The Verdict:
This is one of those shows that's hard to review because it's a really good Phish show, but not for the reasons I typically really enjoy a show. So on one hand, I look at a lot of the second set and wish that it had more Shoreline- or Blossom-style jams, but if you're not too locked into that way of thinking, there's a whole lot here to sink your teeth into.
The first set is a bit unique. It starts off strong, as many 2015 S1s do. This time, it's "No Men" and "Stealing Time" that provide the opening one-two punch before the now-customary fumbling around happens during the middle of the set. "Frankie Says" is a nice bustout that gets us back on track, and the guys play around a bit with the usual tones used for the song, giving it a more ominous feel (and hinting at the "WTU?" to come?). The rest of the set is mostly made up of longer composed pieces, but maybe not the ones you'd expect: "Maze," "Mercury," and "Reba." We close with a strong "Possum." So, I think that whether you see this set as falling into the stronger pile of S1s we've gotten this year or the weaker pile depends a lot on how you feel about "Maze," "Mercury," and "Reba." "Maze" and "Reba" have been extra-good lately, and these versions are no exception, and I love "Mercury" in general. So, for my money, this is a somewhat uneven but ultimately satisfying set.
The second set is anything but uneven, but if you're insistent on monster jams, you might be a little disappointed. "Disesase" opens, and actually does a good job of Going There as far as I'm concerned: it doesn't do anything that we haven't heard the boys do already this summer, but it combines a few comfortable jamming ideas so well and with such verve that it's hard not to love. "Halley's" gets slightly extended with a funk jam, "Twist" stays Type I but with some fun MuTron soloing, "Light" echoes the blissful, "Hood"-like Gorge '09 version before melting nicely into "WTU?", and even "Number Line" and "Slave" have a little extra juice to them. "Fuego" is really the only song in the entire set that doesn't have at least a few notable moments in it. How much you like this show probably depends on how much you can put off your lust for huge jams and just appreciate consistently strong, mildly innovative playing. It's definitely a show that I feel like deserves to be liked more than I can like it. If that makes sense.
The Live Review:
8/8/15: Slow-tempo No Men's to open. I like it.
8/8/15: Strong leads from Trey to start.
8/8/15: There might some pretty rote first sets this year, but the opening song or two each show has been a LOT stronger than in years past.
8/8/15: Stealing Time is in the two-slot.
8/8/15: Some nice Trey/Page interplay here.
8/8/15: Poor Heart. Page goes to town on the piano for an extended solo.
8/8/15: Julius next.
8/8/15: Yeah! Frankie Sez.
8/8/15: Page is playing the clav (I think) instead of whatever he usually plays on Frankie Says. It sounds great.
8/8/15: Nice fadeout from a flanger-y Frankie ending into Maze.
8/8/15: Mission: Impossible tease from Page at the beginning of the organ solo. Neat.
8/8/15: Maze was its usual 2014-2015 badass self. Lots of chording and a great organ solo.
8/8/15: Extended noodling break after Maze. Sounds a bit like WTU?
8/8/15: Mercury! Hell yes.
8/8/15: Once they finally settle on how to play this, it's going to be fantastic. So happy to still hear new songs like this and Fuego.
8/8/15: Middle Trey jam needs to be a little more dynamic instead of just being him hitting random notes for awhile.
8/8/15: I love the marimba solo and the move back into the funk-style mode of the song afterward.
8/8/15: Reba!
8/8/15: Trey starts off with a pretty compelling melodic lead here.
8/8/15: FTW helped Trey's Reba skills. They've all been good this year so far. Shoreline is my favorite and this one is just as good.
8/8/15: Whistling ending.
8/8/15: Possum set closer?
8/8/15: Glad they've brought Possum back just because Trey's been doing such a great job of shredding it.
8/8/15: Disease opens the second set. Curious to see what they can do with this that they haven't already.
8/8/15: Disease has been consistently great for a long time as a jam vehicle, but there comes a point where you start to wonder...
8/8/15: ...if using a comfortable song as a launch pad starts leading to similar jams.
8/8/15: Of course, CDT and Tweezer both kicked ass on 8/7, so what do I know.
8/8/15: Typical noodling, but with some loops as background.
8/8/15: Great move into funk space. So far this jam is like Coca-Cola: totally predictable and incredibly satisfying.
8/8/15: Oh shit bass party.
8/8/15: Ooh, Trey is putting together a really need melody solo now.
8/8/15: Really neat Disease jam that honestly probably benefited from not getting stretched beyond its natural length. > Halley's.
8/8/15: Trey starting the funk chording early in Halley's, during the vocals.
8/8/15: Holy Halley's funk jam! Is it 1997 in here?!
8/8/15: Loops! Clav! MADNESS!
8/8/15: Okay, so that Halley's jam still had some serious legs, but how can you argue with the Twist segue? So smoooooth
8/8/15: Trey is dirtying it up. Page to electric piano, then clav.
8/8/15: Totally Type I Twist, but really fun nonetheless.
8/8/15: Light, the table resetter of S2s everywhere, is next.
8/8/15: Almost a Hood feel to this Light jam. Reminds me of the '09 Gorge version a little.
8/8/15: YES! Awesome landing in WTU?
8/8/15: Grungier WTU? than usual, if that's possible. > Fuego.
8/8/15: Fuego is surprisingly rocky.
8/8/15: Neat, short, drone-y ending to Fuego.
8/8/15: Number Line is next. Trey is doing the trilling style of solo he's been doing for this song lately.
8/8/15: Slave to close the set.
8/8/15: Awesome extended peak in this Slave.
8/8/15: Meatstick encore!
8/8/15: Frank Herbet said that fear is the mind-killer. I'd argue that Character Zero is the mind-killer.
8/8/15: Anyway, that show was a sort of combination of traits that we've seen in 'average-great' 2015 shows...
8/8/15: High energy S1 with a great setlist but all in-the-box playing, and S2 with a bunch of interesting, short jams that segued nicely.
8/8/15: Perfectly fine show, but missing the two things I love most about 2015: first set surprises and multiple BIG jams.
8/8/15: Both happened on 8/7, but not tonight.
8/8/15: Reba was notable, I suppose, in S1.
8/8/15: Just about every song in S2 had something interesting about it. Just nothing to compare to the real behemoths of the summer so far.
Oct 25, 2015
2015-08-07 Blossom
The Verdict:
This one's up there with the two Atlanta shows and Shoreline as one of my favorites of the year so far. My Twitter review is a bit scattered for chemically-induced reasons, and maybe watching the video of the show rather than just listening to it made me more able to be tuned in to what was going on on screen, but hot damn, this was a fun show.
The first set, in what's becoming a surprising trend considering the buzz about this tour, is pretty rote. Nothing really happens that's out-of-the-box unless you count the strong "Type 1.5" "Gin" that closes the set. Oh, and Trey's "Timber" solo. That's worth a listen. Nothing else really stands out, but it's a really well-organized set that never really lets up and features a lot of songs you might like to hear in a "typical" first set and none that you wouldn't.
The second set, though, is pretty magical. It's not just the "Chalkdust" that opens and goes on to become one of the best (if not the best) jam of the year so far, or the "Tweezer" that immediately follows that's arguably even better. It's the fact that, like Shoreline, the quality never really lets up from there. There is no Jukebox Mode or fourth-quarter cooldown. Instead, we get "The Lizards" as a great segue from the "Tweezer" jam, a quick "Makisupa" with some excellent bass work from Mike, a surprise "Ghost" that's short but is still strong enough to be the keystone jam of any "normal" show, and then a "Hood" that maybe isn't as structurally interesting as most but features a beautiful take-charge solo from Trey that almost makes this more of a "Reba"-style jam than a "Hood" one. Fantastic set. I'm just going to link to the whole thing below instead of the highlights:
The Live Review:
8/7/15: ASIHTOS opener.
8/7/15: Weird to see Blossom on video. Used to go there as a kid to see DMB. Only saw one show there since 2002.
8/7/15: That was the 2010 Number Line show.
8/7/15: Trey laying down a solid solo here. Nice start.
8/7/15: Fish going to town now, too.
8/7/15: My Sweet One at number two.
8/7/15: Super-high tempo. Page destroys solo.
8/7/15: Wilson for number three. Energy level is through the roof.
8/7/15: Timber! Nice!
8/7/15: Immediate advantage to webcasts: you can actually watch Fish play, because he is a monster.
8/7/15: Trey fills are definitely at 2015 levels so far.
8/7/15: Watching a webcast also makes me think about how when I actually get to see the band live I waste a bunch of time worrying...
8/7/15: ...about stupid setlist shit and jam length. Would much rather be seeing a mediocre Phish show live than watching this.
8/7/15: Roses! Damn, great setlist so far :)
8/7/15: That Roses jam from '12 is still one of the neatest things.
8/7/15: Rift teasing. Then Trey commands Ween to get back together.
8/7/15: Rift.
8/7/15: Solid uptempo Rift. Some boobs being shaken vigorously in the front row.
8/7/15: Couch tour style advantage: you can slam a homemade Yumm Bowl and then eat a bunch of ice cream and it's all free.
8/7/15: Moma Dance is next. For some reason, that made me stand up and yell 'ZEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS!'
8/7/15: To my dog, who's trying to convince my other dog to play: 'No one on Earth wants to play with you. You have a bad personality.'
8/7/15: THE MOMENT ENDS THOUGH I FEEL WINDS
8/7/15: I'm just going to get high as hell and type the lyrics to all the songs in all caps in real time.
8/7/15: THE MOMA DANCE THE MOMA DANCE
8/7/15: THE MOMENT ENDS THE MOMENT ENDS
8/7/15: MUHAMMAD ANTS MUHAMMAD ANTS
8/7/15: Trey and Mike talking. Trey is like: 'Balzac?' and MIke is like: 'Sartre.'
8/7/15: Nellie Kane, fuck yes.
8/7/15: Mike's orange belt is freaking me the hell out, guys.
8/7/15: This song is actually Ginseng Sullivan. It only took me sixty seconds to realize that. Morning is gonna suck.
8/7/15: Long pause after Ginseng. I mean, I think it was long.
8/7/15: Somewhere between five seconds and 5-10 minutes.
8/7/15: Wingsuite
8/7/15: For when your wings deserve a rest.
8/7/15: I knew Trey's guitar would turn into that pink toothpaste before it happened.
8/7/15: Trey is drawing out the ending solo. End set?
8/7/15: I swear to god the drill just like flew up out of the ground and Mike grabbed it.
8/7/15: It's Ice!
8/7/15: Trey's struggling with the composed section. But that's okay, so am I.
8/7/15: I'm glad that the funk breakdown in It's Ice has become a regular thing.
8/7/15: Trey is teasing something. Thought it was No Men's but no.
8/7/15: For the Love of Money.
8/7/15: Gin! If this closes the set, it's a great choice.
8/7/15: Trey is going to melody town, here.
8/7/15: Fish slowly picking up the pace.
8/7/15: When I let myself think, I realize: 'Uh-oh.'
8/7/15: Great chording transition into a good ol' Type 1.5 Gin.
8/7/15: Nice use of CK5 firework effects on the backdrop.
8/7/15: He's alternating those with the lights that scared the shit out of me during the Dick's SOAM.
8/7/15: Fish is groovin'.
8/7/15: Soloing for the last 2-3 minutes has been absolutely nuts.
8/7/15: Drop back into Gin. Fantastic not-quite-wacky-jammed version.
8/7/15: A couple false 'last note's there before the real one. Guys having fun. I AM ALSO HAVING FUN
8/7/15: I'll be back in less than fifteen minutes, for real. DON'T DO ANYTHING I WOULDN'T DO
8/7/15: LIKE DRUGS FOR EXAMPLE
8/7/15: Second set time.
8/7/15: I'm ready to absorb this Chalkdust.
8/7/15: Oh man. How the serious fuck does ice cream taste so good?
8/7/15: Trey is using his 'guitar' to play many 'chords.'
8/7/15: When played in a particular sequence, they make a 'song.' #pomo
8/7/15: Red is the Keystone Light of colors.
8/7/15: I contributed to this jam by inhaling a lethal amount of weed right at the moment of the transition from Type > Type II #5thmember
8/7/15: Trey has an angry, aggressive look on his face during this solo. It scares me. #frownofdeath
8/7/15: Chalkdust second jam! #ripmikessecondjam #newhighlander
8/7/15: Crazy pitch-shifted soloing almost immediately.
8/7/15: Whoa, this jam is green and sticky. Now, moving to bliss jam.
8/7/15: Holy shit, CK5's lights are insane. I HAVE to try this at an actual concert sometime.
8/7/15: Really great rising progression from Trey. Fish picking up steam.
8/7/15: Jesus, every thing is sizzling warm and all orange.
8/7/15: In, like, a good way.
8/7/15: Trey reprising the progression during his solo. Holy COW
8/7/15: Brief, robotic interlude. Now getting darker.
8/7/15: Trey starts up another riff...teasing Tweezer now.
8/7/15: Band seges perfectly. -> Tweezer. God damn
8/7/15: LOOK WHO'S IN THE FREEZER...THE SHROUD OF TURIN!
8/7/15: Oh man, this jam immediately went purple.
8/7/15: Trey is laying down a super-funky Manteca-y riff and everyone's jamming on it. This is the best thing that's ever happened to us.
8/7/15: Being really patient about this languid funk jam. So cool.
8/7/15: Page using almost Meatstick tone now.
8/7/15: Trey is soloing in some fucking weirdo scale
8/7/15: But actually this is really good
8/7/15: Build out of that long jam finally moves into funk/loop/echo zone.
8/7/15: I bet Mike Gordon is a bass player in real life.
8/7/15: Slow, circular jam now, backed by creepy loops.
8/7/15: Okay, so these are two of the better jams of the year so far, if not the two best, and they're in the same set.
8/7/15: Camera is doing a weird 80s music video mirror effect now. At least, I hope it's the camera that's doing that.
8/7/15: Page over to clav.
8/7/15: Whoa. Extremely pretty outro jam.
8/7/15: Trey accidentally or on purpose hits on The Lizards' riff, and off we go!
8/7/15: What a landing from a great jam sequence.
8/7/15: Eat a huge bowl of ice cream, remember you're lactose intolerant minutes later.
8/7/15: See? Weed is goddamn dangerous!
8/7/15: Mike is glowing in the dark.
8/7/15: This is a reggae song. It is called 'I Want Pie Now.'
8/7/15: Nah, it's just Makisupa. Maybe the keyword will be 'Pie.'
8/7/15: Maybe I'm having trouble being objective right now, but I swear Mike pulled off an amazing solo in Makisupa.
8/7/15: I'm at that point where you can only have one eye open at a time.
8/7/15: Slow reggae jam out of Makisupa > Ghost by Trey.
8/7/15: GUYS, THE KITCHEN IS A PLACE
8/7/15: Mike is dressed like a character from the fucking Jetsons. Come on, man
8/7/15: The part in my neck feels like a cool mint Oreo
8/7/15: Jam now. Page over to electric piano.
8/7/15: Mike is going to town.
8/7/15: Ghost roars right from the usual Type I rock to FunkyTime in an eyeblink. Serious jam here all of a sudden.
8/7/15: Noise rock breakdown.
8/7/15: Hood! This S2 setlist is *perfect*.
8/7/15: Sometimes Page, while innocently singing, just makes horrible R.L. Stein monster faces.
8/7/15: Trey out in front with a solo at the start of the jam.
8/7/15: Really beautiful and awesome Hood solo from Trey.
8/7/15: Hood seemed a little short, but damn was that guitar playing for the ages. Emotive, too, not just shredding.
8/7/15: Tweeprise within S2.
8/7/15: GTBT encore. Hot damn.
8/7/15: This show is not FUCKING AROUND
This one's up there with the two Atlanta shows and Shoreline as one of my favorites of the year so far. My Twitter review is a bit scattered for chemically-induced reasons, and maybe watching the video of the show rather than just listening to it made me more able to be tuned in to what was going on on screen, but hot damn, this was a fun show.
The first set, in what's becoming a surprising trend considering the buzz about this tour, is pretty rote. Nothing really happens that's out-of-the-box unless you count the strong "Type 1.5" "Gin" that closes the set. Oh, and Trey's "Timber" solo. That's worth a listen. Nothing else really stands out, but it's a really well-organized set that never really lets up and features a lot of songs you might like to hear in a "typical" first set and none that you wouldn't.
The second set, though, is pretty magical. It's not just the "Chalkdust" that opens and goes on to become one of the best (if not the best) jam of the year so far, or the "Tweezer" that immediately follows that's arguably even better. It's the fact that, like Shoreline, the quality never really lets up from there. There is no Jukebox Mode or fourth-quarter cooldown. Instead, we get "The Lizards" as a great segue from the "Tweezer" jam, a quick "Makisupa" with some excellent bass work from Mike, a surprise "Ghost" that's short but is still strong enough to be the keystone jam of any "normal" show, and then a "Hood" that maybe isn't as structurally interesting as most but features a beautiful take-charge solo from Trey that almost makes this more of a "Reba"-style jam than a "Hood" one. Fantastic set. I'm just going to link to the whole thing below instead of the highlights:
The Live Review:
8/7/15: ASIHTOS opener.
8/7/15: Weird to see Blossom on video. Used to go there as a kid to see DMB. Only saw one show there since 2002.
8/7/15: That was the 2010 Number Line show.
8/7/15: Trey laying down a solid solo here. Nice start.
8/7/15: Fish going to town now, too.
8/7/15: My Sweet One at number two.
8/7/15: Super-high tempo. Page destroys solo.
8/7/15: Wilson for number three. Energy level is through the roof.
8/7/15: Timber! Nice!
8/7/15: Immediate advantage to webcasts: you can actually watch Fish play, because he is a monster.
8/7/15: Trey fills are definitely at 2015 levels so far.
8/7/15: Watching a webcast also makes me think about how when I actually get to see the band live I waste a bunch of time worrying...
8/7/15: ...about stupid setlist shit and jam length. Would much rather be seeing a mediocre Phish show live than watching this.
8/7/15: Roses! Damn, great setlist so far :)
8/7/15: That Roses jam from '12 is still one of the neatest things.
8/7/15: Rift teasing. Then Trey commands Ween to get back together.
8/7/15: Rift.
8/7/15: Solid uptempo Rift. Some boobs being shaken vigorously in the front row.
8/7/15: Couch tour style advantage: you can slam a homemade Yumm Bowl and then eat a bunch of ice cream and it's all free.
8/7/15: Moma Dance is next. For some reason, that made me stand up and yell 'ZEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS!'
8/7/15: To my dog, who's trying to convince my other dog to play: 'No one on Earth wants to play with you. You have a bad personality.'
8/7/15: THE MOMENT ENDS THOUGH I FEEL WINDS
8/7/15: I'm just going to get high as hell and type the lyrics to all the songs in all caps in real time.
8/7/15: THE MOMA DANCE THE MOMA DANCE
8/7/15: THE MOMENT ENDS THE MOMENT ENDS
8/7/15: MUHAMMAD ANTS MUHAMMAD ANTS
8/7/15: Trey and Mike talking. Trey is like: 'Balzac?' and MIke is like: 'Sartre.'
8/7/15: Nellie Kane, fuck yes.
8/7/15: Mike's orange belt is freaking me the hell out, guys.
8/7/15: This song is actually Ginseng Sullivan. It only took me sixty seconds to realize that. Morning is gonna suck.
8/7/15: Long pause after Ginseng. I mean, I think it was long.
8/7/15: Somewhere between five seconds and 5-10 minutes.
8/7/15: Wingsuite
8/7/15: For when your wings deserve a rest.
8/7/15: I knew Trey's guitar would turn into that pink toothpaste before it happened.
8/7/15: Trey is drawing out the ending solo. End set?
8/7/15: I swear to god the drill just like flew up out of the ground and Mike grabbed it.
8/7/15: It's Ice!
8/7/15: Trey's struggling with the composed section. But that's okay, so am I.
8/7/15: I'm glad that the funk breakdown in It's Ice has become a regular thing.
8/7/15: Trey is teasing something. Thought it was No Men's but no.
8/7/15: For the Love of Money.
8/7/15: Gin! If this closes the set, it's a great choice.
8/7/15: Trey is going to melody town, here.
8/7/15: Fish slowly picking up the pace.
8/7/15: When I let myself think, I realize: 'Uh-oh.'
8/7/15: Great chording transition into a good ol' Type 1.5 Gin.
8/7/15: Nice use of CK5 firework effects on the backdrop.
8/7/15: He's alternating those with the lights that scared the shit out of me during the Dick's SOAM.
8/7/15: Fish is groovin'.
8/7/15: Soloing for the last 2-3 minutes has been absolutely nuts.
8/7/15: Drop back into Gin. Fantastic not-quite-wacky-jammed version.
8/7/15: A couple false 'last note's there before the real one. Guys having fun. I AM ALSO HAVING FUN
8/7/15: I'll be back in less than fifteen minutes, for real. DON'T DO ANYTHING I WOULDN'T DO
8/7/15: LIKE DRUGS FOR EXAMPLE
8/7/15: Second set time.
8/7/15: I'm ready to absorb this Chalkdust.
8/7/15: Oh man. How the serious fuck does ice cream taste so good?
8/7/15: Trey is using his 'guitar' to play many 'chords.'
8/7/15: When played in a particular sequence, they make a 'song.' #pomo
8/7/15: Red is the Keystone Light of colors.
8/7/15: I contributed to this jam by inhaling a lethal amount of weed right at the moment of the transition from Type > Type II #5thmember
8/7/15: Trey has an angry, aggressive look on his face during this solo. It scares me. #frownofdeath
8/7/15: Chalkdust second jam! #ripmikessecondjam #newhighlander
8/7/15: Crazy pitch-shifted soloing almost immediately.
8/7/15: Whoa, this jam is green and sticky. Now, moving to bliss jam.
8/7/15: Holy shit, CK5's lights are insane. I HAVE to try this at an actual concert sometime.
8/7/15: Really great rising progression from Trey. Fish picking up steam.
8/7/15: Jesus, every thing is sizzling warm and all orange.
8/7/15: In, like, a good way.
8/7/15: Trey reprising the progression during his solo. Holy COW
8/7/15: Brief, robotic interlude. Now getting darker.
8/7/15: Trey starts up another riff...teasing Tweezer now.
8/7/15: Band seges perfectly. -> Tweezer. God damn
8/7/15: LOOK WHO'S IN THE FREEZER...THE SHROUD OF TURIN!
8/7/15: Oh man, this jam immediately went purple.
8/7/15: Trey is laying down a super-funky Manteca-y riff and everyone's jamming on it. This is the best thing that's ever happened to us.
8/7/15: Being really patient about this languid funk jam. So cool.
8/7/15: Page using almost Meatstick tone now.
8/7/15: Trey is soloing in some fucking weirdo scale
8/7/15: But actually this is really good
8/7/15: Build out of that long jam finally moves into funk/loop/echo zone.
8/7/15: I bet Mike Gordon is a bass player in real life.
8/7/15: Slow, circular jam now, backed by creepy loops.
8/7/15: Okay, so these are two of the better jams of the year so far, if not the two best, and they're in the same set.
8/7/15: Camera is doing a weird 80s music video mirror effect now. At least, I hope it's the camera that's doing that.
8/7/15: Page over to clav.
8/7/15: Whoa. Extremely pretty outro jam.
8/7/15: Trey accidentally or on purpose hits on The Lizards' riff, and off we go!
8/7/15: What a landing from a great jam sequence.
8/7/15: Eat a huge bowl of ice cream, remember you're lactose intolerant minutes later.
8/7/15: See? Weed is goddamn dangerous!
8/7/15: Mike is glowing in the dark.
8/7/15: This is a reggae song. It is called 'I Want Pie Now.'
8/7/15: Nah, it's just Makisupa. Maybe the keyword will be 'Pie.'
8/7/15: Maybe I'm having trouble being objective right now, but I swear Mike pulled off an amazing solo in Makisupa.
8/7/15: I'm at that point where you can only have one eye open at a time.
8/7/15: Slow reggae jam out of Makisupa > Ghost by Trey.
8/7/15: GUYS, THE KITCHEN IS A PLACE
8/7/15: Mike is dressed like a character from the fucking Jetsons. Come on, man
8/7/15: The part in my neck feels like a cool mint Oreo
8/7/15: Jam now. Page over to electric piano.
8/7/15: Mike is going to town.
8/7/15: Ghost roars right from the usual Type I rock to FunkyTime in an eyeblink. Serious jam here all of a sudden.
8/7/15: Noise rock breakdown.
8/7/15: Hood! This S2 setlist is *perfect*.
8/7/15: Sometimes Page, while innocently singing, just makes horrible R.L. Stein monster faces.
8/7/15: Trey out in front with a solo at the start of the jam.
8/7/15: Really beautiful and awesome Hood solo from Trey.
8/7/15: Hood seemed a little short, but damn was that guitar playing for the ages. Emotive, too, not just shredding.
8/7/15: Tweeprise within S2.
8/7/15: GTBT encore. Hot damn.
8/7/15: This show is not FUCKING AROUND
Oct 21, 2015
2015-08-05 Starlight Amphitheater
The Verdict:
The Starlight show, surprisingly, sees us back yet again in one-jam land. Despite the reputation of this tour, I'm finding a lot of these less consistent shows as I listen through. 8/5 is definitely more reminiscent of 8/2, 7/29, 7/28, or 7/21 than one of the stronger entries thus far this year.
I guess if you like the composed classics, you get "Divided Sky" and "YEM" here. Otherwise you get a first set that has a 2010-era half and a 2015-era half, each bolstered by even-better-than-usual-for-2015 Trey solos, but also never interested in making any moves out of the usual first set box. Unless you count the Phish debut of Mike's "The Last Step," which was oddly placed in the set but really well played and suited to the band, I thought.
The second set is extra weird. It starts with Type I takes on "Jibboo" and "Twist" (huh?) before dropping "The Wedge" to ensure jamming blue balls. Then, out of nowhere, there's a monster "Disease" that's long and patiently developed and doesn't predictably freak out into a peak at the last second. It's definitely worth a listen. The "Sand" that follows is short, but is in the mold of last year's "Mike's" from Dick's. I really love this kind of jamming, but it leans entirely on the echo effect for the length of the jam, so your mileage will vary. The second set ends with a particularly-unearned-seeming "YEM," and though of course it's a strong version, it doesn't exactly bring anything new to the table.
Starlight isn't a bad show by any means, and I'd be happy to have it in 2014 or any previous year. But it seems a bit out of character for 2015, where none of the qualities that have characterized the many great moments of the tour so far (improvisation in strange places, clever segues, unexpected setlist choices, unexpected jam vehicles, multiple deep jams per show) are on display. You should listen to the "Disease" and the "Sand," though. Here they are:
The Live Review:
8/5/15: After a somewhat uneven 8/4 (albeit with an awesome finish), it's time for 8/5!
8/5/15: Trey noodling something at the opening. Sounded sort of like The Horse but in a major key.
8/5/15: 'They Attack!' sample from Page.
8/5/15: Really slow Gumbo to start.
8/5/15: Really liking the slow-down, actually.
8/5/15: Clav solo outro with some interesting drumming from Fish.
8/5/15: KDF next.
8/5/15: Trey is destroying this KDF.
8/5/15: In a good way, I mean.
8/5/15: Back on the Train. What is it about this song that makes it seem like the most predictable of predictable songs?
8/5/15: It's actually really catchy, but every time it pops up, I immediately think 'Oh, this shit again.'
8/5/15: Except this time: https://t.co/rErltddPIU
8/5/15: I love that the only real jammed-out BOTT is a fucking ten-minute-long ambient jam.
8/5/15: Makes no sense, and that's why it's great.
8/5/15: Okay, despite my bitching, that was an excellent Trey-heavy BOTT.
8/5/15: Bouncin', Divided Sky.
8/5/15: I feel like this first set, so far at least, is a sort of 2009-2010 set, in terms of song choices.
8/5/15: It reminds me of reviewing a 2010 show, though with MUCH stronger playing from everyone.
8/5/15: Here's a fun fact: DSky has been playing once every four shows on average. I've seen 29 shows and heard it once. #phish #cursed
8/5/15: *played
8/5/15: Holy crap! The Last Step!
8/5/15: The Phish version of the song seems more sinister for some reason.
8/5/15: That was surprisingly well-played.
8/5/15: Blaze On!
8/5/15: Nice in-the-box Blaze On.
8/5/15: Seems like a weird placement for WAN.
8/5/15: Rock-heavy 46 Days to close the set. Trey is losing his mind.
8/5/15: That first set was pretty weird. First half = 2010, second half = 2015. Both halves were clearly assembled using a dart board.
8/5/15: Some great Trey solos in BOTT, Blaze On, and 46 Days, though.
8/5/15: Now the second set opens with Jibboo. Even weirder.
8/5/15: One thing that I do always love about Jibboo is Mike's bass.
8/5/15: Jibboo > Twist.
8/5/15: Trey just shredded Twist into the ground. Sure, it's another Type I solo in the usual jam slot, but it's a good 'un.
8/5/15: The Wedge: the surprise S2 blue-baller of 2015.
8/5/15: Standard The Wedge > Pop Goes The Weasel tease from Mike > DWD.
8/5/15: Maybe 2015 Phish (not just Trey) will finally make an appearance here tonight.
8/5/15: Disease jam getting interesting around 8 mins. Loops coming in and Trey playing melody around them.
8/5/15: Really mesmerizing, loopy bassline from Mike. Now Page over to electric piano.
8/5/15: Trey and Mike playing off of each other.
8/5/15: Trey has a nice riff going now.
8/5/15: Droning synth from Page.
8/5/15: This is staying pretty mellow. At 14 mins. now. Trey chording. Page back on piano.
8/5/15: Turning darker now.
8/5/15: How Trey is containing himself from doing a > Rift is beyond me.
8/5/15: Trey's got a rising chord pattern going now. Fish is picking up steam. Should be a strong ending to the jam.
8/5/15: Pure guitar rage now.
8/5/15: Trey over to the loops AND the pitch-shifter now.
8/5/15: Sand!
8/5/15: Echo-funk chording a la the Dick's Mike's in 2014.
8/5/15: This is great.
8/5/15: Joy. The Disease > Sand pair was the 1st part of the show that really seemed to have a lot of momentum, so that's sort of a bummer.
8/5/15: YEM, out of friggin' nowhere.
8/5/15: I mean, I love YEM, obviously, but it seems like one of those coup de grace songs.
8/5/15: It's weird to hear it at the end of a show that has been pretty underwhelming (at least by 2015 standards).
8/5/15: Though two old school, composed monsters in one show is nice, I suppose.
8/5/15: Maybe I'm just experiencing Magnaball > Dick's syndrome since listening to the Atlanta run, though.
8/5/15: Maybe I'm shitting on (most of) 8/4 and (all of) 8/5 not because they're bad but because Atlanta was so good.
8/5/15: Pretty badass YEM jam going on here.
8/5/15: One thing's for sure: YEM might be a rarity lately, and might show up in weird places, but the YEM jams have been great.
8/5/15: Bug encore.
8/5/15: Woo! Eight more shows till Magnaball!
The Starlight show, surprisingly, sees us back yet again in one-jam land. Despite the reputation of this tour, I'm finding a lot of these less consistent shows as I listen through. 8/5 is definitely more reminiscent of 8/2, 7/29, 7/28, or 7/21 than one of the stronger entries thus far this year.
I guess if you like the composed classics, you get "Divided Sky" and "YEM" here. Otherwise you get a first set that has a 2010-era half and a 2015-era half, each bolstered by even-better-than-usual-for-2015 Trey solos, but also never interested in making any moves out of the usual first set box. Unless you count the Phish debut of Mike's "The Last Step," which was oddly placed in the set but really well played and suited to the band, I thought.
The second set is extra weird. It starts with Type I takes on "Jibboo" and "Twist" (huh?) before dropping "The Wedge" to ensure jamming blue balls. Then, out of nowhere, there's a monster "Disease" that's long and patiently developed and doesn't predictably freak out into a peak at the last second. It's definitely worth a listen. The "Sand" that follows is short, but is in the mold of last year's "Mike's" from Dick's. I really love this kind of jamming, but it leans entirely on the echo effect for the length of the jam, so your mileage will vary. The second set ends with a particularly-unearned-seeming "YEM," and though of course it's a strong version, it doesn't exactly bring anything new to the table.
Starlight isn't a bad show by any means, and I'd be happy to have it in 2014 or any previous year. But it seems a bit out of character for 2015, where none of the qualities that have characterized the many great moments of the tour so far (improvisation in strange places, clever segues, unexpected setlist choices, unexpected jam vehicles, multiple deep jams per show) are on display. You should listen to the "Disease" and the "Sand," though. Here they are:
The Live Review:
8/5/15: After a somewhat uneven 8/4 (albeit with an awesome finish), it's time for 8/5!
8/5/15: Trey noodling something at the opening. Sounded sort of like The Horse but in a major key.
8/5/15: 'They Attack!' sample from Page.
8/5/15: Really slow Gumbo to start.
8/5/15: Really liking the slow-down, actually.
8/5/15: Clav solo outro with some interesting drumming from Fish.
8/5/15: KDF next.
8/5/15: Trey is destroying this KDF.
8/5/15: In a good way, I mean.
8/5/15: Back on the Train. What is it about this song that makes it seem like the most predictable of predictable songs?
8/5/15: It's actually really catchy, but every time it pops up, I immediately think 'Oh, this shit again.'
8/5/15: Except this time: https://t.co/rErltddPIU
8/5/15: I love that the only real jammed-out BOTT is a fucking ten-minute-long ambient jam.
8/5/15: Makes no sense, and that's why it's great.
8/5/15: Okay, despite my bitching, that was an excellent Trey-heavy BOTT.
8/5/15: Bouncin', Divided Sky.
8/5/15: I feel like this first set, so far at least, is a sort of 2009-2010 set, in terms of song choices.
8/5/15: It reminds me of reviewing a 2010 show, though with MUCH stronger playing from everyone.
8/5/15: Here's a fun fact: DSky has been playing once every four shows on average. I've seen 29 shows and heard it once. #phish #cursed
8/5/15: *played
8/5/15: Holy crap! The Last Step!
8/5/15: The Phish version of the song seems more sinister for some reason.
8/5/15: That was surprisingly well-played.
8/5/15: Blaze On!
8/5/15: Nice in-the-box Blaze On.
8/5/15: Seems like a weird placement for WAN.
8/5/15: Rock-heavy 46 Days to close the set. Trey is losing his mind.
8/5/15: That first set was pretty weird. First half = 2010, second half = 2015. Both halves were clearly assembled using a dart board.
8/5/15: Some great Trey solos in BOTT, Blaze On, and 46 Days, though.
8/5/15: Now the second set opens with Jibboo. Even weirder.
8/5/15: One thing that I do always love about Jibboo is Mike's bass.
8/5/15: Jibboo > Twist.
8/5/15: Trey just shredded Twist into the ground. Sure, it's another Type I solo in the usual jam slot, but it's a good 'un.
8/5/15: The Wedge: the surprise S2 blue-baller of 2015.
8/5/15: Standard The Wedge > Pop Goes The Weasel tease from Mike > DWD.
8/5/15: Maybe 2015 Phish (not just Trey) will finally make an appearance here tonight.
8/5/15: Disease jam getting interesting around 8 mins. Loops coming in and Trey playing melody around them.
8/5/15: Really mesmerizing, loopy bassline from Mike. Now Page over to electric piano.
8/5/15: Trey and Mike playing off of each other.
8/5/15: Trey has a nice riff going now.
8/5/15: Droning synth from Page.
8/5/15: This is staying pretty mellow. At 14 mins. now. Trey chording. Page back on piano.
8/5/15: Turning darker now.
8/5/15: How Trey is containing himself from doing a > Rift is beyond me.
8/5/15: Trey's got a rising chord pattern going now. Fish is picking up steam. Should be a strong ending to the jam.
8/5/15: Pure guitar rage now.
8/5/15: Trey over to the loops AND the pitch-shifter now.
8/5/15: Sand!
8/5/15: Echo-funk chording a la the Dick's Mike's in 2014.
8/5/15: This is great.
8/5/15: Joy. The Disease > Sand pair was the 1st part of the show that really seemed to have a lot of momentum, so that's sort of a bummer.
8/5/15: YEM, out of friggin' nowhere.
8/5/15: I mean, I love YEM, obviously, but it seems like one of those coup de grace songs.
8/5/15: It's weird to hear it at the end of a show that has been pretty underwhelming (at least by 2015 standards).
8/5/15: Though two old school, composed monsters in one show is nice, I suppose.
8/5/15: Maybe I'm just experiencing Magnaball > Dick's syndrome since listening to the Atlanta run, though.
8/5/15: Maybe I'm shitting on (most of) 8/4 and (all of) 8/5 not because they're bad but because Atlanta was so good.
8/5/15: Pretty badass YEM jam going on here.
8/5/15: One thing's for sure: YEM might be a rarity lately, and might show up in weird places, but the YEM jams have been great.
8/5/15: Bug encore.
8/5/15: Woo! Eight more shows till Magnaball!
2015-08-04 Nashville
The Verdict:
I have to say that, generally speaking, I was a little underwhelmed by this show after reading a lot of the rave reviews it received before listening to it. Maybe my expectations were too high?
Anyway, the first half certainly has a pretty-well-put-together setlist, but other than that, I didn't think it was anything to write home about. The two potential standouts, "Stash" and "Walls," were both actually below-average versions by 2015 standards. Everything else stayed firmly in the box, and aside from a nice few minutes of minimalist, almost-plinko-style funk in the "Wolfman's" jam, there's really nothing you haven't heard before.
The "Golden Age" that opens the second set is an interesting version, though I'd have to go with the Dick's take for "Golden Age" of the year. This version moves into a spacey, pitch-shifted area right away, but then makes a smooth transition back into a Type I jam that heads to Bliss Central before landing in "Light." Had "Light" been a standout take, my review might have been a bit different, but really this version is the least interesting one in a long time, leaving a bit of a hole in the middle of the set.
Fortunately, the second-jammed "Mike's" gets things going again. The F jam is appropriately dark and funky, and the "Piper" that follow is compact, but also one of the weirder and more interesting readings I've heard in awhile. "Crosseyed" is short but a nice bit of meat on the Groove sandwich, and then "Weekapaug" hits.
Yeah, yeah, second jam in "Mike's" and all that, but it's really the "Weekapaug" that's the easy highlight of this show. From the double-time segue in from "Crosseyed" to the super-slowdown section to the "No Men" jam to the evil blues and then back to a funk space with "Still waiting!" quotes, this is one of my favorite pieces of music from the year so far. Totally overshadows the "Mike's" jam save for sentimental reasons.
So, on one hand, unless you're a "Golden Age" collector, the only thing really on display in this show is the Mike's Groove. On the other hand, it takes up most of the second set and is pretty much completely awesome. A few standout moments in S1 and a stronger S2 opener and this show might be deserving of its reputation. But I'm also pretty happy with it as it is.
The Live Review:
8/4/15: Go time on the Nashville show. The only thing I know about this show already is that Mike's second jam returns.
8/4/15: You know, just a small, insignificant detail.
8/4/15: Free opener.
8/4/15: Totally standard Free. At this point in my #phish life, I literally cannot think of a single thing to say about it.
8/4/15: No Men!
8/4/15: GOD I LOVE THIS SONG
8/4/15: Every time they play it, I end up doing the Trey Shuffle back and forth in front of my desk instead of working.
8/4/15: That was probably the shortest No Men yet, but it was still great. > Wolfman's.
8/4/15: Super clav-y, funky jam immediately coming your way here.
8/4/15: A little more minimal than the usual Wolfman's jam. Mike is more up front. I like it.
8/4/15: Great concluding solo from Trey after the funk.
8/4/15: Sort of rough version of 555 to follow that great No Men > Wolfman's pairing.
8/4/15: Birds with 'They Attack!' opening sample.
8/4/15: Funky Bitch. Interesting choice.
8/4/15: When the Circus Comes. This set makes no sense, but there are some fun songs.
8/4/15: Nice solo from Trey in Stash, but structurally a standard version.
8/4/15: Lawn Boy after Stash, just to slow things way the hell down for no reason, and now Walls to presumably close.
8/4/15: I've been surprised to find that (so far at least) 2015 S1s aren't really that great.
8/4/15: I mean, the playing is awesome, but there are way less surprises and interesting moments than reviews/comments suggested to me.
8/4/15: This is a well-played, sort-of-jumbled collection of first-setty songs, and that's it. And that's how most S1s have been so far.
8/4/15: Second set kicks off with Golden Age.
8/4/15: Trey hasn't butchered the lyrics this time, but the guitar lines are pretty damn messy.
8/4/15: I seem to recall this song being easy-peasy back in 2011.
8/4/15: Page over to electric piano, Trey on the octave-shifter.
8/4/15: Spacey jam moving toward a bliss-type jam based on the typical Golden Age progression.
8/4/15: Neat transition.
8/4/15: Strong build based on Golden Age chords > Light.
8/4/15: Fish sings 'Tom Marshall is our stepping stone' during Light.
8/4/15: So far, the jam is the usual Trey-peggio fest, albeit with a bit more distortion than usual.
8/4/15: Mike bass bomb puts an end to the typical section. Now heading into darker space.
8/4/15: Extended fade-out (nothing happened beyond the normal solo), but a nice landing in Shade.
8/4/15: Mike's Song. Here we goooooooo
8/4/15: Early in the jam, Trey is riding a neat riff. Let's see how long it lasts.
8/4/15: Not long!
8/4/15: Awkward but AWESOME move into the second jam. Crowd cheering as it slowly occurs to them that we're still going.
8/4/15: Funk chords over top of the F jam.
8/4/15: Moving away from Trey-driven soloing into space. Page on piano still. Trey chording.
8/4/15: Really ominous, awesome riff from Trey now.
8/4/15: Winding down now.
8/4/15: Fuzz resolves into Piper.
8/4/15: Some tasty waves of feedback pouring off of Trey's guitar. Now a super-octave-shifted solo. Sounds pretty weird, guys.
8/4/15: This Piper is short, but incredibly weird and awesome.
8/4/15: > Crosseyed! Fish is having extra fun with the verse vocals.
8/4/15: This version is swingin'.
8/4/15: AWESOME -> Groove. Great segue.
8/4/15: Groove starts way fast because of the segue. After 2 mins., it slows down to a super-slow pace. Trey cracking up.
8/4/15: Funk jam now. I think this counts as an extended No Men's jam. Trey playing the same riff.
8/4/15: Breakdown.
8/4/15: Holy crap evil blues jam guys
8/4/15: Groove riff coming up out of the blues muck. Holy balls. 'Still waiting' vocal quotes.
8/4/15: Slave closer.
8/4/15: By which I mean encore.
8/4/15: Standard Slave for the encore.
8/4/15: Which is code for 'I hope Slave gets the Hood treatment in 2016.'
8/4/15: Surprisingly, the awesomest part of that show was definitely the Groove, not Mike's.
8/4/15: Mike's was good, too, but definitely felt like two different jams. Without the surprise factor it was like 20% less cool.
8/4/15: There were some flashes of brilliance in the Golden Age jam, but really, nothing much to mention outside the Mike's Groove.
8/4/15: But damn, Mike's, Piper, and the Groove were all fantastic.
I have to say that, generally speaking, I was a little underwhelmed by this show after reading a lot of the rave reviews it received before listening to it. Maybe my expectations were too high?
Anyway, the first half certainly has a pretty-well-put-together setlist, but other than that, I didn't think it was anything to write home about. The two potential standouts, "Stash" and "Walls," were both actually below-average versions by 2015 standards. Everything else stayed firmly in the box, and aside from a nice few minutes of minimalist, almost-plinko-style funk in the "Wolfman's" jam, there's really nothing you haven't heard before.
The "Golden Age" that opens the second set is an interesting version, though I'd have to go with the Dick's take for "Golden Age" of the year. This version moves into a spacey, pitch-shifted area right away, but then makes a smooth transition back into a Type I jam that heads to Bliss Central before landing in "Light." Had "Light" been a standout take, my review might have been a bit different, but really this version is the least interesting one in a long time, leaving a bit of a hole in the middle of the set.
Fortunately, the second-jammed "Mike's" gets things going again. The F jam is appropriately dark and funky, and the "Piper" that follow is compact, but also one of the weirder and more interesting readings I've heard in awhile. "Crosseyed" is short but a nice bit of meat on the Groove sandwich, and then "Weekapaug" hits.
Yeah, yeah, second jam in "Mike's" and all that, but it's really the "Weekapaug" that's the easy highlight of this show. From the double-time segue in from "Crosseyed" to the super-slowdown section to the "No Men" jam to the evil blues and then back to a funk space with "Still waiting!" quotes, this is one of my favorite pieces of music from the year so far. Totally overshadows the "Mike's" jam save for sentimental reasons.
So, on one hand, unless you're a "Golden Age" collector, the only thing really on display in this show is the Mike's Groove. On the other hand, it takes up most of the second set and is pretty much completely awesome. A few standout moments in S1 and a stronger S2 opener and this show might be deserving of its reputation. But I'm also pretty happy with it as it is.
The Live Review:
8/4/15: Go time on the Nashville show. The only thing I know about this show already is that Mike's second jam returns.
8/4/15: You know, just a small, insignificant detail.
8/4/15: Free opener.
8/4/15: Totally standard Free. At this point in my #phish life, I literally cannot think of a single thing to say about it.
8/4/15: No Men!
8/4/15: GOD I LOVE THIS SONG
8/4/15: Every time they play it, I end up doing the Trey Shuffle back and forth in front of my desk instead of working.
8/4/15: That was probably the shortest No Men yet, but it was still great. > Wolfman's.
8/4/15: Super clav-y, funky jam immediately coming your way here.
8/4/15: A little more minimal than the usual Wolfman's jam. Mike is more up front. I like it.
8/4/15: Great concluding solo from Trey after the funk.
8/4/15: Sort of rough version of 555 to follow that great No Men > Wolfman's pairing.
8/4/15: Birds with 'They Attack!' opening sample.
8/4/15: Funky Bitch. Interesting choice.
8/4/15: When the Circus Comes. This set makes no sense, but there are some fun songs.
8/4/15: Nice solo from Trey in Stash, but structurally a standard version.
8/4/15: Lawn Boy after Stash, just to slow things way the hell down for no reason, and now Walls to presumably close.
8/4/15: I've been surprised to find that (so far at least) 2015 S1s aren't really that great.
8/4/15: I mean, the playing is awesome, but there are way less surprises and interesting moments than reviews/comments suggested to me.
8/4/15: This is a well-played, sort-of-jumbled collection of first-setty songs, and that's it. And that's how most S1s have been so far.
8/4/15: Second set kicks off with Golden Age.
8/4/15: Trey hasn't butchered the lyrics this time, but the guitar lines are pretty damn messy.
8/4/15: I seem to recall this song being easy-peasy back in 2011.
8/4/15: Page over to electric piano, Trey on the octave-shifter.
8/4/15: Spacey jam moving toward a bliss-type jam based on the typical Golden Age progression.
8/4/15: Neat transition.
8/4/15: Strong build based on Golden Age chords > Light.
8/4/15: Fish sings 'Tom Marshall is our stepping stone' during Light.
8/4/15: So far, the jam is the usual Trey-peggio fest, albeit with a bit more distortion than usual.
8/4/15: Mike bass bomb puts an end to the typical section. Now heading into darker space.
8/4/15: Extended fade-out (nothing happened beyond the normal solo), but a nice landing in Shade.
8/4/15: Mike's Song. Here we goooooooo
8/4/15: Early in the jam, Trey is riding a neat riff. Let's see how long it lasts.
8/4/15: Not long!
8/4/15: Awkward but AWESOME move into the second jam. Crowd cheering as it slowly occurs to them that we're still going.
8/4/15: Funk chords over top of the F jam.
8/4/15: Moving away from Trey-driven soloing into space. Page on piano still. Trey chording.
8/4/15: Really ominous, awesome riff from Trey now.
8/4/15: Winding down now.
8/4/15: Fuzz resolves into Piper.
8/4/15: Some tasty waves of feedback pouring off of Trey's guitar. Now a super-octave-shifted solo. Sounds pretty weird, guys.
8/4/15: This Piper is short, but incredibly weird and awesome.
8/4/15: > Crosseyed! Fish is having extra fun with the verse vocals.
8/4/15: This version is swingin'.
8/4/15: AWESOME -> Groove. Great segue.
8/4/15: Groove starts way fast because of the segue. After 2 mins., it slows down to a super-slow pace. Trey cracking up.
8/4/15: Funk jam now. I think this counts as an extended No Men's jam. Trey playing the same riff.
8/4/15: Breakdown.
8/4/15: Holy crap evil blues jam guys
8/4/15: Groove riff coming up out of the blues muck. Holy balls. 'Still waiting' vocal quotes.
8/4/15: Slave closer.
8/4/15: By which I mean encore.
8/4/15: Standard Slave for the encore.
8/4/15: Which is code for 'I hope Slave gets the Hood treatment in 2016.'
8/4/15: Surprisingly, the awesomest part of that show was definitely the Groove, not Mike's.
8/4/15: Mike's was good, too, but definitely felt like two different jams. Without the surprise factor it was like 20% less cool.
8/4/15: There were some flashes of brilliance in the Golden Age jam, but really, nothing much to mention outside the Mike's Groove.
8/4/15: But damn, Mike's, Piper, and the Groove were all fantastic.
Oct 10, 2015
2015-08-02 Tuscaloosa
The Verdict:
At first, after the Atlanta shows, I was disappointed with this show. Trying to look at it a bit more objectively, though, I've noticed it's pretty similar in a lot of ways to 8/1.
The first set has consistent energy and some interesting song choices, but nothing terribly interesting, which, in the context of this tour, makes it a slight disappointment. As is becoming typical, the opening two songs shoot the energy through the roof. I love "Train Song," "Devotion," and "Meat," but here they also contribute to a weird setlist flow that jumps back up for "Maze" only to get The Line'd right after. "Roggae" and "46 Days" are their usual excellent selves, and Page teases "Very Short Fuse" during the "fuse" lyric in "My Friend, My Friend," but that's the first set in a nutshell.
The second set opens with "Disease," and I think I described it the best I can below when I said that the jam resolves into a bliss-rock jam that resembles what The Who would sound like if they weren't so angry all the time. I'm not patting myself on the back for my wordplay, there, I just don't know how else to describe the jam.
The rest of the set plays out pretty much like it looks on paper, though the "2001" is stronger and funkier than you might expect, and the "Hood" is briefer and more perfunctory than you might expect. Oh, and the "Seven Below" is either a totally brilliant ten minutes of jamming or some basic noodling. I've listened to it three times now and I can't decide.
Frankly, this show is one of those big-third-quarter-jam, one-trick-pony sort of shows, but it's a really strong show in that mold. Unlike the Texas shows, the first set hangs together, even if it isn't going to blow anyone away, and some of the later jams in the second set attempt to Go There, even if they aren't achieving Shoreline or Atlanta levels.
The Live Review:
8/2/15: Sample opener.
8/2/15: CDT next. Is this a mid-90s show?
8/2/15: I guess if it was, the tempo would be twice as fast and you wouldn't be able to hear the band over Trey :)
8/2/15: Whoa! Train Song! It really *is* the 90s!
8/2/15: Devotion puts us firmly in 2015.
8/2/15: Meat! So far, I'm way more excited about this first set than I feel like I should be.
8/2/15: The Sample > CDT combo was neat, and I love all three of the other songs. Taken more 'objectively' though, I suppose this is boring.
8/2/15: Maze next. Maze is definitely not one of my favorite #phish songs, but it's been hot at least since the Eugene version last year.
8/2/15: I didn't notice this much live this summer, but on the recordings, Trey's melody playing/jamming is much more precise/assertive...
8/2/15: ...but his composed playing, even on songs like Maze, is a lot sloppier than usual.
8/2/15: Maybe the tradeoff of his learning all of those FTW songs is that he's got too many damn songs in his head at once.
8/2/15: I mean, I'd certainly prefer better jamming and shittier composed playing than the opposite.
8/2/15: But it seemed like he was on an upward curve in terms of improved composed playing from '09 to '14 in a lot of ways. Then, *thump*.
8/2/15: Umm...yes, that was a really good Maze, btw.
8/2/15: The Line. Nothing sucks the air out of a room faster these days.
8/2/15: The thing is, it's a great song. Occasionally, #phish writes a catchy, meaningful song like this, and it's great that they do.
8/2/15: But nobody on tour wants to hear it every other night, except the band themselves.
8/2/15: So, yeah, I cringe out on the lawn whenever they start it up...
8/2/15: ...but I also remember when it came on the shuffle while I was driving south to solo Mt. Shasta and captured my feeling perfectly.
8/2/15: A lot of times, #phish is even better at creating that magical lyrical moment than the 'great' songwriters I love.
8/2/15: But also, damn, stop playing The Line every other night Trey :)
8/2/15: You try to see your future from the line / clinging to the notion you'll be fine / but #phish keeps playing The Line all the time
8/2/15: Roggae! Been really happy to see this one get so much play the last two years.
8/2/15: It's a perfect S1 song OR jam landing pad. Like Reba, it doesn't really Go There, but the little variations make each version great.
8/2/15: Great Roggae. Peaky at the end, like a lot of recent versions. MFMF is next.
8/2/15: MFMF is one of those songs that I just can't like in concert for some reason.
8/2/15: Except the time I was really high and thought it was Guyute for the first two minutes. I really liked it that time.
8/2/15: Yeah!!! After MFMF 'Fuse' line, Page plays 'Very Short Fuse' samples!
8/2/15: Literally nobody in the audience reacted at all.
8/2/15: Is it possible that the Tuscaloosa crowd just sucks?
8/2/15: 46 Days!
8/2/15: Some great pitch-shifted soloing from Trey here.
8/2/15: All aboard the train to Shredtown. Trey is your engineer.
8/2/15: Cavern. For the last song of the set?
8/2/15: Yep. End set.
8/2/15: A weird set. Started strong, continue with some mellow semi-rarities. No sagging, really, though, except for The Line.
8/2/15: I guess a good way to think of it is 'Consistently good/strong, but never great.'
8/2/15: I really enjoyed listening to it, but will probably never listen to any of it ever again.
8/2/15: Alright, long setbreak of desk reorganization and moving a few hundred books around in my office.
8/2/15: S2 opener is Disease.
8/2/15: Disease jam opening with some excellent melodic work from Trey.
8/2/15: Some ambient fuzz. Fish pushing them through a transitional space.
8/2/15: Trey reeling out some more octave-shifted stuff now.
8/2/15: Ooh, nice landing in a hilariously jaunty chord progression.
8/2/15: This is what The Who would have sounded like if they hadn't been so angry all the time.
8/2/15: They jammed on that riff for a surprisingly long time by 201x standards. Now a totally weird alien feedback/echo edifice.
8/2/15: During any other tour, this would be a huge highlight. Here, it's just another notch in the 2015 belt. But yeah, it's real good :)
8/2/15: > Camel Walk? Weird.
8/2/15: Interesting solo from Trey in Camel Walk, then a snap-quick transition into Seven Below.
8/2/15: Really nice little jam space here. Fish keeps the Seven Below beat going, Page on electric piano.
8/2/15: Nice build in the solo, then a return to the Seven Below riff.
8/2/15: Fuego next.
8/2/15: Pretty standard Fuego.
8/2/15: > 2001!
8/2/15: 2001 excitement aside, this set is starting to feel a bit disjointed like most of the first one did.
8/2/15: Definitely more Texas going on in this show than Atlanta.
8/2/15: Great 2001, with some weird tones and echoes from Trey.
8/2/15: In a weird way, this reminds me of the Mike's from Dick's last year.
8/2/15: 2001 > Hood.
8/2/15: That was the leanest Hood I've heard in a long time. Not necessarily a bad thing, but would have liked to have heard more.
8/2/15: Possum now, of all things.
8/2/15: That was a surprisingly excellent version of Possum, but it still feels weird having it close the second set.
8/2/15: Gotta love a Day In the Life encore, though.
8/2/15: So that was a very Texas show, after all.
8/2/15: High-energy S1, but oddly plotted and no actually interesting highlights (which is more of a gimme this year, usually).
8/2/15: Second set was really just the Disease, though there were bits of Seven Below and 2001 that were interesting.
8/2/15: In short, it's sort of the 2015 equivalent of a 2009 or 2010 One Jam In The Second Set-style show.
At first, after the Atlanta shows, I was disappointed with this show. Trying to look at it a bit more objectively, though, I've noticed it's pretty similar in a lot of ways to 8/1.
The first set has consistent energy and some interesting song choices, but nothing terribly interesting, which, in the context of this tour, makes it a slight disappointment. As is becoming typical, the opening two songs shoot the energy through the roof. I love "Train Song," "Devotion," and "Meat," but here they also contribute to a weird setlist flow that jumps back up for "Maze" only to get The Line'd right after. "Roggae" and "46 Days" are their usual excellent selves, and Page teases "Very Short Fuse" during the "fuse" lyric in "My Friend, My Friend," but that's the first set in a nutshell.
The second set opens with "Disease," and I think I described it the best I can below when I said that the jam resolves into a bliss-rock jam that resembles what The Who would sound like if they weren't so angry all the time. I'm not patting myself on the back for my wordplay, there, I just don't know how else to describe the jam.
The rest of the set plays out pretty much like it looks on paper, though the "2001" is stronger and funkier than you might expect, and the "Hood" is briefer and more perfunctory than you might expect. Oh, and the "Seven Below" is either a totally brilliant ten minutes of jamming or some basic noodling. I've listened to it three times now and I can't decide.
Frankly, this show is one of those big-third-quarter-jam, one-trick-pony sort of shows, but it's a really strong show in that mold. Unlike the Texas shows, the first set hangs together, even if it isn't going to blow anyone away, and some of the later jams in the second set attempt to Go There, even if they aren't achieving Shoreline or Atlanta levels.
The Live Review:
8/2/15: Sample opener.
8/2/15: CDT next. Is this a mid-90s show?
8/2/15: I guess if it was, the tempo would be twice as fast and you wouldn't be able to hear the band over Trey :)
8/2/15: Whoa! Train Song! It really *is* the 90s!
8/2/15: Devotion puts us firmly in 2015.
8/2/15: Meat! So far, I'm way more excited about this first set than I feel like I should be.
8/2/15: The Sample > CDT combo was neat, and I love all three of the other songs. Taken more 'objectively' though, I suppose this is boring.
8/2/15: Maze next. Maze is definitely not one of my favorite #phish songs, but it's been hot at least since the Eugene version last year.
8/2/15: I didn't notice this much live this summer, but on the recordings, Trey's melody playing/jamming is much more precise/assertive...
8/2/15: ...but his composed playing, even on songs like Maze, is a lot sloppier than usual.
8/2/15: Maybe the tradeoff of his learning all of those FTW songs is that he's got too many damn songs in his head at once.
8/2/15: I mean, I'd certainly prefer better jamming and shittier composed playing than the opposite.
8/2/15: But it seemed like he was on an upward curve in terms of improved composed playing from '09 to '14 in a lot of ways. Then, *thump*.
8/2/15: Umm...yes, that was a really good Maze, btw.
8/2/15: The Line. Nothing sucks the air out of a room faster these days.
8/2/15: The thing is, it's a great song. Occasionally, #phish writes a catchy, meaningful song like this, and it's great that they do.
8/2/15: But nobody on tour wants to hear it every other night, except the band themselves.
8/2/15: So, yeah, I cringe out on the lawn whenever they start it up...
8/2/15: ...but I also remember when it came on the shuffle while I was driving south to solo Mt. Shasta and captured my feeling perfectly.
8/2/15: A lot of times, #phish is even better at creating that magical lyrical moment than the 'great' songwriters I love.
8/2/15: But also, damn, stop playing The Line every other night Trey :)
8/2/15: You try to see your future from the line / clinging to the notion you'll be fine / but #phish keeps playing The Line all the time
8/2/15: Roggae! Been really happy to see this one get so much play the last two years.
8/2/15: It's a perfect S1 song OR jam landing pad. Like Reba, it doesn't really Go There, but the little variations make each version great.
8/2/15: Great Roggae. Peaky at the end, like a lot of recent versions. MFMF is next.
8/2/15: MFMF is one of those songs that I just can't like in concert for some reason.
8/2/15: Except the time I was really high and thought it was Guyute for the first two minutes. I really liked it that time.
8/2/15: Yeah!!! After MFMF 'Fuse' line, Page plays 'Very Short Fuse' samples!
8/2/15: Literally nobody in the audience reacted at all.
8/2/15: Is it possible that the Tuscaloosa crowd just sucks?
8/2/15: 46 Days!
8/2/15: Some great pitch-shifted soloing from Trey here.
8/2/15: All aboard the train to Shredtown. Trey is your engineer.
8/2/15: Cavern. For the last song of the set?
8/2/15: Yep. End set.
8/2/15: A weird set. Started strong, continue with some mellow semi-rarities. No sagging, really, though, except for The Line.
8/2/15: I guess a good way to think of it is 'Consistently good/strong, but never great.'
8/2/15: I really enjoyed listening to it, but will probably never listen to any of it ever again.
8/2/15: Alright, long setbreak of desk reorganization and moving a few hundred books around in my office.
8/2/15: S2 opener is Disease.
8/2/15: Disease jam opening with some excellent melodic work from Trey.
8/2/15: Some ambient fuzz. Fish pushing them through a transitional space.
8/2/15: Trey reeling out some more octave-shifted stuff now.
8/2/15: Ooh, nice landing in a hilariously jaunty chord progression.
8/2/15: This is what The Who would have sounded like if they hadn't been so angry all the time.
8/2/15: They jammed on that riff for a surprisingly long time by 201x standards. Now a totally weird alien feedback/echo edifice.
8/2/15: During any other tour, this would be a huge highlight. Here, it's just another notch in the 2015 belt. But yeah, it's real good :)
8/2/15: > Camel Walk? Weird.
8/2/15: Interesting solo from Trey in Camel Walk, then a snap-quick transition into Seven Below.
8/2/15: Really nice little jam space here. Fish keeps the Seven Below beat going, Page on electric piano.
8/2/15: Nice build in the solo, then a return to the Seven Below riff.
8/2/15: Fuego next.
8/2/15: Pretty standard Fuego.
8/2/15: > 2001!
8/2/15: 2001 excitement aside, this set is starting to feel a bit disjointed like most of the first one did.
8/2/15: Definitely more Texas going on in this show than Atlanta.
8/2/15: Great 2001, with some weird tones and echoes from Trey.
8/2/15: In a weird way, this reminds me of the Mike's from Dick's last year.
8/2/15: 2001 > Hood.
8/2/15: That was the leanest Hood I've heard in a long time. Not necessarily a bad thing, but would have liked to have heard more.
8/2/15: Possum now, of all things.
8/2/15: That was a surprisingly excellent version of Possum, but it still feels weird having it close the second set.
8/2/15: Gotta love a Day In the Life encore, though.
8/2/15: So that was a very Texas show, after all.
8/2/15: High-energy S1, but oddly plotted and no actually interesting highlights (which is more of a gimme this year, usually).
8/2/15: Second set was really just the Disease, though there were bits of Seven Below and 2001 that were interesting.
8/2/15: In short, it's sort of the 2015 equivalent of a 2009 or 2010 One Jam In The Second Set-style show.
2015-08-01 Atlanta II
The Verdict:
There's more awesome Atlanta Phish to dig into on the second night of this run, though it's a bit more concentrated.
The first set has a lot fewer must-hear moments than the previous night, though there's a strong opening pair in "Runaway Jim" and "Undermind." the "Halfway," "Ocelot" pair smack-dab in the middle of the set might scream "Bathroom break!" but they're at the very least unique versions: Trey builds slowly to a crescendo from scratch in an interesting way in "Halfway" rather than just soloing and waiting out Page as he usually does, and "Ocelot" has another interesting build, that stays away from the song's usual blues-rock approach for some straight, harder rock instead. So, yeah, maybe check those out, but overall the set doesn't have the punch of the first night's opening frame.
The second set is pretty much all about the "Tweezer." The first half of this jam is some of the weirdest and yet most satisfying jamming I've heard in a long time from the band, and that's no small praise considering how they've been playing the last few years. I don't know that I'd call it the "best" anything, necessarily, but where even most of the band's top-shelf jams lately are really just particularly well-done variations on a particular theme or musical style, these 6-7 minutes are something I've never heard before at all. The second part of the jam settles into some more familiar territory, but is still solid for all that. Here, just watch it:
The rest of the set is strong 2015 playing, especially by Trey, but could easily be transported to a first set without anyone being the wiser...except for the Carini, which goes dark fast...and I mean dark:
So...yeah. Another great show, with some incredible highlights. Technically, it's a second-tier show for 2015, but that's just a backhanded compliment for how great 2015 has been in general.
The Live Review:
8/1/15: Second night of Atlanta coming your way. Slow-tempo Jim to open.
8/1/15: That was a very opener-y Jim. Very pleasant.
8/1/15: Curious to see if S1 of the second night can be as good as S1 of the first night.
8/1/15: Undermind next. Things are looking up.
8/1/15: Also slow tempo. Wouldn't mind a slow-tempo, ooey-gooey show, really.
8/1/15: Undermind floats along in a predictable way, though Mike is just blasting away in the background as if he's in a different song.
8/1/15: Some dude on the SBD is screaming for Skin It Back. #phish #crowdbanter
8/1/15: Nellie Kane instead.
8/1/15: Blaze On!
8/1/15: Short Blaze On. Now Halfway. Strong version, but I'm leery of setlist sag after the Texas shows. We'll see.
8/1/15: Unique Trey solo for this Halfway. Rather than just noodling along for a few minutes, he slowly builds from a small harmonics jam.
8/1/15: By the song's conclusion, he was shredding pretty seriously. I like that approach to the Halfway 'jam' better than the usual.
8/1/15: Fucking Ocelot.
8/1/15: Looking to make me eat my words, Trey and Fish are generating an interesting build here.
8/1/15: Trey's going to Melody Town. Gorgeous melody, but still building energy at the same time.
8/1/15: Well, that only slightly deviated from the usual Ocelot solo, but it's probably the most interesting take on the song I've heard.
8/1/15: Heavy Things, after an interlude of Fish drinking water and Trey exhorting the crowd to be more like Fish.
8/1/15: Messy Happy Birthday tease from Trey in Heavy Things. Not sure who for.
8/1/15: Theme!
8/1/15: Strong Theme, though no deviation from the usual...theme. Sorry.
8/1/15: Antelope to close the set. Hopefully it has some more balls than the Texas version.
8/1/15: Unless something magical happens in this Antelope, definitely S1N1 > S2N1.
8/1/15: We started off strong tonight with the first two songs, but everything else has been pretty typical.
8/1/15: Halfway and Ocelot were unique Type I versions, but that's about it.
8/1/15: End set. Gotta watch a video for work. brb.
8/1/15: Alright, S2 time.
8/1/15: Tweezer opener. The crowd loves it an appreciable amount.
8/1/15: Strong move into the jam, crowd loving it.
8/1/15: Distorted chords, beautiful keys from Page.
8/1/15: Trey laying down a great solo using the octave-shifter.
8/1/15: Slower, more melodic section now. Fish has a really interesting beat going.
8/1/15: This is wonderful. Holy shit.
8/1/15: I know I tend to be biased toward shows I've actually attended, but the KDF/Tweeze pair at Atlanta are better jams...
8/1/15: ...than anything I saw this summer.
8/1/15: Just fucking phenomenal. Dick's Disease is the only thing that's even close, but it's comparatively one-dimensional.
8/1/15: Where the hell are they even going with this thing? Making sounds I've never heard at a #phish show.
8/1/15: Just a little over halfway through, too!
8/1/15: Slow, buttery transition into rockland.
8/1/15: Trey going to town now.
8/1/15: Coming out of dark rock now, Page over to the clav.
8/1/15: Evil funk now. Mike with a great bassline.
8/1/15: Heavy drums now. Loops. Jam finally winding down. So good.
8/1/15: Trey ended on a gnarly loop that was begging to just have a Fee-style or '12 Roses-style jam tagged onto it.
8/1/15: Not like I'm complaining, though.
8/1/15: Jam lands in WAN. Perfect.
8/1/15: Number Line is next. I hope the rest of the at least contains some little gems, like 7/31 did. Even if not, though, DAT TWEEZER
8/1/15: Fantastically noodly Number Line gets BUTT-SLAMMED into CARINI
8/1/15: YOU TOLD ME OF A SECRET PLACE I SAW IT WHEN I MET YOU THE WALRUS ON YOUR FACE
8/1/15: This: https://t.co/RQuCdVTpqM
8/1/15: Lots of fucking screaming going into the jam. Fish is a champion screamer.
8/1/15: This is getting positively EVIL.
8/1/15: In the vein of the Bend Simple and Dick's Split.
8/1/15: Typing 'Dick's Split' admittedly made me wince a little.
8/1/15: This is nuts.
8/1/15: Oh. Waste. Interesting juxtaposition, but that felt like one of those 'strike while the iron is hot' moments. Oh well.
8/1/15: Guitar haze at the end of Waste > Sand.
8/1/15: Heavy funk time. Page -> clav.
8/1/15: That was an above-average typical version of Sand. If that makes any sense.
8/1/15: In other words: so good, but it didn't Go There.
8/1/15: Sand > Tweeprise.
8/1/15: End set. Rock and Roll encore!
8/1/15: Basically, both of these shows were just awesome. Slightly more pedestrian S1 tonight, and less on offer in S2 than N1.
8/1/15: That said, the Tweezer is even better than 7/31's KDF and probably the jam of the year so far for me.
8/1/15: Still prefer the Blaze On > Twist > Light, but I don't think that counts as one jam :)
8/1/15: Actually, I forgot the CDT from Texas was pretty damn good, too.
There's more awesome Atlanta Phish to dig into on the second night of this run, though it's a bit more concentrated.
The first set has a lot fewer must-hear moments than the previous night, though there's a strong opening pair in "Runaway Jim" and "Undermind." the "Halfway," "Ocelot" pair smack-dab in the middle of the set might scream "Bathroom break!" but they're at the very least unique versions: Trey builds slowly to a crescendo from scratch in an interesting way in "Halfway" rather than just soloing and waiting out Page as he usually does, and "Ocelot" has another interesting build, that stays away from the song's usual blues-rock approach for some straight, harder rock instead. So, yeah, maybe check those out, but overall the set doesn't have the punch of the first night's opening frame.
The second set is pretty much all about the "Tweezer." The first half of this jam is some of the weirdest and yet most satisfying jamming I've heard in a long time from the band, and that's no small praise considering how they've been playing the last few years. I don't know that I'd call it the "best" anything, necessarily, but where even most of the band's top-shelf jams lately are really just particularly well-done variations on a particular theme or musical style, these 6-7 minutes are something I've never heard before at all. The second part of the jam settles into some more familiar territory, but is still solid for all that. Here, just watch it:
The rest of the set is strong 2015 playing, especially by Trey, but could easily be transported to a first set without anyone being the wiser...except for the Carini, which goes dark fast...and I mean dark:
So...yeah. Another great show, with some incredible highlights. Technically, it's a second-tier show for 2015, but that's just a backhanded compliment for how great 2015 has been in general.
The Live Review:
8/1/15: Second night of Atlanta coming your way. Slow-tempo Jim to open.
8/1/15: That was a very opener-y Jim. Very pleasant.
8/1/15: Curious to see if S1 of the second night can be as good as S1 of the first night.
8/1/15: Undermind next. Things are looking up.
8/1/15: Also slow tempo. Wouldn't mind a slow-tempo, ooey-gooey show, really.
8/1/15: Undermind floats along in a predictable way, though Mike is just blasting away in the background as if he's in a different song.
8/1/15: Some dude on the SBD is screaming for Skin It Back. #phish #crowdbanter
8/1/15: Nellie Kane instead.
8/1/15: Blaze On!
8/1/15: Short Blaze On. Now Halfway. Strong version, but I'm leery of setlist sag after the Texas shows. We'll see.
8/1/15: Unique Trey solo for this Halfway. Rather than just noodling along for a few minutes, he slowly builds from a small harmonics jam.
8/1/15: By the song's conclusion, he was shredding pretty seriously. I like that approach to the Halfway 'jam' better than the usual.
8/1/15: Fucking Ocelot.
8/1/15: Looking to make me eat my words, Trey and Fish are generating an interesting build here.
8/1/15: Trey's going to Melody Town. Gorgeous melody, but still building energy at the same time.
8/1/15: Well, that only slightly deviated from the usual Ocelot solo, but it's probably the most interesting take on the song I've heard.
8/1/15: Heavy Things, after an interlude of Fish drinking water and Trey exhorting the crowd to be more like Fish.
8/1/15: Messy Happy Birthday tease from Trey in Heavy Things. Not sure who for.
8/1/15: Theme!
8/1/15: Strong Theme, though no deviation from the usual...theme. Sorry.
8/1/15: Antelope to close the set. Hopefully it has some more balls than the Texas version.
8/1/15: Unless something magical happens in this Antelope, definitely S1N1 > S2N1.
8/1/15: We started off strong tonight with the first two songs, but everything else has been pretty typical.
8/1/15: Halfway and Ocelot were unique Type I versions, but that's about it.
8/1/15: End set. Gotta watch a video for work. brb.
8/1/15: Alright, S2 time.
8/1/15: Tweezer opener. The crowd loves it an appreciable amount.
8/1/15: Strong move into the jam, crowd loving it.
8/1/15: Distorted chords, beautiful keys from Page.
8/1/15: Trey laying down a great solo using the octave-shifter.
8/1/15: Slower, more melodic section now. Fish has a really interesting beat going.
8/1/15: This is wonderful. Holy shit.
8/1/15: I know I tend to be biased toward shows I've actually attended, but the KDF/Tweeze pair at Atlanta are better jams...
8/1/15: ...than anything I saw this summer.
8/1/15: Just fucking phenomenal. Dick's Disease is the only thing that's even close, but it's comparatively one-dimensional.
8/1/15: Where the hell are they even going with this thing? Making sounds I've never heard at a #phish show.
8/1/15: Just a little over halfway through, too!
8/1/15: Slow, buttery transition into rockland.
8/1/15: Trey going to town now.
8/1/15: Coming out of dark rock now, Page over to the clav.
8/1/15: Evil funk now. Mike with a great bassline.
8/1/15: Heavy drums now. Loops. Jam finally winding down. So good.
8/1/15: Trey ended on a gnarly loop that was begging to just have a Fee-style or '12 Roses-style jam tagged onto it.
8/1/15: Not like I'm complaining, though.
8/1/15: Jam lands in WAN. Perfect.
8/1/15: Number Line is next. I hope the rest of the at least contains some little gems, like 7/31 did. Even if not, though, DAT TWEEZER
8/1/15: Fantastically noodly Number Line gets BUTT-SLAMMED into CARINI
8/1/15: YOU TOLD ME OF A SECRET PLACE I SAW IT WHEN I MET YOU THE WALRUS ON YOUR FACE
8/1/15: This: https://t.co/RQuCdVTpqM
8/1/15: Lots of fucking screaming going into the jam. Fish is a champion screamer.
8/1/15: This is getting positively EVIL.
8/1/15: In the vein of the Bend Simple and Dick's Split.
8/1/15: Typing 'Dick's Split' admittedly made me wince a little.
8/1/15: This is nuts.
8/1/15: Oh. Waste. Interesting juxtaposition, but that felt like one of those 'strike while the iron is hot' moments. Oh well.
8/1/15: Guitar haze at the end of Waste > Sand.
8/1/15: Heavy funk time. Page -> clav.
8/1/15: That was an above-average typical version of Sand. If that makes any sense.
8/1/15: In other words: so good, but it didn't Go There.
8/1/15: Sand > Tweeprise.
8/1/15: End set. Rock and Roll encore!
8/1/15: Basically, both of these shows were just awesome. Slightly more pedestrian S1 tonight, and less on offer in S2 than N1.
8/1/15: That said, the Tweezer is even better than 7/31's KDF and probably the jam of the year so far for me.
8/1/15: Still prefer the Blaze On > Twist > Light, but I don't think that counts as one jam :)
8/1/15: Actually, I forgot the CDT from Texas was pretty damn good, too.
2015-07-31 Atlanta I
The Verdict:
Though both shows in this run are fantastic, 7/31 stands above 8/1 as real best-of-tour material (at least so far). I still slightly prefer 7/24 because the second set had a longer and more interesting run of pure, free-form jamming, but I have to admit that the "KDF" jam here is just flat-out better than any of the three Shoreline jams, and the first set of 7/31 blows the first set of Shoreline away.
In the first set, I love the "Caspian" opener, unironically. It's a standard version but a great choice that makes a good one-two punch with the "No Men" that follows. The "Ghost" is absolutely a second-set jam, three songs into the show. The rest of the set is pretty standard, but the energy and playing stays exceptionally strong throughout, and there are lots of little touches that make it one of the best first frames of the tour so far. "Moma Dance" doesn't get "jammed out," technically, but the band plays a bit with tones and gives the staple a different feel than usual. "How Many People?" gets extended a little on its second outing, and a comment by Trey about "picking up the tempo" after "Rift" leads to a "Mike's" intro where the tempo is played around with liberally. The "Groove" ends the set with a bang, and you know something excellent has to be coming during S2.
And it does. The "KDF" is a masterful, long jam, covering loopy textures, near-ambient territory, metallic, creaking robot-rock, a huge octave-shifted solo from Trey, and ultimately a fade-out that leads into "Martian Monster." The "Martian Monster" is the most interesting take yet, for my money, with lots of chording by Trey, a sample jam from Page, and a fantastic bassline from Mike holding the whole thing down. Like "Martian Monster," "Twist" is a bit short, but it also covers a lot of ground, heading smoothly out of the composed bit a soaring, melodic space. "BOTT" is a slight hiccup, but then they're back at it with a top-shelf "Reba" and then a "Gin" that gets way out there by the standards of the song. The encore brings the whole thing home with "Farmhouse" > "Zero," which I have to assume is a sick joke.
Again, the obvious comparison to make here is to Shoreline, and while I felt that the first three songs in that S2 went deeper and weirder, none of them reached the depths of "KDF," and the "Martian Monster" > "Twist" section is no slouch, and neither is the "Gin." I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's more volume here, but maybe slightly less quality. But hell, it doesn't matter does it? This is real-deal 2015 Phish, so you need to hear it.
The Live Review:
7/31/15: Prince Caspian opener! There's a way to piss people who aren't me off!
7/31/15: Pretty standard Caspian, ends with a little loop section.
7/31/15: Nice landing in No Men!
7/31/15: No Type 2, but a lot of ground covered in 7 minutes. Great chording from Trey, Page taking the lead near the end.
7/31/15: Mike MVPing it the entire time.
7/31/15: Ghost!
7/31/15: Nailed the drop, and Mike is singing the high harmony. Sounds like 1998 in here all of a sudden.
7/31/15: Switching off between great leads from Trey and Mike.
7/31/15: Guys, this is a serious Ghost jam. Third song of the show.
7/31/15: Three songs in, two jams already. Wow.
7/31/15: And this Ghost is serious second-set shit. No messing around. Trey laying down a perfect, composed-sounding solo.
7/31/15: 2015 Fish being 2015 Fish. Driving that shit.
7/31/15: Perfect drop back into Ghost riff. Crowd goes nuts. Slow-down ending?
7/31/15: Trey definitely played the Roggae riff at the end of Ghost. But then they stopped. Maybe just a coincidence.
7/31/15: The Wedge.
7/31/15: The Wedge was pretty standard. > Moma. On the upside, Trey's tone on this Moma is dirty as hell.
7/31/15: Whoa. Almost plinko jam during Fish's vocals. Continuing during Trey's. This might be the weirdest 3.0 Moma.
7/31/15: Admittedly, that ain't sayin' much, but this is cool.
7/31/15: How Many People Are You? Nice!
7/31/15: Definitely laid the foundation for an awesome jam at the end of the song. Would LOVE to see that happen in 2016.
7/31/15: Rift next.
7/31/15: Trey, after a too-fast, sort-of-flubby Rift: 'We'd like to pick up the tempo now!'
7/31/15: Hoping WAN is next :)
7/31/15: Ooh, Mike's!
7/31/15: Fish playing double-time on drums...Trey responds by slowing the song waaaaaay down. This show is goddamn awesome.
7/31/15: Now a reggae version of the intro, complete with Trey reggae screaming.
7/31/15: Super-dirty tone from Trey during the Mike's solo.
7/31/15: Hydrogen!
7/31/15: GROOOOOOOVE
7/31/15: Great '15-style soloing from Trey.
7/31/15: Trey is making this into a monster Groove.
7/31/15: S2 KDF opener.
7/31/15: Mass of chording and loops overtaking the jam now.
7/31/15: Dark, reverb-y chords now.
7/31/15: Serious rock and roll machinery creaking along here.
7/31/15: Trey is laying down a great octave-shifted solo. Page on electric. Mike drone.
7/31/15: This sounds like Shoreline/Forum jamming on steroids.
7/31/15: Seamless move into a great Trey rock solo.
7/31/15: Heading back into Manteca-y territory again. Fishman is a monster.
7/31/15: Trey playing a building riff now.
7/31/15: Great rock peak, now backing down again.
7/31/15: Extended, loopy fade-out...MARTIAN MONSTER SAMPLE
7/31/15: Page is jamming on the vocal samples after a bassy breakdown.
7/31/15: Just put on my headphones, hit play, heard 'BECAUSE OF THE INCREDIBLE SPEED OF YOUR ROCKET' and then a student walked in.
7/31/15: This is my favorite Martian Monster, I think.
7/31/15: Great Mike bass, Trey deconstructing the song with chording, loops, Page solo, shit.
7/31/15: Twist next. Early bluesy noodling in the jam from Trey.
7/31/15: Smooth transition into a gorgeous, melodic space. Page on electric piano.
7/31/15: This is almost like a Simple jam, now.
7/31/15: Trey is just ripping it up melodically here. Small build, but Trey takes over with another solo. So good.
7/31/15: Nice landing in a -> BOTT.
7/31/15: Standard BOTT with a sort-of -> Reba.
7/31/15: Fantastic melody playing from Trey in this Reba. Notes fucking flying everywhere.
7/31/15: Trey whistling tease and then Page tease of Reba during the beginning of Gin.
7/31/15: Oh, and the Reba was amazing.
7/31/15: Trey soloing and scatting along with the solo now.
7/31/15: Entering 70s rock territory.
7/31/15: Trey entering rock-dragon mode now.
7/31/15: Oh man. Super-bliss-rocktown jam, still nosing around the Gin progression.
7/31/15: Trey whistling the Reba outro, Mike singing 'Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls' and Fish screaming over the Gin ending.
7/31/15: Encore is Farmhouse, Character Zero. Every show this summer has a clever encore except the ones with excellent S2s.
7/31/15: It's like they're trolling us. 'Five-song second set? Show of Life encore!'
7/31/15: Awful purty solo from Trey in the Farmhouse, tho
7/31/15: So, that was a pretty amazing second set. Not as jammy as Shoreline, but almost as good. KDF and Twist were the highlights.
7/31/15: On the other hand, this first set is by far the best one of the year so far.
Though both shows in this run are fantastic, 7/31 stands above 8/1 as real best-of-tour material (at least so far). I still slightly prefer 7/24 because the second set had a longer and more interesting run of pure, free-form jamming, but I have to admit that the "KDF" jam here is just flat-out better than any of the three Shoreline jams, and the first set of 7/31 blows the first set of Shoreline away.
In the first set, I love the "Caspian" opener, unironically. It's a standard version but a great choice that makes a good one-two punch with the "No Men" that follows. The "Ghost" is absolutely a second-set jam, three songs into the show. The rest of the set is pretty standard, but the energy and playing stays exceptionally strong throughout, and there are lots of little touches that make it one of the best first frames of the tour so far. "Moma Dance" doesn't get "jammed out," technically, but the band plays a bit with tones and gives the staple a different feel than usual. "How Many People?" gets extended a little on its second outing, and a comment by Trey about "picking up the tempo" after "Rift" leads to a "Mike's" intro where the tempo is played around with liberally. The "Groove" ends the set with a bang, and you know something excellent has to be coming during S2.
And it does. The "KDF" is a masterful, long jam, covering loopy textures, near-ambient territory, metallic, creaking robot-rock, a huge octave-shifted solo from Trey, and ultimately a fade-out that leads into "Martian Monster." The "Martian Monster" is the most interesting take yet, for my money, with lots of chording by Trey, a sample jam from Page, and a fantastic bassline from Mike holding the whole thing down. Like "Martian Monster," "Twist" is a bit short, but it also covers a lot of ground, heading smoothly out of the composed bit a soaring, melodic space. "BOTT" is a slight hiccup, but then they're back at it with a top-shelf "Reba" and then a "Gin" that gets way out there by the standards of the song. The encore brings the whole thing home with "Farmhouse" > "Zero," which I have to assume is a sick joke.
Again, the obvious comparison to make here is to Shoreline, and while I felt that the first three songs in that S2 went deeper and weirder, none of them reached the depths of "KDF," and the "Martian Monster" > "Twist" section is no slouch, and neither is the "Gin." I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's more volume here, but maybe slightly less quality. But hell, it doesn't matter does it? This is real-deal 2015 Phish, so you need to hear it.
The Live Review:
7/31/15: Prince Caspian opener! There's a way to piss people who aren't me off!
7/31/15: Pretty standard Caspian, ends with a little loop section.
7/31/15: Nice landing in No Men!
7/31/15: No Type 2, but a lot of ground covered in 7 minutes. Great chording from Trey, Page taking the lead near the end.
7/31/15: Mike MVPing it the entire time.
7/31/15: Ghost!
7/31/15: Nailed the drop, and Mike is singing the high harmony. Sounds like 1998 in here all of a sudden.
7/31/15: Switching off between great leads from Trey and Mike.
7/31/15: Guys, this is a serious Ghost jam. Third song of the show.
7/31/15: Three songs in, two jams already. Wow.
7/31/15: And this Ghost is serious second-set shit. No messing around. Trey laying down a perfect, composed-sounding solo.
7/31/15: 2015 Fish being 2015 Fish. Driving that shit.
7/31/15: Perfect drop back into Ghost riff. Crowd goes nuts. Slow-down ending?
7/31/15: Trey definitely played the Roggae riff at the end of Ghost. But then they stopped. Maybe just a coincidence.
7/31/15: The Wedge.
7/31/15: The Wedge was pretty standard. > Moma. On the upside, Trey's tone on this Moma is dirty as hell.
7/31/15: Whoa. Almost plinko jam during Fish's vocals. Continuing during Trey's. This might be the weirdest 3.0 Moma.
7/31/15: Admittedly, that ain't sayin' much, but this is cool.
7/31/15: How Many People Are You? Nice!
7/31/15: Definitely laid the foundation for an awesome jam at the end of the song. Would LOVE to see that happen in 2016.
7/31/15: Rift next.
7/31/15: Trey, after a too-fast, sort-of-flubby Rift: 'We'd like to pick up the tempo now!'
7/31/15: Hoping WAN is next :)
7/31/15: Ooh, Mike's!
7/31/15: Fish playing double-time on drums...Trey responds by slowing the song waaaaaay down. This show is goddamn awesome.
7/31/15: Now a reggae version of the intro, complete with Trey reggae screaming.
7/31/15: Super-dirty tone from Trey during the Mike's solo.
7/31/15: Hydrogen!
7/31/15: GROOOOOOOVE
7/31/15: Great '15-style soloing from Trey.
7/31/15: Trey is making this into a monster Groove.
7/31/15: S2 KDF opener.
7/31/15: Mass of chording and loops overtaking the jam now.
7/31/15: Dark, reverb-y chords now.
7/31/15: Serious rock and roll machinery creaking along here.
7/31/15: Trey is laying down a great octave-shifted solo. Page on electric. Mike drone.
7/31/15: This sounds like Shoreline/Forum jamming on steroids.
7/31/15: Seamless move into a great Trey rock solo.
7/31/15: Heading back into Manteca-y territory again. Fishman is a monster.
7/31/15: Trey playing a building riff now.
7/31/15: Great rock peak, now backing down again.
7/31/15: Extended, loopy fade-out...MARTIAN MONSTER SAMPLE
7/31/15: Page is jamming on the vocal samples after a bassy breakdown.
7/31/15: Just put on my headphones, hit play, heard 'BECAUSE OF THE INCREDIBLE SPEED OF YOUR ROCKET' and then a student walked in.
7/31/15: This is my favorite Martian Monster, I think.
7/31/15: Great Mike bass, Trey deconstructing the song with chording, loops, Page solo, shit.
7/31/15: Twist next. Early bluesy noodling in the jam from Trey.
7/31/15: Smooth transition into a gorgeous, melodic space. Page on electric piano.
7/31/15: This is almost like a Simple jam, now.
7/31/15: Trey is just ripping it up melodically here. Small build, but Trey takes over with another solo. So good.
7/31/15: Nice landing in a -> BOTT.
7/31/15: Standard BOTT with a sort-of -> Reba.
7/31/15: Fantastic melody playing from Trey in this Reba. Notes fucking flying everywhere.
7/31/15: Trey whistling tease and then Page tease of Reba during the beginning of Gin.
7/31/15: Oh, and the Reba was amazing.
7/31/15: Trey soloing and scatting along with the solo now.
7/31/15: Entering 70s rock territory.
7/31/15: Trey entering rock-dragon mode now.
7/31/15: Oh man. Super-bliss-rocktown jam, still nosing around the Gin progression.
7/31/15: Trey whistling the Reba outro, Mike singing 'Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls' and Fish screaming over the Gin ending.
7/31/15: Encore is Farmhouse, Character Zero. Every show this summer has a clever encore except the ones with excellent S2s.
7/31/15: It's like they're trolling us. 'Five-song second set? Show of Life encore!'
7/31/15: Awful purty solo from Trey in the Farmhouse, tho
7/31/15: So, that was a pretty amazing second set. Not as jammy as Shoreline, but almost as good. KDF and Twist were the highlights.
7/31/15: On the other hand, this first set is by far the best one of the year so far.
Oct 1, 2015
2015-07-29 Grand Prairie, TX
The Verdict:
This show is perhaps a little stronger than the previous night's offering, but stays mostly mired in the funk (and not the good kind) that surrounds both of these weird Texas shows.
The first set starts out strong, and indeed I tweeted something to the effect that the band was coming out of the gates in a lot more cohesive a fashion than the previous night. The "Tube," "Guelah" > "PYITE" > "Steam" sequence is strong, and "Steam" even hints at a bit of a "real" jam, moving smoothly into funk (the good kind) territory. But instead of following through, the band comes to a full stop, and starts up "Poor Heart," which opens the rest of the set to jukebox tunes. I say that while acknowledging that I also love "Divided Sky," but this version is sort of creaky and painful to hear through the composed section, and the jam, while strong, isn't anything you haven't heard before.
The second set, like the previous night's, packs some flashes of brilliance in, but here they're more concentrated. After 2014, I sort of imagined I'd heard it all when it came to extended "Chalkdust"s, but this version is really unique. Your mileage might vary, but to me the minimalist, bass-led approach to the jam is something I haven't heard often in "Chalkdust" jams, and it's long: the guys stick with this space far longer than they typically would, before building to a more typical rock peak. It's sort of like the big brother to last year's underrated 7/25 "Chalkdust." The "Simple" that follows is pretty much par-for-the-course in terms of being a beautiful little "Simple" jam until, led by Trey, the guys build a long, slow segue into "Silent." Typically, this might be a momentum-killer at this point in the set, but the segue is so good by the time they transition, you just want to hear it.
Unfortunately, the rest of the set is totally rote in by-now-expected Texas fashion until the 15-minute "Hood" set closer. This guy also follows the '14 blueprint, departing from the typical structure for a "Manteca"-ish jam and then a much more frenetic and intense outro solo than Trey usually contributes. It's a great version, and gives us a second highlight from the show to enjoy. Encore-wise, "The Connection" is a cool choice, and the following "First Tube" is one of the more melodic versions that I've heard.
The second set starts here at 1:20:00:
The Live Review:
7/29/15: Second Texas show opens with a loose Tube.
7/29/15: Guelah Papyrus in the two-slot! Would love to see this in S1s more often.
7/29/15: PYITE. Loving the song selection so far in this set.
7/29/15: > Steam! Didn't see that coming!
7/29/15: The difference between this and 7/28 in terms of 'flow' (I hate that word, but you know what I mean) is night and day.
7/29/15: Trey throwing out a pretty swanky solo for a first set.
7/29/15: Nice, slow move from the solo > final vocals > half-tempo funk jam. Neat.
7/29/15: That seemed destined for a cool segue, but full stop > Poor Heart is good, too.
7/29/15: NICU is next. Falling a bit into jukebox territory here, but still strong energy.
7/29/15: I Didn't Know is fun.
7/29/15: Trey talks about being born just down the road before the vacuum solo, then introduces Fish as 'The Best Man.'
7/29/15: Now Stealing Time. Somebody definitely hit 'Shuffle' on the setlist sometime after Steam.
7/29/15: Divided Sky! Now that's nice.
7/29/15: Btw, I think that version of Stealing Time was one of the shortest ever. Maybe even shorter than the album version?
7/29/15: A few surprising and fairly cringeworthy flubs from Trey, but otherwise a great version.
7/29/15: Squirming Coil...probably as set closer?
7/29/15: Trey having some trouble here, too.
7/29/15: End set.
7/29/15: Second set kicks off with CDT. What is this, 2014?
7/29/15: Really smooth transition into a spacey-space here in Chalk Dust. Page on electric piano. Always a good thing.
7/29/15: Mike's grabbed the wheel and this is awesome. Really broken-down. Trey chording slightly. Page w/ ambient effects.
7/29/15: Quick build, now. Rock and roooooooll
7/29/15: Meditation: https://t.co/GhXu3EvCiT
7/29/15: Wind-down -B Simple.
7/29/15: -B stands for 'butt-slammed' for those of you keeping score at home.
7/29/15: Neat outro jam to Simple, which echoed the intro to Silent in the Morning.
7/29/15: Ah, good. Trey took a minute to get everyone else on board, but now -> Silent.
7/29/15: That was probably THE WORST placement of The Line I've ever heard, and I've heard every show since the debut.
7/29/15: Even on the soundboard, you could just hear the air hiss out of the crowd, almost literally.
7/29/15: After that sweet Simple -> Silent transition, you slam that shit into a Tweezer, or something. Geez, guys.
7/29/15: Birds is next. We're approach 7/28 levels of setlist weirdness at this point.
7/29/15: *approaching
7/29/15: Fuego has found its way into some weird spots this year. This is one of them.
7/29/15: 'Some days it's not worth pre-writing a setlist / Freak out and play songs / See what sticks'
7/29/15: Oh, what the hell. Julius now.
7/29/15: Ah, at least I can take refuge in Hood. Probably the set closer?
7/29/15: Neat, Manteca-ish jam in the midst of Hood. Long sustained note now by Trey.
7/29/15: Band buidling around it. So awesome.
7/29/15: *building
7/29/15: Still holding. Probably close to a minute.
7/29/15: Trey doesn't fall back into the usual outro jam, but plays a lot of high-neck machine-gun goodness. Wow.
7/29/15: This Hood and that CDT belong in another show.
7/29/15: The Connection for an encore. Whoa.
7/29/15: First Tuuuuuuube
7/29/15: More melodic solo than usual, slower tempo. I like the switch. Feels more anthemic than blow-your-ears-out.
This show is perhaps a little stronger than the previous night's offering, but stays mostly mired in the funk (and not the good kind) that surrounds both of these weird Texas shows.
The first set starts out strong, and indeed I tweeted something to the effect that the band was coming out of the gates in a lot more cohesive a fashion than the previous night. The "Tube," "Guelah" > "PYITE" > "Steam" sequence is strong, and "Steam" even hints at a bit of a "real" jam, moving smoothly into funk (the good kind) territory. But instead of following through, the band comes to a full stop, and starts up "Poor Heart," which opens the rest of the set to jukebox tunes. I say that while acknowledging that I also love "Divided Sky," but this version is sort of creaky and painful to hear through the composed section, and the jam, while strong, isn't anything you haven't heard before.
The second set, like the previous night's, packs some flashes of brilliance in, but here they're more concentrated. After 2014, I sort of imagined I'd heard it all when it came to extended "Chalkdust"s, but this version is really unique. Your mileage might vary, but to me the minimalist, bass-led approach to the jam is something I haven't heard often in "Chalkdust" jams, and it's long: the guys stick with this space far longer than they typically would, before building to a more typical rock peak. It's sort of like the big brother to last year's underrated 7/25 "Chalkdust." The "Simple" that follows is pretty much par-for-the-course in terms of being a beautiful little "Simple" jam until, led by Trey, the guys build a long, slow segue into "Silent." Typically, this might be a momentum-killer at this point in the set, but the segue is so good by the time they transition, you just want to hear it.
Unfortunately, the rest of the set is totally rote in by-now-expected Texas fashion until the 15-minute "Hood" set closer. This guy also follows the '14 blueprint, departing from the typical structure for a "Manteca"-ish jam and then a much more frenetic and intense outro solo than Trey usually contributes. It's a great version, and gives us a second highlight from the show to enjoy. Encore-wise, "The Connection" is a cool choice, and the following "First Tube" is one of the more melodic versions that I've heard.
The second set starts here at 1:20:00:
The Live Review:
7/29/15: Second Texas show opens with a loose Tube.
7/29/15: Guelah Papyrus in the two-slot! Would love to see this in S1s more often.
7/29/15: PYITE. Loving the song selection so far in this set.
7/29/15: > Steam! Didn't see that coming!
7/29/15: The difference between this and 7/28 in terms of 'flow' (I hate that word, but you know what I mean) is night and day.
7/29/15: Trey throwing out a pretty swanky solo for a first set.
7/29/15: Nice, slow move from the solo > final vocals > half-tempo funk jam. Neat.
7/29/15: That seemed destined for a cool segue, but full stop > Poor Heart is good, too.
7/29/15: NICU is next. Falling a bit into jukebox territory here, but still strong energy.
7/29/15: I Didn't Know is fun.
7/29/15: Trey talks about being born just down the road before the vacuum solo, then introduces Fish as 'The Best Man.'
7/29/15: Now Stealing Time. Somebody definitely hit 'Shuffle' on the setlist sometime after Steam.
7/29/15: Divided Sky! Now that's nice.
7/29/15: Btw, I think that version of Stealing Time was one of the shortest ever. Maybe even shorter than the album version?
7/29/15: A few surprising and fairly cringeworthy flubs from Trey, but otherwise a great version.
7/29/15: Squirming Coil...probably as set closer?
7/29/15: Trey having some trouble here, too.
7/29/15: End set.
7/29/15: Second set kicks off with CDT. What is this, 2014?
7/29/15: Really smooth transition into a spacey-space here in Chalk Dust. Page on electric piano. Always a good thing.
7/29/15: Mike's grabbed the wheel and this is awesome. Really broken-down. Trey chording slightly. Page w/ ambient effects.
7/29/15: Quick build, now. Rock and roooooooll
7/29/15: Meditation: https://t.co/GhXu3EvCiT
7/29/15: Wind-down -B Simple.
7/29/15: -B stands for 'butt-slammed' for those of you keeping score at home.
7/29/15: Neat outro jam to Simple, which echoed the intro to Silent in the Morning.
7/29/15: Ah, good. Trey took a minute to get everyone else on board, but now -> Silent.
7/29/15: That was probably THE WORST placement of The Line I've ever heard, and I've heard every show since the debut.
7/29/15: Even on the soundboard, you could just hear the air hiss out of the crowd, almost literally.
7/29/15: After that sweet Simple -> Silent transition, you slam that shit into a Tweezer, or something. Geez, guys.
7/29/15: Birds is next. We're approach 7/28 levels of setlist weirdness at this point.
7/29/15: *approaching
7/29/15: Fuego has found its way into some weird spots this year. This is one of them.
7/29/15: 'Some days it's not worth pre-writing a setlist / Freak out and play songs / See what sticks'
7/29/15: Oh, what the hell. Julius now.
7/29/15: Ah, at least I can take refuge in Hood. Probably the set closer?
7/29/15: Neat, Manteca-ish jam in the midst of Hood. Long sustained note now by Trey.
7/29/15: Band buidling around it. So awesome.
7/29/15: *building
7/29/15: Still holding. Probably close to a minute.
7/29/15: Trey doesn't fall back into the usual outro jam, but plays a lot of high-neck machine-gun goodness. Wow.
7/29/15: This Hood and that CDT belong in another show.
7/29/15: The Connection for an encore. Whoa.
7/29/15: First Tuuuuuuube
7/29/15: More melodic solo than usual, slower tempo. I like the switch. Feels more anthemic than blow-your-ears-out.
2015-07-28 Austin360 Amphitheater
The Verdict:
Both of these Texas shows are weird. And not entirely good-weird. Considered in the context of the tour as a whole, they get even weirder. The closest comparison to them is probably the Bend run, but even there, there's a verve to the band's (and especially Trey's) playing, the jams are there, they're just writ small, and the debuts and setlist surprises keep things interesting. I can't say the same for these two shows, unfortunately. But, hey, there are anomalies even in every excellent tour. And it's not as if these two shows don't have some highlights worth digging into at the expense of the rest.
The first night is mostly comprised of first-set-style songs played well, but not in any sort of discernible order. As a result, the energy is all over the place, depending on which song is currently playing. I like "Dirt" and "Sugar Shack" more than the next guy, but whoever thought to build the middle of the opening frame out of "Lawn Boy," "Bouncin'," "Water in the Sky" > "Dirt," "Devotion," "Sugar Shack" was high on some especially relaxing stuff. The set-closing "Antelope" is the most anaemic version I can remember hearing in a long time, so even that doesn't help. The back half of the second set is the same: song choices and playing that make it seem like the band has confused the fourth quarter with the first one.
All that said, though, I still don't think this show deserves the brutal sub-3 rating it currently has on phish.net. Why? Because the third quarter is fantastic. "The Dogs" gets sandwiched into a "46 Days" that comes back after the "Dogs" jam to float around in a beautiful, ethereal space for a few minutes before "Piper" begins a slow-for-3.0 build version. "Piper" heads into "Ghost" territory a few minutes before actually seguing into the song, and "Ghost" proper moves from a Bend "Simple"-style jam into something that almost sounds like "Runaway Jim" before moving perfectly into "Shade." That the rest of the set then ends up being a "cooldown song" doesn't necessarily detract from the brilliance of putting "Shade" at the end of this gorgeous sequence.
The rest of this show is, I hate to say, pure filler, but that sequence should be on everyone's summer highlight list.
No individual song videos on YouTube, but jump to 1:23:00 here to see the opening of the second set:
The Live Review:
7/28/15: Ahhh the dulcet tones of a Party Time opener.
7/28/15: Often seems to signal a subpar show. Hopefully that isn't the case here.
7/28/15: This is the first show of the summer I've reviewed that I didn't attend. Should be interesting.
7/28/15: Party Time sounds a little more languid and funky than usual.
7/28/15: Page takes an organ solo, now a Trey solo.
7/28/15: Free jam is equally sort of sparse and slow. Not necessarily a bad thing. Just sounds different.
7/28/15: Halley's. One of those #phish songs that I never enjoy because I'm always wondering 'WILL THIS BE THE ONE THAT THEY JAM ON???'
7/28/15: Fiery Halley's solo -B Wolfman's.
7/28/15: Trey is going full-on machine gun at the end of this Wolfman's. Short, and one of least interesting versions I've heard in awhile.
7/28/15: But, yeah, that guitar was TERRE HAUTE
7/28/15: Possum is led by a series organ solo from Page. Trey chording over.
7/28/15: Lawn Boy.
7/28/15: Lawn Boy > Bouncin' is probably not anyone's new favorite setlist call.
7/28/15: Fast version of Water In the Sky.
7/28/15: Holy Dirt!
7/28/15: Such a gorgeous song. And Trey is nailing the solo.
7/28/15: For a lot of people, set is probably coming apart at this point, but I love Devotion. First air guitar solo of the school year.
7/28/15: I took a little #phish hiatus after listening all the way to Dick's and back and then climbing Whitney. The silence was nice.
7/28/15: And now it's great to be back :)
7/28/15: I have these times when I think 'I love so much music, why spend so much time listening to one band?'
7/28/15: Then I get about a third of a way through a show and think 'Oh. Right.'
7/28/15: Sugar Shack! This is another of my favorite S1 songs, when Trey doesn't murder it.
7/28/15: This seems like a really long S1. Might just be because I'm trying to review w/o looking at the playlist during for the first time.
7/28/15: Antelope will presumably close the set.
7/28/15: Eww. Trey botches the chord that transitions from the intro to the jam.
7/28/15: Sure, everyone messes up from time to time, but that's some iconic shit, and stands out more.
7/28/15: I hate using this word in general, but that was the most milquetoast version of Antelope I've heard in a long time.
7/28/15: 46 Days opening the second set.
7/28/15: Wooooooo! 46 Days -> The Dogs!
7/28/15: Holy goddamn 46 Days -> The Dogs -> 46 Days!
7/28/15: Spacey, almost 2001 jam now.
7/28/15: This is such a great little jam.
7/28/15: 7/28/15: jam > Piper.
7/28/15: https://t.co/EqgMydCayk
7/28/15: Piper has a nice, slow wind up and moves seamlessly into a fast, chordy jam. I might submit Fish as early tour MVP.
7/28/15: Winding up in an ethereal jam. Fish hitting the blocks. Aaaaand...GHOST
7/28/15: This whole sequence has been fucking nuts. Love it.
7/28/15: Slow, slanky sort of Ghost jam. Sound like it could potentially go Bend Simple at any moment.
7/28/15: And now it sort of is.
7/28/15: Slow roll into a blissful, almost Runaway Jim-like progression/riff/thing.
7/28/15: Lots of moving around in that short jam. But it was great.
7/28/15: And lands in Shade, which is just perfect!
7/28/15: Gotta Jibboo might signal that the madness is over. That was a great run of songs, though, for what's probably most of S2.
7/28/15: A little call and response between Page and Trey.
7/28/15: WAN. What a weird fucking show.
7/28/15: Good Trey solo in this version.
7/28/15: Missing the bass bombs tho. C'mon Mike!
7/28/15: Blaze On. Love the song. Seems like weird placement. But that could sum up most of this show, technically speaking.
7/28/15: Short version. Nice, compact solo from Trey tho.
7/28/15: Wading now. What the serious fuck is going on with the setlist in this show?
7/28/15: Bowie next. Maybe the set closer? Who knows? Maybe they'll encore with NO2 -> FEFY > BBFCFM > Mock Song.
7/28/15: Almost delicate, noodly section of Bowie lasts quite a long time. Trey chording now over the build-up to the finale.
7/28/15: Suzy after Bowie.
7/28/15: Ah, and Austin did get our Tweeprise from The Forum. I'd been wondering about that.
7/28/15: Loving Cup, a pretty inappropriate-seeming choice, is the encore. Which seems appropriate. What a weird show.
Both of these Texas shows are weird. And not entirely good-weird. Considered in the context of the tour as a whole, they get even weirder. The closest comparison to them is probably the Bend run, but even there, there's a verve to the band's (and especially Trey's) playing, the jams are there, they're just writ small, and the debuts and setlist surprises keep things interesting. I can't say the same for these two shows, unfortunately. But, hey, there are anomalies even in every excellent tour. And it's not as if these two shows don't have some highlights worth digging into at the expense of the rest.
The first night is mostly comprised of first-set-style songs played well, but not in any sort of discernible order. As a result, the energy is all over the place, depending on which song is currently playing. I like "Dirt" and "Sugar Shack" more than the next guy, but whoever thought to build the middle of the opening frame out of "Lawn Boy," "Bouncin'," "Water in the Sky" > "Dirt," "Devotion," "Sugar Shack" was high on some especially relaxing stuff. The set-closing "Antelope" is the most anaemic version I can remember hearing in a long time, so even that doesn't help. The back half of the second set is the same: song choices and playing that make it seem like the band has confused the fourth quarter with the first one.
All that said, though, I still don't think this show deserves the brutal sub-3 rating it currently has on phish.net. Why? Because the third quarter is fantastic. "The Dogs" gets sandwiched into a "46 Days" that comes back after the "Dogs" jam to float around in a beautiful, ethereal space for a few minutes before "Piper" begins a slow-for-3.0 build version. "Piper" heads into "Ghost" territory a few minutes before actually seguing into the song, and "Ghost" proper moves from a Bend "Simple"-style jam into something that almost sounds like "Runaway Jim" before moving perfectly into "Shade." That the rest of the set then ends up being a "cooldown song" doesn't necessarily detract from the brilliance of putting "Shade" at the end of this gorgeous sequence.
The rest of this show is, I hate to say, pure filler, but that sequence should be on everyone's summer highlight list.
No individual song videos on YouTube, but jump to 1:23:00 here to see the opening of the second set:
The Live Review:
7/28/15: Ahhh the dulcet tones of a Party Time opener.
7/28/15: Often seems to signal a subpar show. Hopefully that isn't the case here.
7/28/15: This is the first show of the summer I've reviewed that I didn't attend. Should be interesting.
7/28/15: Party Time sounds a little more languid and funky than usual.
7/28/15: Page takes an organ solo, now a Trey solo.
7/28/15: Free jam is equally sort of sparse and slow. Not necessarily a bad thing. Just sounds different.
7/28/15: Halley's. One of those #phish songs that I never enjoy because I'm always wondering 'WILL THIS BE THE ONE THAT THEY JAM ON???'
7/28/15: Fiery Halley's solo -B Wolfman's.
7/28/15: Trey is going full-on machine gun at the end of this Wolfman's. Short, and one of least interesting versions I've heard in awhile.
7/28/15: But, yeah, that guitar was TERRE HAUTE
7/28/15: Possum is led by a series organ solo from Page. Trey chording over.
7/28/15: Lawn Boy.
7/28/15: Lawn Boy > Bouncin' is probably not anyone's new favorite setlist call.
7/28/15: Fast version of Water In the Sky.
7/28/15: Holy Dirt!
7/28/15: Such a gorgeous song. And Trey is nailing the solo.
7/28/15: For a lot of people, set is probably coming apart at this point, but I love Devotion. First air guitar solo of the school year.
7/28/15: I took a little #phish hiatus after listening all the way to Dick's and back and then climbing Whitney. The silence was nice.
7/28/15: And now it's great to be back :)
7/28/15: I have these times when I think 'I love so much music, why spend so much time listening to one band?'
7/28/15: Then I get about a third of a way through a show and think 'Oh. Right.'
7/28/15: Sugar Shack! This is another of my favorite S1 songs, when Trey doesn't murder it.
7/28/15: This seems like a really long S1. Might just be because I'm trying to review w/o looking at the playlist during for the first time.
7/28/15: Antelope will presumably close the set.
7/28/15: Eww. Trey botches the chord that transitions from the intro to the jam.
7/28/15: Sure, everyone messes up from time to time, but that's some iconic shit, and stands out more.
7/28/15: I hate using this word in general, but that was the most milquetoast version of Antelope I've heard in a long time.
7/28/15: 46 Days opening the second set.
7/28/15: Wooooooo! 46 Days -> The Dogs!
7/28/15: Holy goddamn 46 Days -> The Dogs -> 46 Days!
7/28/15: Spacey, almost 2001 jam now.
7/28/15: This is such a great little jam.
7/28/15: 7/28/15: jam > Piper.
7/28/15: https://t.co/EqgMydCayk
7/28/15: Piper has a nice, slow wind up and moves seamlessly into a fast, chordy jam. I might submit Fish as early tour MVP.
7/28/15: Winding up in an ethereal jam. Fish hitting the blocks. Aaaaand...GHOST
7/28/15: This whole sequence has been fucking nuts. Love it.
7/28/15: Slow, slanky sort of Ghost jam. Sound like it could potentially go Bend Simple at any moment.
7/28/15: And now it sort of is.
7/28/15: Slow roll into a blissful, almost Runaway Jim-like progression/riff/thing.
7/28/15: Lots of moving around in that short jam. But it was great.
7/28/15: And lands in Shade, which is just perfect!
7/28/15: Gotta Jibboo might signal that the madness is over. That was a great run of songs, though, for what's probably most of S2.
7/28/15: A little call and response between Page and Trey.
7/28/15: WAN. What a weird fucking show.
7/28/15: Good Trey solo in this version.
7/28/15: Missing the bass bombs tho. C'mon Mike!
7/28/15: Blaze On. Love the song. Seems like weird placement. But that could sum up most of this show, technically speaking.
7/28/15: Short version. Nice, compact solo from Trey tho.
7/28/15: Wading now. What the serious fuck is going on with the setlist in this show?
7/28/15: Bowie next. Maybe the set closer? Who knows? Maybe they'll encore with NO2 -> FEFY > BBFCFM > Mock Song.
7/28/15: Almost delicate, noodly section of Bowie lasts quite a long time. Trey chording now over the build-up to the finale.
7/28/15: Suzy after Bowie.
7/28/15: Ah, and Austin did get our Tweeprise from The Forum. I'd been wondering about that.
7/28/15: Loving Cup, a pretty inappropriate-seeming choice, is the encore. Which seems appropriate. What a weird show.
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