -> Ghost!!!

7/20/14: Quick Ghost -> Groove. I don't normally use this word because I'm old, but that was sick.

7/20/14: Trey just teased the Stash riff, too, which is a song they haven't even played tonight.

7/20/14: First Tube with Trey on oddly subdued guitar. Not sloppy, just muted.

7/20/14: Often don't take the time to appreciate Page's organ washes in First Tube properly.

7/20/14: Every show this tour has been great, but this joins 7/1, 7/3, 7/5, 7/8, 7/11, 7/12, and 7/13 as amazing shows with two great sets.


7/20/14: As I hit enter on that, the band Zero'd me on the encore. Doesn't matter, though. Still awesome.

2014-07-19 Northerly Island II

The Verdict:
The second Northerly Island show started up very similarly to N1; that is, with a totally pedestrian S1. Well, that's not entirely true: the song choices are pretty great, from a "Moma" > "Wolfman's" opening pair to "Brian and Robert" > "Wingsuit," to "Tube" and "Roggae." However, there's nothing really of interest about the way any of the songs are played. In fact, I think this show holds the new record for Fewest Tweets Overall, because there's just not much to talk about. There's a brief Smoke on the Water jam in Tube, and it returns in "Antelope," but teasing is the extent of the Points of Interest here.

Unfortunately, that continues on for most of the second set. "Carini" opens and heads into a neat, blissful ambient space, but it quickly fizzles out and Trey switches gears for a run-of-the-mill "Waves." "Fuego" is the "short version" this time around, and the best thing about another minimalist "Twist" is the way the ending "Woo!"s segue into the introduction to "Light." If there's anything from this show that belongs on this summer's impressively long list of highlights, it's this "Light," which manages that effortless-but-complex sound that Phish manages whenever they're really hitting it. It starts out rhythmic and dark, but for the last three minutes moves into an absolutely spooky ambient area. Highly recommended. The only other thing worth mention is yet another "Hood" that moves beyond the song's usual structure. This one goes in a rock-a-billy-oriented direction for much of its jam, in a way that reminded me weirdly of "Possum" or "CDT." It's another breakout-weird performance for the song, but nothing on the level of, say, 7/1's version: it's an awkward transition back into the outro chords and it never quite reaches a peak, which seems important to demand even from avant-gard takes on "Hood."

So, as much as I hate to say it after 7/18, you can pretty much listen to "Light" and "Hood" from this show and skip the rest without missing anything. That feels like the first time I've been able to say that this year, which is both awesome in a way and shitty in a way.

The Live Review:
7/19/14: Lots o' funk to start, with a Moma > Wolfman's opener. Wolfman's had a neat, driving bit w/ Page electric piano in the middle.

7/19/14: Devotion To a Dream, 46 Days. Nothing to really mention about this set so far. Of course, last night started that way, too.

7/19/14: Exceptionally tight version of Yarmouth Road till Trey comes in with random, improvised guitar lines on the bridge and destroys it.

7/19/14: Brian and Robert! Hearing this orchestrated in Portland the other night was amazing. Makes this take sound goofy :)

7/19/14: Brian and Robert > Wingsuit. Making for a super-mellow mid-set, but I love the song choices.

7/19/14: Clav-heavy Tube with a mini-Smoke-On-the-Water jam. Wingsuit was pretty standard.

7/19/14: Short Tube > Free.

7/19/14: Sorry for the boring review so far. Not much happening here. Weird song selection. High energy. Standard takes. That's about it.

7/19/14: Surprise late-set Roggae. Starts out pretty standard, but gets a bit of a bump from Fish. Now a driving, jazzy thing.

7/19/14: Trey puts Smoke on the Water back into Antelope, too. Page w/ 'Istanbul is Constantinople' lyrics. Otherwise standard version.

7/19/14: Pedestrian S1, but S2 opens with Carini. A good sign.

7/19/14: Carini headed into a buoyant sort of ambient space.

7/19/14: Neat little jam with electric piano and some clever chording. Trey > Waves.

7/19/14: Ripcord rating is pretty low there. I think that one was circling the drain anyway.

7/19/14: Standard Type I Waves. Next is Fuego. Can hear the crowd chanting 'Vlad the Impaler' on the SBD. Pretty awesome.

7/19/14: Little Drummer Boy tease from pretty much the whole band in Fuego. Weirdest tease ever.

7/19/14: Twist time!

7/19/14: Continuing in the minimalist-blues vein of many recent Twists. Extended Fuego teasing.

7/19/14: Twist outro 'woos!' overtop of the introduction of Light, which sounds like it might be in a different key than usual?

7/19/14: Yeah. Trey trying to decide if he's going to sing it higher or try to drop down to the right key.

7/19/14: Outro vocals of Light with Twist 'woo!'s overlaid.

7/19/14: Dare we call it 'Twi-Light'?!

7/19/14: Really murky, rhythm-based Light jam. Pretty neat. Page's electric piano makes a few interesting appearances as well.

7/19/14: Spooky, spooky ambience starting at 10:30.

7/19/14: Really drone-y now, but really neat. Haven't heard a #phish jam stay that abstract for that long and still be good for awhile.

7/19/14: Hood up next. Midway through, it's developed in an almost Possum- or Chalkdust-type jam.

7/19/14: Clever weaving of the 'peak section' of Hood back out of this rock jam. Also, Trey throws in a Fuego tease.

7/19/14: And Cavern to close.

7/19/14: Finally wrapping up this show today. Grind kicks off the encore.

7/19/14: Ooh, Bug! I generally dislike this as an encore song, but it seems like it's been awhile.

7/19/14: Suzy to close for good.

2014-07-18 Northerly Island I

The Verdict:
The first night at Northerly Island is really a "tale of two sets" sort of affair. The first set is as first-setty as they come, minus an out-of-nowhere brilliant, Trey-led "Reba." Even the typical S1 giant "Stash" falls pretty flat.

But then, the second set comes, and it's probably my favorite full set of Phish music so far this year, and maybe going back further than that. It's not just that they jam out "Golden Age" into a beautifully dark, groovy place over 17 minutes, it's that the rest of the set then follows that jam style, that tone, to a tee, until the closing "CDT" > "Slave," which just serves as a cherry on top of a fantastic funk...cake? Pie? I'm not sure what the cherry goes on top of in that idiomatic expression.

I went back and read up on this show a bit after listening, and am just floored that nobody seems to have responded to it the way I did. The second set was absolutely bonkers-good, and to be this excited about it when it passed mostly without comment by other fans makes me feel a little like I might be crazy. But man, that "Golden Age" jam. The chorded-out "Mango Song." The transition from a white-hot "Sand" into "Piper," into some crazy "Piper"-jam/"Halley's" mashup into a fucking jammed-out "Wombat." Absolutely deranged. I love it. I'm not even going to fucking link to the songs on Phishtracks. Instead, I'll just embed the entire second set below. Just watch it. You're welcome.


The Live Review:
7/18/14: Extra slanky 555 to start.

7/18/14: Extra mustard on the KDF. Trey is sounding the complete opposite of 7/16's S1, here.

7/18/14: Obligatory Bouncin' > Reba.

7/18/14: Reba's composed section is a little rough, but Trey takes the lead in the jam right away with some gorgeous melodies.

7/18/14: Short but VERY sweet Reba, there. Check it out.

7/18/14: Weird placement for Waiting All Night. Harmonies are a bit off, but not a bad version.

7/18/14: Halfway To the Moon, Sparkle. I'd be lying if I said this was a brilliant example of setlist construction.

7/18/14: By and large, they're playing well, there are just many more compelling S1s to choose from so far this summer.

7/18/14: That said, love the syrupy 555 and the Reba.

7/18/14: Sample keeps the jukebox rolling. Or whatever it is that jukeboxes do.

7/18/14: Interesting little build in the middle of what might be the shortest version of ASIHTOS ever.

7/18/14: At this point, the 'good rhythm jamming from Trey' comments are becoming redundant, but he's nailing this Stash so far.

7/18/14: Squirming Coil to close an entirely average S1 (except for that Reba).

7/18/14: GOLDEN AGE OPENER OH HOW I'VE MISSED YOU GOLDEN AGE

7/18/14: This is gonna shock you, but Trey is having lyric issues.

7/18/14: Mini-Type I jam drops quickly back into the song's main groove.

7/18/14: Really dirty, dark groove emerging at 8:30. I really dig this a lot.

7/18/14: Often said the last few minutes of the 6/17/04 Moma is my favorite style of #phish jam.
There's been a lot of that type this year.

7/18/14: Loops and clav! Best summer '14 combination right there :)

7/18/14: Oh, this is just the best kind of #phish jam right here. Love it.

7/18/14: Trey gives a bit of an extended chord-jam to The Mango Song. Nice!

7/18/14: Sand, to keep the funk train rolling.

7/18/14: Okay, I've been pretty lenient on Trey with ripcords this summer, but that was a pretty brutal cut into Piper.

7/18/14: Page was just gearing up for some electric piano awesome...had they waited another minute or two, might have been a great -> but NO

7/18/14: So far, Piper jam has been Funk > Woo Jam > Space Funk. Pretty neat, w/ extra juicy Mike parts.

7/18/14: Sorry, that sounded gross.

7/18/14: Transition into something that sounds fairly 2001-esque. Neat.

7/18/14: Great segue into Halley's, which they had sort of mistakenly starting playing anyway during the jam.

7/18/14: Would like to have seen where that Piper jam went, but that was an irresistible segue.

7/18/14: Great, almost vox-only breakdown in Halley's.

7/18/14: Excellent segue into Wombat. This is friggin' awesome.

7/18/14: Holy groats! This Wombat jam just went into a dark space groove. These jams are all right up my alley.

7/18/14: Seems weird in the middle of summer '14 to hear a 7-minute CDT, but there it is. Good version, though.

7/18/14: Shit, forgot to finish 7/18. Slave comes at the end of that mind-boggling second set.

7/18/14: Really mellow opening to the jam. Mike leading with some great melodic bass runs.

7/18/14: Kind of a rush to the peak, but typically beautiful version of Slave. Now, super-slow-tempo Julius as an encore.

7/18/14: Page is working the organ instead of the typical Trey-led guitar jam. Kind of neat. Low-key for an encore, though.

7/18/14: Not a great show all the way around, but good god that second set! Probably my favorite set of the year so far. Groovetastic.

2014-07-16 DTE Energy Music Theater

The Verdict:
I read a review of Summer '14 somewhere the other day that suggested that the tour is mostly broken into two "phases": the first half where the band focused on creating big jams at the expense (somewhat) of setlist flow, and the second half where the band focused on flow and more "mini-jams" and transitions at the expense of huge space jams. I don't know that I totally agree with this idea, but if you stay zoomed out and don't look at individual shows or sets, it fits the summer pretty well. The reason I bring this up is because if you subscribe to this idea of Phish changing playing styles mid-summer, then that sort of explains why CMAC and DTE seem like transition shows.

Where CMAC was almost like a vintage '09 or '10 show, all straight playing save for one big, early-S2 jam, DTE is a lot of songs that want to jam but seem reined in by the desire to keep the momentum going. It's almost as if the band is scared to let things slow down, so the quiet spaces in each of these jams, which were often given time to breathe at a lot of other shows this summer, are immediately smashed under Trey or Fishman starting up a new song out of nowhere. In my opinion, DTE is way more interesting a show that CMAC, but it's ultimately frustrating because, had a few of these jams actually taken off like they did during most of the rest of summer, this likely would have been one of the better shows of the year.

There's not much of note from the first set: "Wolfman's" has a little extra mustard, and "Rift" is given a surprisingly competent reading, considering its recent history. The story, if there is one, is "It's Ice," which is played smoothly and features a neat, out-of-nowhere funk breakdown in the usually-dark interlude portion of the song.

Your mileage may vary, but I think the "Mike's Groove" that kicks off the second set is worth a listen. "Mike's" is standard, but the "Ghost" that follows goes deep right away and stays there for a solid eight minutes of clever bliss-type jamming. Unfortunately, it also begins the set's trend of moving on instead of exploring more abstract jam spaces. Particularly fiery takes on "Prince Caspian" and "Number Line" drop us in a weird "Groove" that starts to play a little with the usual structure of the song, before being weirdly abandoned for "Cavern." Late-set choice "Piper" begins a great jam, but then segues into "Waiting All Night," the shortest "Tweezer" ever is abandoned for an album-standard "Fuego"...you get the idea.

Maybe the most interesting part of the show, aside from the truncated "Ghost" is the "Possum" encore, which features a lot of minimalist-style playing instead of the usual guitar-led gusto. This is certainly not a bad show, but it's hard to enjoy the many small, potentially satisfying bits of improv without wondering what could have been, especially considering how easily the guys have been Going There most of the rest of the summer.

The Live Review:
7/16/14: Detroit, my first live show of the year this year. My sense is that it's better than CMAC was, but we'll see on the replay.

7/16/14: Wolfman's opener, with a side of extra mustard.

7/16/14: Run-through of Devotion To a Dream is rough, but extended nicely.

7/16/14: Trey is having some serious trouble with the first Wilson of the year.

7/16/14: Ugliest Wilson ever > Poor Heart.

7/16/14: Moma seems to get helping Trey get back on the horse.

7/16/14: Song choice, setlist flow, etc. would be great for this set so far if he wasn't struggling so much. Wolfman's was great, though.

7/16/14: This Stealing Time solo has a bit more swagger and a bit less balls-out rock than usual.
Interesting-ish.

7/16/14: Good ol' Streets of Cairo tease there.

7/16/14: Lyric flub coming back into the chorus. Don't remember Trey blowing chunks so much when I saw this live.

7/16/14: Some girl definitely just yelled 'I'll fuck you!' at the end of the SBD track. #crowdbanter

7/16/14: Yarmouth Road. Love this song. Wonder what it would take to convince #phish to cover Overstep for Halloween? :)

7/16/14: Really good version, actually. Mike lays down some great lines during the outro.

7/16/14: After I complained about Rift earlier in the summer, they played it at three of the five shows I attended.

7/16/14: They nailed two of those three versions pretty satisfyingly. This is one of them.

7/16/14: Nice little outro jam for The Line, too.

7/16/14: Great funk breakdown from Trey and Page in It's Ice. Forgot how good this was.

7/16/14: Short, shred-heavy 46 Days to close the set. Trey still struggling quite a bit.

7/16/14: Great song choice throughout, excellent few minutes of It's Ice, would have been a strong S1 if flubs weren't so distracting.

7/16/14: Mike's opening S2.

7/16/14: Standard 3.0 Mike's B> Ghost.

7/16/14: Falsetto lyrics in the chorus.

7/16/14: Forgot how fast this thing drops into weirdness. Trey looping immediately after vocals end. Arguably hits Type II at 4:00.

7/16/14: Trey and Page carving melodic lines out of darkness. Mike just dropped a lazer-bass bomb or fifteen.

7/16/14: In Perfectworld, they jam on the riff that Trey conjures at 6:30 for about 20 minutes.

7/16/14: Returns to riff at 8:20. Big question of 3.0 for me is why Trey doesn't stick with riffs like that like he used to.

7/16/14: It's not boring, it's fucking brilliant!

7/16/14: Great loops/echo action at 10:00.

7/16/14: Seemed really ripcord-y live, but on relisten the Ghost jam clearly just petered out. > Caspian.

7/16/14: Actually a pretty well-done Caspian -> Number Line by Trey, even if everyone else seemed sort of confused by it.

7/16/14: Nice chord-heavy Number Line here.

7/16/14: Groove features some Trey echo-chording. Sort of like the Dick's Mike's, but not as cool.

7/16/14: As cool as that Groove was, it seemed to have run its course by the time the > Cavern hit.

7/16/14: The first of three Pipers I experienced this summer that were cut tragically short. WHERE IS MY MONSTER PIPER

7/16/14: Page on the organ over Trey's chords on this Piper jam. Good stuff.

7/16/14: That one petered out REAL quick. Lots of promising starts to jams, and then just brick walls.

7/16/14: Admittedly decent fade out into Waiting All Night, though.

7/16/14: I found it ironic after my crusade for late-show Tweezers all spring, that this Tweezer would end up being a throwaway.

7/16/14: Oh, btw: fwiw, that's probably the best version of Waiting All Night so far. I love the song, and it's nice to hear it nailed live.

7/16/14: Very spacey beginning to this jam. Mike leading.

7/16/14: Trey constructing a nice rock build above Mike's work.

7/16/14: Once again, though, shit peters out just as it's getting interesting. So weird.

7/16/14: Fuego was a 'studio' version, but a surprising > Tweeprise.

7/16/14: 2001 was a nice surprise in the encore slot.

7/16/14: 2001 tease in Possum.

7/16/14: Minimalist jam here in Possum. Fish in particular is breaking it down nicely.

7/16/14: Think this show was way more interesting than 7/15, but also more frustrating.

7/16/14: There wasn't much to 7/15 except for that Disease. Here there are 5-6 songs that start off somewhere interesting then...splat.

7/16/14: If even 1 or 2 of those had taken off, this would have been up there with many of the great '14 shows, for sure.

2014-07-15 CMAC

The Verdict:
It's perhaps to be expected, but still a bit of a bummer, that after such a great run as the three-night stand at Randall's, the band would turn around and drop a show straight out of '09 or early '10 on us. That's basically what CMAC boils down to for me.

Oh, you know what I mean. Well-played first set, with a surprise opener ("Buried Alive"), a few very well-shredded but strictly-Type-I jams ("Twist," "Gin"), a composed classic ("Divided Sky") and just enough improvisation to forcibly remind you what's missing ("Wombat").

Then there's the second set that features one big, opening jam ("Disease") that gets aborted just as it's going really deep for a song nobody really likes to hear in a second set except, apparently, Trey ("Back On the Train"). The rest of the second set then proceeds to play out like a normal first set, except they close with "Antelope" so that everyone can throw in some "Fuego" teases and make it feel like something more than one 20-minute chunk of the show was interesting.

Oh, I'm not really upset about this. The guys have delivered in spades every show since 7/1 (hell, since pretty much 7/26/13, for my money), so they're allowed to have an off day. Just so you know, you're not really missing anything from this show if you just watch this video and then move on with your life.

The Live Review:
7/15/14: Well, a Buried Alive opener is always a great start :)

7/15/14: Twist in the 2 slot. A solid little jam for this early in the show, even if it's not as weird as some of the other recent Twists.

7/15/14: Heavy Thangs.

7/15/14: Page taking a turn on the organ while Trey chords. Neat!

7/15/14: Trey is just begging to rip into 555. Someday, perhaps.

7/15/14: On the other hand, when he misses with the harmony (as he's doing now), he sounds like a guy falling down a cliff really slowly.

7/15/14: Halley's! Great S1 so far, with Page's organ solo and Twist jam to mix things up a little.

7/15/14: End of short Halley's B> Gin.

7/15/14: Wow, so they just SLAYED this Gin. Not in the uber-awesome category of the Randall's version, but worth a mention.

7/15/14: Wingsuit. Great setlist call.

7/15/14: DSky! The one thing missing from the Dick's run. But that's what fall is for, I guess :)

7/15/14: Trey doing some really fascinating chording here in the outro to DSky.

7/15/14: WOMBEAT

7/15/14: Great little bass-and-loops-and-clav jam going here.

7/15/14: Pretty average Bowie to close a pretty excellent S1.

7/15/14: DwD kicks off S2. Opens w/ Pop Goes the Weasel tease, then some standard Type I jamming. Trey starting to work in some loops.

7/15/14: Things getting a little spacier now. Page on electric piano.

7/15/14: Stays really spacey, but Fishman keeps it driving. Usually a stickler for jams needing to 'go somewhere,' but I like this.

7/15/14: Now Trey adding some melody.

7/15/14: Mike pushes 'em into a funk space.

7/15/14: Trey is using his new 'just play chords' jam style to great effect here.

7/15/14: Were headed into a really arrhythmic space when > BOTT.

7/15/14: Sounded like they were going somewhere interesting, but those spaces usually just end in circling the drain, honestly.

7/15/14: The necessity of the ripcord is estimated to have been ~ 63%!

7/15/14: BOTT is being played at approximately 14 times its usual tempo.

7/15/14: Ooh, they wrangled a pretty great BOTT -> NICU segue out of that!

7/15/14: Long, great Type I Jibboo to follow up. Next, Theme.

7/15/14: MEATSTACK

7/15/14: Standard Meatstick > Fuego.

7/15/14: Just a little noodling at the end of Fuego, no full-blown jam. I like when they play the album version outro live, though.

7/15/14: The Wedge. Why the hell has The Wedge become such a second set song this year?! I don't mind, it's just weird.

7/15/14: Standard Wedge also, > Antelope.

7/15/14: Lots of Fuego teases in this Antelope. Quiet breakdown at the beginning of the middle section. Slow building, now.

7/15/14: Nice close, still heavy on the Fuego teases and a 'Diego' mention in the lyrics.

7/15/14: Aaaaaaand...Zero'd.

7/15/14: I can see now why people were frustrated by this show. Super-strong first set, second set falls mostly flat.

7/15/14: Except for the Disease, which was solid though doesn't stand up to most big jams of this summer.

7/15/14: Basically, S1 with flashes of brilliance to build up hype for S2. S2 features mostly Type I jams and S1-style songs.

7/15/14: Then they finish with a brilliant, tease-heavy Antelope as if to say 'Hey, we could have jammed, but didn't feel like it!'

7/15/14: 'Oh, and have a Zero encore, in case your nuts don't feel kicked in yet!'


7/15/14: Rare show where I liked the first set better than the second. Disease was good, though. Will play that bad boy again later.

2014-07-13 Randall's Island III

The Verdict:
If Randall's N2 was best-of-year-so-far material, N3 raises the bar even further, leaving the first two nights in the dust and making Randall's the easy choice for best run so far in a summer full of great runs. I add that last "so far" because I just got back from Dick's and it was even better, but we'll get to that in a few weeks.

S1 here opens with a surprise "Sand" that doesn't do anything really unexpected but is an excellent Type I take on the song. What follows is a lot more great setlist choices ("excellent flow," as the kids say), including a great version of the new "Winterqueen." A Page-heavy "Possum" followed by Trey drenching "Jim" in loops makes for a great second half of the set, and the whole thing comes home on an especially weird and atonal "Melt" jam that abandons the format of the typical outro jam for something far superior.

As usual, though, the second set is where the magic happens. Specifically, the "CDT" > "Light" > "Tweezer" combo that opens the set is one of the best sustained "suites" of improvisational music the boys have put together in 2-3 great years of such things. The "CDT" is the winner in terms of track length, but it does lack a bit in terms of momentum; it moves in lurches, and while there are some great moments in there (especially thanks to Mike), the real highlight is the "Light" > "Tweezer" pairing. Check it all out.

If there's one gripe I have about this show, it's that it falls victim to the problem most shows with hugely front-loaded second sets seem to have: the second half of the set seems like the band fulfilling an obligation instead of taking a victory lap. "Wading" is a nice landing pad out of the huge jam-suite, but from there it's all rote, up through the "Number Line" > "Tweeprise" encore.

But, hell! Randall's run!

The Live Review:
7/13/14: Sand opener? Well, that's exciting.

7/13/14: Page stays on the clav and Trey contributes some mellow melodic work early in the jam.

7/13/14: Warm up? Who needs to warm up? That was awesome. Just started laughing in the middle of the coffee shop.

7/13/14: Winterqueen sounds like they've been playing it for 20 years.

7/13/14: Great extended Winterqueen > Reba.

7/13/14: A little fugue trouble, but otherwise the composed section comes off magically.

7/13/14: Reba starts off with some interesting melodic leads, but the build to the climax is pretty standard > whistling ending.

7/13/14: Satisfyingly shreddy Birds > Water in the Sky.

7/13/14: Great little Page solo sort of ruined by Trey's weird chording.

7/13/14: C'mon Trey, there are only three chords. This was one of the first songs I ever learned on guitar before I even knew barre chords.

7/13/14: I COME FROM TACO MOUNTAIN BABY

7/13/14: Page is running this Possum with some organ soloage. Would be sort of neat if this turned out to be a Page-heavy show.

7/13/14: Great Possum > Jim.

7/13/14: Loop-heavy Jim jam > Bouncin'.

7/13/14: Firing on all cylinders again with Maze.

7/13/14: If they stick this Melt jam, this will pretty much be a perfect first set.

7/13/14: Trey is definitely on the atonal, weird side early on in this jam. Mike has the steering wheel firmly in hand(s).

7/13/14: I love Melt jams like this where they actually abandon the 'duh-duh-DUH!' instead of jamming over it for 12 minutes.

7/13/14: Trey singing along with his loop?!

7/13/14: Whoa.

7/13/14: Trey loops and Fish beats just killing this jam. Melt outro slowly working its way back into the fray.

7/13/14: Great first set. That in an of itself would be an 'average-great' #phish show.

7/13/14: CDT kicks off S2 and wastes no time going way deep (5:30).

7/13/14: This is amazing and there are almost 20 minutes still to go. Fish drumming around a descending scale Trey keeps repeating.

7/13/14: Trey returning to the brief theme he started the jam with.

7/13/14: Things getting darker and a bit of stop-start action about 16:00. Darkness Wooing?!

7/13/14: Page taking the reins at 21:00.

7/13/14: Heading into a transitional space now...or they were, until Fish took over with the heavy drums.

7/13/14: Mike has a serious bassline going now. My favorite part of the jam.

7/13/14: Huge jam finally drops into Light.

7/13/14: Feel a bit about the CDT as I do about the monster Fuego from Mann: great work keeping the improv interesting and going that long.

7/13/14: That said, there have been way more interesting (albeit way briefer) jam spaces this year in other songs (Limb, SPAC Fuego, Steam).

7/13/14: Many more than that, just the first three that came to mind.

7/13/14: Trey does an interesting inversion of the Light riff to kick off a chord-based jam at about 5:30.

7/13/14: Almost a Hood-type jam there for a minute until Mike took over again.

7/13/14: This Light has already explored more interesting spaces than the CDT jam did and it's only on minute 9.

7/13/14: Shit, this thing just went nuclear. Sounds a bit like the end of a Bowie jam.

7/13/14: Actually, sounds like they're jamming on the chords to Waiting All Night.

7/13/14: Unexpected B> Tweezer!

7/13/14: Tweezer jam kicks off with a downshift in tempo into some seriously syrupy funk.

7/13/14: Then ANOTHER drop in tempo...then back up. Awesome.

7/13/14: Really slowly building up into a blues-bar sort of jam.

7/13/14: Slow build to rock and roll madness, like the SPAC Fuego.

7/13/14: Wow. After the online chatter, I expected to be blown away by that CDT > Light > Tweezer.

7/13/14: I did NOT expect the best part to be the Light > Tweezer.


7/13/14: But yes, it was amazing. Pretty sure that just secured Randall's > SPAC for me.

7/13/14: Wading seems like the perfect cool-down song after that jam trifecta.

7/13/14: That Wading solo was a little more muted than usual. Sort of an interesting effect. Wonder if it was on purpose?

7/13/14: Sing Monica is next.

7/13/14: They must realize that they blew that jam out of the park if they're willing to follow it with Wading, Monica.

7/13/14: Sing Monica would be a lot better live if Trey would just accept that it's Tuesday from TAB and solo on it as such.

7/13/14: They actually nailed the harmony > slam back into the solo this time, though. That helps.

7/13/14: Trey's a little screechy early on in this Slave, but settles into the slow build nicely in the jam. Interesting melodies.

7/13/14: As if he heard me taunting him for screeching, Trey just peaked the shit out of that Slave shit.

7/13/14: Short Number Line, Tweeprise to end. Somewhat weak ending to a fantastic set and fantastic run. One of the best runs of 3.0.

7/13/14: Would say best run of the summer if Dick's hadn't just blown it out of the fucking water.