The Verdict:
This show reminds me a lot of 8/8, plus the first set from 8/9. Like 8/9, S1 is full of rarities and unexpected songs...and two satisfying jams. For my money, it's pretty easily the best first set of the year so far. The entire thing is peppered with "Martian Monster" references, including a brilliant "Martian Monster" > "Axila I" > "Skin It Back" -> "Martian Monster" -> "Skin It Back" sequence. "Dog Faced Boy" gets a slowed-down, minimal take that's, frankly, just gorgeous. "Bowie" features a short jam that's nonetheless one of the better ones the guys have put together in awhile, and "Ghost" starts off with...umm..."ghost noises" from Fish and samples from Page before continuing on to features a pretty satisfying first set jam. Oh, and in-between "Bowie" and "Ghost" is a "Scent" anchored by the most interesting marimba lumina solo Fish has put on yet. So...yeah. It's a good set. Honestly, if you want to listen to anything from the first set, you should just listen to the entire first set, so here you go:
The second set is the third in a row that falls into that one-big-jam-then-many-small-seguey-jams category, and fortunately it's more in the mold of 8/8 than 8/9. That is to say, while none of the songs after "Fuego" really Go Deep, but there's some great momentum and each song offers up at least a minute or two of something unique and interesting. But first, the "Fuego." It reminds me instantly of the Dick's "Disease": a standard-strong Trey-led jam that smoothly moves into a blissful progression that builds to a really effective and composed-sounding peak. I prefer the "Disease," personally, but if you're only going to have one long jam in a set, you could do worse than this one.
Afterward, the "Rock and Roll" offers up a little space-funk, "46 Days" is dirty as all hell, "Taste" even gets slightly extended interestingly, and "Sand" is yet another strong Type I entry in two years' worth of them at this point. The second half of the set post-"Sand" falls into serious Jukebox Mode territory, but there are plenty of riches before that. Overall, this is one of my favorite shows of the year so far aside from the obvious 7/24 and 8/7. Below those two, though, I'd list a second tier of 7/31, 8/1, 8/4, and this show.
The Live Review:
8/11/15: Okay, so I'm hungover as hell today, so if I'm crabbier than usual, that's why.
8/11/15: Crowd Control opener.
8/11/15: Trey starts out rough, but is nailing a nice little solo now.
8/11/15: I'm keeping an ear on him after 8/9 :)
8/11/15: MARTIAN MONSTAH
8/11/15: Martian astronauts getting crunched real good. Crunchy crunchy astronaut bones.
8/11/15: MM > Axila I. Great transition.
8/11/15: Okay, well Trey is definitely not in any better shape than he was during 8/9 I.
8/11/15: Great setlist so far, though.
8/11/15: Skin It Back! Hot damn!
8/11/15: Woo! -> Martian Monster!
8/11/15: Okay, so that was Martian Monster > Axilia I > Skin It Back -> Martian Monster (w/ Skin It Back jam).
8/11/15: Rad.
8/11/15: Vultures! Crazy S1 for the second show in a row!
8/11/15: If we got a serious jam in here somewhere, that would be $$$.
8/11/15: Personally, I'm hoping for a potato to the throat.
8/11/15: YES. #potato #throat
8/11/15: Love the 'Woo's at the end of Vultures.
8/11/15: Dog-Faced Boy! Guys, we need more S1s like this.
8/11/15: Beginning of the song is primarily Page on piano instead of guitar.
8/11/15: Slower tempo than the studio version. Nice harmonies.
8/11/15: Bowie! I think that actually counts as a rarity this year, sadly.
8/11/15: Martian Monster sample during intro.
8/11/15: Jam starts off with some chording and then a nice mellow melody solo from Trey. Nice momentum so far.
8/11/15: Now Trey, Mike, and Page all echoing the same riff.
8/11/15: Lots more Mike up front in the jam section than usual. Nice.
8/11/15: Really compact Bowie, but a nice little jam in dere.
8/11/15: Long break post-Bowie.
8/11/15: Farmhouse.
8/11/15: Nice little broken-down, piano-led jam here in Farmhouse.
8/11/15: Scent!
8/11/15: Martian Monster sample from Page in the middle of his Mule Duel solo. Mike (?) synth bomb,
8/11/15: Could be the marimba lumina? Fuck if I know.
8/11/15: Yeah, it is.
8/11/15: Martian Monster chewing samples on top of Fish's marimba solo. This is hilariously weird.
8/11/15: Ghost! Fish (?) making hilarious ghost noises during the intro.
8/11/15: Wind samples from Page.
8/11/15: That was the most fun I've had during the first two minutes of Ghost in a long time.
8/11/15: Martian Monster tease before the drop, and then they NAIL it. Who the fuck are these guys?!
8/11/15: More MM jamming and samples.
8/11/15: Really neat Ghost jam developing now. Trey laying down a great solo, driving beat from Fish. Page echoing Trey on electric piano.
8/11/15: Trey head-fakes toward making the typical 2015 Bliss Jam turn, and then digs deeper into his original soloing.
8/11/15: Very Twist-like jam now. If this set hadn't already been 115 minutes long, they totally could have pulled off a great -> there.
8/11/15: Instead, drop back into Ghost coda.
8/11/15: Wind-down now.
8/11/15: Fuego to open S2!
8/11/15: Echo-y goodness from Trey in a really minimalist start to what seems like a legit Fuego jam.
8/11/15: Slow-burning bliss progression.
8/11/15: This is a bit Hood-y or Slave-y.
8/11/15: Neat peak to the jam now.
8/11/15: Jam reminds me a bit of the Dick's Disease.
8/11/15: > Rock and Roll.
8/11/15: Standard Rock and Roll, but now Trey is chording some funk shit.
8/11/15: Really neat, really muddy jam happening now, after vocal reprise.
8/11/15: Improbably, that ended in 46 Days.
8/11/15: 46 Days...46 Days...46 Days...and this battle station will be quite operational when your friends arrive.
8/11/15: Really dirty 46 Days solo leads a deconstruction jam. Weird beat by Fish, Trey chording arrhythmically, heavy echo effects.
8/11/15: Noodly outro riff turns the interesting-but-short 46 days jam -> Taste.
8/11/15: Trey even throwing some funk chording into the Taste outro 'solo.' Neat.
8/11/15: I think Fish just faked us out with the Split beat...maybe? Into 2001 instead, anyway.
8/11/15: This 2001 has a little meat on its bones.
8/11/15: Neat wind-down ending to 2001 lands directly in Sand.
8/11/15: Echo-and-clav-based jam here.
8/11/15: This jam isn't treading any new ground, but it's pure, distilled funk.
8/11/15: At the end of the Sand jam, Trey plays the opening chords of The Horse, and then Page picks it up for a piano version. > Silent.
8/11/15: Cavern. I think we're in safe mode the rest of the night. Pretty great set, though.
8/11/15: Number Line starts over the last chord of Cavern.
8/11/15: I've been liking the new noodly style Trey's been laying on Number Line lately. Let's see if it comes up tonight.
8/11/15: End set.
8/11/15: Julius closes. I can't stand this song as an encore choice, but I'm glad lots of other people enjoy it.
8/11/15: It's a fun song, and a catchy one, but also the epitome of mid-tempo, rote Phish. Which is a bad thing for encores.
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