2012-06-30 Alpine Valley I

The Verdict:
If 6/29 offered up the epitome of a fun-but-straightforward show, the first night at Alpine Valley tries to see just how straight the band can play it for over three hours, up to and potentially past the point of it being entertaining.

Like the previous night, the first set is a well-constructed summer set of rarities, covers, and favorites, with solid playing throughout. I especially liked hearing Page sing "Let It Loose," and the "Reba" is worth a listen, for sure.

The energy picks up, somehow, late in the set, and "Timber" is a particular standout. All told, though, this set was so long that it all sort of jumbled together in my mind by the end. I'm rarely one to complain about extra Phish, but this first set is fifteen songs, and it feels like a lot, especially with the only notable highlight, "Reba," happening early in the set.

The second set, for better or worse, is similar. After a totally standard "Number Line" to open, an interesting "Carini" jam gets chopped after about a minute for "Wilson," then a promising take on "Golden Age" gets ripcorded for a pretty standard "2001." From there, we continue this trend, with the band keeping up the energy but seeming to purposely focus on number of songs played over anything else, even cutting a high-energy "Hood" to just over ten minutes so that they can get to a set-closing "Zero."

It's a weird set, and a very long show, and in the end, I guess I just feel, after a few shows in a row like this, that I'd like to hear the band do something a little more interesting. But again, 6/30 is a perfect distillation of summery, east-coast, Type I Phish, and if that's your bag, you'll enjoy the hell out of this one.

The Live Review:
6/30/12: My Soul opener.                      
6/30/12: Trey bringing some serious heat with his solo.                      
6/30/12: Daniel Saw The Stone                      
6/30/12: Mini organ solo from Page at the end of the song.                      
6/30/12: AC/DC Bag                      
6/30/12: Neat drop into Moma at the end of Bag.                      
6/30/12: Pretty standard, if energetic take on Moma. > Jim.                      
6/30/12: Let It Loose! One of my favorite Stones songs. Wish Phish would cover it more often. Love Page's vocals.                      
6/30/12: Reba next.                      
6/30/12: Extra gorgeous launch into the Reba jam.                      
6/30/12: Better-than-average-great (?) version of Reba, there. KDF next.               
6/30/12: Very straightforward, summery set so far, but the setlist choices and a great Reba have raised my opinion of it quite a bit.                      
6/30/12: The Sloth.                      
6/30/12: Ocelot and KDF in the same set! Yay?                      
6/30/12: Shortish Ocelot. Set rolls on with Poor Heart.                      
6/30/12: When The Circus Comes                      
6/30/12: &gt     Timber                  
6/30/12: Great, frenetic take on Timber, followed by Oh Keep Pa.                      
6/30/12: &gt     Suzy                  
6/30/12: First set (finally) over. Fifteen songs!                      
6/30/12: Mellow-tempo'd Number Line kicks off the second set.                      
6/30/12: &gt     Carini                  
6/30/12: Carini starts developing promisingly before getting 'corded into Wilson.                      
6/30/12: &gt     Golden Age                  
6/30/12: I'd be happy to live in an alternate universe that's exactly like this one except that Page sings Golden Age instead of Trey.                      
6/30/12: Jazzy, Page-led jam.                      
6/30/12: Plinko time...awwwww yeah                      
6/30/12: I will never, ever get sick of plinko jamming and would love a huge Golden Age plinko jam this summer at the Gorge.                      
6/30/12: Nice groove -&gt    2001                  
6/30/12: Nice, compact take on 2001 leads into Rock and Roll.                      
6/30/12: Prototypical funk-chording jam forming after a hot Type I outro from Rock and Roll proper.                      
6/30/12: Jam winds down to Page on piano and some guitar loops before &gt     Steam.                  
6/30/12: Droning mini-jam out of Steam segues nicely into Piper.                      
6/30/12: High-tempo Piper. Trey locking on to a good, looping riff. Band following along.                      
6/30/12: Now Page taking the lead while Trey chords.                      
6/30/12: Jam stalls out, Fish drops out. Now just Trey and Page playing.               
6/30/12: Neat duo jam goes brief. &gt     Quinn.                  
6/30/12: HOOD                      
6/30/12: Solid momentum immediately in the Hood jam.                      
6/30/12: A relatively short, but really propulsive version of Hood to close out the second set.                      
6/30/12: My bad. &gt     Zero.                  
6/30/12: GTBT encore                      
6/30/12: That was an enormously long show. 190 minutes.                      
6/30/12: Considering that, it kept a pretty amazingly high level of energy throughout.                      
6/30/12: Great setlists during both the first and second sets.                      
6/30/12: At the same time, no real jamming and not even really a 'gag jam' like 6/29's Twist joke.                      
6/30/12: Golden Age > 2001 was probably the highlight, but it was another show where it seemed like the band (or at… https://t.co/hl0E07w8Mm                 
6/30/12: I guess if you're into that kind of show, there probably aren't much better examples of it than this one.                        

2012-06-29 Noblesville II

The Verdict:
I don't have a whole lot to say about 6/29 or 6/30, so these next two will be pretty short reviews. Neither of these shows are bad, per se, but they just aren't really remarkable in any way, so I won't be...uh...remarking on much.

That said, if you like your Phish shows mostly solidly played, with pretty consistent energy and a well-constructed setlist with almost absolutely no improvisation or surprises, then you can't do much better than these two shows. They are straight-laced summer-lawn Phish at its finest, for better or worse.

Anyway, the second night in Noblesville slots even more neatly into the Type-I-show-with-a-brief-peak-at-jamming-in-the-third-quarter mold than the first night did. The first set is a well-paced mix of rarities, covers, and standbys, with particular highlights in "Possum," "The Mango Song," and "Birds of a Feather."

The second set opens with "Disease," and while it never gets truly Out There, it does spend a few minutes in a great Type 1.5 space before transitioning into "Sand." "Sand" also stays mostly within its typical confines, but the band plays around a bit with the groove before changing keys to set up a nice segue into "Twist," so as straight versions of "Sand" go, this one's better than most.

"Twist" doesn't get a chance to really go anywhere, as Trey gets fixated on literally rearranging the band members' names (as in the song lyrics), and then picks up on the "Rift" riff, ending a four-or-so-minutes-long "Twist" in a nice segue.

The rest of the set is straightforward, but fun. There's a spirited take on "Gin" that's only slightly derailed by Trey bringing up the name-switching gag, an energetic "Fluffhead," a "Ride Captain Ride" bustout with a huge solo from Trey, and an "Antelope" set-closer that devolves into a game of "Marco Polo" between the band and the audience.

Your mileage might vary, but the name-changing gag is fun, and the show is solid enough front-to-back that it makes for a good listen even without any sustained improvisation.


The Live Review:
6/29/12: Back for the second night in Noblesville. Crowd Control opener.            
6/29/12: Dinner and a Movie!                      
6/29/12: Sweet Jane next. Really odd set of songs to start off the show. Not complaining.                      
6/29/12: Band telling the fans not to hold up signs so other fans can see. In a hilarious way, of course.                      
6/29/12: Limb By Limb next. Not sure if it was, in fact, the song request listed on the offending sign.                      
6/29/12: Possum next, after a pretty standard LxL. Some interesting distorted chording from Trey during the Possum intro.                      
6/29/12: #tacomountain                      
6/29/12: Pretty standard Possum with some solid guitar heroics by Trey. Mound next.                      
6/29/12: Life On Mars!                      
6/29/12: Mango Song next. Set one has been a typical 2012 grab bag so far, but it's a fun grab bag.                       
6/29/12: Always love the Mike/Page interplay in the middle of Mango Song.        
6/29/12: > BBFCFM!                  
6/29/12: Following BBFCFM with Strange Design has to have been an intentional tonal joke, right?                      
6/29/12: Another SoaG song here with Birds.                      
6/29/12: Fun romp through Birds. Now, Halley's.                      
6/29/12: Looks like While My Guitar Gently Weeps will close the set. Loving some of the rarity choices in this set.                      
6/29/12: End first set.                      
6/29/12: Set two opening with Disease.                      
6/29/12: Trey really laying into the Type I opening jam.                      
6/29/12: Jam getting a little more abstract, anchored by some great melodic playing from Mike and a cascade of organ chords.                      
6/29/12: After a few solid minutes of good...uh...Type 1.5 jamming, noise-rock fades into Sand.                      
6/29/12: Great riffing from Trey and Mike heading into the jam.                      
6/29/12: Really great turn in the Sand jam. If I knew more about music, I could probably tell you if it was a key change or whatever.                      
6/29/12: But as it turns out, you can write almost 70 of your own songs and still not know anything about music.                      
6/29/12: Back to the standard Sand funk now.                      
6/29/12: Dipping a toe into Plinko Lake.                      
6/29/12: Back into Sand proper...then a key change.                      
6/29/12: Band changing keys multiple times over the main Sand riff.                    
6/29/12: -> Twist. That's probably why.                  
6/29/12: Rather than singing the second verse, Trey is just rearranging the letters of Mike's name over and over.                      
6/29/12: Now Trey doing the same thing with 'Page' as the rest of the band continues the song.                      
6/29/12: Shortest Twist ever as Trey hits on the Rift riff...and we're off!                 
6/29/12: Bathtub Gin after Rift.                      
6/29/12: Trey is adding a lot of scat vocals to match his guitar notes.                   
6/29/12: Now sort of a droning jam section interspersed with some random vocals before the band drops back into a m… https://t.co/SrLK5VcT7B                
6/29/12: Trey revisiting the Twist lyrics so that he can pronounce Fish's name in various ways.                      
6/29/12: Building jam ripcorded a bit for a rough -> Fluffhead.                  
6/29/12: Trey is pretty set on making this set a seguefest.                      
6/29/12: Fun but rough take on Fluffhead leads into Ride Captain Ride.                
6/29/12: Massive solo from Trey during Ride Captain Ride.                      
6/29/12: > Antelope                  
6/29/12: Captain teases from Trey.                      
6/29/12: Trey once again returning to the 'pronouncing your name in many ways' gag in Antelope, rearranging the letters to 'Marco.'                      
6/29/12: This just turned into a game of Marco Polo with the audience.                 
6/29/12: Set ends with one last, emphatic 'MARCO!'                      
6/29/12: Encore kicks off with Cavern.                      
6/29/12: > Sanity                  
6/29/12: Sanity is always pretty great. First Tube now looks ready to finish the show off for good.                        

2012-06-28 Noblesville I

The Verdict:
You can probably guess ahead of time that any show that opens with "The Birdwatcher" is going to have a weird setlist. The question is, of course, whether that helps or hurts the quality of the show as a whole. When it comes to 6/28/12, I think it's a definite plus.

Nothing in set one really gets out there (including an eleven-minute "Tweezer"), but the setlist is so varied and the set is so long that the band ends up hitting a lot of different tones and spaces and putting together a cohesive whole out of some pretty disparate parts.

Like 6/24 II, the second set is a weirdly satisfying mixture of jams and antics, with a slightly heavier emphasis on the jams than the previous show. The "Mike's" opener stays Type I and lacks the fire of 6/23's version, but immediately after the surprise pairing of "McGrupp" > "BOTT" blows the roof off with a weird tension jam and a plinko-into-space jam, respectively.

Like 6/24, that's pretty much it for improv for the night, but unlike the previous show, the band keeps the momentum up through a spot-on transition into "HYHU," a "Groove" that "features" Fish on Trey's guitar before turning into a legitimate around-the-horn-style jam session, a complex "Waves" that recalls "What's The Use?," and a "Bowie" set closer that doesn't reinvent the wheel but does a great job of putting an exclamation point on a really strange but really good show.

The Live Review:
6/28/12: Four day jump between this show and the Blossom one.      
6/28/12: Opens with an a capella Birdwatcher.      
6/28/12: The Curtain follows.      
6/28/12: Been awhile since I've listened to Phish. Trying to get back into the groove. My brain is very keenly awar… https://t.co/BSbkbmLOzR      
6/28/12: Band falling into a nice, jazzy groove around 10:00.      
6/28/12: Fuck Your Face next. Well, this setlist is certainly interesting so far.      
6/28/12: Old Home Place.      
6/28/12: Pebbles and Marbles next. Seems appropriate to me, tone-wise: for whatever reason, this song and The Curta… https://t.co/TL5cGO25w6      
6/28/12: Weigh is next. Nice little solo from Trey at the end of P&M.  
6/28/12: As a longtime Phish fan, sometimes I don't stop and take a minute to realize how fucking weird this song is.      
6/28/12: Mike is literally singing about cutting off your head just so he can see how much it weighs. And you fucki… https://t.co/uG8l96n9l0      
6/28/12: I mean, it's a funny song in concert, but imagine Mike singing it to you while he stands over your bed jus… https://t.co/LYzCLwjvI1      
6/28/12: Chalkdust next.      
6/28/12: I'm so used to Chalkdust getting jammed in these latter days that it's strange to hear a short version here.      
6/28/12: > Wolfman's.  
6/28/12: Clav time!      
6/28/12: Cool It Down bustout next. Nice take on the tune, with a little mini-jam in the middle.      
6/28/12: Now, Tweezer. Maybe it's because I keep getting interrupted by work, but this set seems super-long.      
6/28/12: I'm not going to complain about a Tweezer set-closer though.      
6/28/12: Pretty snazzy Type I jam here, with Page upfront a bit more than usual.      
6/28/12: Wind-down ending to Tweezer. > Tela. Giving me 7/31/13 flashbacks :)  
6/28/12: Stealing Time. This set is still. Going.      
6/28/12: Looks like set length is *only* 87 minutes. Not super-long by '12 standards, I guess.      
6/28/12: End set.      
6/28/12: Mike's Song opens set two with a pretty heavy Type I jam.      
6/28/12: > McGrupp! Loving the oldies in the setlist tonight.  
6/28/12: Really surprising, great tension-filled jam in the middle of McGrupp.      
6/28/12: Everybody joining in with ideas.      
6/28/12: -> BOTT. That was awesome.  
6/28/12: Dancing around the edges of a plinko jam.      
6/28/12: Things getting spacier. Nice bassline from Mike.      
6/28/12: Really eerie soundscape now. With Mike's bass it *almost* sounds like the intro to Silent In The Morning.      
6/28/12: Perfect -> HYHU  
6/28/12: Crowd trying to get Fish to sing Sexual Healing now.      
6/28/12: Trey screaming 'SEXUAL HEALING!' at him now.      
6/28/12: Bike      
6/28/12: For what it's worth, I laughed much harder at Fish's vacuum solo than usual this time around.      
6/28/12: -> HYHU -> Groove. I'm confused.
6/28/12: Someone who is not Trey is definitely playing the guitar. I think Trey is playing the drums, still.      
6/28/12: Kind of trading-solos jamming style throughout Groove. Nice take.      
6/28/12: > Caspian  
6/28/12: Nice compact take on Caspian > Waves.  
6/28/12: Surprisingly fast tempo for Waves.      
6/28/12: Waves jam has a great momentum and collective direction. Going Type II now.      
6/28/12: Really loving this jam.      
6/28/12: Could drop nicely into WTU? right here.      
6/28/12: Space. Whale calls.      
6/28/12: -> Bug. Another great transition.  
6/28/12: -> Bowie  
6/28/12: Mike putting on a clinic during this Bowie.      
6/28/12: End second set.      
6/28/12: It's 2012, so Show of Life encore.      
6/28/12: Tweeprise      
6/28/12: End show.      
6/28/12: That show in general and the second set in particular, were super unorthodox, but I really enjoyed it.      
6/28/12: No big Type II jams, but McGrupp -> BOTT was great, and Groove > Caspian -> Waves is worth a listen.      
6/28/12: The segues really gave the second set in general a momentum that it wouldn't have had otherwise.   

2012-06-24 Blossom Music Center

The Verdict:
As has been the case for most of summer so far, "real" jamming is pretty sparse in the 6/24 Blossom show. That said, much of this tour is really reminding what's so great about a "standard" Phish show, and how much fun the band can pack into two sets that don't have twenty-minute jams scattered throughout. I'll always be a jam-hound when it comes to Phish, but it's worth mentioning that these jam-light shows aren't bad or uninteresting (mostly not, at least) in the way some '09 and '10 shows were.

The opening set here is some more quintessential summer-lawn Phish. The overall tone of the set is mellower than the last few shows', but it's still fun to listen to. The "Gin" hits a brief-but-satisfying peak, and I'll always love a good "Corinna" bustout. The middle of the set is all well-played, hit-parade Phish, and there's some goofiness during "Meatstick" when Trey invites fans up on stage to dance.

The second set kicks off with a "Golden Age" > "Ghost" > "Sweet Virginia" sequence that is the easy highlight of the show. Both "Golden Age" and "Ghost" are shorter than the set-ending "Antelope," but contain pretty much all the improvisation in the show...and it's all good, if a little short.

"Tweezer" comes next, and while it starts with another promising jam, things get derailed when a Pink Floyd vocal tease transforms into a hilarious-but-imploding "Under Pressure" jam...and the show descends into pretty standard fare after that. It's worth a listen for the humor factor, but it's also kind of a weird moment in the show as the band was really firing on all cylinders before that moment.


The Live Review:
6/24/12: Blossom show opens with Sample.      
6/24/12: Sample gets the energy flowing, Axila I keeps it coming.      
6/24/12: Corinna!        
6/24/12: This is probably the Phish cover I want to hear the most live that I will never get to hear no matter how many shows I see.      
6/24/12: Oh, bloody hell. I had shuffle on. Opening set is Sample, Tube, *then* Axilla I.      
6/24/12: Corinna doesn't happen until later.      
6/24/12: Anyway, Tube now. Sorry about that.      
6/24/12: Tube jam getting a little plinko-y.      
6/24/12: Okay, *now* Axilla I and then Gin.      
6/24/12: Gin jam has a little arrhythmic section early on. Trey playing a little more experimentally than usual.      
6/24/12: Jam picking up the pace now.      
6/24/12: Roses Are Free! Would love to see this tune reenter rotation this year.      
6/24/12: Very, very brief reprise of the Roses jam for Worcester before > Limb By Limb.      
6/24/12: Some great Trey/Page interplay here in the outro jam.      
6/24/12: FREE      
6/24/12: Slow-tempo'd but pleasantly muddy take on Free's middle jam section.      
6/24/12: NICU after Free.      
6/24/12: > Possum  
6/24/12: Trey doing a lot of tension-y bends in Possum, but in a way that's not really doing anything for me.      
6/24/12: Giving me flashbacks to the whale pedal tour of 2010.      
6/24/12: Hit-parade-style opening set continues with The Wedge.      
6/24/12: Okay, this is where Corinna goes in the setlist.      
6/24/12: Okay, so Corinna, Meatstick is the weirdest pairing I've heard in awhile.      
6/24/12: Trey calling fans up onto the stage to do the Meatstick dance.      
6/24/12: Apparently he forgot how to do it.      
6/24/12: DANCE FLUB FROM TREY 6/24/12 F++ WILL NEVER LISTEN AGAIN      
6/24/12: End set one. Second set kicks off with Golden Age.      
6/24/12: Trey transitions neatly into a space funk jam and the rest of the band follows. Great beat from Fish, Page to the organ.      
6/24/12: Now Page adding some nice piano flourishes to an otherwise dark jam.      
6/24/12: Really cool, murky jam space developing here.      
6/24/12: Ambient fade-out, and the whale pedal comes back! More 2010 flashbacks!      
6/24/12: Ambient noise goes on for a bit...pretty interesting, actually. Then, segues into Ghost.      
6/24/12: Surprisingly open-sounding Ghost jam.      
6/24/12: Fish shifting up the beat. Trey laying down some loops. Some seriously spooky chamber-music-style jamming happening here.      
6/24/12: Jam winds up after a few minutes. > Sweet Virginia.  
6/24/12: Rift, after a Fishman-vocaled version of Sweet Virginia.      
6/24/12: > Tweezer  
6/24/12: Jam proper kicking off with a neat ascending riff from Trey.      
6/24/12: Trey demands to know how we can have our meat if we haven't had our pudding.      
6/24/12: Did he just flub a Pink Floyd lyrics tease?      
6/24/12: Tweezer momentum needle is dipping slightly.      
6/24/12: Under Pressure-like jam now.      
6/24/12: Under Pressure lyrics now.      
6/24/12: Ice Ice Baby lyrics, too.      
6/24/12: Page definitely knows the actual chords to Under Pressure, but nobody else does, it seems.      
6/24/12: Trey wants more fans on stage to dance to Meatstick again. Now they're playing Meatstick.      
6/24/12: This is hilarious in an absolutely, weirdly unhinged way.      
6/24/12: Weird organ vamp from Page leads us back to Tweezer briefly before -> Walk Away.  
6/24/12: That was...something.      
6/24/12: Trey is shredding the shit out of Walk Away.      
6/24/12: Cacophonous ending to Tweezer leads into The Horse.      
6/24/12: > Silent > Piper.
6/24/12: A few minutes of Type I jamming and Piper fades away into another murky, arrhythmic space.      
6/24/12: Neat landing in Waste.      
6/24/12: Looks like Antelope is going to end the set.      
6/24/12: Trey teasing Under Pressure again in the Antelope intro.      
6/24/12: Meatstick tease.      
6/24/12: I like Antelope a lot more when it's used as a sort of 'show review' with teases from songs earlier in the show.      
6/24/12: During the Antelope peak, everyone is just screaming 'Orlandoooooo' for some damn reason. It's just that kind of show.      
6/24/12: End set.      
6/24/12: Loving Cup, the second Stones cover of the night, kicks off the encore.      
6/24/12: We'll wrap things up with Tweeprise.      
6/24/12: First set was pretty standard except for the Corinna bustout. A little mellower than the last few nights' opening frames.      
6/24/12: The second set had Golden Age, Ghost, and Tweezer...and they were all shorter than the usual-length Antelope set closer.      
6/24/12: That said, there was some brief, high-quality jamming in Golden Age and Ghost, and some straight-up classic goofiness in Tweeze.      
6/24/12: I didn't find as much to like as I did with 6/22 or 6/23, but it's still a good show.