Well, I'll admit to being surprised by the fact that the "warm-up" shows before the Baker's Dozen have been anything but. I wouldn't believed you if you'd told me in June that all five of these opening shows would stand up to the best of '13-'16 Phish, but there it is (and, for what it's worth, 7/15 II and 7/18 are three of my favorite sets of the current era). The final show of the set continues to be great, albeit in slightly less consistent fashion than 7/18 and most of the Northerly run.
The first set, fortunately, is of the 2017 "Surprise Type II jam" variety. The lead-up to it is pretty great, too. An old-school trio of "My Soul," "NICU," and "Halley's" kicks things off in excellent fashion, and "Undermind" continues its seemingly endless streak of turning in compact-but-interesting jams. Somewhat rote takes on "Divided Sky" and "Home" bracket the debut of the Mike tune "Marissa," which is a great fit for Phish. Then..."Caspian." I could go home happy after one set with a jam like this one. It starts with some delicate interplay between Trey and Page, then builds to an enormous peak of the type that's simultaneously satisfying and predictable...BUT THEN Trey moves into a sort of "Dark and Down"-sounding jam and the band follows and absolute rock madness ensues, culminating with a vocal reprise over a massive crashing wall of noise. It's amazing.
Everything that's great about the second set comes in the first half of it, but that's okay because it's a huge first half. "PYITE" starts things off, but that's only an appetizer for the second-ever Phish version of "Mr. Completely," which rides a few waves between bliss space and something mellower before peaking massively near the twenty-minute mark and then segueing into "Mercury." "Mercury" proper is a pretty standard version, but a brief, evil-funk outro jam segues perfectly into the Phish debut of "Rise/Come Together."
Things settle into a more predictable jukebox-y mode after that, but that opening quarter of songs is pretty much perfect (minus the flubs on "Rise/Come Together"). A great conclusion to the (ahem) warm-up run.
The Live Review:
7/19/17: So, having already live-reviewed the Dayton show awhile back, I'm doing Pittsburgh today and then it's on to the BD. Excited.
7/19/17: Can't remember ever reviewing a tour that started off with 4 consecutive great shows. Will this be the fifth? I'm pretty sure, yes.
7/19/17: My Soul opener.
7/19/17: Swinging take on My Soul > NICU
7/19/17: Early-set, old-school swing continues with Halley's.
7/19/17: Sudden stop > Undermind in Halley's. Cool.
7/19/17: Neat use of Page's organ and Trey's pitch-shifter in this jam. Pretty deep for this early in the show.
7/19/17: Over the last few years, Undermind has evolved into a Roggae-type tune: it always results in a short, but deep jam.
7/19/17: It might be my favorite set one song for that reason.
7/19/17: Divided Sky is an interesting mid-set choice.
7/19/17: Reggae-ish Mike tune called Marissa.
7/19/17: Neat organ work from Page during this tune.
7/19/17: Home! I love this tune on Big Boat, but it generally seems to lose its verve live. Always fun to hear it, though.
7/19/17: The weirdest part is that Page can't seem to sing the chorus. I usually think of him as the reliable voice of the group.
7/19/17: Neat build during the outro jam of Home instead of the usual rock noodling.
7/19/17: Trey throwing some echo chords in now as Page pounds away on the piano.
7/19/17: Nice attempt at a little jam there, at least.
7/19/17: > Caspian
7/19/17: Nice melodic interplay between Page and Trey right out of the gates here.
7/19/17: Caspian jam builds to a peak and then fades to a dissonant, eerie sort of space jam.
7/19/17: Dark blues jam happening now. Almost reminds me of Dark and Down or something similar.
7/19/17: Massive peak out of nowhere. Still going. Wow. First set.
7/19/17: Trey shouting Caspian vocals over the wall of sound.
7/19/17: Maybe transitioning back into the song now?
7/19/17: Wow, that was huge.
7/19/17: First four songs of the set were great, then things kind of settled...but that Caspian made up for it.
7/19/17: I'd listen to a first set that opened with The Line > Ocelot -> Alaska -> Ocelot > TTE if it ended with a Caspian jam like that.
7/19/17: Damn, PYITE S2 opener. Guaranteed fire coming, then.
7/19/17: Noise at the end of PYITE > Mr. Completely.
7/19/17: I must confess I've already listened to this jam, so no surprise here. Glad Mr. Completely's sort of in-rotation now, though.
7/19/17: Nice, loose jam so far. Trey starting to integrate some loops. Veering toward funk.
7/19/17: Really gorgeous transition into a bliss jam space. Page over to electric piano.
7/19/17: Toned down on the bliss now. Shuffling rock jam instead.
7/19/17: Trey noodling around the Mr. Completely riff but not quite going there.
7/19/17: Under Pressure-like riff now from Trey.
7/19/17: Page with some mellow tones that I think are from the synth? 7/19/17: Guys are just slowly exploring here for minutes on end. Sounds like the old days. Love it.
7/19/17: Really picking up momentum now at about the 17 minute mark.
7/19/17: Winding back down from a peak at 19:30, Trey is returning to the Under Pressure riff a bit.
7/19/17: Quiet noise now. Then, > Mercury.
7/19/17: Mercury seems a bit more solid than usual this time around.
7/19/17: Really interesting riffing from Trey in the Mercury jam, but sets up a -> Rise/Come Together segue.
7/19/17: Neat move, but it would have been cool to see where that went for a bit longer.
7/19/17: That said, it was a cool segue, and Rise/Come Together would be a great song if Trey knew how to play it.
7/19/17: Maybe the BD version is smoother?
7/19/17: Yeah! Contact!
7/19/17: The guys cracked themselves up with that Contact.
7/19/17: Axila I next.
7/19/17: > Steam.
7/19/17: Steam just got Number Line'd post-lyrics.
7/19/17: I've never heard a version of Number Line where I didn't like the outro jam. The problem isn't the song, it's the placement.
7/19/17: I think that big ol' jangly G chord is just too tempting for Trey to pass up when he's looking to bail out of an awkward space.
7/19/17: Plus, it likely segues easily out of lots of other songs.
7/19/17: I think that all adds up to the dread of hearing the first chord of what often turns out to be a great Type I jammed song.
7/19/17: End set after a typically solid version of Number Line.
7/19/17: Encore is a weird combo: Things People Do, Bug, Rocky Top.
7/19/17: Love me some Bug set closer/encore. Not sure why people hate the song so much. Leftover angst from 2.0?
7/19/17: Anyway, odd-but-great show. Mid-set one lagged a bit, but shored up by hot opening and MEGA Caspian.
7/19/17: Set two was frontloaded with the Mr. Completely > Mercury sequence. Odd-for-2017 scattered fourth quarter.
7/19/17: Did really like the Mercury -> Rise/Come Together segue. Mr. Completely was great. Caspian was CRAZY.
7/19/17: Coconut night next!
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