2010-10-11 Broomfield II

The Verdict:
As I've made pretty clear through my tweets, Broomfield is easily the worst three-show run I've encountered in 3.0. Hell, it might well be the worst ever - at least some of the drugged-out 2.0 runs of a similar "caliber" had some weird-ass freakout jams in them. While they're certainly not quite there, and through 2011-2014 show that they never do get there, this is the closest this band has come to embracing the infamous "nostalgia act" label. It's been a long, slow, and weird decline since the heights (relative to later 3.0 years, of course) of summer '09, but ever since that initial tour ended, the guys have relied more and more on just playing songs straight and playing them well instead of on exploring, on building weird setlists instead of building weird jams, of maintaining flow instead of pulling out exciting segues. Maybe this is an essential part of the rebuilding process. Maybe this is what allowed them to move from the jam-by-numbers approach in 2009 to something more organic in 2011, to the amazingness that's come about in the last few years. I don't know. What I do know is that I've never been this bored listening to Phish in my fifteen or so years of doing so. Yet I soldier on, hoping that Broomfield is the real nadir and we get back to better shows very, very soon.

The above complaint/observation is something that applies to all three shows, so that's my general "verdict." A few notes about each show will follow, but I don't have much to say that I haven't already said.

Night two is definitely the worst of the bunch. There's really nothing going on here save for some interesting song choices. For all intents and purposes, you could take any two 3.0 first sets, put them back-to-back, and probably have a show that is on par with this one.

If you like Mike Gordon songs, there's a rare Phish cover of "What Things Seem." The transition from "Piper" -> "Camel Walk" is worth a listen, though it's arguable that it's actually a ripcord of a pretty promising developing jam. The end of "Twist" also hints at the fact that the guys still have it and, maybe someday, will pull it out again and whip us in the face with it.

The Live Review:
10/11/10: Jim opener. Nice Jim > Foam pair to start, now.

10/11/10: BOTT is next. Some more interesting guitar work than usual from Trey. Still Type I, but not the default BOTT jam.

10/11/10: Wolfman's jam going in a clav-filled direction. Sounds a bit more 2014 S1 than 2010 S1.

10/11/10: Reba!

10/11/10: The composed section was a bit rough on Trey's end, and while the jam is pretty serviceable, it's not on par w/ recent versions.

10/11/10: 'Recent' meaning other 2010 versions.

10/11/10: Halley's > Tweezer. That's a surprise.

10/11/10: Really loose, funky Tweezer. I know that isn't saying much.

10/11/10: But the guys seem to have either been stiff and awkward or full-steam ahead lately.

10/11/10: Something that's fluid but yet relaxed is nice.

10/11/10: The novelty of the first-set Tweezer is that it actually ends like it does on the album.

10/11/10: Ooh! A Phish version of What Things Seem! Very slanky.

10/11/10: That was interesting. It sounded way less full than the MGB version. Not in a good or bad way, just something I noticed.

10/11/10: Coil is next.

10/11/10: Coil > Antelope.

10/11/10: Trey playing Marco Polo with the crowd.

10/11/10: Really weirdly Page-led version of Golden Age to open S2.

10/11/10: Trey hardly played at all during the verses. Short rock noodling section in the jam, and now Fish and Page are driving a jazz bit.

10/11/10: Trey kicks off Piper after a few minutes of weird wandering.

10/11/10: Fish playing the Golden Age beat over Piper, which is sort of cool.

10/11/10: Piper starts off fast and furious and just as it's about to develop into something, -> Camel Walk.

10/11/10: To be honest, that was a great segue. It's just hard not to be grumpy about jams getting cut short at this point in 2010.

10/11/10: Alaska'd.

10/11/10: I suppose that was an above-average version of Alaska, if you're into that sort of thing.

10/11/10: Mid-S2 Jibboo. Yay?

10/11/10: That Jibboo was long, but I'm not sure it needed to be.

10/11/10: Oddly uptempo and upbeat version of Wading is next.

10/11/10: Thanks to Fish, the Twist that follows Wading actually gets super-weird for a few minutes.

10/11/10: The only thing worth listening to from this show so far unless you're an MGB fan (for 'What Things Seem').


10/11/10: Twist winds to a natural close, > Fluffhead.

10/11/10: This version of Fluffhead is suspiciously similar to most other versions of Fluffhead.

10/11/10: S2 ends with Number Line. Sleeping Monkey encore?

10/11/10: And then, presumably, a Tweeprise.

10/11/10: There was about 2-3 minutes of interesting music in the Twist during this show, but that and the MGB cover was about it.

10/11/10: Honestly, the rest just sounded like a bunch of random 3.0 S1 songs put on shuffle for three hours.

10/11/10: It's actually getting hard to listen to all of these shows back-to-back: the first time in my adult life I don't want to...

10/11/10: ...listen to Phish a few times a week.

10/11/10: Definitely didn't feel this way about 2009, and haven't felt this way about the 2011-2012 that I've heard. Why?

10/11/10: What's so different about 2010 that's so painfully boring? How was the band playing differently? Or trying something different?

10/11/10: Whatever it is, I don't like it.

10/11/10: Yup. Tweeprise. End show. Will this go down in history as the worst three-show run ever? Stay tuned on Thursday!