The Verdict:
Not much in Phishdom is going to be able to compete with N2 of Magnaball, and the following night is definitely a step down in comparison. In fact, it's easily the weakest of the three nights of the run; that said, it's a testament to how strong this run really is that it's still one of the best shows of the year and closes Magnaball on a note that requires it be considered as one of the best three-night runs of all time. Whew.
Minus "Buffalo Bill," there isn't much in the first 2/3rds of S1 that's going to surprise you. As I noted below, though, Trey is an absolute beast throughout, a fact that elevates what would normally be a full-on Jukebox Mode S1 performance to something greater. Riding this momentum, the band takes "Stash" on a brilliant (if brief) Type II excursion and the following "Reba" builds naturally and satisfyingly upon a year's worth of great versions of the tune. There's no "real" standout tune like N1's "Gin," but is by no means just a warm-up set.
S2 begins with quite possibly the meatiest "Martian Monster" yet, which segues niftily into "Disease." As is sometimes the case, this "Disease" jam functions less like an opportunity to explore more territory and more like a time to reprise and remix some of the better ideas from other jams during the summer. As a result, this isn't going to knock your socks off, but almost sounds like a "greatest hits" jam, if that makes any sense. Any lack of innovation, though, should be forgiven when the band slides perfectly into the second "Scents" of the year. This one is the blissful, "Hood"-like opposite of the angry Mann version and it moves gently into a unique take on "What's The Use?". Almost as if the tone of the "Scents" jam is carrying over, "WTU?" is softer and gentler than usual, while still maintaining its anthemic quality.
"Dirt" is a great landing pad, before an echo-funk "Mike's" reminiscent of the Dick's '14 version starts up. It feels a bit like the band is rushing through "Fuego," "Twist," and "Groove," but as in S1, all of these jukebox versions have a little extra mustard on them...and when the "Groove" jam moves brilliant back into a "Martian Monster" funk reprise, it's the perfect end to the last second set of the festival. The encore, of course, is "YEM," which also integrates some echo-funk jamming and an extra intense vocal jam. All in all, even though it pales a bit in comparison to the previous two nights, this is yet another fantastic show in an oversized pile of 'em from summer 2015. On to Dick's!
The Live Review:
8/23/15: Keeping the #magnaball train rolling today. PYITE opener.
8/23/15: Tears of a Clown tease from Mike prior.
8/23/15: This definitely comes from years of listening to 12/31/95, but is there a better show opener than PYITE?
8/23/15: No. The answer is no.
8/23/15: Pretty solid, uptempo take on PYITE to start.
8/23/15: BUFFALO BILL
8/23/15: So, Buffalo Bill > ASIHTOS is pretty weird.
8/23/15: Great soloing here by Trey, with some neat interplay with Page.
8/23/15: > LxL.
8/23/15: Strong take on LxL as well. Trey ripped both of those songs up. WAN now.
8/23/15: I'm currently dancing to WAN in my office. I guess I must suck at Phish.
8/23/15: Love this song when they nail it, which they did here.
8/23/15: Theme next.
8/23/15: Setlist has been a bit all over the place, like 8/22's S1, but the playing is consistently strong here.
8/23/15: Trey nails Theme, too. He's absolutely slain on the last four songs.
8/23/15: I know I often knock first sets for the lack of jamming and general boring predictably, but...
8/23/15: ...if Trey played like this more often, I wouldn't complain, even if the setlists stayed predictable. Man.
8/23/15: Maze.
8/23/15: A bit of extra mustard during the Page/Trey duel part of the jam.
8/23/15: The Line. You knew it was coming.
8/23/15: Stash!
8/23/15: Stash jam starts with some extended refrain vocals and a really minimalist approach.
8/23/15: Quick turn into Type II bliss.
8/23/15: This is more like a Hood jam than a Stash one.
8/23/15: Really graceful turn back into the typical Stash jam.
8/23/15: Reba!
8/23/15: Fantastic beginning to Trey's Reba solo. Page with electric piano washes.
8/23/15: Great interplay later on between Trey and Mike. Don't hear that super often in Reba.
8/23/15: That was a fantastic Reba jam. Whistling ending.
8/23/15: I Didn't Know with a vacuum solo from 'The Little Beast Boy.'
8/23/15: The Little Beast Boy is currently 'sucking love' for the audience.
8/23/15: Long thank-you session in the midst of I Didn't Know. Hilarious with Fish sucking away the entire time.
8/23/15: S1 is ending with Character Zero. At least they aren't ending the show with it :)
8/23/15: S2 opens with Martian Monster.
8/23/15: Love how crazy the crowd goes when that opening sample hits.
8/23/15: It's the opposite of how crazy they go when an opening Sample hits.
8/23/15: Meaty version of MM. Breaking away from Type I structure a bit at the end.
8/23/15: Ending drone over Gordo's DwD intro. Sort of a ->.
8/23/15: Fading into space-rock territory at about 7:00.
8/23/15: Nice driving beat from Fish, and some great melodic contributions from Trey and Page here.
8/23/15: That said, this jam isn't nearly as dynamic as what we've gotten used to by this point in the year.
8/23/15: Some pitch shifter now and some really growly bass tones from Mike.
8/23/15: That died out pretty quickly. Now sounds a lot like 2001.
8/23/15: -> Scents!
8/23/15: Okay, that was an incredibly cool segue. Crowd doesn't seem to know what happened.
8/23/15: Spacey, Hood-like jam after Scents vocals.
8/23/15: Rock chords from Trey now. Picking up the pace.
8/23/15: Distorted rock ends the jam. Outro vocals from Fish (?), then -> WTU?
8/23/15: Page on what I think it electric piano during WTU?. Adds a sort of whimsical feel to it. Less evil than usual.
8/23/15: Very cool variation on WTU? Brighter than usual, but still anthemic.
8/23/15: > Dirt! Great landing pad choice!
8/23/15: > Mike's! Still can't get over the great placement of that Dirt.
8/23/15: Echo chords kicking off the Mike's jam. Reminds me of Dick's '14.
8/23/15: Quick but extremely intense Mike's jam.
8/23/15: Whoa...sounded like Trey was going to go into a *real* Mike's second jam and the rest of the band steamrolled him.
8/23/15: Add to the innovations of Phish 2015: Trey gets ripcorded.
8/23/15: That would have been cool. Instead, > Fuego.
8/23/15: > Twist just as the Fuego jam starts.
8/23/15: Playing quality hasn't slacked here, but it feels like they're trying to jam a bunch of songs into the fourth quarter.
8/23/15: They've resisted that temptation for a lot of 2015, which is part of why it's been so great.
8/23/15: Weird that they're giving in here, after the weekend of shows this has been.
8/23/15: Nice chunky, bluesy Twist jam, with a few complete stops built into the breakdown for fun.
8/23/15: Okay Fish just switched to a swing-style beat (think Julius) and all hell broke loose. Awesome.
8/23/15: Evil build now.
8/23/15: Hahahaha...Fish with what I think are supposed to be Immigrant Song vocals.
8/23/15: -> Groove out of extended Immigrant Song tease.
8/23/15: Nice little compact Groove jam -> Martian Monster.
8/23/15: Lots of echo jamming in the set-closing MM.
8/23/15: Encore is YEM, of course.
8/23/15: The echo funk is even making its way (a little bit) into the YEM jam, now.
8/23/15: Super-intense vocal jam (!!) followed by MM sample and a 'huge explosion.'
8/23/15: Great show, though I imagine it isn't as well received as the first two. Review will go up alongside 9/3 when I get to that one.
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