The Verdict:
So, the band's incredible six-show run of absolute classics came to an end during Miami II. It had to happen sometime, and the sheer amount of amazing music we got before any sort of serious lull arose to break the flow is still sort of stupefying to me. This band is thirty-one years old, for god's sake!
Anyway, as I said in the tweets below, this show is the epitome of the "segues 'n' jamlets"-style show (see 7/16, 7/25, other chunks of late summer tour before Dick's). Very occasionally a show like this turns into, say, a Tweezerfest and goes down in history. Generally speaking, though, it ends up being underrated and underappreciated because there aren't any big jam anchors or consistent, deep exploration. And I get it. I'm a big jam guy, through and through. Had I been at this show I would have walked away disappointed. On tape, I can be a little more objective. And, like most '14 shows of this type, there's (slightly less than) a lot to like here, if you take a minute to dig in. So let's do that instead of just bitching about how short and how boring the show was.
First off, the first set is bonkers-good in that first-set sort of way. I saw someone comment on phish.net that if this show's first set was paired with 12/31's S2 and S3, it would have been the best show of the year. I might agree. The song choices are great, the "flow" is flowy, there's a solid "Bowie" in the three-slot, and the "Gin" at the end recalls the Prague "Ghost" (though, admittedly lacking the absolute maniacal fervor of the late 90s). It's real good.
The second set can either be a series of missed opportunities or the band trying something different, depending on how you want to see it. There's a few great moments of "Twist" jamming, a few great minutes of "Piper" jamming, some legitimately "Caspian" shredding, and potentially great arguments on both sides of the fence as to whether each of these jams were brutally ripcorded into the next song or had reached their natural end and were euthanized before falling into an aimless ambient fade. "Twenty Years" > "Winterqueen" is probably not the show highlight you want, but the outro jam of "Twenty Years" gets extended into a strange, "Split"-jam-type space for a few minutes, and the "Winterqueen" jam has way more verve and bounce to it than any version yet, and ends, somehow, with a triumphant rock peak. "Wading," a short "Antelope," and perfunctory "Rock and Roll" definitely left me thinking "Wait, that's the whole set?!" but there are some nuggets of gold here if you want to dig for them...and isn't that what we do?
The Live Review:
1/1/15: Three more shows. Let's do this!
1/1/15: So, Tube is a pretty great opener choice.
1/1/15: Slightly extended version of Gumbo in the two-slot. Trey's soloing is especially hot, already. Who needs warm-ups?
1/1/15: Band comes back in for a short blues jam after the Page-solo-piano part at the 'end' of the song.
1/1/15: Bowie?! Alright, sure.
1/1/15: Nice, mellow-ish Bowie until the peak, which has no business being in the first quarter of a show.
1/1/15: Lawn Boy. Page just acknowledged 'Page side,' to huge roars from the crowd.
1/1/15: Really driving version of Undermind. Don't usually get to say that.
1/1/15: Ooh, Yarmouth Road.
1/1/15: Well, they've definitely got their setlist-building mojo back after 12/31's S1.
1/1/15: Trey is taking the Wingsuit outro for an extended walk here.
1/1/15: Gin is next. Trey's got a fair bit of blues swagger going on early in the jam.
1/1/15: Oh, there was a Poor Heart between Wingsuit and Gin.
1/1/15: Trey is shredding the crap out of this Gin. Build and increase in tempo reminds me of the Prague Ghost.
1/1/15: Not on the same level, of course, but same idea. And still really, really cool.
1/1/15: And apparently that's it for the set. That seemed really short.
1/1/15: I am not the only one to notice this, apparently.
1/1/15: Anyway, second set starts with a Twist that has a surprisingly straightforward jam for most of its 9 minute length.
1/1/15: Last minute or two sees Trey putting a really dirty tone on his guitar.
1/1/15: Then an intermingled Twist outro/Piper intro space for a bit. Then Trey starts Piper at double tempo.
1/1/15: Seriously, what is with Trey pulling off an awesome segue then ruining it by starting the song proper twice as fast?
1/1/15: Seems to happen a lot.
1/1/15: Anyway, woo-hoo for Piper!
1/1/15: Piper jam goes loopy (literally) almost right away. Really major momentum to this one.
1/1/15: Lots of ambient sound and electric piano now, Fish is driving.
1/1/15: Another 'interesting' segue from Piper jam to Caspian.
1/1/15: Depending on how cynical you want to be, two huge ripcords out of two potentially great monster jams.
1/1/15: Could make a case in both...cases...though that the jam was petering out.
1/1/15: Either way, if either of those segues was a little smoother, it would feel brilliant instead of like 'Huh?!'
1/1/15: Another pretty-cool-but-awkward segue into Twenty Years Later.
1/1/15: That jam had definitely run its course, though.
1/1/15: Trey playing some seriously muddly, distorted guitar on the extended Twenty Years outro.
1/1/15: Sort of like an old-school ASIHTOS jam.
1/1/15: Really spacey, weird jam. If this happened during a Split, everyone would be jacking off over it.
1/1/15: Fadeout, and a nice > Winterqueen.
1/1/15: Really jazzy, rock-like instrumental section in Winterqueen!
1/1/15: That was super cool. Lands in Velvet Sea.
1/1/15: In defense of the Velvet Sea call, it was a really shreddy outro solo.
1/1/15: Antelope next. End set already?
1/1/15: Nope. REALLY late-set Rock and Roll.
1/1/15: Short, rocked-out version with an actual ending...how often has that happened lately?
1/1/15: Meatstick for the encore.
1/1/15: That's that. Shortest Antelope and shortest S2 EVAR?!
1/1/15: Well you know what they say, it's not the length that matters, it's how you use it.
1/1/15: That being said, 1/1 is a bit of a bummer after six consecutive incredible shows, but the lull had to happen sometime.
1/1/15: First set is actually very good for a first set, and even for a '14 first set.
1/1/15: Second set is the epitome of the 7/16, 7/25-type show: they tried to do more with segues and momentum than with BIG JAMS
1/1/15: There's a lot to like in 2-3 minute spurts in a lot of these songs, I just tend to gravitate toward the big jams myself.
1/1/15: So I can appreciate a show like this objectively, but it's hard to be excited about it subjectively.
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