The Verdict:
It's even harder to be objective about Bend II. I mean, it was my birthday, my 24th show, and part of a fantastic vacation weekend in Bend, two hours' drive away from my new house, with my soon-to-be-wife.
So I'm a little biased. But, I think it's better than Bend I and an all-around great show. I mean, we probably all wish that the "Simple" was a little longer, but really, this show has a little bit of everything anyway.
"Stash" gets 2015 Trey, ultimate melodic guitar Jedi Master, out of the gates early, and then there's a bunch of first set debuts that actually work perfectly as the glue for the set, somehow. "How Many People Are You?," "Heavy Rotation," "Scabbard," and "Mercury" are all excellent Phish tunes, and pretty much the rest of the set are top-notch S1 takes on "Winterqueen," "Maze," and "Possum."
For all the (deserved) raving about the jam-heavy second set at Shoreline, even I didn't realize until now that this second set is only six songs long. Sure, a little of that has to do with the early curfew at Les Schwab, but not as much as you might think. Neither "ASIHTOS" or "Waves" goes deep, but they're versions that would be the obvious highlight of any first set, at least. The spacey jam at the end of "Waves" drops nicely into "Wingsuit," and then there's a chordy, unique "Farmhouse" before the "Simple," which is easily the best (and most evil) jam of the run. "First Tube" blows the roof off, and then the guys encore with "Gin," which falls firmly into the "Type 1.5" category and is better than any encore "Gin" has a right to be. Whew.
I suspect that like last year's Eugene show, this is going to be another one of those unappreciated gems, because all the right pieces are there, but they don't fall into the right places. Fortunately, they don't actually need to.
The Live Review:
7/22/15: In the office again today, so I'm tackling Bend II, also known as the My Birthday Show.
7/22/15: Getting to spend my birthday watching my 24th show as close to my house as @phish will ever come was great enough in itself...
7/22/15: ...but this show was way better than the already-great 7/21 one. I'm excited to hear Mercury again, especially. And dat Simple.
7/22/15: Stash opener.
7/22/15: Great Stash, especially as an opener. Standard style, but with that extra '15 Trey magic.
7/22/15: How Many People Are You? is such a great song. Not very Phish-y, really, but better to hear them play for that.
7/22/15: Winterqueen is one of those songs I love in spite of myself. Perfect choice for an early mid-set in Bend.
7/22/15: Winterqueen jam is extended a bit beyond normal and features some more great post-FTW Trey action.
7/22/15: Love Heavy Rotation, too. Great melody from Page, and awesome, dirty breakdown. Thought it was a Phish tune at first.
7/22/15: Clearly, my Page-fu is weak.
7/22/15: Neat little building mini-jam, now.
7/22/15: You know the guys are good this year when they can even make BOTT exciting after I've heard it probably 500 times in my life.
7/22/15: So happy to hear Scabbard, too. One of my favorite TAB songs.
7/22/15: Couldn't hear it well at the show for some reason, but SBD sounds amazing.
7/22/15: Necessarily missing some of the arranged element because smaller band, but otherwise awesome.
7/22/15: Outro not quite as good with electric guitar instead of acoustic, but the loops Trey lays down here are neat ambiance.
7/22/15: Appreciate the segue into Maze, but like the Weekapaug one from last night, there's a bit of hesitation b/t Trey and Fish before.
7/22/15: I know it's weird, but near-perfect segues are almost more annoying to me than entirely missed ones.
7/22/15: Eugene's Maze was fantastic last fall and so is this one. Energy is palpable, even on the recording.
7/22/15: Okay, I fucking love the beginning of Mercury. Please don't change that part of the song, guys. #phish
7/22/15: Middle section sounds a little hollow.
7/22/15: I do appreciate that they're still trying to do big compositional pieces, though. Fuego was amazing.
7/22/15: Mercury is close to awesome.
7/22/15: Love the lyrics, too.
7/22/15: That break before the last section made me think that this was yet another new song.
7/22/15: They need a return to those awesome intro vocals at the end :)
7/22/15: Possum set closer.
7/22/15: As you might imagine, Possum with 2015 Trey is good.
7/22/15: First set is super-weird with all the new songs, but it works better for me than 7/21's S1.
7/22/15: Doesn't hurt that all the debuts were strong.
7/22/15: Listening to the Alpine Valley version of Mercury during 'setbreak.' Sounds a bit more intentional and less empty in the middle.
7/22/15: They get to the 'Red Queen' part faster, I think. An improvement, for sure.
7/22/15: Super happy to hear Fish marimba-ing a composed part in Mercury.
7/22/15: Alpine version of Mercury doesn't have the empty space after marimba. Goes immediately into build. Not as cool, methinks.
7/22/15: This is so good. I'm almost as excited for the new album as I am for more shows. That pretty much never happens w/ #phish.
7/22/15: Okay, second set ASIHTOS opener.
7/22/15: Like the first night's Ghost, I was really hoping to see this go into space, but hey.
7/22/15: How long has it been since an ASIHTOS spacejam?
7/22/15: I'll answer my own question: 2004 SPAC.
7/22/15: There might not be a serious jam here, but Trey is slaying.
7/22/15: Sorta-but-not-really segue into Waves.
7/22/15: Same deal with the Waves; it's not going anywhere special, but Trey is going TO TOWN.
7/22/15: Long loops 'n' Page outro. Now Mike bass bombs.
7/22/15: Wingsuit was a nice landing spot for that weird, ethereal space.
7/22/15: Low-key Waves outro > Wingsuit > Farmhouse seems like a minor setlist misstep.
7/22/15: That said, it's a pretty interesting Farmhouse solo from Trey. Peaks near the end a bit like Number Line solos have recently.
7/22/15: Simple slides nicely into the usual gentle melodic interplay.
7/22/15: Fade-out. Trey changing keys.
7/22/15: Love the dirty guitar tone.
7/22/15: It just keeps getting filthier.
7/22/15: That was about as cool as I remembered it being.
7/22/15: First top-shelf jam of the tour, for sure.
7/22/15: A little one-dimensional, but I like the angry, dark stuff.
7/22/15: This First Tube blew the goddamn roof off the place in person.
7/22/15: Well, I guess first it built a roof over the place, but only to DESTROY IT
7/22/15: Watching the encore Gin on YouTube instead of listening.
7/22/15: Love the encore choices for this run.
7/22/15: Audio/video syncing off just a bit on the official video. Never had that happen before.
7/22/15: Nice, airy space in the middle of this Gin that I don't remember.
7/22/15: Build w/ Trey chording.
7/22/15: Okay, great closer. Think I was still reeling over the Simple > Tube combo at the show and zoned this out.
7/22/15: Excellent show, unless you absolutely need a 25 minute jam to jerk off to.
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