The Verdict:
So, the final night of the Mexico run continues the trend of delivering solid-but-poorly-received-2015-style shows begun by N1 and N2.
The first half of the first set doesn't do anything new, but like the previous two nights' opening frames, it's high on energy and the song selection and flow are miles above any S1 since at least Magnaball. The second half of the set gets satisfyingly weird, with an extra spicy "KDF," an extended "Gin," and a "Moma" that actually, finally changes the script a little with a surprise vocal jam and ambient hum that leads perfectly into "Saw It Again."
Set two is all about the "Shipwreck" teases. The use of "Shipwreck" samples in the "Disease" jam takes what can frankly be a tired jam vehicle these days and injects it with new life, making up easily one of the more interesting, if not necessarily the most flawless jams of the year. "Roggae" is its usual excellent self, and then "Crosseyed" returns to "Shipwreck" jamming and some ghost-howling vocals (that's literally the only way to describe it) from the band. The effect is super eerie, which makes it even more head-scratching when then segue into "Farmhouse." Oh well.
That's really the meat of the second set, as the "Mike's Groove" that wraps things up is a little underwhelming save for the second return of "Shipwreck" samples during the "Weekapaug." A typical "Slave" and then a first-ever-but-rough take on "The Ocean" end the show, and the run.
For the first three-fourths of this show at least I found myself asking the question I've been asking about this run all along: why all the hate? There's a lot to like here, and I feel like Magnaball is casting an unreasonably long shadow. Sure, it was a great festival with some fantastic performances, and an easy all-timer in 8/22, but it certainly isn't the be-all end-all of Phish 2015. This run, MSG, and even Dick's have comparable highlights, if not as many, and it's sad to see the tour often characterized as an amazing year until Magnaball and then a bunch of shitty runs in a row when that's obviously not what these are. There's a few jams from Mexico and a lot of the MSG run that stands up to anything from earlier in the year, and to miss out on that by putting a particular run of shows on a pedestal is dumb.
Oh well. I listened to them all, anyway, and I had fun.
There's not really much video on YouTube from this show and no recordings up on phishtracks yet, so the best I can do is linking to the whole webcast for highlights. Sorry!
The Live Review:
1/17/16: Showtime again!
1/17/16: Mexican Cousin opener!
1/17/16: The Curtain With at #2.
1/17/16: FOLLOW THE LINES GOING SOUTH!
1/17/16: I jumped the gun the bit on the With there, but I was right.
1/17/16: Sample is third. Nice, slow-burning The Curtain With there.
1/17/16: Great (and surprising!) use of bass bombs in Sample from Mike.
1/17/16: Trey takes a minute after Sample to thank the road crew and tell the crowd that Phish is TOTALLY BREAKING UP, GUYS until summer.
1/17/16: Yarmouth Road! Great S1 tune lately.
1/17/16: The Landlady?! Great to see that staying in sets!
1/17/16: Hahaha...Army of One is basically the funniest song Phish could sing on a beach in Mexico. Thanks, Page.
1/17/16: Trey struggling a bit there.
1/17/16: Kill Devil Falls is next. They certainly aren't reinventing the wheel here, but like the rest of the Mexico S1s...
1/17/16: ...it's way more fun than any of the opening Dick's or MSG frames.
1/17/16: Extra-hot KDF (and I don't say that lightly).
1/17/16: Now Gin, and Trey's taking some nasty leads as it moves from a slow jam to a rolling boil.
1/17/16: Type I Gin, but an impressive version. Immediately heads into Funky Bitch.
1/17/16: Keeping up the momentum with Moma Dance.
1/17/16: Impromptu vocal jam initiated by Fish in Moma Dance! Very cool.
1/17/16: Okay, things just got interesting with an echo-funk jam out of Moma Dance -> Saw It Again.
1/17/16: After a great segue, Saw It Again closes the first set.
1/17/16: Some synth swells at the end of Saw It Again gives it that end-of-set-peak feeling.
1/17/16: S2 starts with some Trey noodling and then Mike starting up Disease. Last monster jam of the year?
1/17/16: Some typical Type I action until Mike takes control around the 8:00 mark. Trey filling in the spaces with some looping.
1/17/16: Shipwreck samples from Page while Trey and Mike trill underneath.
1/17/16: Page is doing some super-cool stuff with the samples. Jam building.
1/17/16: That was really awesome. Now the jam is moving toward a more typical rock-funk space. Mike has got a great bassline going.
1/17/16: After the sample jam, the rest was a pretty tasty, momentum-filled 2015-style-chord jam. Neat stuff.
1/17/16: Trey tries to -> Roggae but biffs the intro riff. More like a > Roggae. Eventually.
1/17/16: Extra-minimal beginning to the jam on Roggae. Mike and Trey sort of trading licks for a bit.
1/17/16: Still builds up to a pretty fantastic peak by the end.
1/17/16: Crosseyed!!!
1/17/16: Nice up-tempo version of one of my favorite Phish covers so far.
1/17/16: Big ol' rock jam so far. At 9:00 mark now.
1/17/16: Oh hell yes, the Shipwreck samples are back. Dark space jam developing.
1/17/16: 'I Don't Live Today' vocal tease from Fish (?).
1/17/16: This jam doesn't have the flow of the Disease, but it's eerie.
1/17/16: Creepy ghost voices now from Page. So awesome.
1/17/16: Too bad they already played Ghost.
1/17/16: > Farmhouse might be the weirdest setlist call EVAR
1/17/16: I'd be lying if I said I didn't groan a little there. And I LIKE Farmhouse.
1/17/16: Above-average solo from Trey in Farmhouse, but nobody's going to listen to it anyway. Mike's Song is next.
1/17/16: Looks like Mike's might be headed into echo-funk territory again.
1/17/16: Trey laying down a solo in a weird, atypical mode. Short, but strange version of Mike's.
1/17/16: Seamless drop into Bug. Another strange setlist choice, but okay.
1/17/16: Synth coming back at the beginning of Groove.
1/17/16: Shipwreck samples coming back again.
1/17/16: Slow-tempo Slave coming next.
1/17/16: Love the early bit of this Slave jam.
1/17/16: And, of course, The Ocean closer.
1/17/16: 2/4ths of this band did NOT practice the outro to The Ocean.
1/17/16: And that's that! After writing the blog reviews, I'll be back with 5/27/11 next, believe it or not!
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