The improvement that began on 7/30 and continued on 8/1 continues further during the tenth BD show. We still haven't regained the heights reached by those initial five shows, but we're getting closer.
This is the fifth show in the row without any real standout improv in the first set, and it's a bit of a rollercoaster of highs and lows. An interesting take on Tom Waits's "Way Down In the Hole" kicks things off, but then things hang in limbo for a few tunes until "Guyute" shifts things back into gear, kicking off a high-energy segment of old-school tunes, including one of my favorite (jammed-out) takes on "Meat" ever. It segues into an extra-spicy "Maze," but rather than ending the set on that note, the band strings together a bunch more low-energy tunes ("Ginseng," "WAN," and "Heavy Things") before ending with a totally standard "Antelope." YMMV here, but this set drug on about twenty minutes too long for me (see the live review for more on this).
Fortunately, the second set is another master class in improv. The entire set is sandwiched in a "Mike's Groove" that starts off with a massive, twenty-two minute "Mike's," which is really the only way that song should be played. Fish kicks off what's an easy MVP set for him while Trey and Page use loops and synth, respectively, to explore a number of different spaces during the huge jam. The droning ending leads into a theme-appropriate but highly dark and disturbing take on "O Holy Night!" which in turn transitions into a huge "Taste."
For my money, this "Taste" is the jam of the evening, going nearly twenty minutes and providing a lot more novel exploration of the minimal and synth styles that have been popular during this run than "Mike's" did.
"Wingsuit" provides a much needed cooldown (which isn't really a cooldown because there's a great Trey/Mike jam during the outro but I digress) after the jam sandwich that started the set. Then it's a pretty standard "Sally" and shredded-but-only-Type-I "Groove" to wrap things up.
The Live Review:
8/2/17: Holes night opens with Way Down In the Hole.
8/2/17: Buried Alive!
8/2/17: Tight take on Buried Alive. Slow-tempo KDF is next.
8/2/17: A little extra mustard on the Type I outro in that version.
8/2/17: Long pause before Guyute starts up.
8/2/17: It sounds like they may have practiced Guyute a bit.
8/2/17: I Didn't Know.
8/2/17: NICU.
8/2/17: Meat! I love Meat!
8/2/17: Meat getting some call-and-response action between Trey and Mike.
8/2/17: A fair amount of echoplex thrown in there, too.
8/2/17: Straightforward blues rock section, and now easing back into the song proper with some seriously weird looping effects from Trey.
8/2/17: I really like Meat, and love that they've been stretching it out a bit lately. This is the best version yet.
8/2/17: No return to Meat lyrics. Noise deconstructs the end of the song, and then > Maze.
8/2/17: Maze is its usually crazy self.
8/2/17: Super-hot take on Maze. Ginseng Sullivan next.
8/2/17: Waiting All Night next. That's a weird call.
8/2/17: And that's coming from a huge closet WAN fan over here.
8/2/17: Heavy Things is another weird choice here.
8/2/17: Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if Phish went back to playing for two hours instead of three.
8/2/17: That's something that gets talked about surprisingly rarely in all the Internet Phish Analysis Words that people like me write.
8/2/17: I just wonder, because sometimes at this point in sets like this, it starts to feel like they're still playing just to reach 90 mins
8/2/17: If that expectation wasn't there, would we enjoy these kinds of sets more, even if they were, say 20-30 minutes shorter?
8/2/17: I mean, after a great 2017-style 60 minutes or so of great improv, is it better or worse to get 2001 > Cavern > Suzy > Golgi?
8/2/17: If a set just absolutely fucking delivered for 60 minutes, then closed with Cavern, would you really go home sad about a 65 min set?
8/2/17: I wouldn't.
8/2/17: Anyway, while I'm pounding away over here, Heavy Things is being Heavy Things.
8/2/17: Set keeps rolling with Antelope.
8/2/17: End set.
8/2/17: S2 opens with Mike's Song.
8/2/17: Great interplay between Trey and Page (on organ) during what's becoming a pretty gnarly Type I Mike's jam.
8/2/17: Trey makes a quick though awkward transition into 'second jam' mode. Crowd goes *nuts*.
8/2/17: Really like Fish in this jam. Bringing things down from the early guitar heroics now. Synth washes from Page.
8/2/17: Synth getting some heavy play now.
8/2/17: Trey developing a riff.
8/2/17: Now modulating into a more uplifting jam after developing that riff for a bit.
8/2/17: Nice, patient build here.
8/2/17: Song ends in an echoplex-driven drone.
8/2/17: Page singing O Holy Night.
8/2/17: Get it? Hol(e)y?
8/2/17: Synth and loops continuing. This isn't totally creepy at all.
8/2/17: > Taste
8/2/17: Taste outro getting extended.
8/2/17: Mellow, echo-y jam happening now. Fish keeping a Taste-like beat going.
8/2/17: Trey using this part of the jam to hint at returning to the Taste theme, but not going there yet. Page back on synth.
8/2/17: Nice minimalistic jam forming now.
8/2/17: Mike's jam was one of the more by-the-book BD jams. This one's a bit weirder.
8/2/17: Again, really like what Fish is doing.
8/2/17: Return to Taste is nowhere in sight yet as the band builds back out of the quiet spot they were in. Trey crashing out chords.
8/2/17: Round Room-style jazz jam forming now as Page takes over on piano.
8/2/17: A heavier jam based on a four-chord progression rolls to a natural end. No return to Taste.
8/2/17: Wingsuit next.
8/2/17: That was really, really good, by the way.
8/2/17: I like me a late-show Wingsuit. It definitely works best at the end of a set with that guitar outro.
8/2/17: Only played four times as a set-ender, actually, as per @phishnet.
8/2/17: Some nice full band interplay in the Wingsuit outro now, not just Trey wailing. Mike leading, actually.
8/2/17: Return to the standard Wingsuit outro at the end.
8/2/17: Sneakin' Sally next.
8/2/17: Sally almost immediately moves into echo-funk territory.
8/2/17: It's definitely feeling very 2015-2016 in here all of a sudden.
8/2/17: Trey gamely tried to modulate the end of a brief Sally jam into Weekapaug, but it didn't really work. Nonetheless, > Groove.
8/2/17: Extended take on Groove stays Type I but showcases some great Trey playing.
8/2/17: End set 2.
8/2/17: Day in the Life encore.
8/2/17: Felt like this show was moving back toward the unpredictability and magic of those first five BD shows.
8/2/17: Not a lot of meat in the first set still (minus the Meat, heh heh) but enough great tunes in there to make it a solid frame anyway.
8/2/17: Minus the bit of drag at the end, of course.
8/2/17: Second set was great, with a seriously deep Mike's second jam, weird Holy Night, upper-tier-of-BD Taste jam.
8/2/17: No jams in the fourth quarter, but a strong end anyway.
8/2/17: And FINALLY a 3.0 Mike's Groove worth your time.
8/2/17: Even counting ballads, I think hearing the opening notes of Mike's is the worst momentum killer for me at a show.
8/2/17: Which sucks, because I love that song so much.
8/2/17: But for 99% of this era, hearing Mike's, esp. in the second set, means you know that you're in for a...
8/2/17: ...kinda boring, predictable 9 minute reading of Mike's, a few ballads or other short songs, and then a boring six minute Groove.
8/2/17: I'm amazed at how happy it made me to hear a second set built around a legitimate Mike's Groove...
8/2/17: ...instead of just hearing it suck up 40+ minutes of what could have been an interesting set.
8/2/17: More of that, please.
8/2/17: And yes, hearing Mike's kick in after a lackluster opening to 9/2/17 II was my least favorite part of Dick's this year.
8/2/17: Really brought the energy down after it became clear there would be no second jam.
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