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.
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