The Verdict:
On the second night at Jones Beach and the tour closer, the first set is mostly business as usual. Of note, though, are "Guelah Papyrus" and "Destiny Unbound." I just like "Guelah," and it's pretty rare, though this is a pretty standard reading. "Destiny" gets a neat little funk jam reminiscent of "Boogie On," though. The guys play with "Chalkdust" a very little bit and "Tube" gets an extra helping of funk, but that's about it for S1.
S2 relies mostly on weird song choices for its novelty (big surprise); for example, there's the "Axila I > "Timber" opener, which is probably the strangest S2 opener I've heard in a long time. Not in terms of the playing, though, just the songs. The last few minutes of "Light" are really interesting, there's a good segue to "46 Days," and that song proper features a neat vocal breakdown instead of the usual guitar peak, so that's a fun little sequence. The mid-set "Hood" is another great version and continues to be one of the few songs (along with "Reba") that are actually doing something this tour. The "Tweezer" that follows, though, is about as paint-by-numbers as you can get, and the set stumbles to a halt from there. There's another set-closing "YEM," but this song is feeling increasingly like a "victory lap" that the show it's attached to hasn't really earned.
The Live Review:
8/18/10: Disease opener!
8/18/10: On one hand, opening with DWD seems like a waste of a potential jam, but on the other hand I'm partial to it b/c...
8/18/10: ...it was the opener for 8/7/09, my first show.
8/18/10: Smile every time I hear the riff right before the jam. That was when I realized, after nine years of waiting...
8/18/10: ...that I was finally at a #phish show. And it turned out to be a GREAT show, too!
8/18/10: Sample follows Disease.
8/18/10: Guelah Papyrus! This is one of those songs that should totally pop up in first sets more often.
8/18/10: I'm not being sarcastic. This is one of my favorite songs on Picture of Nectar.
8/18/10: Extra fast Poor Heart! Yeeee-haw!!
8/18/10: Extra slow Ocelot. And thus, the balance of the universe is preserved.
8/18/10: A little mode-shifting from Trey and some interesting tension in the middle space of this Chalkdust. Good version.
8/18/10: Next up is an extended Gin that stays Type I the whole time but has a nice, slow build in the middle.
8/18/10: In case you couldn't tell from the lack of details, this set (so far) is falling straight into the usual summer '10 mode.
8/18/10: SUPER funky Tube follows. This is great, if short.
8/18/10: Destiny Unbound! I feel about this song like I do about Guelah. More S1 appearances, please.
8/18/10: Mike mega bass and Trey chording over it. Boogie On-style tone.
8/18/10: Joy.
8/18/10: As much as I sometimes moan about this song, there are some great bass lines in there.
8/18/10: Now Antelope to close yet another S1 of the 'high energy, but paint-by-numbers' variety.
8/18/10: I KNEW I shouldn't have listened to '14 tour before trying to review this tour :)
8/18/10: Lack of improv aside, though, Trey and co. are taking this Antelope to TOWN.
8/18/10: Axila I S2 opener? Checking to make sure VLC is listing the tracks in the correct
order...yep.
8/18/10: Timber! I just finished listening to Colorado 88 again, and the Timber is probably the best part. Looking forward to this.
8/18/10: Short but intense Timber -B Light. First buttslam in a little while.
8/18/10: Lots of summer '10 guitar pyrotechnics in the first few minutes of this jam.
8/18/10: Trey changing to that weird high-octave tone, but the jam is staying firmly Type I so far. Lots of tension, though.
8/18/10: Back to the rock.
8/18/10: The problem for most of the summer isn't just that Trey is dominating the jam spaces
(because he's playing well)...
8/18/10: ...it's that nobody is stepping up to push him in any interesting directions.
8/18/10: Or when someone occasionally offers up an original idea, they're swatted aside by the wave of guitar squeals.
8/18/10: Now that I said that, though, in this particular jam Mike is coming forward a bit and driving Trey back to an effects role.
8/18/10: Needless to say, it's pretty much more interesting than anything that's happened in the last week or so of shows.
8/18/10: Betcha it'll last two minutes more, tops.
8/18/10: Jam crashes to an end (in a sort-of controlled way), and Trey works in a nice -> 46 Days.
8/18/10: Rather than the usual peak in the song, Trey leads the guys in a quick vocal-scat-type jam like the one they often due during RnR.
8/18/10: MFMF is next...interesting choice?
8/18/10: Lots of playing around with the Hood intro here.
8/18/10: Fantastic interplay between Page and Trey to start this jam.
8/18/10: So, completely out of nowhere, that was a FANTASTIC Hood.
8/18/10: Tweezer next. Its start apparently caused synchronized ululations in the crowd.
8/18/10: Short(ish) Tweezer starts with a slow swagger, develops into a funk-rock jaunt.
8/18/10: That Tweezer just ended really suddenly. Bottom drops out into The Horse.
8/18/10: Horse > Silent, YEM
8/18/10: A lot of YEMs lately, and good ones.
8/18/10: Solid version of YEM to close S2. Will have to listen to encore later tonight.
8/18/10: Alright, I am officially about to declare the summer-ending encore of Suzy > Tweeprise is exactly what you would expect.
8/18/10: I sort of feel like they just played that plain-Jane Tweezer so they could close the tour with Tweeprise.
8/18/10: I totally understand that. Just making an observation.
8/18/10: Aaaaand thus comes to an end possibly the most boring part of Phish 3.0 so far. Except the Greek run. That was amazing.
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