The Verdict:
This show was a weird one. The S1 setlist was as bland as they come, and while a few of the songs in the middle of the set were at least high-energy rote versions, the flubs throughout the rest of the set were more frequent and more obvious than usual. Where a rough S1 will usually occasion the feeling of "Huh, seems like the guys are having a rough start," this set screams "Hey, these guys are really obviously failing to get on the same page." It's weird and a little uncomfortable.
Then, all of a sudden, the second set opens with a majestic "CDT" -> "Ghost" that's basically thirty minutes of mellow, melodic jamming beauty. If you're looking for a rager here, you're going to be disappointed, but this is one of the prettiest bits of music the guys have put together in a long time. After that, we shift gears into the boys' recent-default mode: lots of neat little jamlets at the ends of songs, connected by some clever segues. Peppered with yet more awkward and obvious stumbles. "Birds" and "Suzy" are bumbling, but "Tweezer" packs a lot of mileage into its short length, and the same can be said for "Piper" and "Wombat." "Boogie On" gets surprisingly weird for an encore, and I wish it could have gotten extended some more.
In all, this ends up being a show that is "good enough," cringe-inducing, and utterly brilliant all by turns. I can't say I recommend anything other than the "Tweezer" and this, in the end:
The Live Review:
10/21/14: Stash opener. That's promising.
10/21/14: Uninteresting-but-competent Stash to open. Nice setlist choice, but hardly a burn-burner.
10/21/14: Possum in the two-slot. Page seems to be taking the majority of spotlight so far. Trey laying back. That's cool.
10/21/14: Maybe it's because I stepped away for a second, but the timing in this Ocelot seemed way off for a minute. That was weird.
10/21/14: I expect flubs, sure, but the whole band sounded off from one another. OH MY GOD THEY'RE BREAKING UP
10/21/14: Aside from the weird part, Ocelot is satisfactorily shreddy. And Ocelot is probably my least favorite Phish song.
10/21/14: NICU > BOTT. Sounding really tight, but not branching out yet.
10/21/14: Solid Trey and Mike interplay here.
10/21/14: NICU > BOTT > LxL is a high energy run of songs. LxL jam puts Trey's chording and looping skills on display.
10/21/14: Waiting All Night and Yarmouth both shaky versions. Maybe the few days off threw them off a bit? Harmonies are really rough.
10/21/14: Nice rendition of When the Circus Comes.
10/21/14: Heavy Things! Not like it's going to make this set more memorable, but I love this song.
10/21/14: Page laying into a great solo.
10/21/14: Really rough start to Stealing Time. Everyone once in awhile the guys nail a song, but most of tonight is really sloppy.
10/21/14: ...and that's it for the set. One of my least favorite sets of Phish in a long time. Hopefully S2 is better.
10/21/14: Starting off with the safest choice possible: CDT. Maybe it'll help 'em get back on track?
10/21/14: Starting off the jam mellow. Nice repeating melody line from Trey, electric piano from Page.
10/21/14: Trey is doing some of that amazing melodic playing that I've missed for a lot of 3.0. This is great.
10/21/14: Really natural build occurring over the last few minutes, too.
10/21/14: Heading into some serious mechanical-sounding space now. Sounds like the weirdest parts of Dick's.
10/21/14: CHALKDUST -> FUCK YES -> GHOST #phish
10/21/14: Another blissful, melodic jam space here after a pretty great build.
10/21/14: Fish has a weird jazz beat going now. This is really cool.
10/21/14: Really sustained, melodic, mellow jamming over the course of two huge songs.
10/21/14: Seriously, where the fuck did that come from? Terrible S1 and then BAM! CDT -> Ghost!
10/21/14: BOAF is awkward and flubby, and Trey actually acknowledges it after the song. Huh.
10/21/14: Fortunately, the following Wombat is a total funkfest. Short version, but it's more interesting than the track length suggests.
10/21/14: TWEEZE TIME
10/21/14: Trey immediately goes to blues-chord-land here. It's pretty awesome.
10/21/14: Most of this jam is just Trey modulating the opening blues riff while everyone else plays around him. I'm loving it.
10/21/14: Impressively lean and mean Tweezer, there.
10/21/14: Another slow segue from Trey, -> Julius. He's doing that a LOT more lately, and it's great.
10/21/14: Extremely short-but-sweet Piper to follow Julius. Nice Page segue into Wading.
10/21/14: Most of this S2 after the opener is taking that short-jams-with-clever-segues format again. But they're getting better at it.
10/21/14: Flub start to Suzy, Fish yells 'I wish you'd look at me before you count off the song!' for his usual bit. Hilarious.
10/21/14: Funk-loop madness in the middle of a Boogie On encore. Reminds me a little of the Dick's Mike's.
10/21/14: This Boogie On doesn't deserve to be an encore. It deserves to be second-slot S2, right after a 15-minute Sand opener. Sheeit.
10/21/14: Tweeprise was gonna feel just obligatory until Mike dropped the bass bomb and I was all like OH FUCK HERE WE GO AGAIN
10/21/14: Always, always, always the best 3 minutes in rock and roll.
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