My reservations about the Jam-Filled night aside, 7/26 stands in a pretty tall shadow. Fortunately, this is a really interesting show with a lot to like, and though I won't necessarily argue that it's better than 7/25, it would be possible to make that case if you wanted to.
There are no 30+ minute jams in this first set, but it's a well put-together set in the vein of a lot of the better '16 first sets: strong organization, solid playing, and a jam or two to whet your appetite for the second frame.
"White Winter Hymnal" is the opening a capella number, nodding at the night's flavor in satisfactory fashion before the band picks up their instruments to start in on "Cars Trucks Buses." Though it doesn't do anything special, the one-two punch of "CTB" and "My Soul" lands well. "Roses" is a great follow-up.
Things start to get a little weird when the band stretches out "The Very Long Fuse" into a jazzy space, and then takes "Gumbo" on a synth-and-blues journey before bringing it back to the main theme in lockstep. The "Yarmouth Road," "Pebbles," "Farmhouse" section of the set is a little bit of a head-scratcher, but the band ends the set in dazzling style with "Tube," which builds into one of my favorite jams of the run so far before dropping with pinpoint accuracy back into the song proper.
"Carini" opens the second set with an exploratory version that patiently explores a few different spaces without ever fully committing to any of them. This isn't a bad thing, as the band finds some interesting musical corners to dig into, but it certainly doesn't have the momentum of, say, the first set's "Tube" jam. Fish sets up a perfect segue to "Mr. Completely" near the end of the tune, but Trey badly botches the transition, making the first bit of the set's second jam a little rough. Once everyone gets back into place, the jam takes an interesting, carnival-sounding tone for a few minutes before moving to a more basic bliss space. It's not the most interesting jam they've played during this run, but it's not "Ocelot," either.
"1999" is next, and if the bustout factor isn't enough here, the band rides Page's synth riff straight into another blissy jam space at the end of the song and hangs out there for a few minutes before dumping us off in "Steam." And, yes, "Steam" also jams...
It's at this point that I'm realizing that there are so many jams per show this year that it's getting hard to describe them each in unique ways. I can't even imagine how the band plays them uniquely each time. Anyway...
"Steam" is perhaps the most interesting jam of the set, moving through some angry space funk before breaking down into good old distorted noise. After a few minutes in the muck, the band navigates, like some eight-limbed octopus, back into "Steam" proper to wrap things up and then use another spacey transition to start up "No Quarter." Admittedly, this set doesn't engage me the way some of the jamming earlier in the run has, but at this point the amount of creativity and improvisation poured into this set just becomes sort of embarrassing it's so much.
So, when the band throws a "Martian Monster"-style interlude into the middle of the set-closing "Zero," you just sort of have to laugh and say to yourself "These guys have been playing music together for 34 years and what the fuck?!"
That they close the show with a pitch-perfect, first-ever version of "Powderfinger" is another thing I should probably mention.
The Live Review:
7/26/17: With school finally back in full swing, I'm in for two reviews a week again. Today, it's Powdered night from BD.
7/26/17: Love the White Winter Hymnal opener. One of my favorite FF songs.
7/26/17: Phish gave it a little barbershop feel (of course), but still great.
7/26/17: Cars Trucks Buses!
7/26/17: Trey taking a long solo here.
7/26/17: Great version, despite missing a Page solo. My Soul is next and features an organ solo, so I guess that's okay.
7/26/17: CTB > My Soul is a really nice pairing.
7/26/17: Trey taking over again here with a great blues solo.
7/26/17: Roses! No huge surprises here since the opener, but loving the song selection.
7/26/17: The Very Long Fuse! Setlist flow A++ here.
7/26/17: Fuse getting a little funkier than it usually does. Nice chording from Trey.
7/26/17: Great, jazzy, extended take on this tune. Loving Page's piano work.
7/26/17: Whole band does a great job of bringing the tune back to a cohesive end. > Gumbo.
7/26/17: Gumbo is going a little bit afield now, too. Trey is going bluesy while Page lays down some synth. Interesting direction.
7/26/17: Trey brings it back to Gumbo with a fiery guitar solo. Now Yarmouth Road.
7/26/17: Yarmouth started out rough, but ended with a nice, mellow outro jam.
7/26/17: Pebbles and Marbles!
7/26/17: Outro jam of Pebbles is turning pretty serious.
7/26/17: Farmhouse is a weird call after that, but okay.
7/26/17: First set keeps rolling with Tube.
7/26/17: Excited to hear the BD version of Tube. Tube jam was one of my favorite parts of 9/1/17.
7/26/17: Jam going in the echo-chording direction early on.
7/26/17: Page's synth propels the band out of funk mode.
7/26/17: Oh man. I'm gonna like this.
7/26/17: Gorgeous, galloping space jam just out of nowhere. Man.
7/26/17: This is fantastic. Big build now, with Trey sliding around on the fretboard with heavy distortion.
7/26/17: Right at the peak of the build, perfect landing back into the blues section of Tube. Wow.
7/26/17: End set.
7/26/17: That was an exceptionally well-arranged set that satisfyingly extended a few songs slightly but held no real surprises.
7/26/17: Until that huge friggin' Tube, that is.
7/26/17: Carini set two opener.
7/26/17: Typical Carini outro jam so far. Band sounding locked in. Feels like a huge transition is just looming.
7/26/17: Neat riff from Trey now. Band building on it.
7/26/17: Neat, spacey, pitch-shifted jam now.
7/26/17: Jam picking the pace up again on the back of a particularly weird Trey riff.
7/26/17: Page playing ethereal electric piano while Trey bangs out angry, distorted chords.
7/26/17: I should mention that Fish is playing the Mr. Completely beat.
7/26/17: Oh, man. Fish set up that -> *perfectly* and Trey just completely failed the opening riff. That hurt me.
7/26/17: WHAT THE HELL MAN
7/26/17: Carini jam was great, botched transition aside.
7/26/17: I love that Phish is playing Mr. Completely, but do they have to play it while sounding like they're all underwater?
7/26/17: ROCK THAT SHIT
7/26/17: Mr. Completely jam turning into a sort of carnival-sounding thing with Page on organ.
7/26/17: They really smoothly built that carnival jam into a loop-based space jam and then into a full-on rock-bliss thing. In five minutes.
7/26/17: > 1999
7/26/17: Synth progression from 1999 spinning off into a dark jam.
7/26/17: This jam is heading in a blissy direction now as well.
7/26/17: Really buoyant jam leads directly into Steam.
7/26/17: Ultra-spacey tone from Trey as Steam, too, grows into a legit jam. Sort of like angry space funk.
7/26/17: That was some profoundly unsettling noise.
7/26/17: Brief return to Steam before fading back out into more ambient noise.
7/26/17: Page electric piano outro transitions perfectly into No Quarter.
7/26/17: Trey nails the No Quarter solo. Zero next.
7/26/17: Zero is getting extended a bit. There's a section in the middle that sounds a bit like Martian Monster.
7/26/17: Trey and Mike duel, now!
7/26/17: End set 2.
7/26/17: Single encore song: Powderfinger. For what it's worth, Trey does a good Neil Young vocal impression.
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