The Verdict:
As I've made pretty clear through my tweets, Broomfield is easily the
worst three-show run I've encountered in 3.0. Hell, it might well be the
worst ever - at least some of the drugged-out 2.0 runs of a similar
"caliber" had some weird-ass freakout jams in them. While they're
certainly not quite there, and through 2011-2014 show that they never do get
there, this is the closest this band has come to embracing the infamous
"nostalgia act" label. It's been a long, slow, and weird decline since
the heights (relative to later 3.0 years, of course) of summer '09, but
ever since that initial tour ended, the guys have relied more and more
on just playing songs straight and playing them well instead of on
exploring, on building weird setlists instead of building weird jams, of
maintaining flow instead of pulling out exciting segues. Maybe this is
an essential part of the rebuilding process. Maybe this is what allowed
them to move from the jam-by-numbers approach in 2009 to something more
organic in 2011, to the amazingness that's come about in the last few
years. I don't know. What I do know is that I've never been this
bored listening to Phish in my fifteen or so years of doing so. Yet I
soldier on, hoping that Broomfield is the real nadir and we get back to
better shows very, very soon.
The above complaint/observation is something that applies to all three
shows, so that's my general "verdict." A few notes about each show will
follow, but I don't have much to say that I haven't already said.
The third night of the run is likely the best. It's a totally weird setlist (in a good way), along with a few interesting musical moments...it's probably a bottom-of-the-barrel "average-great" show to somebody out there. Which...yeah. Still makes it better than the last few shows. I guess.
The first set is front loaded with "TTE" and "Divided Sky," but there's also strong versions of "Meat," "Timber," and "On Your Way Down" in there.
The "Carini" that starts off the second set is compact, but gets weird fast and then sets up a great -> into an average version of "Bowie." The couple of minutes between this song is probably the highlight of the run, complete with Trey singing "Carini had bubonic plague" as the outro lyrics for the former song. The "Light" > "Theme" > "Free" sequence is the pinnacle of Songs Played Well, I guess, and maybe worth a listen for that.
Oh, and there's an early version of "Halfway To the Moon" late in the set that has a lot of different lyrics than the final version. So that's nice.
The Live Review:
10/12/10: Alright, time to see if there are any redeeming qualities to this Broomfield run.
10/12/10: Trey starts off by squeaking what sounds like the opening to KDF, but then they play Stealing Time instead.
10/12/10: Second-slot TTE. That's a 'good' sign.
10/12/10: Meat!
10/12/10: Divided Sky! Weird to have two long, composed monsters in the first four songs of the show.
10/12/10: Well, at least that Divided Sky outro solo was hotter than most.
10/12/10: Timber is next, and Trey dives right into a shredfest. Nice version.
10/12/10: On Your Way Down! Say what you will about the plainness of the playing during the Broomfield run (and I will)...
10/12/10: ...but they have taken setlist weirdness to a whole new level.
10/12/10: Short Heavy Things followed by a slow-tempo Sugar Shack.
10/12/10: Trey has a little trouble with the song throughout the verses, as usual, but puts together a pretty weird-but-great solo after.
10/12/10: 46 Days is next.
10/12/10: Stays Type I throughout, but a neat 'heavy' outro jam with a vocal reprise.
10/12/10: Oh, that was apparently the end of the set. Weird.
10/12/10: Carini starts S2.
10/12/10: LOL 'Carini had bubonic plague' lyrics. What the fuck?!
10/12/10: I love this band.
10/12/10: Carini departs for space at 6:30! Might we get an actual jam? The first one of fall tour?!
10/12/10: Carini -> Bowie! Okay, that was cool.
10/12/10: Strong version of Bowie, though it's in the typical 3.0 mode (i.e. minimal weirdness).
10/12/10: Rough but fast-paced version of Light is next.
10/12/10: The Light jam quickly turns into what I'd call 'Angry Salsa.'
10/12/10: I think that > Theme could be construed as a MASSIVE RIPCORD
10/12/10: Especially when you have jam blueballs going all the way back to 8/7.
10/12/10: Rock and roll take on Theme > Free.
10/12/10: Free fades into Joy.
10/12/10: The Light > Theme > Free sequence didn't do anything interesting, but man it was a blast anyway.
10/12/10: Trey is having some serious trouble with Joy. Never heard that happen before.
10/12/10: Really cool version of Halfway To the Moon, with a lot of different lyrics from the Fuego version.
10/12/10: Bug is next.
10/12/10: Summer of '89 as set closer? So weird.
10/12/10: Okay, nevermind. SOAM closes the set. Starts off really spacey and eventually ramps up into rock madness.
10/12/10: MEaTsTEKs encore
10/12/10: MEATSTACKS
10/12/10: Rough version of Meatstick, but a neat vocal refrain section at the end, to finish off the run.
Apr 24, 2015
2010-10-11 Broomfield II
The Verdict:
As I've made pretty clear through my tweets, Broomfield is easily the worst three-show run I've encountered in 3.0. Hell, it might well be the worst ever - at least some of the drugged-out 2.0 runs of a similar "caliber" had some weird-ass freakout jams in them. While they're certainly not quite there, and through 2011-2014 show that they never do get there, this is the closest this band has come to embracing the infamous "nostalgia act" label. It's been a long, slow, and weird decline since the heights (relative to later 3.0 years, of course) of summer '09, but ever since that initial tour ended, the guys have relied more and more on just playing songs straight and playing them well instead of on exploring, on building weird setlists instead of building weird jams, of maintaining flow instead of pulling out exciting segues. Maybe this is an essential part of the rebuilding process. Maybe this is what allowed them to move from the jam-by-numbers approach in 2009 to something more organic in 2011, to the amazingness that's come about in the last few years. I don't know. What I do know is that I've never been this bored listening to Phish in my fifteen or so years of doing so. Yet I soldier on, hoping that Broomfield is the real nadir and we get back to better shows very, very soon.
The above complaint/observation is something that applies to all three shows, so that's my general "verdict." A few notes about each show will follow, but I don't have much to say that I haven't already said.
Night two is definitely the worst of the bunch. There's really nothing going on here save for some interesting song choices. For all intents and purposes, you could take any two 3.0 first sets, put them back-to-back, and probably have a show that is on par with this one.
If you like Mike Gordon songs, there's a rare Phish cover of "What Things Seem." The transition from "Piper" -> "Camel Walk" is worth a listen, though it's arguable that it's actually a ripcord of a pretty promising developing jam. The end of "Twist" also hints at the fact that the guys still have it and, maybe someday, will pull it out again and whip us in the face with it.
The Live Review:
10/11/10: Jim opener. Nice Jim > Foam pair to start, now.
10/11/10: BOTT is next. Some more interesting guitar work than usual from Trey. Still Type I, but not the default BOTT jam.
10/11/10: Wolfman's jam going in a clav-filled direction. Sounds a bit more 2014 S1 than 2010 S1.
10/11/10: Reba!
10/11/10: The composed section was a bit rough on Trey's end, and while the jam is pretty serviceable, it's not on par w/ recent versions.
10/11/10: 'Recent' meaning other 2010 versions.
10/11/10: Halley's > Tweezer. That's a surprise.
10/11/10: Really loose, funky Tweezer. I know that isn't saying much.
10/11/10: But the guys seem to have either been stiff and awkward or full-steam ahead lately.
10/11/10: Something that's fluid but yet relaxed is nice.
10/11/10: The novelty of the first-set Tweezer is that it actually ends like it does on the album.
10/11/10: Ooh! A Phish version of What Things Seem! Very slanky.
10/11/10: That was interesting. It sounded way less full than the MGB version. Not in a good or bad way, just something I noticed.
10/11/10: Coil is next.
10/11/10: Coil > Antelope.
10/11/10: Trey playing Marco Polo with the crowd.
10/11/10: Really weirdly Page-led version of Golden Age to open S2.
10/11/10: Trey hardly played at all during the verses. Short rock noodling section in the jam, and now Fish and Page are driving a jazz bit.
10/11/10: Trey kicks off Piper after a few minutes of weird wandering.
10/11/10: Fish playing the Golden Age beat over Piper, which is sort of cool.
10/11/10: Piper starts off fast and furious and just as it's about to develop into something, -> Camel Walk.
10/11/10: To be honest, that was a great segue. It's just hard not to be grumpy about jams getting cut short at this point in 2010.
10/11/10: Alaska'd.
10/11/10: I suppose that was an above-average version of Alaska, if you're into that sort of thing.
10/11/10: Mid-S2 Jibboo. Yay?
10/11/10: That Jibboo was long, but I'm not sure it needed to be.
10/11/10: Oddly uptempo and upbeat version of Wading is next.
10/11/10: Thanks to Fish, the Twist that follows Wading actually gets super-weird for a few minutes.
10/11/10: The only thing worth listening to from this show so far unless you're an MGB fan (for 'What Things Seem').
10/11/10: Twist winds to a natural close, > Fluffhead.
10/11/10: This version of Fluffhead is suspiciously similar to most other versions of Fluffhead.
10/11/10: S2 ends with Number Line. Sleeping Monkey encore?
10/11/10: And then, presumably, a Tweeprise.
10/11/10: There was about 2-3 minutes of interesting music in the Twist during this show, but that and the MGB cover was about it.
10/11/10: Honestly, the rest just sounded like a bunch of random 3.0 S1 songs put on shuffle for three hours.
10/11/10: It's actually getting hard to listen to all of these shows back-to-back: the first time in my adult life I don't want to...
10/11/10: ...listen to Phish a few times a week.
10/11/10: Definitely didn't feel this way about 2009, and haven't felt this way about the 2011-2012 that I've heard. Why?
10/11/10: What's so different about 2010 that's so painfully boring? How was the band playing differently? Or trying something different?
10/11/10: Whatever it is, I don't like it.
10/11/10: Yup. Tweeprise. End show. Will this go down in history as the worst three-show run ever? Stay tuned on Thursday!
As I've made pretty clear through my tweets, Broomfield is easily the worst three-show run I've encountered in 3.0. Hell, it might well be the worst ever - at least some of the drugged-out 2.0 runs of a similar "caliber" had some weird-ass freakout jams in them. While they're certainly not quite there, and through 2011-2014 show that they never do get there, this is the closest this band has come to embracing the infamous "nostalgia act" label. It's been a long, slow, and weird decline since the heights (relative to later 3.0 years, of course) of summer '09, but ever since that initial tour ended, the guys have relied more and more on just playing songs straight and playing them well instead of on exploring, on building weird setlists instead of building weird jams, of maintaining flow instead of pulling out exciting segues. Maybe this is an essential part of the rebuilding process. Maybe this is what allowed them to move from the jam-by-numbers approach in 2009 to something more organic in 2011, to the amazingness that's come about in the last few years. I don't know. What I do know is that I've never been this bored listening to Phish in my fifteen or so years of doing so. Yet I soldier on, hoping that Broomfield is the real nadir and we get back to better shows very, very soon.
The above complaint/observation is something that applies to all three shows, so that's my general "verdict." A few notes about each show will follow, but I don't have much to say that I haven't already said.
Night two is definitely the worst of the bunch. There's really nothing going on here save for some interesting song choices. For all intents and purposes, you could take any two 3.0 first sets, put them back-to-back, and probably have a show that is on par with this one.
If you like Mike Gordon songs, there's a rare Phish cover of "What Things Seem." The transition from "Piper" -> "Camel Walk" is worth a listen, though it's arguable that it's actually a ripcord of a pretty promising developing jam. The end of "Twist" also hints at the fact that the guys still have it and, maybe someday, will pull it out again and whip us in the face with it.
The Live Review:
10/11/10: Jim opener. Nice Jim > Foam pair to start, now.
10/11/10: BOTT is next. Some more interesting guitar work than usual from Trey. Still Type I, but not the default BOTT jam.
10/11/10: Wolfman's jam going in a clav-filled direction. Sounds a bit more 2014 S1 than 2010 S1.
10/11/10: Reba!
10/11/10: The composed section was a bit rough on Trey's end, and while the jam is pretty serviceable, it's not on par w/ recent versions.
10/11/10: 'Recent' meaning other 2010 versions.
10/11/10: Halley's > Tweezer. That's a surprise.
10/11/10: Really loose, funky Tweezer. I know that isn't saying much.
10/11/10: But the guys seem to have either been stiff and awkward or full-steam ahead lately.
10/11/10: Something that's fluid but yet relaxed is nice.
10/11/10: The novelty of the first-set Tweezer is that it actually ends like it does on the album.
10/11/10: Ooh! A Phish version of What Things Seem! Very slanky.
10/11/10: That was interesting. It sounded way less full than the MGB version. Not in a good or bad way, just something I noticed.
10/11/10: Coil is next.
10/11/10: Coil > Antelope.
10/11/10: Trey playing Marco Polo with the crowd.
10/11/10: Really weirdly Page-led version of Golden Age to open S2.
10/11/10: Trey hardly played at all during the verses. Short rock noodling section in the jam, and now Fish and Page are driving a jazz bit.
10/11/10: Trey kicks off Piper after a few minutes of weird wandering.
10/11/10: Fish playing the Golden Age beat over Piper, which is sort of cool.
10/11/10: Piper starts off fast and furious and just as it's about to develop into something, -> Camel Walk.
10/11/10: To be honest, that was a great segue. It's just hard not to be grumpy about jams getting cut short at this point in 2010.
10/11/10: Alaska'd.
10/11/10: I suppose that was an above-average version of Alaska, if you're into that sort of thing.
10/11/10: Mid-S2 Jibboo. Yay?
10/11/10: That Jibboo was long, but I'm not sure it needed to be.
10/11/10: Oddly uptempo and upbeat version of Wading is next.
10/11/10: Thanks to Fish, the Twist that follows Wading actually gets super-weird for a few minutes.
10/11/10: The only thing worth listening to from this show so far unless you're an MGB fan (for 'What Things Seem').
10/11/10: Twist winds to a natural close, > Fluffhead.
10/11/10: This version of Fluffhead is suspiciously similar to most other versions of Fluffhead.
10/11/10: S2 ends with Number Line. Sleeping Monkey encore?
10/11/10: And then, presumably, a Tweeprise.
10/11/10: There was about 2-3 minutes of interesting music in the Twist during this show, but that and the MGB cover was about it.
10/11/10: Honestly, the rest just sounded like a bunch of random 3.0 S1 songs put on shuffle for three hours.
10/11/10: It's actually getting hard to listen to all of these shows back-to-back: the first time in my adult life I don't want to...
10/11/10: ...listen to Phish a few times a week.
10/11/10: Definitely didn't feel this way about 2009, and haven't felt this way about the 2011-2012 that I've heard. Why?
10/11/10: What's so different about 2010 that's so painfully boring? How was the band playing differently? Or trying something different?
10/11/10: Whatever it is, I don't like it.
10/11/10: Yup. Tweeprise. End show. Will this go down in history as the worst three-show run ever? Stay tuned on Thursday!
2010-10-10 Broomfield I
The Verdict:
As I've made pretty clear through my tweets, Broomfield is easily the worst three-show run I've encountered in 3.0. Hell, it might well be the worst ever - at least some of the drugged-out 2.0 runs of a similar "caliber" had some weird-ass freakout jams in them. While they're certainly not quite there, and through 2011-2014 show that they never do get there, this is the closest this band has come to embracing the infamous "nostalgia act" label. It's been a long, slow, and weird decline since the heights (relative to later 3.0 years, of course) of summer '09, but ever since that initial tour ended, the guys have relied more and more on just playing songs straight and playing them well instead of on exploring, on building weird setlists instead of building weird jams, of maintaining flow instead of pulling out exciting segues. Maybe this is an essential part of the rebuilding process. Maybe this is what allowed them to move from the jam-by-numbers approach in 2009 to something more organic in 2011, to the amazingness that's come about in the last few years. I don't know. What I do know is that I've never been this bored listening to Phish in my fifteen or so years of doing so. Yet I soldier on, hoping that Broomfield is the real nadir and we get back to better shows very, very soon.
The above complaint/observation is something that applies to all three shows, so that's my general "verdict." A few notes about each show will follow, but I don't have much to say that I haven't already said.
As far as N1 goes, we've got a show that harkens back to 2009 in a way: it follows the tried-and-true single-jam-early-in-S2 approach. While the rest of the show surrounding said jam is pretty much rote, hey, at least we get a jam, right? To be fair, the first set is packed with greatest-hits-type songs (in a good way), but also to be fair, none of it is anything you haven't heard before.
"Mike's" > "Simple" is a strong, if plain, beginning to the second set, but it's the "Ghost" that's the centerpiece. It doesn't reinvent the wheel by any means, but it's an interesting version and worth a listen.
The Live Review:
10/10/10: Alright, here comes the first full show of fall. CDT opener.
10/10/10: Well, Trey hasn't lost much of his shredding power over the break.
10/10/10: Second song is an even-slower-than-usual-Ocelot, but next is It's Ice, so that softens the blow somewhat.
10/10/10: Particularly weird middle section of the song, led by Page. This is one of my favorite S1 songs.
10/10/10: Bouncin'! Some neat old-school song choices here.
10/10/10: Funky Bitch! Well, the guys have not lost their ability to craft excellent, high-energy sets.
10/10/10: *excellently-built.
10/10/10: But we've known that since 6/11. Can they do anything else is the question.
10/10/10: The onslaught of older tunes continues with AC/DC Bag.
10/10/10: Bag > NICU
10/10/10: Moma Dance and Horn continue the hit parade here in S1.
10/10/10: Stash is next. Rough path to jam, but once we're there, Page takes the lead.
10/10/10: Trey hints really, really briefly at a blissful, weird space in Stash, but then everyone rockets straight to the peak.
10/10/10: If you like hot, guitar-heavy Stashes, though, this one might be worth a listen for you.
10/10/10: Golgi. Probably set closer.
10/10/10: S2 starts with Mike's Song, featuring a particularly nasty breakdown into the jam.
10/10/10: Hopes are getting up.
10/10/10: Really hot Mike's Song gets slammed, old-school style, into Simple.
10/10/10: Simple jam staying crowded, rock and roll-y, rather than breaking down like usual.
10/10/10: Right as I type that, the band fades out.
10/10/10: Breakdown gets pushed by Trey into > Ghost.
10/10/10: Mellow Ghost jam turns a bit more rock at 8:00.
10/10/10: Rock build drops away to a funk jam at 11:30.
10/10/10: Neat kind of drone-y, whiny effect from Trey. Mike and Page dropping synth bombs.
10/10/10: Breaking into plinko land, now.
10/10/10: Fish with a Bowie beat...
10/10/10: No takers. Starts up Groove instead.
10/10/10: As you might expect at this point, Trey dominates the Groove.
10/10/10: I think the last few minutes of that Ghost might have been our daily allotted serving of Interesting.
10/10/10: Trey kicks off Fee with some megaphone siren.
10/10/10: Short, spacey, Fee outro jam punctuated by megaphone siren howls.
10/10/10: Trey crashes the Fee jam into Makisupa Policeman.
10/10/10: Fun version of Makisupa followed by Trey introducing My Problem Right There.
10/10/10: Really brief reprise of Makisupa after My Problem Right There, and then Slave.
10/10/10: Succinct and to-the-point version of Slave. It's what I suppose the kids would call a 'rager.'
10/10/10: Slave is followed by Strange Design. Okay, that's really weird.
10/10/10: Julius'd.
10/10/10: End set.
10/10/10: Loving Cup encore.
10/10/10: By returning to the '09 template of standard S1/one jam in S2, this show is 'average' where most of summer '10 is just 'boring.'
As I've made pretty clear through my tweets, Broomfield is easily the worst three-show run I've encountered in 3.0. Hell, it might well be the worst ever - at least some of the drugged-out 2.0 runs of a similar "caliber" had some weird-ass freakout jams in them. While they're certainly not quite there, and through 2011-2014 show that they never do get there, this is the closest this band has come to embracing the infamous "nostalgia act" label. It's been a long, slow, and weird decline since the heights (relative to later 3.0 years, of course) of summer '09, but ever since that initial tour ended, the guys have relied more and more on just playing songs straight and playing them well instead of on exploring, on building weird setlists instead of building weird jams, of maintaining flow instead of pulling out exciting segues. Maybe this is an essential part of the rebuilding process. Maybe this is what allowed them to move from the jam-by-numbers approach in 2009 to something more organic in 2011, to the amazingness that's come about in the last few years. I don't know. What I do know is that I've never been this bored listening to Phish in my fifteen or so years of doing so. Yet I soldier on, hoping that Broomfield is the real nadir and we get back to better shows very, very soon.
The above complaint/observation is something that applies to all three shows, so that's my general "verdict." A few notes about each show will follow, but I don't have much to say that I haven't already said.
As far as N1 goes, we've got a show that harkens back to 2009 in a way: it follows the tried-and-true single-jam-early-in-S2 approach. While the rest of the show surrounding said jam is pretty much rote, hey, at least we get a jam, right? To be fair, the first set is packed with greatest-hits-type songs (in a good way), but also to be fair, none of it is anything you haven't heard before.
"Mike's" > "Simple" is a strong, if plain, beginning to the second set, but it's the "Ghost" that's the centerpiece. It doesn't reinvent the wheel by any means, but it's an interesting version and worth a listen.
The Live Review:
10/10/10: Alright, here comes the first full show of fall. CDT opener.
10/10/10: Well, Trey hasn't lost much of his shredding power over the break.
10/10/10: Second song is an even-slower-than-usual-Ocelot, but next is It's Ice, so that softens the blow somewhat.
10/10/10: Particularly weird middle section of the song, led by Page. This is one of my favorite S1 songs.
10/10/10: Bouncin'! Some neat old-school song choices here.
10/10/10: Funky Bitch! Well, the guys have not lost their ability to craft excellent, high-energy sets.
10/10/10: *excellently-built.
10/10/10: But we've known that since 6/11. Can they do anything else is the question.
10/10/10: The onslaught of older tunes continues with AC/DC Bag.
10/10/10: Bag > NICU
10/10/10: Moma Dance and Horn continue the hit parade here in S1.
10/10/10: Stash is next. Rough path to jam, but once we're there, Page takes the lead.
10/10/10: Trey hints really, really briefly at a blissful, weird space in Stash, but then everyone rockets straight to the peak.
10/10/10: If you like hot, guitar-heavy Stashes, though, this one might be worth a listen for you.
10/10/10: Golgi. Probably set closer.
10/10/10: S2 starts with Mike's Song, featuring a particularly nasty breakdown into the jam.
10/10/10: Hopes are getting up.
10/10/10: Really hot Mike's Song gets slammed, old-school style, into Simple.
10/10/10: Simple jam staying crowded, rock and roll-y, rather than breaking down like usual.
10/10/10: Right as I type that, the band fades out.
10/10/10: Breakdown gets pushed by Trey into > Ghost.
10/10/10: Mellow Ghost jam turns a bit more rock at 8:00.
10/10/10: Rock build drops away to a funk jam at 11:30.
10/10/10: Neat kind of drone-y, whiny effect from Trey. Mike and Page dropping synth bombs.
10/10/10: Breaking into plinko land, now.
10/10/10: Fish with a Bowie beat...
10/10/10: No takers. Starts up Groove instead.
10/10/10: As you might expect at this point, Trey dominates the Groove.
10/10/10: I think the last few minutes of that Ghost might have been our daily allotted serving of Interesting.
10/10/10: Trey kicks off Fee with some megaphone siren.
10/10/10: Short, spacey, Fee outro jam punctuated by megaphone siren howls.
10/10/10: Trey crashes the Fee jam into Makisupa Policeman.
10/10/10: Fun version of Makisupa followed by Trey introducing My Problem Right There.
10/10/10: Really brief reprise of Makisupa after My Problem Right There, and then Slave.
10/10/10: Succinct and to-the-point version of Slave. It's what I suppose the kids would call a 'rager.'
10/10/10: Slave is followed by Strange Design. Okay, that's really weird.
10/10/10: Julius'd.
10/10/10: End set.
10/10/10: Loving Cup encore.
10/10/10: By returning to the '09 template of standard S1/one jam in S2, this show is 'average' where most of summer '10 is just 'boring.'
Apr 13, 2015
Summer II 2010 Wrap-Up
So, if you've read any of my reviews of the shows from this leg, you know how I feel about it. It's easily the least interesting Phish tour since they came back. It's the low point of an overall tendency toward precision-over-improv playing. They're playing too well and with too much energy for this to qualify as "nostalgia act" status, but most of these shows are only worth a listen if you haven't heard Phish before or if a particular setlist contains a lot of your favorite songs.
So far, the height of improv and jamming for 3.0 has been summer '09. Since then, the band seems to have backed off with an interest toward streamlining and perfecting their performances of individual songs, and only occasionally does an interesting idea float to the top. With this tour specifically, the problem seems to me to be Trey's dominance of pretty much every song. This might very well be the best, most fiery, and most consistent Trey's playing has been across 3.0 (including '13-'14), but the unfortunate side to this is that the shows have increasingly taken on the worst aspect of the less interesting early-90s shows: Trey plays over every one, and buried underneath his Curtain of Shred, nobody else seems inclined to contribute ideas. If you like the Phish where Trey plays all the notes over top of what is essentially a backing band, this might be your favorite tour since '93...but for me, it's just boring. Mostly. Except for the Greek run.
8/5: The beginning of what's easily the best three-night run so far in 3.0. The first set is just absolutely shredded. S2 contains a great "Disease" > "Free" segment, and a great late-set "Tweezer".
8/6: Things get really interesting during N2, with the two big jam staples out of the way already. The S1 list is unpredictable in a good way, and the highlight is "Cities" getting to go for a second-set-style walk. In addition to a transcendent "Simple" jam, the second set features great takes on "Rock and Roll," "Ghost," and a great "Seven Below" -> "Groove" sandwich.
8/7: Third time pays for all, and this third show is the best of the bunch. Like N2, the first set is a collection of weird songs that hangs together perfectly. "Gotta Jibboo" gets extended. And, as I said in my review: "S2 is an absolute monster. A fiery "Wilson" leads right into an absolutely transcendent "Light," the easy highlight jam of the run, and for my money, of summer '10 so far. It lands in a dark "Twenty Years," which drops right into a fifteen-minute, slow-burning "Hood." A few clever song choices late in the set yield, among others, a patient "2001," a "Suzy" with a second jam (yeah), and a set closing "Slave" that is one of the most slowly-developing versions I've heard since the 90s." The run closes with an encore of "The Lizards" > "First Tube."
8/9: There's a huge drop-off in quality here after 8/7. Both sets are guitar-led fire, but the improv just isn't there. There's a nice segue in the "Tweezer" -> "Boogie On" sequence, and a furious "Piper" into "Mountains in the Mist" makes for a nice late-set pairing.
8/10: The first set is mostly by-the-book, while the second set is like a high-quality first set. Nothing really gets stretched out, except for a few interesting minutes of "Carini." Nothing else here that you haven't heard before.
8/12: Another really straightforward show. The "Drowned" jam deserves a mention for the primordial "Waiting All Night" jam that emerges from it. The late-show "Split" is a setlist surprise and is vicious. Probably worth a listen.
8/13: Features an oddly perfect, Type I version of "Number Line." Like the 8/10 "Carini," "Light" gets almost accidentally interesting for a few minutes before Trey strangles it with a ripcord. The "Meatstick" -> "Mango Song" segue is excellent. And that's all.
8/14: At this point in the tour, I was grateful to find a show that follows the "usual" blueprint of a fun first set, and a second set that is basically One Big Jam -> Jukebox Mode. At least there's One Big Jam. The first set is first-setty: both pure fire and boring. The second set is "Disease" -> "WTU?" and then some filler. But damn, that jam is solid.
8/15: The show opens with "Tweezer," getting your hopes up, and then continues on to be possibly the most rote show of the tour.
8/17: If there's one thing that S1s and shreddy-Trey have been good for on this tour, it's excellent "Reba"s. There's another here. There are some excellent song choices, too, and Trey takes his "Wilson" solo on a toy guitar. And, as I said about S2 in my review: "The entirety of the Mike's Groove is probably the best and most interesting bit of playing that the guys have put together since the Greek. There have been a few one-off jams that have been better, but the middle of this set is weird, and in a good way. "Mike's" > "Simple" > "Number Line" > "Caspian" > "Rock and Roll" > "Groove" is a great sequence...for this tour at least." So there's that, at least.
8/18: A pretty lackluster tour closer. "Destiny Unbound" gets a nice little funk jam, which is cool. Like 8/13's version, "Light" has a great few final minutes, and there's another solid "Hood" late in the second set. The last set of the tour ends with yet another "YEM," a victory lap song without an obvious victory.
I feel shitty being this snarky about my favorite band, so I should note that I enjoyed listening to at least parts of lots of these shows very much, and probably more than I would have enjoyed listening to most other music. It's just well below what these guys can do, and well below what they were doing for most of '09. I'm not sure what's happened since, say, Toyota Park and/or Blossom in June, but it's getting hard to be excited about. Hopefully fall is a little more interesting.
So far, the height of improv and jamming for 3.0 has been summer '09. Since then, the band seems to have backed off with an interest toward streamlining and perfecting their performances of individual songs, and only occasionally does an interesting idea float to the top. With this tour specifically, the problem seems to me to be Trey's dominance of pretty much every song. This might very well be the best, most fiery, and most consistent Trey's playing has been across 3.0 (including '13-'14), but the unfortunate side to this is that the shows have increasingly taken on the worst aspect of the less interesting early-90s shows: Trey plays over every one, and buried underneath his Curtain of Shred, nobody else seems inclined to contribute ideas. If you like the Phish where Trey plays all the notes over top of what is essentially a backing band, this might be your favorite tour since '93...but for me, it's just boring. Mostly. Except for the Greek run.
8/5: The beginning of what's easily the best three-night run so far in 3.0. The first set is just absolutely shredded. S2 contains a great "Disease" > "Free" segment, and a great late-set "Tweezer".
8/6: Things get really interesting during N2, with the two big jam staples out of the way already. The S1 list is unpredictable in a good way, and the highlight is "Cities" getting to go for a second-set-style walk. In addition to a transcendent "Simple" jam, the second set features great takes on "Rock and Roll," "Ghost," and a great "Seven Below" -> "Groove" sandwich.
8/7: Third time pays for all, and this third show is the best of the bunch. Like N2, the first set is a collection of weird songs that hangs together perfectly. "Gotta Jibboo" gets extended. And, as I said in my review: "S2 is an absolute monster. A fiery "Wilson" leads right into an absolutely transcendent "Light," the easy highlight jam of the run, and for my money, of summer '10 so far. It lands in a dark "Twenty Years," which drops right into a fifteen-minute, slow-burning "Hood." A few clever song choices late in the set yield, among others, a patient "2001," a "Suzy" with a second jam (yeah), and a set closing "Slave" that is one of the most slowly-developing versions I've heard since the 90s." The run closes with an encore of "The Lizards" > "First Tube."
8/9: There's a huge drop-off in quality here after 8/7. Both sets are guitar-led fire, but the improv just isn't there. There's a nice segue in the "Tweezer" -> "Boogie On" sequence, and a furious "Piper" into "Mountains in the Mist" makes for a nice late-set pairing.
8/10: The first set is mostly by-the-book, while the second set is like a high-quality first set. Nothing really gets stretched out, except for a few interesting minutes of "Carini." Nothing else here that you haven't heard before.
8/12: Another really straightforward show. The "Drowned" jam deserves a mention for the primordial "Waiting All Night" jam that emerges from it. The late-show "Split" is a setlist surprise and is vicious. Probably worth a listen.
8/13: Features an oddly perfect, Type I version of "Number Line." Like the 8/10 "Carini," "Light" gets almost accidentally interesting for a few minutes before Trey strangles it with a ripcord. The "Meatstick" -> "Mango Song" segue is excellent. And that's all.
8/14: At this point in the tour, I was grateful to find a show that follows the "usual" blueprint of a fun first set, and a second set that is basically One Big Jam -> Jukebox Mode. At least there's One Big Jam. The first set is first-setty: both pure fire and boring. The second set is "Disease" -> "WTU?" and then some filler. But damn, that jam is solid.
8/15: The show opens with "Tweezer," getting your hopes up, and then continues on to be possibly the most rote show of the tour.
8/17: If there's one thing that S1s and shreddy-Trey have been good for on this tour, it's excellent "Reba"s. There's another here. There are some excellent song choices, too, and Trey takes his "Wilson" solo on a toy guitar. And, as I said about S2 in my review: "The entirety of the Mike's Groove is probably the best and most interesting bit of playing that the guys have put together since the Greek. There have been a few one-off jams that have been better, but the middle of this set is weird, and in a good way. "Mike's" > "Simple" > "Number Line" > "Caspian" > "Rock and Roll" > "Groove" is a great sequence...for this tour at least." So there's that, at least.
8/18: A pretty lackluster tour closer. "Destiny Unbound" gets a nice little funk jam, which is cool. Like 8/13's version, "Light" has a great few final minutes, and there's another solid "Hood" late in the second set. The last set of the tour ends with yet another "YEM," a victory lap song without an obvious victory.
I feel shitty being this snarky about my favorite band, so I should note that I enjoyed listening to at least parts of lots of these shows very much, and probably more than I would have enjoyed listening to most other music. It's just well below what these guys can do, and well below what they were doing for most of '09. I'm not sure what's happened since, say, Toyota Park and/or Blossom in June, but it's getting hard to be excited about. Hopefully fall is a little more interesting.
2010-10-08 Austin City Limits
The Verdict:
So, the first show of fall 2010 is a festival show. That said, within the confines of what you'd expect of a festival show, it's a really good one. The setlist is of the greatest-hits-but-greatest-hits-for-a-reason variety, and the guys play like they know they only have to be up there for around ninety minutes, which is a rare treat. You can almost feel the heat radiating out of the headphones.
There's one interesting blip, minus a somewhat-of-a-surprise "YEM" set closer, and that's the "Hood" -> "Light." The segue is as good as it looks on paper, but, frankly, otherwise both songs are just standard, by-the-book versions. So don't get too excited.
Hah! Maybe that should be the mantra for Phish '10: "Don't get too excited."
The Live Review:
10/8/10: Okay, so the first show of fall tour is a festival show, at ACL.
10/8/10: So my dream of a #phish that doesn't just play two first sets every night probably isn't going to come true.
10/8/10: At least not right away.
10/8/10: Disease opener again!
10/8/10: Well, at least they brought Machine-Gun Trey to the festival.
10/8/10: Disease lands nicely into a short but sweet Cities.
10/8/10: Possum is next.
10/8/10: They are just dismantling Possum. It seems sort of boring at this point to me...
10/8/10: ...but I could imagine just being a dude at this festival and thinking 'Whoa! Who they hell ARE these guys?!' about now.
10/8/10: Wolfman's, CDT. Setlist is just what you would expect, but, since it's 2010, there's that ridiculous energy to them.
10/8/10: Rock and Roll is getting a little weird after an excellent little rock jam.
10/8/10: '09-style ambient fade at the end of the jam.
10/8/10: Nice jump into 2001.
10/8/10: Number Line is next, out of the 2001 fade-out.
10/8/10: Great Number Line -B Hood.
10/8/10: Partway through the Hood build we've got a -> Light. That's the most interesting thing that's happened in awhile!
10/8/10: Light gets taken out for a short, Type I jam that lands back in the song's outro.
10/8/10: They don't really play that outro very often live, do they?
10/8/10: Page tears up Suzy, and then...YEM?
10/8/10: Interesting choice for ACL. I like it.
10/8/10: Fast-paced, bass-heavy version of YEM. Nicely done.
10/8/10: Trey and Mike both throw down fantastic solos at the end of this YEM.
10/8/10: Nice, smooth transition from Cavern > First Tube in the encore.
10/8/10: This is absolutely a festival set, but it's a great festival set. The context where Phish 2010 makes the most sense.
10/8/10: Lest the Hood -> Light look like a jam, though, the magic is mostly in the segue. Rest of the set is the usual.
So, the first show of fall 2010 is a festival show. That said, within the confines of what you'd expect of a festival show, it's a really good one. The setlist is of the greatest-hits-but-greatest-hits-for-a-reason variety, and the guys play like they know they only have to be up there for around ninety minutes, which is a rare treat. You can almost feel the heat radiating out of the headphones.
There's one interesting blip, minus a somewhat-of-a-surprise "YEM" set closer, and that's the "Hood" -> "Light." The segue is as good as it looks on paper, but, frankly, otherwise both songs are just standard, by-the-book versions. So don't get too excited.
Hah! Maybe that should be the mantra for Phish '10: "Don't get too excited."
The Live Review:
10/8/10: Okay, so the first show of fall tour is a festival show, at ACL.
10/8/10: So my dream of a #phish that doesn't just play two first sets every night probably isn't going to come true.
10/8/10: At least not right away.
10/8/10: Disease opener again!
10/8/10: Well, at least they brought Machine-Gun Trey to the festival.
10/8/10: Disease lands nicely into a short but sweet Cities.
10/8/10: Possum is next.
10/8/10: They are just dismantling Possum. It seems sort of boring at this point to me...
10/8/10: ...but I could imagine just being a dude at this festival and thinking 'Whoa! Who they hell ARE these guys?!' about now.
10/8/10: Wolfman's, CDT. Setlist is just what you would expect, but, since it's 2010, there's that ridiculous energy to them.
10/8/10: Rock and Roll is getting a little weird after an excellent little rock jam.
10/8/10: '09-style ambient fade at the end of the jam.
10/8/10: Nice jump into 2001.
10/8/10: Number Line is next, out of the 2001 fade-out.
10/8/10: Great Number Line -B Hood.
10/8/10: Partway through the Hood build we've got a -> Light. That's the most interesting thing that's happened in awhile!
10/8/10: Light gets taken out for a short, Type I jam that lands back in the song's outro.
10/8/10: They don't really play that outro very often live, do they?
10/8/10: Page tears up Suzy, and then...YEM?
10/8/10: Interesting choice for ACL. I like it.
10/8/10: Fast-paced, bass-heavy version of YEM. Nicely done.
10/8/10: Trey and Mike both throw down fantastic solos at the end of this YEM.
10/8/10: Nice, smooth transition from Cavern > First Tube in the encore.
10/8/10: This is absolutely a festival set, but it's a great festival set. The context where Phish 2010 makes the most sense.
10/8/10: Lest the Hood -> Light look like a jam, though, the magic is mostly in the segue. Rest of the set is the usual.
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