CRB Review: 2017-12-01 Eugene, OR

The Live Review

12/1/17 #crblive Live Review, Set One: Sweet Thang and Cisco opener.

 

Neal don't need no warming up! He's tearing into his first solo right away.

 

I've reviewing this show via an AUD also, but it's way clearer than the Portland tape was. I suspect it's because the Hi-Fi Lounge is like ten feet across.

 

Mellow vibe continues with Roan County Banjo.

 

I read an article the other day that criticized a recent CRB show for having "too many mid-tempo numbers," and I was like "You know that's literally what they do, right?" It's like going to see a rap artist and then being like "Yeah, there were too many beats."

 

Chauffeur's Daughter next.

 

Nice little freeform jam coming out of the tune proper. Adam driving, with Neal adding the occasional chord. Like where this is going.

 

> Clear Blue Sky. Nice transition.

 

These days I almost prefer Clear Blue Skies to go into the country rock jam instead of into The Good Doctor.

 

Some great interplay between Neal and Adam there during that jam. Now fading a bit after a peak. Tony adding some great accents.

 

When Adam does the piano-only intro to Sweet Lullaby, it always makes it abundantly clear that it's the same chords as Blue Christmas.

 

High Is Not the Top is followed by a personal favorite, Jump the Turnstile.

 

Nice, brief outro jam for Jump the Turnstile. Adam going nuts.

 

Looks like Hello LA is going to close out the first set.

 

As CRB first sets go, that was reasonably tame, except for the brief jams in Chauffeur's Daughter and Clear Blue Sky. I definitely remember this show being a bit more jammy than this. Maybe all that secondhand smoke "clouded" my memory...

 

 

 

12/1/17 #crblive Live Review, Set Two: Second set kicks off in jaunty fashion with Love's Made a Fool of You.

 

A solid outro jam develops into something murkier and a little jazzy. Eleven-minute take opens the set with some serious improvisation.

 

Good To Know next.

 

Standard little outro jam on Good To Know, not the extended jazz jam like on 12/2. Hark the Herald Hermit Speaks is next.

 

Adam solo piano intro to Train Robbers.

 

Train Robbers is pretty darn evocative on its own, but it's getting a huge outro solo from Neal this time around.

 

Solo fades out and into a low-tempo take on Behold the Seer.

 

Hot take on Behold the Seer, despite the slow tempo. Fades into If You Had A Heart To Break.

 

That song always starts out slow and ends up rocking. Band carrying the momentum into Tuff Mama.

 

Adam leading Tuff Mama into jamland.

 

Adam killing his solo here. So good.

 

If 12/2 was a majorly Neal-centric show. I feel like 12/2 is all Adam's.

 

Neal adding some really good textural playing now. This is great.

 

Almost a droning jam now.

 

This sounds more like CATS than CRB.

 

Great -> I Ain't Hiding

 

Excellent playing from Adam leading into the Hiding jam. He stays out in front now where Neal would usually take a solo.

 

Fantastic version of I Ain't Hiding to end the second set.

 

Band's back out to encore with Goodbye Wheeling.

 

Overall, that show was a little less even than most CRB shows I've seen, but the high points definitely made up for the lower, sometimes slower points.

 

The Chauffeur's Daughter/Clear Blue Sky pair was spacey and great, Jump the Turnstile was extended a bit, and the long take on Love's Made a Fool of You was a great surprise. Tuff Mama -> I Ain't Hiding was definitely the highlight. The rest of the second set was pretty standard.

2012-08-18 BGCA II

The Live Review

 

 

8/18/12 #phish Live Review, Set One: Jim opener.

 

For some reason, my music player is CONVINCED that the album art for all three of these BGCA shows is the cover of #wilco's Sky Blue Sky. At this point, I'm just rolling with it.

 

Lotta extra mustard on this version of Jim. That either means this is going to be a killer show, or one of those early 2012 shows where they just play 400 seven-minute songs. I guess we'll see.

 

Great vocal breakdown in the middle of Wolfman's.

 

Getting some 90s-level melodic soloing from Trey now.

 

Plinko-ish jamming now.

 

Damn, that was a great Type I Wolfman's. Nellie Kane next.

 

Welp, after that Wolfman's, the band definitely did just start playing an early 2012 first set. On the upside, this version of Ocelot is actually pretty decent.

 

I enjoyed I Didn't Know > 46 Days more than I thought I would.

 

Thanks mostly to Page, that was the most fun four-minute Tube I've heard in a long time.

 

Also always nice to hear hear When the Circus Comes in the midst of an onslaught of random songs.

 

Also, a not-flubby version of Sugar Shack. They should just end the set right there.

 

Going into SOAM instead. I'll take it.

 

SOAM is super-chaotic. Loving what they've been doing with it lately (in 2012). Lots of loops.

 

Looks like the first set is going to wrap with Cavern. Ninety minutes.

 

 

 

8/18/12 #phish Live Review, Set Two: Golden Age kicks off the second set.

 

Even way back in 2012, it's in way too high a key for Trey to actually sing it. Just sayin'.

 

Sometimes I like to just listen to only Fish for the entire Golden Age composed section.

 

Neat little funk jam emerging from Golden Age, but it quickly peters and Trey starts up Piper.

 

Piper jam builds a bit, then gets yanked for Mike's.

 

A pretty straightforward Mike's with some angular soloing from Trey gets a 

hard segue into Simple. I'm partial to this transition because one of the first #phish shows I had on tape had a Mike's > Simple > (I think) Groove sequence. 

 

At the time I thought they always went together

 

Lots of great interplay in the Simple outro. Trey and Mike taking over now, playing off of each other.

 

Ambient jam! Happy to hear this come back after it was hinted at then ripcorded earlier.

 

I am rarely happy to hear the whale call, but this is one of those times.

 

This is a long, patient jam, here.

 

Ambient jam goes into Number Line. Such a good seven or so minutes of #phish, there.

 

Set feels like it's starting to revert to another "hits playlist"-type affair, but I do love the Number Line > Carini transition.

 

Weirdly, Carini pretty much ends on a dime after the composed part and a brief solo. Trey calling for Wilson.

 

This very late-set 2001 seems especially randomly chosen.

 

Fluffhead looks like it's going to close the second set.

 

Nice, high-energy version of the outro jam there. Loving Cup continues the second set.

 

End set.

 

Is there a more perfect encore song for a two-hundred minute show with five minutes of jamming than Show of Life?

 

No. The answer is no.

 

Zero is the other encore song.

 

Well, after Long Beach and BGCA I sounding more like latter-day 3.0 #phish, this show definitely took us back to early summer 2012 in a mostly-not-good way. That said, check out the first set (yeah, you read that right) for some legit jams. SOAM and Wolfman's were great.

 

Oh, and the Simple in the middle of the second set was goddamn gorgeous.

CRB Review: 2017-12-02 Portland, OR

The Live Review

Gonna continue with another review today just because. This one is #thecrb's 12/2/17 show from Portland, OR. I'm listening to the AUD recording because, to my limitless bummed-ness, no shows from this run got an official release.

 

Show kicking off with Seven Nights To Rock. Neal certainly does not have to warm up his rockabilly chops.

 

High Is Not the Top is next. It's getting played a little more rock and roll/a little less shuffle than the album version.

 

Chauffeur's Daughter is third. This is definitely my favorite new CRB song in awhile.

 

Nice little outro jam here. Neal taking the lead with a rockabilly tone.

 

Jam fades out...and the hazy intro to Tulsa Yesterday fades in.

 

Monster take on Tulsa Yesterday. Huge Neal main solo and then a following slide solo, followed by the usual outro jam. 17+ minutes.

 

Followed by the murky funk of Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line.

 

Only Daddy and the following Blue Star Woman let Adam stretch out a bit for the first time in the show.

 

Really interesting, super-distorted solo from Neal during Blue Star Woman as well.

 

Lift off into a funky take on the song's outro jam.

 

Damn, this is good.

 

Jam peaks hard, then transitions into something a little more bluegrassy.

 

Jam winds down. > New Cannonball Rag.

 

Neal is just conquering this set. Huge solo from him in Cannonball as well.

 

They're bypassing the usual > Tomorrow Blues for a second jam, featuring some seriously evil tones from Adam.

 

Looks like Saturday Night is going to close the set after that murky second jam.

 

As usual, a great, jammy opening set. Chauffeur's Daughter had a nice little outro jam, Tulsa was huge, and I really dug both parts of the Cannonball jam. Blue Star Woman, though, stole the show. Or at least the set.

 

 

Second set leads off real slow-like with Dream Baby.

 

This isn't really my favorite CRB cover, but Adam just ripped off a great solo in the middle of this version.

 

Venus In Chrome next! Definitely hoping that this one ends up on the new album.

 

Definitely not a jammy song, but a good one nonetheless.

 

Same with Hark the Herald Hermit Speaks.

 

CR and Neal rocking out together at the end of Hark the Herald.

 

The rock vibe of the set continues with Behold the Seer.

 

Neal taking Behold the Seer TO TOWN.

 

She Shares My Blanket slows things down a bit after that full-on guitar assault.

 

Good To Know next. I love this song so much. Probably a top five CRB tune.

 

Some fantastic Neal/Adam interplay during the middle of this tune.

 

After the song's typical peak, great building riff from Adam on the piano. Rest of band slowly joining in.

 

Another jam follows the piano-driven one. If there's such thing as a Type II CRB jam, this is it.

 

Jam eventually -> Narcissus Soaking Wet

 

Worse ways to end a set than Good To Know > Jam -> Narcissus > Rosalee!

 

And after that bang-up fourth quarter, closing the show with a Watching The 

Wheels encore is just perfect. Great show all around.

 

Like most of the shows I saw last year, the only real weakness with this one was the overreliance on the new songs (I guess I can't really blame them, it's a tour for the new album).

 

I really like the new album a lot, but the songs are definitely more...uh...song-y than their earlier, jammier ones.

 

That said, the last 30 minutes or so of the second set were $$ and the first set was excellent.

 

 

2012-08-17 BGCA I

The Live Review

8/17/12 #phish Live Review, Set One: Bag opener.

This will be my first time listening to these BGCA shows, pretty interested to see what I think of them. I had tickets for all three but at the last minute couldn't get off work. 2012 ended up being the only year of 3.0 when I saw no Phish shows.

I was really gutted at the time, but the consensus on the shows seemed to be that it wasn't that great of a run (N3S2 aside). I guess I'll see (or hear).

High-energy take on Bag to start. > Moma.

Momentum continues with a tension-y take on Possum. Trey sounds great.

Corinna!

And yes, I am a little miffed, even six years later, that I missed Corinna.

Great solo from Trey in Corinna. The hits keep coming with Sand. I will never not love a first-set Sand.

Mike is killing it here.

Oh man, HUGE Type I Sand going down here.

Great little solo from Trey in Halley's Comet comes to a weird stop before dropping into Funky Bitch. Sort of weird.

Nonetheless, this set continues to rock.

Man, I don't know if it's because I've been listening to 2018 Phish lately or what, but Trey is just SHREDDING this first set into the ground.

Roses is a great late-set choice.

Roses is getting another outro jam. Seems like they want to keep the momentum from the Worcester version going.

Some MFMF droning from Trey beneath the jam. -> MFMF

Ooh, I *really* like the idea of closing the first set with Slave.

Mike taking a lot of the melodic lead during the early parts of the jam.

Man, how can a show with this great of an opening set have a 3.4 on phish.net? I guess maybe I'll find out in the second set?

8/17/12 #phish Live Review, Set Two: Classic choice of DWD for the second set opener.

Fast-paced jam coming out of the Type I solo at the end of Disease.

Mike is way up front again. Loving that. A lot.

Everyone contributing on this jam, not just Trey soloing. So good. Keeps circling the Woman From Tokyo melody.

Jam getting more ethereal. Still a full-band improv session.

Wild, cascading guitar loops from Trey. So cool. Page matching.

Shit, I'm sad I missed these shows six years ago now just because of this Disease jam.

Heavier guitar section now.

Trey teasing Birds, it sounds like.

Jam peters out, Birds starts after the fact.

TWEEZER

Once again, a Mike-heavy start to the jam here.

Almost a plinko-style jam now. This is really great.

Massive rock peak now...returning a bit to a Type I Tweezer sound.

Plinko sound fading back in.

Spacey, almost arrhythmic jam now. Trey playing a loop/siren.

This is not only unlike anything I've heard from 2012 so far, it's unlike pretty much everything I've heard since.

-> Twist

Great interplay continuing through Twist. Are they really that dialed this show in particular? Maybe it's just a surprisingly great SBD mix?

Short, but great Type I Twist there.

Piano outro > Wading

Sort of a weird bounce from Wading > Chalkdust > Joy.

Looks like the set is going to end with an extra-chaotic Antelope.

Nevermind. Set continues with Shine A Light.

The back half of this set has been pretty weird, tonally.

Okay, now end set.

First Tube encore. First Tube? Flub Tube? Either way, here we go!

Apparently, all the bad reviews of the show reflect that uneven fourth quarter.

I mean, sure, that wasn't the best closing sequence, but man, three quarters of that show are rock-solid. How many Phish shows in 3.0 could you take or leave except for the third quarter?

The opening set here was straightforward, but incredibly well-played and constructed. The Disease > Birds > Tweezer sequence was probably the most inspired jamming I've heard from the band all year thus far.

I am both happy for present me and sad for six-years-ago-me because of this show.

2012-08-15 Long Beach

The Live Review

8/15/12 #phish Live Review, Set One: I'm excited to start reviewing the second leg of '12 tour. Hoping that it follows the pattern of most summer tours, where things really start to open up during the second half/leg.

That said, a Suzy opener sounds an awful lot like most of the early leg of tour...

Well, Page is happy to be back. Killing the ivories during his Suzy solo.
 

Cities after Suzy. Trey laying down an especially good melodic solo.

Next is the screech of KDF. Sort of feels like they're trying to stretch this one out lately, especially after the SPAC version, but never quite getting there.

Guelah, Cool It Down. Can't argue with that pairing.

Strong take on Stash, and I'll always love hearing the outro to Bouncing.

Gin doesn't really get Out There, but it has a REALLY high-energy ending. End set?

Nope. Quinn the Eskimo rounds things out.

On paper, that set wasn't that much different than most of the early summer first sets, but something felt different about it. Band seemed to be stretching a bit on tunes like Cities, KDF, Stash, and Gin in a way that typically haven't in '12 first sets.

8/15/12 #phish Live Review, Set Two: Set two opens with Rock and Roll. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like we haven't heard that one for awhile.

Trey is tearing into this one early.

Page over to the organ signals a change in the direction of the jam. Getting darker now.

Quick turn to a faster, almost circus-like sound. Is there such a thing as "circus-funk"?

Trey laying down some loops. Things getting stranger again.

Ambient jamming now.

Page leading a build back out of the ambient haze now. This feels super-rare for 2012: that Trey didn't pull out Twist, or Piper, or Number Line in the middle of that loose section.

Weird, pulsing jam happening now. This is great.

Really great four-headed jamming at the moment. Nobody taking over.

This sounds completely different from literally anything played during the first leg of this tour.

It's probably been a sustained eight or so minutes of this weirdness at this point.

Past twenty minutes in the jam.

Trey chording for a second that made it seem like the jam might head back in a funk direction, but now all kinds of ambient noises taking over. Wow.

This is like the mellow companion of the Gorge '11 Rock and Roll.

Fishman is an ace in this part of the jam.

Ends with a bass blast from Mike. That was amazing. Ghost next, too!

Sounded like Trey was teasing My Woman From Tokyo there for a minute.

Ghost jam modulates really smoothly and is now picking up momentum.

Big peak now, reminiscent of the first set's Gin jam.

Bringing the tempo waaaaaay down now. Spooky section.

Someone (Fish?) teasing Roggae lyrics.

-> Limb By Limb. The Roggae transition would've been cooler, but that was still pretty great.

Trey is unleashing the blues a bit during this LxL solo.

Guyute next!

Dirt follows a well-played Guyute. Interesting setlist choices after Ghost.

HOOD

They definitely rip through the composed section of Hood in 2012 in a way that they don't in 2018.

Fantastic plunge into the jam here. Great playing by everyone.

Trey using some loops, to surprisingly great effect.

Great little section that's recalling the RnR jam earlier...has to be on purpose, right? If so, that's just fucking gravy.

Seamless build and then drop into the outro progression.

Huge wall of looping guitar cries from Trey to end the song. > GTBT.

End set two.

Julius encore.

Well, that really felt like a completely different band than the one from the early tour leg: more patient, more exploratory, and even on the non-jammed songs, always adding little details here and there that stood out.

The RnR jam is easily my favorite thing from 2012 so far. In addition, great Gin, the Ghost sounded like it could have come from 2015, and the Hood was my favorite version of the year so far.

2012-07-08 SPAC III

The Live Review

7/8/12 #phish Live Review, Set One: AC/DC Bag opens the last show of the first leg of summer tour.

A loop of the end of Bag leads into My Soul.

So far, the first set is a pretty straightforward affair: Camel Walk, Sample, Wilson, Party Time, Gumbo, Nellie Kane.

It's always great to hear Driver, though.

Things perhaps getting a little more interesting now with Foam.

Spot-on take on Foam. If I Could is next.

This was one of the first Phish songs that I ever heard, and I still love it. Wish they'd play it more often.

Great interplay between Page and Trey during this outro jam.

Interesting tonal change, with SOAM following If I Could...

SOAM jam starts off surprisingly driving. Now getting more abstract and angry.

Sounding more like a 90s Melt jam than a 3.0 one.

> La Grange! That's weird. But certainly welcome.

And that's the end of a well-played but generally unremarkable set. Maybe give Foam a listen if you like that song a lot?

7/8/12 #phish Live Review, Set Two: Axila I opener.

I have to admit, I was really hoping that during the Baker's Dozen we'd get Axila I and then an Axila II bustout right after. They *are* technically different songs, after all.

Light next. Trey sings the second verse first, then comments on it during the song. As if lyrical flubs don't happen with Light like 60% of the time :)

Light departing from its arpeggiated shuffle at around 5:30.

Fishman killing it now. Sparser jam. Page on electric piano, Trey playing power chords.

Getting eerie now.

Nice segue out of the haze into Twist.

Really grungy funk jam coming out of Twist. Page on clav.

Short but sweet Twist there.

> KDF.

Standard KDF jam just devolved into an arrhythmic noise fest.

Nice segue out of that mini-jam! -> MFMF.

Another wild tone shift: MFMF > Swept Away.

> Steep. Steep outro jam has added melody vocals from a few band members
(sounded like Trey and Mike).

PIPER

Trey latches on to a descending riff that Page is playing (!) and here we go!

Tons of momentum in this jam right now. Feels like it's ten seconds away from hitting a summer '15-style peak.

Another movement to the jam now.

More space noise now. Trey screaming.

Sounds like Kung.

Nope. -> Free.

Oddly, *now* they go into Kung.

> Hood!

This is a really weird second set setlist, but it's definitely keeping the momentum going. Reba-like playing from Trey early on in this Hood.

Reba-like playing from Trey early on in this Hood.

That was a really compact take on Hood, but a great one.

Loop-filled ending leads to Cavern.

A marathon-feeling second set continues after Cavern with Bowie. Wow.

We're going to pass the three-hour mark during this Bowie and the band is still firing on all cylinders. Not exactly a revelatory version, but a strongly-played one.

Page thanking the audience at the end of the second set.

YEM encore!

Super-swingin' jam section here.

Trey biffs the entry into the song's closing "Wash Uffizi..." part, and everyone sort of crashes into the vocal jam. It was pretty awesome.

End nearly three-and-a-half (!) hour show.

Well, the first set wasn't anything to write home about, but that second set definitely redeemed the show. A solid jam in Light, a weird but great, non-stop middle-set sequence, and a "real" jam in Piper...all with what felt like a second second set coming after it.