The Verdict:
As much as I want to hold on to the dream of being able to make a case for a show I attended being the best show of the tour (in this case, Shoreline), the first MPP show forced me to give up on that wonderful illusion. Because this is almost certainly the best show of the year for me. Something from Magnaball might unseat it, because I haven't listened to that yet, but damn. This show's crazy, and outclasses the "easy" pick for best show, Mann 2, by simply being better at more things than it is.
First off, the first set is one of the best first sets of the year. There isn't a surprise big jam here like there is in many of the other great S1s of this year, but the playing from the opening "Simple" pretty much all the way through is spotless, the setlist choices are impeccable, the "BBFCFM" > "Your Pet Cat" > "BBFCFM" sandwich is fun as hell and perfectly placed, and right as a great set seems to end on a rote note with "Antelope," the boys jam it out a bit for the first time since, oh, maybe Utica '10? There are probably opening frames I like better from this year, but not many and then OH MAN THAT SECOND SET.
This is the set that Phish has been trying to play for two years. All of those shows during '14 and '15 where they passed up monster jams in obvious places to work in clever segues and neat little 2-3 minute jamlets never quite seemed to land right because there just wasn't the right balance between deep jamming and segue-based improv. When you come for the jams, it's hard to swallow "only" the song-to-song momentum and brief flickers of occasional brilliance in their place. But this set has both, and in perfect balance.
"Halley's" doesn't really belong in this set because "46 Days" is where the magic starts. This is the peak (so far, at least) of the Bend "Simple"-style jamming that the guys have been flirting with all tour. This "46 Days" is nasty, then takes a now-predictable but still gorgeous turn to Bliss Town before landing in a perfect segue into "Bug," of all things. A short "Steam" follows, which segues perfectly into "What's the Use?" before heading back into "Steam" to finish the final verse and then segue into "Piper." "Piper" is easily the best version of the year, moving from a lurching, grinding, murky jam into straight-up rock territory which leads to a flawless "Tweezer" segue, and "Tweezer" proper features a heavy funk jam that gets spacey enough for Mike to perform "NO2" over it while the rest of the band continues to jam "Tweezer." Yeah. Fuck.
"Walls" closes the set in typical fashion, and the banter-laden "Sleeping Monkey" > "Tweeprise" is the perfect encore. This is the show, folks. It's not as if we haven't had an embarrassment of riches this tour, but this show feels like a culmination. If Magnaball is anywhere near this good, I've got plenty of A+ Phish to get me through my holiday travels...
I am so serious about how good this show is, instead of posting select videos, I'm just posting the entire show below. Click through to YouTube to be able to select particular tracks in the video description.
The Live Review:
8/15/15: Alright, time to knock out the MPP run!
8/15/15: Simple opener. Now that's interesting.
8/15/15: Fantastic Simple solo from Trey to open the show. Page beating up on the keys.
8/15/15: Glide!
8/15/15: Now that was neat to hear.
8/15/15: Buried Alive! So far, another great setlist for S1.
8/15/15: Great little solo in Buried Alive. Trey is on fire. Next up is McGrupp.
8/15/15: Roggae! I love it!
8/15/15: Great version. I didn't get as peaky as some other recent versions, but stayed muted and gorgeous the entire time.
8/15/15: Pretty standard but energetic take on LxL next.
8/15/15: When I get up for work, I try to kill youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
8/15/15: WHY
8/15/15: BBFCFM gets mashed up with a Your Pet Cat sample. Then, 'Why am I running?!' > Your Pet Cat.
8/15/15: > BBFCFM!
8/15/15: Well, that was fun. Now, Horn.
8/15/15: Quick Horn > Blaze On.
8/15/15: Straightforward Blaze On, but with a loopy fade-out that lands in Antelope.
8/15/15: Nice little Trey/Page breakdown in the middle of this Antelope.
8/15/15: Antelope is nowhere near one of my favorite Phish songs, but I love it about 1000% more when it breaks away from the usual pattern.
8/15/15: Now, it's a soupy, note-bendy little jam that's sort of a Type 1.5 space...and moving back into usual Antelope territory.
8/15/15: End set.
8/15/15: S2 opens with Halley's Comet. I sure doubt that this'll be the one that goes deep, but one can always hope.
8/15/15: Typical Halley's gets butt-slammed into 46 Days.
8/15/15: Trey laying down a nasty, distorted solo. Sort of 2003-2004.
8/15/15: After vocal refrain, we're headed almost immediately into a Bend Simple-like EVIL jam.
8/15/15: Page plinking out rapid notes on the piano, now over to the clav.
8/15/15: Trey keeping the distortion coming, and now Mike it taking over.
8/15/15: I'm pretty sure that bass-led Phish jams are the best Phish jams.
8/15/15: Fadeout w/ loop foundation. Might be doing one of those patented '15 bliss-jam transitions here.
8/15/15: If so, this is one of my favorite iterations of it so far this year.
8/15/15: Blissed out over here. Trey laying down a solo now. First real, clean melody playing he's done in the entire jam.
8/15/15: Trey teases Bug during the outro, then -> Bug. Nice segue.
8/15/15: Bug fades into Steam. Interesting.
8/15/15: Straightforward rock solo from Trey out of the lyrics, backed by creepy screaming from who I assume is Fish.
8/15/15: Awesome sort-of -> What's the Use?
8/15/15: > Steam! Back to finish the remaining verses, I guess.
8/15/15: Trey interweaving Piper's opening with the Steam progression now. Fish switching over.
8/15/15: Interesting organ-driven Piper jam right now.
8/15/15: Now we're in space-funk territory.
8/15/15: Murky jam space blossoming into a rock throwdown.
8/15/15: Nasty Piper jam -> Tweezer. Holy shit, what a segue.
8/15/15: Starting to think...could this be...better than the Mann show?!
8/15/15: Pretty sure, yeah.
8/15/15: This Tweezer is definitely of the loop-heavy funk variety.
8/15/15: Loop is almost a siren now.
8/15/15: Or maybe it's Mike's drill?
8/15/15: Hoooooooly shit. Mike starts lyrics for NO2 over the Tweezer jam.
8/15/15: This is my favorite fucking thing.
8/15/15: Show of tour, folks. *Slams book*
8/15/15: Back into the Tweezer jam. Dying over here.
8/15/15: Oooh...they end the jam almost immediately. Taking that jam deep would have made this show literally incomprehensibly good.
8/15/15: But we'll have to settle for Walls instead )
8/15/15: If there's a song that's going to get me to play air guitar in my office 100% of the time, it's the last few minutes of Walls.
8/15/15: Website that rated Phish songs didn't include Page's favorite song at #1.
8/15/15: (It's Sleeping Monkey)
8/15/15: I love this ongoing thing about Page loving Sleeping Monkey.
8/15/15: Sleeping Monkey > Tweeprise.
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