A few times a year there's a Phish show that I don't attend, or couch tour, or stream, but nonetheless stay glued to my phone and Twitter throughout, watching the updates pour in. Whether it's the "FUCK YOUR FACE" show, the JEMP Truck show, or the Chilling, Thrilling... Halloween show, certain shows grab my attention so firmly that watching tweets roll in is almost as exciting as being there live. Almost.
7/25/17 was one of those shows. From the jammed-out "Sample" opener through to the "End of Session" bust-out, Phish Twitter was exploding and I was having a blast sitting there watching it even though I was missing the show proper. Thus, The Jam-Filled show was the one I was looking the most forward to reviewing. So I'm surprised to say that even with only four donuts under my belt, there are already Baker's Dozen shows I like better than this one (7/22 for sure and maybe 7/23).
Yeah, okay, so Phish laid down a show with two 30+ minute jams and one of them is "Lawn Boy." On one level that absolutely needs to be recognized. This is an incredibly unique show, an incredible show, and quite possibly the one show of the thirteen BD shows that best captures the spirit of the entire run in two sets.
On the other hand, this show reminds me of why it's best to let Phish jam when they're feeling it and encourage them to avoid artificially inflating songs when they're not clicking in the moment just for the sake of track length.
The roar of the crowd when the band launches into the "Sample" jam and everyone realizes that we really are going to experience a jam-filled show is spine-tingling. The jam that follows, though? Not so much. It's the same with "Lawn Boy": the gimmick here is strong, but the jam doesn't follow through on the potential. It feels like one of those old 2.0 long jams, the band jumping out into space and seeing if they land on something. Back then, sometimes they did, and it was awesome...and sometimes they didn't and the result was a pretty intolerable 10-15 minutes of music. "Lawn Boy" is a bit of both of these. At times, there are musical moments to dig into, at other times, the jam's only real takeaway is "Hahaha, they're jamming 'Lawn Boy'!" The last twelve minutes or so are definitely mega-highlight 3.0 Phish, but it takes them a relatively uninteresting 18 minutes to get there. YMMV, I guess:
For my money, things really pick up after "Lawn Boy." The unexpected jam out of "MFMF" is legit, with all kinds of weird sounds that make it one of those jams that sounds like the band discovering new territory rather than just revisiting old haunts. "Stash" doesn't get really weird, but the loop-filled peak is a slight twist on a classic and keeps the momentum rolling into "Gin," which is yet another 2015/2016-style blissed-out take on the tune to end the set.
Obviously, there's a lot of improv here and it's a freaking five-song first set, but if you're looking for top-tier jamming like we heard already during the first three BD shows, there's really only the back half of "Lawn Boy" and the "MFMF" outro.
In the second set, "Fuego" goes the "Lawn Boy" route in the sense that the first fourteen minutes or so is pretty standard "Fuego"-outro-style jamming, but then Mike gets out his drill and it seems to rip a hole in spacetime, causing the entire band to start cranking out musical brilliance. This doesn't last nearly long enough, and the creaky take on "Thread" afterward puts us on weird footing again, but luckily "Crosseyed" is here to save the day.
This second 30+ minute jam is the real star of the show, as the band gel much more thoroughly here than during "Lawn Boy." There are a ton of great ideas thrown out from everyone during this jam, and the movement between them is smooth. There's a momentum here that's often lacking in longer jams and that makes me think of jams like the Tahoe Tweezer, the Miami Disease, and the Dick's Simple. It's really good, and you should check it out.
From here, oddly enough, we enter the dreaded "weak fourth quarter." Minus the "End of Session" bustout (admittedly a huge bustout) and a bit of spacey jamming after "Makisupa" to set up said bustout, the last bit of this show is surprisingly jukeboxy, including an absolutely ugly version of "Tuesday." "Lawn Boy Reprise" brings a smile during the encore, but for such a legendary show it ends on a pretty bum note.
The Live Review:
7/25/17: Sample opener.
7/25/17: I absolutely love the crowd roar when Sample starts to jam. THEY KNOW
7/25/17: You know you're in a weird place when the audience blows up at the beginning of Lawn Boy.
7/25/17: Page taking a keytar solo now.
7/25/17: Page stays on keytar as we segue into a legit jam.
7/25/17: Page is back at his rig (I think) playing synth now. Trey playing echo-chords.
7/25/17: Some great soloing from Trey now as the jam starts to pick up the pace. Mike joining in, too.
7/25/17: Serious momentum now. Trey deploying loops.
7/25/17: Trey on pitch-shifter and Page on clav creates and interesting almost-plinko effect. Breaking things down now.
7/25/17: Trey doing an admirable job of driving this jam melodically, but everyone else is listening in and making great contributions.
7/25/17: Long, held note from Trey at the 19:00 mark. Everyone else in a holding pattern.
7/25/17: Fast, bluesy riff from Trey and we're off again.
7/25/17: Fade into a more abstract space now. Lots of synth and looping. Fish's beat keeps it from being ominous.
7/25/17: Getting close to Blossom Number Line jamming here. My absolute favorite.
7/25/17: Sinister build.
7/25/17: Okay, so minutes 0-5: dicking around with Lawn Boy, minutes 5-15, sort of dicking around in general...
7/25/17: They start finding their footing around minute 15 and from that held note on, they're all really dialed in.
7/25/17: It'd be an exaggeration to say that this is a thoroughly engaging 30-minute jam, but:
7/25/17: a) it's a 30 minute jam, and b) the last 12 minutes or so are fantastic.
7/25/17: Some swaggery echo-chord jamming post-peak. We're still going.
7/25/17: Really like this outro jam. Shame it's so short. They sound totally locked-in now.
7/25/17: -> MFMF
7/25/17: Can I complain about Trey ripcording a thirty minute jam? Probably not, huh?
7/25/17: DONUST
7/25/17: MFMF proper is pretty rusty. Somewhere between 'Oops!' and 'Somewhat unlistenable.'
7/25/17: Slinky jam coming out of the outro of MFMF.
7/25/17: Really like what Mike is doing on this.
7/25/17: Really interesting jam. Totally different than anything they played during Lawn Boy.
7/25/17: 'Jam-filled' is a great gimmick, but the jam in Sample and the first half or so of Lawn Boy *did feel* like a gimmick.
7/25/17: Everything since has been legitimately fascinating jamming.
7/25/17: Great fadeout with Page on synth again. > Stash.
7/25/17: Loop-filled peak to Stash is pretty compelling. Making the jam way more frentic than usual.
7/25/17: Drawing out the tension now.
7/25/17: > Gin.
7/25/17: Gin jam moving in the same direction that most Gin jams do these days, but at a more languorous pace than usual.
7/25/17: Fishman putting on a show as we head for another loop-inflected peak.
7/25/17: End set.
7/25/17: Fuego opens S2.
7/25/17: Fuego jam building naturally out of Trey's usual 'riff-on-the-riff' outro soloing.
7/25/17: Standard Fuego outro jam fading out at 14:00. Mike jamming the screwdriver.
7/25/17: Great work from Page on piano and synth as the jam builds back up.
7/25/17: -> Thread.
7/25/17: I think once I can wrap my brain around what Thread is doing, I'm going to like it a lot.
7/25/17: Reminds me a bit of Mercury before they really ironed it out good.
7/25/17: Definitely appreciate that they're still making complicated songs these days. Petrichor, Mercury, and (maybe) Thread are all great.
7/25/17: The roar when they dropped into C+P was huge even on the soundboard.
7/25/17: Crosseyed jam starts off pretty standard, though I'm liking Page moving early to the electric piano.
7/25/17: Trey relaxing back into some funk chording. Mike stepping up.
7/25/17: Trey to pitch-shifter, Mike still driving.
7/25/17: Really great spacey soup happening now.
7/25/17: Jam feels a lot more fluid than the Lawn Boy one so far.
7/25/17: This jam is staying surprisingly low-key for a surprisingly long time. How is Trey holding himself back?!
7/25/17: Ah, here we go. This build seems like it could bust into the Dick's '15 Disease at any moment.
7/25/17: Big peak, and now a slowdown.
7/25/17: Super-eerie, ambient synth happening now.
7/25/17: This is about as minimal as you can go before you just hit 'no music.'
7/25/17: Ambient section done. Trey strumming now. Everyone else coming back in.
7/25/17: The Who-sounding rock section happening now.
7/25/17: Pretty sure Mike just reprised the Crosseyed riff there briefly.
7/25/17: Band playing a deconstructed version of the tune now. 'Still waiting' lyrics. Slowly morphing back into the song proper.
7/25/17: Weird Trey loop makes the end of a huge version of Crosseyed. Loop continues into Makisupa Policeman.
7/25/17: Makisupa gets a very brief, spacey jam before > End of Session. This is/was pretty much the best bustout ever.
7/25/17: I often wonder if more than one hundred people in MSG even recognized this w/o looking at their phones first. I wouldn't have.
7/25/17: > Tuesday was a bit jarring.
7/25/17: Wow, that was an ugly version of Tuesday, including a complete miscue at the end of the song.
7/25/17: Trey is trying to redeem it with a huge solo, but he's playing in the wrong key.
7/25/17: That was so ridiculously bad in the context of this great run that I actually laughed out loud.
7/25/17: I'm not complaining, but just find it sort of funny that minus the End of Session bustout, the jam-filled show, with...
7/25/17: ...two thirty-minute jams, is also definitely a 'weak fourth quarter' show.
7/25/17: Makisupa > EoS > Tuesday, Cavern. E: Julius, Lawn Boy Reprise.
7/25/17: The Lawn Boy reprise is a nice touch, though :)
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