The Verdict:
The guys waste no time whatsoever, and as a result the first show of Magnaball is one of the best of the year.
It starts with my favorite first set of the year so far, and that starts with a legitimate "Simple" jam. Rather than sticking in the usual "Simple" space, it gets dark quick and stays there for a few satisfying minutes. Then, there's a full "The Dogs," and a "TMWSIY" > "Avenu" > "TMWSIY" sequence. The middle of the set is pretty standard, minus a rough-but-fun "Mock Song," and then a 23-minute "Gin" that could make an easy argument for most interesting jam of the year comes the fuck out of nowehere. And that's just the first set.
The second set doesn't exactly stand in the upper echelon from this year, but it's close. The opening "Chalkdust" is almost a reprise of the "Gin" jam, with a little more darkness tingeing its edges. "Ghost" is absolutely weird, but I really enjoyed it. It gets almost atonal in the way that the 8/16 "Light" did, and is really unique even amongst the tall pile of huge jams this year. "Rock and Roll" doesn't build a trifecta of Out There jams, but it's an impressive shredfest up until a tiny funk bit that gets tacked on to the end, which keeps the energy going until "Hood," which features a staccato Type II section in the tradition of the best "Hood"s of last year. The rest of the set stays in predictable territory, but, damn, a show that's absolutely off the wall for its first three quarters is worth a spot on The 2015 List. Looking forward to the rest of the festival!
I linked to the third video below because you should totally just watch at least the first half of the second set. If you want to, skip ahead to 1:26:00.
The Live Review:
8/21/15: Simple opener. Nice choice.
8/21/15: Fuzz jam building underneath normal Simple jam. Holy shit, they're getting started early.
8/21/15: Now a really cool beat from Fish is propelling a moody, dark jam.
8/21/15: Winds down into > The Dogs.
8/21/15: Full version of The Dogs.
8/21/15: Holy. Shit. TMWSIY. Holy. Shit.
8/21/15: > Avenu Malkenu
8/21/15: I already understand why everyone thought Magnaball was better than Dick's.
8/21/15: > TMWSIY.
8/21/15: Free is next. Standard Free, afterward, Trey welcomes everyone to the festival.
8/21/15: Aww, crowd singing Happy Birthday to Eliza.
8/21/15: The Wedge.
8/21/15: Pretty standard The Wedge, but now Mock Song! One of my absolute favorite Phish rarities.
8/21/15: High tempo version.
8/21/15: It's fun to hear Mike forget lyrics for once :)
8/21/15: In his defense, they're playing the song *really* damn fast.
8/21/15: Neat replacement lyrics about Phish festivals.
8/21/15: Rough version of Mock Song, but still great to hear it. Now Roggae.
8/21/15: Typically great 2015 Roggae > Rift.
8/21/15: For a song that they've continued to play + struggle with despite having admitted that they continue to play + struggle with it...
8/21/15: ...that was a fun Rift.
8/21/15: Gin! Jam is already getting dirty early on.
8/21/15: Out of the dirty jam now and into an almost jazzy space. Page on electric piano.
8/21/15: We're only halfway through the running time of this jam and it's already highlight-reel stuff.
8/21/15: Holy shit, premature video post: https://t.co/VvXRPx9g9u
8/21/15: A Weekapaug-like groove (heh) emerging now.
8/21/15: Now Mike is driving. There are all sorts of spaces in this jam, but the transitions between them are pure butter.
8/21/15: Big, energetic peak build now. This is some Tahoe Tweezer shit.
8/21/15: Easy top-ten-of-2015 jam here.
8/21/15: Might be willing to go top-five if you gave me a few hours to do relistens :)
8/21/15: End set.
8/21/15: Second set opens with Chalkdust.
8/21/15: Trey going almost immediately to the song-ending riff.
8/21/15: Jam starts after the song 'end,' like is has a few times this year.
8/21/15: Trey laying down an awesome melody solo over some jazzy rhythm work.
8/21/15: Pitch-shifted soloing now.
8/21/15: Angry space into hard-edged rock now. The way they're shifting spaces quickly is similar to the Gin jam.
8/21/15: Echo-funk time!!!
8/21/15: Extended wind-down jam now. Sort of reminds me of 2009, but better.
8/21/15: That CDT was Diet Jamming compared to S1's Gin, but it's still a great entry in the massive log of great jams from this year.
8/21/15: Trey might have just teased WTU?
8/21/15: Well, whether he did or not, he pulls a > Ghost instead.
8/21/15: Trey is already riding the echo, even in the composed part of the song.
8/21/15: That drop was...joyously mangled.
8/21/15: Almost sounds a bit like No Quarter now.
8/21/15: Really distorted, echo-y jam.
8/21/15: I'm hearing WTU? teases again, but that might just be me.
8/21/15: Almost atonal now. Really, really weird.
8/21/15: Whoa. This is a really weird, broiling sort of sound now.
8/21/15: The Gin, CDT, and esp. Ghost have been great not just because they are long jams...
8/21/15: ...but also b/c the guys are obviously trying to push beyond even the 'typically' great types of jams they've been playing all year
8/21/15: Whoa! Great building jam at the end there, and a perfect segue into Rock and Roll.
8/21/15: Rock and Roll is just a flat-out shredfest.
8/21/15: Okay, now we're in a soupy funk space. The speed that they're moving from one idea to another today is amazing.
8/21/15: > Hood. A sort-of segue. Had they taken it a little slower, could have been ->
8/21/15: So far, this is a 'normal' Hood jam.
8/21/15: Some staccato chording now.
8/21/15: Chord jam fades out, then fades back in with the Hood outro chords, a la the end of the Hollywood Hood.
8/21/15: Neat fade-out at the end of Hood instead of the usual power-rock ending.
8/21/15: > Waste.
8/21/15: Nicely placed cooldown song.
8/21/15: Waste > No Men!
8/21/15: UUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAH
8/21/15: Is the excited noise I make whenever No Men starts up.
8/21/15: FUNK MUSCLES ACTIVATE
8/21/15: The beginning of the No Men jam is always the same, but I always love it.
8/21/15: CLAVNOODLING
8/21/15: I MIGHT HAVE EATEN A LOT OF COFFEE TODAY
8/21/15: Long take on No Men, but it stays mostly in the box.
8/21/15: Ambient fade-out.
8/21/15: Opening chords of Slave over the wash.
8/21/15: If the last Slave was super-high-energy, this one is the exact opposite. Languid, slow build.
8/21/15: Lots of missed notes by pretty much everyone, but otherwise I'm liking how long they're taking to build it up.
8/21/15: Trey is laying down a great descending riff during the build to the peak.
8/21/15: It's pretty much always a good second set when you get Hood and Slave together.
8/21/15: Oh, and end set.
8/21/15: So, Magnaball N1 is definitely on the top-shelf list of shows for the year.
8/21/15: The first set is maybe my favorite opening frame of the year with that Gin being the obvious highlight.
8/21/15: S2 has a really interesting CDT as a sister jam to the Gin, then weird-good takes on Ghost and Hood and a strong setlist overall.
8/21/15: There have been better S2s in some of the other really strong shows, but none of 'em are as good from start to finish, really.
8/21/15: Farmhouse for the encore.
8/21/15: The guys have laid down a few really swinging, beautiful Farmhouse mini-jams this year though.
8/21/15: This is one of them.
8/21/15: FRIST TUBOE!
8/21/15: You know what I mean.
8/21/15: I'm sorry but I can't ever hear First Tube anymore without remember the Trey & Symphony version I heard last year. SO GOOD.
8/21/15: End show. Two more of these, eh?
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