The Verdict:
Well, as I said at the beginning of this listen, I couldn't imagine an 11/1 show that could fill the shoes of that amazing 10/31 show. This one, somehow, almost does it anyway. If these guys can turn in an 11/2 that's on par with the first two shows, this might become my favorite run Of All Time. Seriously.
It's especially odd that I'm so into this show when you consider that the first set really doesn't include much improv to speak of other than a brief but intense passage in "Roggae" and a clever "The Birds" tease in "Birds of a Feather." But just look at that setlist. There is literally a "Dog-Faced Boy," "Fuck Your Face," "Horn" > "Frankie Says" > "MFMF," "Roses" in there. And all the new songs, old songs, and in-between songs are played with consistently through-the-roof energy, and Trey plays throughout with a precision and intentionality that makes it the great kind of Trey Set and not the bad kind.
Despite opening with a (90s shredded) "Possum," S2 is just bonkers. "Crosseyed" and "Light" both boast multifaceted, weird jams, "Light" segues brilliantly into "The Dogs," (!) which fades into a "Lengthwise" which gets overlapped with the beginning of "Twist." The "Twist" jam is just out-of-this-world weird, but also with the boys very obvious mind-melding with each other on a beyond-post-1999-Phish level. Oh, and there are "Manteca" shenanigan in the middle of the song. The first half-ish of this set, minus the "Possum," might be the sequence of the year for me. For sheer inventiveness, this beats the hell out of the Randall's N3S2 sequence.
The rest of the set calms down...a little. "Twist" ->'s into "Wading" thanks to a great Page piano solo, and the "Hood" is short, but manages to go plinko-y for a few minutes before exploding into a great peak. "Golgi" is a great exclamation point, and even though "Number Line" maybe isn't the idea set-closing song here, Trey keeps his night-long shredfest intact for one last go-round.
Maybe the best praise I can give this show is this: the encore contains "Waiting All Night" and "Sing Monica," and it's still the best non-Halloween show of the year. It probably takes the Best Second Set of the Year title away from 7/18, too.
The Live Review:
11/1/14: Whatever happens here, it's going to be in the shadow of 10/31. Not a show I envy anyone having to play :)
11/1/14: Fuego opener. Very cool start.
11/1/14: Standard-but-awesome Fuego to start. Now, My Soul! Love this tune.
11/1/14: Trey's been spot-on throughout the first two songs. Not like he's usually not, but he sounds better than 'average.'
11/1/14: BOTT
11/1/14: High-energy so far. Band sounding really tight. 555 is next. Trey has really gotten better at adding background textures to this.
11/1/14: Dog-Faced Boy! Holy shit!
11/1/14: Really minimal version. Maybe no percussion/rhythm.
11/1/14: Fuck Your Face! Crowd screams 'FUCK YOUR FACE!' and Gordo laughs.
11/1/14: Dog Faced Boy, FYF, Horn, Frankie Says. What the hell? What a weird setlist. But great.
11/1/14: I think Fish is playing a slightly different beat than on the studio Frankie. Great piano solo from Page.
11/1/14: My Friend, My Friend and then Roses Are Free! It's like they just sat down and thought of all the great songs they haven't played.
11/1/14: *in a long time.
11/1/14: Trey almost seems like he's going to jam out the end of Roses again, but then they stop and start up Roggae. Can't really complain.
11/1/14: This Roggae jam builds from a weird space right away instead of building on the usual riff from the start.
11/1/14: Major rock peak. Unique version of Roggae in a few ways. Very cool.
11/1/14: Birds! Not a rarity, but loving all the SoaG songs.
11/1/14: Might just be the mix, but Fish has been kicking ass this whole show.
11/1/14: THEY ATTACK! vocals from the band during Birds. Crowd goes apeshit.
11/1/14: Wingsuit to close a ridiculous first set.
11/1/14: I love when sets end with the drill.
11/1/14: Second set starts with Possum. Could tonight be the night of the 20+ minute SPACE POSSUM?! Probably not.
11/1/14: Trey is seriously working this Possum over.
11/1/14: Super high-energy continuing from first set. Crosseyed is just rolling along like it's 1996, for god's sake.
11/1/14: Really intense, building jam in Crosseyed. Not like the usual funk direction at all.
11/1/14: Really unique Crosseyed jam > Light. Might have been the first legit ripcord in awhile.
11/1/14: Hard to tell w/o video if the jam had hit its natural ending or was euthanized before its time.
11/1/14: Trey doing some tension-building stuff in the early parts of this Light.
11/1/14: ANGRY SPACE JAM
11/1/14: I think that the jam just featured what was supposed to be dog barks from Fishman.
11/1/14: Yeah, it's definitely not a separate LP track, but they're absolutely playing The Dogs. Light -> The Dogs.
11/1/14: Also, according to my dog, Fish's dog barks sound exactly like a real dog.
11/1/14: Okay, now my dog is 'jamming' with the band, right in my ear.
11/1/14: Fantastic Light/The Dogs jam lands in Lengthwise.
11/1/14: These last two shows just sound like a completely different, even better band. Can't wait to see if it carries over into Miami.
11/1/14: Someone making the Lengthwise clock sound with their mouth.
11/1/14: Twist starts with a Lengthwise vocal tease. This is fucking nuts.
11/1/14: If there's one thing that I miss from old 'versions' of Phish that doesn't happen nowadays, it's looseness like this.
11/1/14: Overall, 3.0 is my favorite already, but I wouldn't complain if there was more of this kind of thing.
11/1/14: Twist -> Manteca -> Twist w/ The Dogs barks from Fish.
11/1/14: It's worth mentioning that outside of the hijinks, all three jams so far in this set have been top-notch.
11/1/14: Twist jam winding up with loops from Trey while Page solos overtop. Then, Page-only -> Wading.
11/1/14: Biggest cheer I've heard for Wading in a long time :)
11/1/14: Harry!
11/1/14: Really cool and (surprise!) unique jam in Hood. This time almost in plinko territory!
11/1/14: Golgi is a perfect follow-up to that Hood peak.
11/1/14: Okay, putting Number Line at this point in such a great set seems like a dick move, but really Trey is just shredding it to hell.
11/1/14: Very late-set WAN. Weird choice. No weirder than the Eugene opener, though, I guess.
11/1/14: It makes me tremendously sad when Mike misses that first bass bomb in WAN.
11/1/14: Sing Monica as the encore? I hope they play it better than they normally do.
11/1/14: Whatever Superpowered Cat Juice they fed Fishman before the show, I hope they have more of it for tomorrow night.
11/1/14: Yeah, okay, this is way better than usual.
11/1/14: Did these guys somehow take two weeks off to practice between BGCA and MGM?! #timey-wimey
11/1/14: The Star Spangled Banner closer? What the hell?
11/1/14: Okay, that was a SERIOUS #phish show.
11/1/14: I don't know if I've ever had this much fun listening to #phish not-live. 10/31 and 11/1, ftw.
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