The Verdict:
I always find it a little difficult to review a three-set show just because there's so much music to listen to and the expectations are always significantly different than they are for a typical two-set show. So it's even more difficult to try to review a four-set show...but I'll try anyway.
So the really short version is that this is a day's worth of monster Phish, and calling it anything other than amazing by the standards of any era would be understating the case. The slightly longer version is that the first set is about ninety minutes of Jukebox-Mode letdown after 8/21's awesome start. But then things get good quick after that and stay that way all the way up through the mind-boggling Drive-In Jam.
There isn't much to say about S1 that isn't already in the review below. The "Divided Sky" opener is a nice touch, and the out-of-the-box "Antelope" that closes the set is a taste of things to come. A lot of what's between is rarities, but the set flows so oddly that every moment of high-energy playing is sapped almost immediately by a bewildering setlist call. All in all, it doesn't hold a candle to 8/21's S1.
S2 starts off slowly, actually, but gets rolling with a "46 Days" that's one of my favorite jams of the year. It follows the now-typical loops -> build -> bliss jam structure, but does so at a slower tempo and with some interesting variations on the theme. Obviously, the other highlight is the "Tweezerpants" that closes the set. Honestly, I didn't find as much to like in this as I did in the "46 Days" or the "Blaze On" from S3, but who's to complain about an echo-funk'd "Tweezer" followed by a legitimate jam out of "Caspian"?
There are a lot of shows where the band just sort of fades out during the third set, presumably because it's real damn hard to play awesome music for over four hours. But this show isn't one of those. As if S2 wasn't already one of the best - if not the best - set of the year, S3 brings the year's best "Blaze On" jam, which sets up a great loop 'n' echo jam style that then gets carried through into "Possum," "Cities," and, to a lesser degree, a monster "Light." The set ends in typical fashion, but it's easily the equal of S2, probably better. Then there's the Drive-In Set. You can start S3 at 2:54:00 in the video below:
The Drive-In Set is probably best recounted by just reading the tweet review. Suffice to say that it's over fifty minutes of mostly dark, sometimes creepy Phish, with some added samples from (I assume) Page that we haven't heard before, a lot of weird vocal jamming, and a lot of exploration of the sound that began in Bend with "Simple."
Small complaints about the opening set aside, this show is an embarrassment of riches. There's no other way to put it.
The Live Review:
8/22/15: Definitely not going to make it all the way through this marathon show today, but I can at least get started!
8/22/15: Divided Sky opener. That's a good omen.
8/22/15: A little slower than usual, but seems appropriate.
8/22/15: DSky openers in the summer should be a little languid.
8/22/15: Extra-long pause.
8/22/15: Extended outro jam, too, with lots of Trey chording after what seemed like it was going to be the end.
8/22/15: Now that everyone's well and truly fired up...the Moma Dance.
8/22/15: I really like Trey's addition of the echo effect to Moma.
8/22/15: Now Fish messing w/ the outro vocals.
8/22/15: I'm going to Go There and say MSG or '16 Moma Dance will get at least one serious jam.
8/22/15: Just feels like they're begging to bust this one open.
8/22/15: Don't know if they can outdo this one, though: https://t.co/vHqgB9yLVf
8/22/15: > Mound.
8/22/15: Army Of One! Great song!
8/22/15: Scabbard! I love this song, but have to admit that it sounds a little bare when Phish plays it.
8/22/15: Though the electric outro is neat, as opposed to the acoustic one on the album and w/ TAB.
8/22/15: Trey is having serious trouble playing the song right now, which is sort of a problem.
8/22/15: Tiny little solo from Trey during the outro, then > Sample.
8/22/15: Tuuuuube...
8/22/15: Tube going in the now-typical echo-funk direction.
8/22/15: Would like to make a comp of all the echo-funk jams from Dick's '14 on. Maybe over Christmas.
8/22/15: And all the jams from this year that spawned from the Bend Simple. Echo-funk comp and EVIL comp.
8/22/15: Halfway To the Moon. Weird...this set started strong, but is just sort of falling into Usual Set Mode.
8/22/15: Err...Usual S1 Mode.
8/22/15: Camel Walk!
8/22/15: A few neat songs in the second half of this set, but is pretty much just a grab-bag set post-Mound.
8/22/15: Or post-the-opener, if you want to be a little more cynical.
8/22/15: How Many People Are You? Love it! Wanna see this getting jammed, too.
8/22/15: Great outro with a Trey solo and Mike/Fish overlapping vocals.
8/22/15: When The Circus Comes is next.
8/22/15: Undermind w/ echo chords.
8/22/15: Page going to friggin' town on the organ.
8/22/15: Undermind > Antelope.
8/22/15: Angry build in Antelope. Interesting.
8/22/15: Now getting loopy and bubbly, sort of like the Dick's SOAM.
8/22/15: Quickly back out, and now back into the normal Antelope jam.
8/22/15: Where was the band that's playing this Antelope come from and where is the band that played the first 90% of this set buried?
8/22/15: *did
8/22/15: Loop build now.
8/22/15: That was a weird set. Really long. Lots of neat song choices. But absolutely no flow whatsoever. Totally weird.
8/22/15: The Antelope was really the only thing that will be getting a relisten.
8/22/15: But, now it's time for MF'N set two.
8/22/15: S2 kicks off with Wolfman's.
8/22/15: Echo funk Wolfman's jam!
8/22/15: This is awesome. Sometimes it sort of seems like the guys are leaning on 2-3 jam styles for all the '15 jams, but...
8/22/15: ...they're so good I don't care that much.
8/22/15: Halley's is next. Standard version, Trey seemed to be trying to do something with the end. Light, maybe?
8/22/15: Either way, full stop and landing in 46 Days.
8/22/15: Pitch-shifted semi-madness is going on in this jam.
8/22/15: This is not your older brother's 46 Days.
8/22/15: We're only six minutes in and we've explored two legitimately weird spaces already.
8/22/15: Jam is mellowing a little, but Trey is keeping his bizarro tone.
8/22/15: Now super chilled out, Trey and Mike adding some melody lines over a synth buzz.
8/22/15: Gorgeous guitar riff from Trey.
8/22/15: Doing the usual mellow-to-bliss jam thing, but more slowly than usual.
8/22/15: Wind-down finally lands in Number Line.
8/22/15: Fantastic jam. Listening to that again on the way home.
8/22/15: Number Line sounds more like an '09 or '10 version instead of the usual high-neck noodling jams that have been happening lately.
8/22/15: Nevermind. Here we go.
8/22/15: > Tweezer. I've been waiting to hear this for a LOOOONG time.
New review: 2015-08-21 Magnaball I https://t.co/e0LmDM2MTo #phish #summer2015 #magnaball
8/22/15: Jam starts all funky and rubber-bandy. That's literally the best way I can explain it right now. I had a long night.
8/22/15: In case anyone was wondering when Phish would get around to applying the echo funk jam to Tweezer, today's your day.
8/22/15: Moving from the funk into something more fast-paced and lighter. Page jazzing it up on the piano.
8/22/15: Great playing from Trey propels the jam a bit, keeps that slow build from becoming *too* slow.
8/22/15: Wind down from another great jam.
8/22/15: > Caspian
8/22/15: Some more noodling from Trey after the usual Caspian ending.
8/22/15: Now fading a bit with a blues riff.
8/22/15: Trey funking out his tone.
8/22/15: Really deconstructed echo-funk going on now.
8/22/15: It's sort of like the usual type, but more distorted and approaching arrhythmic.
8/22/15: Coming out of the funk now, into an awesome Trey solo.
8/22/15: Massive descending riff and synth bombs now. Holy shit that got big fast.
8/22/15: Huge wind-down to end the Tweezer > Caspian sequence.
8/22/15: Short set, but end of S2. I'll be back later with the rest. I'm tired.
8/22/15: Marathon show continues. Meatstick opener for S3.
8/22/15: Slow-build Meatstick intro. That was fun.
8/22/15: Blaze On next.
8/22/15: Outro jam to Blaze On. Sort of sounds like an Undermind jam. Page tearing it up on the piano.
8/22/15: Getting a little spacier. Trey hits on a neat riff that propels Page over to the electric piano.
8/22/15: Building into some dark funk now. I like where this is going.
8/22/15: This is sort of like an evil reprise of the Blaze On progression, with Page laying down a fantastic electric piano solo over it.
8/22/15: Stop-start jam now. Suprised at the lack of woos.
8/22/15: *Surprised
8/22/15: Pitch shifter has arrived.
8/22/15: This jam is definitely going on the 2015 highlight reel.
8/22/15: Surprised to hear so much about the Tweezerpants and so little about this. I like this way better.
8/22/15: God, it's like I'm Willy Wonka on that fucking boat.
8/22/15: This is my review of this jam. https://t.co/X2Mpo3Lr2Z
8/22/15: This is the second part of my review. https://t.co/YRzHdt71Ps
8/22/15: NICE landing in Possum, somehow.
8/22/15: Trey teasing the Blaze On jam in the Possum intro. The. Fuck.
8/22/15: Another great turn on the piano for Page during Possum.
8/22/15: Great call-and-response between Trey and Page now.
8/22/15: This is my favorite Possum in a really long time. Don't let the length fool you.
8/22/15: > Cities!
8/22/15: Actually, that was more of a -B Cities.
8/22/15: More rock and less funk than usual in this Cities.
8/22/15: Wouldn't be surprised to see the jam go the echo-funk route.
8/22/15: Nope, they're bringing back the loops from Blaze On, and we're back on Wonka's boat.
8/22/15: Jam winds down on an angry note sort of similar to the 6/17/04 Moma Dance.
8/22/15: Trey makes the logical > Light. Thought I wish they would have drawn out that anger-jamming a bit more.
8/22/15: Trey almost completely avoids the Endless Arpeggios section of the Light jam this time and starts w/ melody soloing.
8/22/15: Oh, okay. The Endless Arpeggios were just delayed, not cancelled.
8/22/15: Almost sounds like Blaze On now.
8/22/15: Now it's Space Manteca.
8/22/15: Loops from the previous set's jams come back in a big way.
8/22/15: Reminds me a little of 8/31/14 S2.
8/22/15: Only better.
8/22/15: Fade out leads into 555, which seems like just the weirdest goddamn song choice ever right here.
8/22/15: Unless they're going to jam it for fifteen minutes, that is.
8/22/15: Standard 555 with slightly more echo and some extra mustard on the outro solo.
8/22/15: Velvet Sea.
8/22/15: Gorgeous, gorgeous version of Velvet Sea. Wow. Trey's solo more like a Reba solo.
8/22/15: Piano-only segue > Walls.
8/22/15: There might have been a little extra shredding at the end of that Walls.
8/22/15: Boogie On(core)!
8/22/15: Pretty standard, slightly echo-y Boogie On > Tweeprise.
I'll do the Drive-In Jam later. Gotta go hand out an exam.
8/22/15: Okay, here we go with S4. I imagine I'm missing a bit by not watching the video, but for now I'm just reviewing based on audio.
8/22/15: Eerie synth and bass to start. Could be like an extended Bowie intro from the 90s.
8/22/15: More creepy droning.
8/22/15: I'm not sure where these sounds are coming from, but I hope nobody in the crowd is on drugs.
8/22/15: Because I would be shitting myself.
8/22/15: I sure hope nobody is on drugs at this Phish concert.
8/22/15: Screaming samples and carnival music. Hold me.
8/22/15: Water samples. Processed vocals from the band now.
8/22/15: Slowly becoming a little melodic at the 10 minute mark.
8/22/15: Circular riff from Mike, melody from Trey, Fish picking up with a clear rhythm.
8/22/15: This could sort of be an extended WTU? jam. Sounds similar to it.
8/22/15: Mike taking the lead now.
8/22/15: Brass bell samples.
8/22/15: Mike's bass has the same tone as the bass in the background music for Doom 2.
8/22/15: Tempo picking up now.
8/22/15: This has been twenty minutes of straight evil so far. Not the direction I expected them to go at all.
8/22/15: But I'm digging it.
8/22/15: Getting more rock-like now, but with creepy Fish screams.
8/22/15: Bell samples keep coming in at odd times. Maybe the weirdest part of this whole set.
8/22/15: More driving riff now, over the bells.
8/22/15: Page on organ now. Almost sounds like 2001.
8/22/15: Getting a little spacier around 37:00.
8/22/15: Lots of Bend Simple-style drone chords from Trey throughout this jam.
8/22/15: More vocal jamming now.
8/22/15: Cool! The jam is ending more or less the same way that it started.
Dec 9, 2015
Dec 8, 2015
2015-08-21 Magnaball I
The Verdict:
The guys waste no time whatsoever, and as a result the first show of Magnaball is one of the best of the year.
It starts with my favorite first set of the year so far, and that starts with a legitimate "Simple" jam. Rather than sticking in the usual "Simple" space, it gets dark quick and stays there for a few satisfying minutes. Then, there's a full "The Dogs," and a "TMWSIY" > "Avenu" > "TMWSIY" sequence. The middle of the set is pretty standard, minus a rough-but-fun "Mock Song," and then a 23-minute "Gin" that could make an easy argument for most interesting jam of the year comes the fuck out of nowehere. And that's just the first set.
The second set doesn't exactly stand in the upper echelon from this year, but it's close. The opening "Chalkdust" is almost a reprise of the "Gin" jam, with a little more darkness tingeing its edges. "Ghost" is absolutely weird, but I really enjoyed it. It gets almost atonal in the way that the 8/16 "Light" did, and is really unique even amongst the tall pile of huge jams this year. "Rock and Roll" doesn't build a trifecta of Out There jams, but it's an impressive shredfest up until a tiny funk bit that gets tacked on to the end, which keeps the energy going until "Hood," which features a staccato Type II section in the tradition of the best "Hood"s of last year. The rest of the set stays in predictable territory, but, damn, a show that's absolutely off the wall for its first three quarters is worth a spot on The 2015 List. Looking forward to the rest of the festival!
I linked to the third video below because you should totally just watch at least the first half of the second set. If you want to, skip ahead to 1:26:00.
The Live Review:
8/21/15: Simple opener. Nice choice.
8/21/15: Fuzz jam building underneath normal Simple jam. Holy shit, they're getting started early.
8/21/15: Now a really cool beat from Fish is propelling a moody, dark jam.
8/21/15: Winds down into > The Dogs.
8/21/15: Full version of The Dogs.
8/21/15: Holy. Shit. TMWSIY. Holy. Shit.
8/21/15: > Avenu Malkenu
8/21/15: I already understand why everyone thought Magnaball was better than Dick's.
8/21/15: > TMWSIY.
8/21/15: Free is next. Standard Free, afterward, Trey welcomes everyone to the festival.
8/21/15: Aww, crowd singing Happy Birthday to Eliza.
8/21/15: The Wedge.
8/21/15: Pretty standard The Wedge, but now Mock Song! One of my absolute favorite Phish rarities.
8/21/15: High tempo version.
8/21/15: It's fun to hear Mike forget lyrics for once :)
8/21/15: In his defense, they're playing the song *really* damn fast.
8/21/15: Neat replacement lyrics about Phish festivals.
8/21/15: Rough version of Mock Song, but still great to hear it. Now Roggae.
8/21/15: Typically great 2015 Roggae > Rift.
8/21/15: For a song that they've continued to play + struggle with despite having admitted that they continue to play + struggle with it...
8/21/15: ...that was a fun Rift.
8/21/15: Gin! Jam is already getting dirty early on.
8/21/15: Out of the dirty jam now and into an almost jazzy space. Page on electric piano.
8/21/15: We're only halfway through the running time of this jam and it's already highlight-reel stuff.
8/21/15: Holy shit, premature video post: https://t.co/VvXRPx9g9u
8/21/15: A Weekapaug-like groove (heh) emerging now.
8/21/15: Now Mike is driving. There are all sorts of spaces in this jam, but the transitions between them are pure butter.
8/21/15: Big, energetic peak build now. This is some Tahoe Tweezer shit.
8/21/15: Easy top-ten-of-2015 jam here.
8/21/15: Might be willing to go top-five if you gave me a few hours to do relistens :)
8/21/15: End set.
8/21/15: Second set opens with Chalkdust.
8/21/15: Trey going almost immediately to the song-ending riff.
8/21/15: Jam starts after the song 'end,' like is has a few times this year.
8/21/15: Trey laying down an awesome melody solo over some jazzy rhythm work.
8/21/15: Pitch-shifted soloing now.
8/21/15: Angry space into hard-edged rock now. The way they're shifting spaces quickly is similar to the Gin jam.
8/21/15: Echo-funk time!!!
8/21/15: Extended wind-down jam now. Sort of reminds me of 2009, but better.
8/21/15: That CDT was Diet Jamming compared to S1's Gin, but it's still a great entry in the massive log of great jams from this year.
8/21/15: Trey might have just teased WTU?
8/21/15: Well, whether he did or not, he pulls a > Ghost instead.
8/21/15: Trey is already riding the echo, even in the composed part of the song.
8/21/15: That drop was...joyously mangled.
8/21/15: Almost sounds a bit like No Quarter now.
8/21/15: Really distorted, echo-y jam.
8/21/15: I'm hearing WTU? teases again, but that might just be me.
8/21/15: Almost atonal now. Really, really weird.
8/21/15: Whoa. This is a really weird, broiling sort of sound now.
8/21/15: The Gin, CDT, and esp. Ghost have been great not just because they are long jams...
8/21/15: ...but also b/c the guys are obviously trying to push beyond even the 'typically' great types of jams they've been playing all year
8/21/15: Whoa! Great building jam at the end there, and a perfect segue into Rock and Roll.
8/21/15: Rock and Roll is just a flat-out shredfest.
8/21/15: Okay, now we're in a soupy funk space. The speed that they're moving from one idea to another today is amazing.
8/21/15: > Hood. A sort-of segue. Had they taken it a little slower, could have been ->
8/21/15: So far, this is a 'normal' Hood jam.
8/21/15: Some staccato chording now.
8/21/15: Chord jam fades out, then fades back in with the Hood outro chords, a la the end of the Hollywood Hood.
8/21/15: Neat fade-out at the end of Hood instead of the usual power-rock ending.
8/21/15: > Waste.
8/21/15: Nicely placed cooldown song.
8/21/15: Waste > No Men!
8/21/15: UUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAH
8/21/15: Is the excited noise I make whenever No Men starts up.
8/21/15: FUNK MUSCLES ACTIVATE
8/21/15: The beginning of the No Men jam is always the same, but I always love it.
8/21/15: CLAVNOODLING
8/21/15: I MIGHT HAVE EATEN A LOT OF COFFEE TODAY
8/21/15: Long take on No Men, but it stays mostly in the box.
8/21/15: Ambient fade-out.
8/21/15: Opening chords of Slave over the wash.
8/21/15: If the last Slave was super-high-energy, this one is the exact opposite. Languid, slow build.
8/21/15: Lots of missed notes by pretty much everyone, but otherwise I'm liking how long they're taking to build it up.
8/21/15: Trey is laying down a great descending riff during the build to the peak.
8/21/15: It's pretty much always a good second set when you get Hood and Slave together.
8/21/15: Oh, and end set.
8/21/15: So, Magnaball N1 is definitely on the top-shelf list of shows for the year.
8/21/15: The first set is maybe my favorite opening frame of the year with that Gin being the obvious highlight.
8/21/15: S2 has a really interesting CDT as a sister jam to the Gin, then weird-good takes on Ghost and Hood and a strong setlist overall.
8/21/15: There have been better S2s in some of the other really strong shows, but none of 'em are as good from start to finish, really.
8/21/15: Farmhouse for the encore.
8/21/15: The guys have laid down a few really swinging, beautiful Farmhouse mini-jams this year though.
8/21/15: This is one of them.
8/21/15: FRIST TUBOE!
8/21/15: You know what I mean.
8/21/15: I'm sorry but I can't ever hear First Tube anymore without remember the Trey & Symphony version I heard last year. SO GOOD.
8/21/15: End show. Two more of these, eh?
The guys waste no time whatsoever, and as a result the first show of Magnaball is one of the best of the year.
It starts with my favorite first set of the year so far, and that starts with a legitimate "Simple" jam. Rather than sticking in the usual "Simple" space, it gets dark quick and stays there for a few satisfying minutes. Then, there's a full "The Dogs," and a "TMWSIY" > "Avenu" > "TMWSIY" sequence. The middle of the set is pretty standard, minus a rough-but-fun "Mock Song," and then a 23-minute "Gin" that could make an easy argument for most interesting jam of the year comes the fuck out of nowehere. And that's just the first set.
The second set doesn't exactly stand in the upper echelon from this year, but it's close. The opening "Chalkdust" is almost a reprise of the "Gin" jam, with a little more darkness tingeing its edges. "Ghost" is absolutely weird, but I really enjoyed it. It gets almost atonal in the way that the 8/16 "Light" did, and is really unique even amongst the tall pile of huge jams this year. "Rock and Roll" doesn't build a trifecta of Out There jams, but it's an impressive shredfest up until a tiny funk bit that gets tacked on to the end, which keeps the energy going until "Hood," which features a staccato Type II section in the tradition of the best "Hood"s of last year. The rest of the set stays in predictable territory, but, damn, a show that's absolutely off the wall for its first three quarters is worth a spot on The 2015 List. Looking forward to the rest of the festival!
I linked to the third video below because you should totally just watch at least the first half of the second set. If you want to, skip ahead to 1:26:00.
The Live Review:
8/21/15: Simple opener. Nice choice.
8/21/15: Fuzz jam building underneath normal Simple jam. Holy shit, they're getting started early.
8/21/15: Now a really cool beat from Fish is propelling a moody, dark jam.
8/21/15: Winds down into > The Dogs.
8/21/15: Full version of The Dogs.
8/21/15: Holy. Shit. TMWSIY. Holy. Shit.
8/21/15: > Avenu Malkenu
8/21/15: I already understand why everyone thought Magnaball was better than Dick's.
8/21/15: > TMWSIY.
8/21/15: Free is next. Standard Free, afterward, Trey welcomes everyone to the festival.
8/21/15: Aww, crowd singing Happy Birthday to Eliza.
8/21/15: The Wedge.
8/21/15: Pretty standard The Wedge, but now Mock Song! One of my absolute favorite Phish rarities.
8/21/15: High tempo version.
8/21/15: It's fun to hear Mike forget lyrics for once :)
8/21/15: In his defense, they're playing the song *really* damn fast.
8/21/15: Neat replacement lyrics about Phish festivals.
8/21/15: Rough version of Mock Song, but still great to hear it. Now Roggae.
8/21/15: Typically great 2015 Roggae > Rift.
8/21/15: For a song that they've continued to play + struggle with despite having admitted that they continue to play + struggle with it...
8/21/15: ...that was a fun Rift.
8/21/15: Gin! Jam is already getting dirty early on.
8/21/15: Out of the dirty jam now and into an almost jazzy space. Page on electric piano.
8/21/15: We're only halfway through the running time of this jam and it's already highlight-reel stuff.
8/21/15: Holy shit, premature video post: https://t.co/VvXRPx9g9u
8/21/15: A Weekapaug-like groove (heh) emerging now.
8/21/15: Now Mike is driving. There are all sorts of spaces in this jam, but the transitions between them are pure butter.
8/21/15: Big, energetic peak build now. This is some Tahoe Tweezer shit.
8/21/15: Easy top-ten-of-2015 jam here.
8/21/15: Might be willing to go top-five if you gave me a few hours to do relistens :)
8/21/15: End set.
8/21/15: Second set opens with Chalkdust.
8/21/15: Trey going almost immediately to the song-ending riff.
8/21/15: Jam starts after the song 'end,' like is has a few times this year.
8/21/15: Trey laying down an awesome melody solo over some jazzy rhythm work.
8/21/15: Pitch-shifted soloing now.
8/21/15: Angry space into hard-edged rock now. The way they're shifting spaces quickly is similar to the Gin jam.
8/21/15: Echo-funk time!!!
8/21/15: Extended wind-down jam now. Sort of reminds me of 2009, but better.
8/21/15: That CDT was Diet Jamming compared to S1's Gin, but it's still a great entry in the massive log of great jams from this year.
8/21/15: Trey might have just teased WTU?
8/21/15: Well, whether he did or not, he pulls a > Ghost instead.
8/21/15: Trey is already riding the echo, even in the composed part of the song.
8/21/15: That drop was...joyously mangled.
8/21/15: Almost sounds a bit like No Quarter now.
8/21/15: Really distorted, echo-y jam.
8/21/15: I'm hearing WTU? teases again, but that might just be me.
8/21/15: Almost atonal now. Really, really weird.
8/21/15: Whoa. This is a really weird, broiling sort of sound now.
8/21/15: The Gin, CDT, and esp. Ghost have been great not just because they are long jams...
8/21/15: ...but also b/c the guys are obviously trying to push beyond even the 'typically' great types of jams they've been playing all year
8/21/15: Whoa! Great building jam at the end there, and a perfect segue into Rock and Roll.
8/21/15: Rock and Roll is just a flat-out shredfest.
8/21/15: Okay, now we're in a soupy funk space. The speed that they're moving from one idea to another today is amazing.
8/21/15: > Hood. A sort-of segue. Had they taken it a little slower, could have been ->
8/21/15: So far, this is a 'normal' Hood jam.
8/21/15: Some staccato chording now.
8/21/15: Chord jam fades out, then fades back in with the Hood outro chords, a la the end of the Hollywood Hood.
8/21/15: Neat fade-out at the end of Hood instead of the usual power-rock ending.
8/21/15: > Waste.
8/21/15: Nicely placed cooldown song.
8/21/15: Waste > No Men!
8/21/15: UUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAH
8/21/15: Is the excited noise I make whenever No Men starts up.
8/21/15: FUNK MUSCLES ACTIVATE
8/21/15: The beginning of the No Men jam is always the same, but I always love it.
8/21/15: CLAVNOODLING
8/21/15: I MIGHT HAVE EATEN A LOT OF COFFEE TODAY
8/21/15: Long take on No Men, but it stays mostly in the box.
8/21/15: Ambient fade-out.
8/21/15: Opening chords of Slave over the wash.
8/21/15: If the last Slave was super-high-energy, this one is the exact opposite. Languid, slow build.
8/21/15: Lots of missed notes by pretty much everyone, but otherwise I'm liking how long they're taking to build it up.
8/21/15: Trey is laying down a great descending riff during the build to the peak.
8/21/15: It's pretty much always a good second set when you get Hood and Slave together.
8/21/15: Oh, and end set.
8/21/15: So, Magnaball N1 is definitely on the top-shelf list of shows for the year.
8/21/15: The first set is maybe my favorite opening frame of the year with that Gin being the obvious highlight.
8/21/15: S2 has a really interesting CDT as a sister jam to the Gin, then weird-good takes on Ghost and Hood and a strong setlist overall.
8/21/15: There have been better S2s in some of the other really strong shows, but none of 'em are as good from start to finish, really.
8/21/15: Farmhouse for the encore.
8/21/15: The guys have laid down a few really swinging, beautiful Farmhouse mini-jams this year though.
8/21/15: This is one of them.
8/21/15: FRIST TUBOE!
8/21/15: You know what I mean.
8/21/15: I'm sorry but I can't ever hear First Tube anymore without remember the Trey & Symphony version I heard last year. SO GOOD.
8/21/15: End show. Two more of these, eh?
Nov 20, 2015
2015-08-16 MPP II
The Verdict:
It's appropriate, I suppose, that in a year where the only real wrong Phish can do is to repeatedly fail to put together a consistent run of shows in one location, they would play both the best and worst show of the tour at the same venue within a day of each other. Yin and Yang. MPP 1 and MPP 2.
It's not that this show is bad, of course, and not even just because It's A Phish Show (TM); there are some worthwhile, compelling moments here. It's that, in the context of this tour, it's hard to hear a show like this and not be disappointed. I've been thinking of shows from this year as falling into one of three categories: 1) Top-tier shows that are legitimate highlights across Phish's career, 2) Very, very good shows that would have been a highlight of most previous 3.0 tours but here fall short of category 1, and 3) Pretty darn good shows that would have been well received during most previous 3.0 tours, but here stand out in their relative shittiness.
When I started reviewing this tour, based on the shows I'd seen live and the chatter about the rest of the tour, I expected it to be an awesome tour. And it has been. But I expected it to be awesome because there would be a significant amount of category 1 shows, when in reality I can count the category 1 shows on one hand. What makes this tour great, really (as I'm coming to realize), is the huge percentage of category 2 shows. And that's interesting.
I've spent more time than most people likely have at this point listening to entire Phish tours. And the thing is, when you listen to any tour, you begin to realize that even the "great" tours aren't consistently mind-blowing. Most shows are pretty darn good, a few are excellent, and then there are some clunkers. This makes sense, because most tours have upwards of twenty or thirty or more shows, and really, even Phish at their peak(s) aren't going to bring a show like 8/15/15 or 11/17/97 a bunch of nights in a row. It's like expecting lightning to strike in the same place ten or twenty times. Even most of the "great" shows from "great" tours feature a few strong jams or interesting moments and then lots of what equates to filler for someone who's heard "Golgi" or "Horn" probably close to a thousand times now. That's part of why I was so excited about 8/15/15; almost every single song of the show had compelling moments. And even in the greatest tour, you're lucky to get 2-3 shows like that.
So, excellence comes from turning in really good, category 2-style shows regularly instead. And that's fine. Over twenty-five shows, if twenty or so of them are category 1 or 2, that's pretty incredible. You aren't going to get much better than that. Having a great tour is about consistency, not about blowing the roof off every night. And I actually never realized this until I was listening to MPP 2 and coming to grips with the fact that such a strong show could strike me as so boring only because by consistently playing great shows this year, Phish made "just" very good seem normal. But I don't think they, or anyone else, will ever consistently play transcendent shows (like 8/15 or, say, Mann 2, or at least the second set of Shoreline) because there are just too many shows to play to keep up that level of quality. I've listened to most of Fall '13, the only recent tour mentioned in the same reverent tones as Summer '15, and honestly I don't find it nearly as good. I think that the only reason it's remembered so well is because there were so fewer shows as compared to most tours. There were less than half of the amount of shows that there are in Summer '15. And as the band has shown from Mann on through Dick's, it's actually capable of maintaining an extremely high level of quality for 12 or so shows...almost. Over twice that many? Not so much.
Anyway, this show is (relatively) a blemish on a great tour, and a weird note to end the "regular season" portion of the tour on. The show starts off in Jukebox Mode, and continues that way for half of the first set, before a series of four straight set-ender songs hit, in "No Men," a minimal and languid "Stash," an extended "David Bowie," and a "Possum" that features some fun Trey/Page interplay. The flow is strange in the second half of this set, the last three songs are all worth a listen.
When it comes to the second set, "Disease" is notable, I guess, for running for twelve minutes and never deviating from the Type I mold. The jam features a nice segue into "Slave," and actually playing "Slave" this early in the set seems to give it an energy that's rare for the song. "Light" goes to a near-atonal place, and is one of those compact-but-fascinating jams that 2015 Phish excels at, there's another great segue into "Twist," and then just as its jam seems to be winding up to something interesting, it suddenly peters out. We spend the rest of the set more or less circling the drain. Even the "YEM" sounds a little worn-out.
So again, this isn't a bad show, and the highlights are legit, it's just an anomaly in the consistently great (but not consistently transcendent) tour of 2015.
The Live Review:
8/16/15: MPP2 right here, right now, folks!
8/16/15: YES! Trey starting up Sleeping Monkey again!
8/16/15: Fish adds the ending harmony vocals that they joked about last night.
8/16/15: Not the full song, just Trey playing the progression through a few more times.
8/16/15: Golgi opener.
8/16/15: Golgi gets butt-slammed into Undermind.
8/16/15: Undermind is the typically short, ooey-gooey version of the song the guys have been playing this year.
8/16/15: In short: awesome.
8/16/15: Okay, so I still feel the same as I always do about Julius, but I AM surprised to hear it in a first set.
8/16/15: Slanky version of 555 coming up after Julius.
8/16/15: Solid playing so far, but the most interesting part was that Sleeping Monkey 'opener.'
8/16/15: Not comparing favorably with last night's strong S1.
8/16/15: Nothing is a nice surprise. Definitely should show its head in S1s more often.
8/16/15: No Men! That should pick the energy level up a bit.
8/15/16: Clav-driven jam gets rolling, much to the delight of the crowd.
8/15/16: Short take on No Men's leads into Stash.
8/15/16: Stash went a little more muted in the jam, similar to the 8/12 version.
8/15/16: Sounds like we might get a Bowie set closer. Spooky ambient noise building under Fish's drumming.
8/15/16: This is probably as close as we've gotten to a legitimate Bowie opening since...2004? I don't know.
8/15/16: Okay, so that Bowie was longer than the usual these days, but it still pretty much followed the template.
8/15/16: Except for the spooky intro :)
8/15/16: Not end set. Possum.
8/16/15: So this has been a weird set. The first half was pretty rote, the second half is just a pile of set-closer songs in a row.
8/16/15: Also, ignore all the tweets I began with '8/15/16.' IT IS NOT THE FUTURE.
8/16/15: Neat back-and-forth between Trey and Page in this Possum jam.
8/16/15: Weird, sort-of-Frankenstein set finally ends.
8/16/15: S2 opens with Disease.
8/16/15: Trey having trouble with the opening chords to Disease, changes lyric to be about the demons 'Dancing in Mike's head.'
8/16/15: Super-extended Type I soloing from Trey in this version. It's really good, but definitely stays in the box. Weird way to open S2.
8/16/15: 2009-style wind-down now.
8/16/15: Trey makes a pretty natural segue into Slave. Weird placement for this guy!
8/16/15: I don't know if it's just because it's earlier in the set, but this Slave seems particularly jaunty to me.
8/16/15: Slave > Light.
8/16/15: Some wild pitch-shifted soloing from Trey here, backed by calypso piano from Page. Really weird.
8/16/15: Mike taking over now. This has the potential for some serious evil.
8/16/15: Evil Space Loops descending!
8/16/15: Page is on the electric piano and trying to move to a bliss space, but Trey is blaring over him.
8/16/15: Nice -> Twist. Great assist by Fishman.
8/16/15: More neat loops worming into this Twist jam.
8/16/15: Oops. It sort of fell apart right after that.
8/16/15: Shine a Light!
8/16/15: This is a decent 2015 Phish show so far, and that last jam was awesome...
8/16/15: ...but I have to say that this is probably the worst I've heard Trey ever play over the course of 2 or so hours.
8/16/15: He's not playing at all about 20% of the time, and when he does play, he's hitting bad chords/notes like crazy.
8/16/15: He's completely biffed on Shine a Light many times already, and it's basically a four chord song.
8/16/15: This is one of those cases where the bum notes are actually making it harder to enjoy the show because there are so many of them.
8/16/15: Fuego!
8/16/15: The entire Fuego jam was basically just Trey holding a single note for sixty seconds.
8/16/15: Drone fades into Sneakin' Sally.
8/16/15: Trey is unleashing the echo-funk on Sally.
8/16/15: Echo funk winds down, but instead of a breakdown, > YEM.
8/16/15: In the year of unearned YEMs, this might be the least-deserved one.
8/16/15: I'm pretty sure Trey just yelled 'MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTHER FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKER' at the beginning the YEM vocals.
8/16/15: If so, hilarious.
8/16/15: So the YEM is pretty pedestrian, but, and this won't surprise you, the funk jam has a little extra spice in it.
8/16/15: Sigh-based vocal jam turns into screaming, turns into Sleeping Monkey vocal teases.
8/16/15: Number Line encore.
8/16/15: Typically strong 2015 Number Line, with the high-velocity Trey chording and whatnot.
8/16/15: That was a totally weird show, especially considering it was technically the tour-closer.
8/16/15: Gotta say, I don't feel too good about it.
8/16/15: However, 8/15 might have been my favorite show of the year. So there's that.
8/16/15: More thoughts in the long-form reviews coming hopefully tomorrow.
It's appropriate, I suppose, that in a year where the only real wrong Phish can do is to repeatedly fail to put together a consistent run of shows in one location, they would play both the best and worst show of the tour at the same venue within a day of each other. Yin and Yang. MPP 1 and MPP 2.
It's not that this show is bad, of course, and not even just because It's A Phish Show (TM); there are some worthwhile, compelling moments here. It's that, in the context of this tour, it's hard to hear a show like this and not be disappointed. I've been thinking of shows from this year as falling into one of three categories: 1) Top-tier shows that are legitimate highlights across Phish's career, 2) Very, very good shows that would have been a highlight of most previous 3.0 tours but here fall short of category 1, and 3) Pretty darn good shows that would have been well received during most previous 3.0 tours, but here stand out in their relative shittiness.
When I started reviewing this tour, based on the shows I'd seen live and the chatter about the rest of the tour, I expected it to be an awesome tour. And it has been. But I expected it to be awesome because there would be a significant amount of category 1 shows, when in reality I can count the category 1 shows on one hand. What makes this tour great, really (as I'm coming to realize), is the huge percentage of category 2 shows. And that's interesting.
I've spent more time than most people likely have at this point listening to entire Phish tours. And the thing is, when you listen to any tour, you begin to realize that even the "great" tours aren't consistently mind-blowing. Most shows are pretty darn good, a few are excellent, and then there are some clunkers. This makes sense, because most tours have upwards of twenty or thirty or more shows, and really, even Phish at their peak(s) aren't going to bring a show like 8/15/15 or 11/17/97 a bunch of nights in a row. It's like expecting lightning to strike in the same place ten or twenty times. Even most of the "great" shows from "great" tours feature a few strong jams or interesting moments and then lots of what equates to filler for someone who's heard "Golgi" or "Horn" probably close to a thousand times now. That's part of why I was so excited about 8/15/15; almost every single song of the show had compelling moments. And even in the greatest tour, you're lucky to get 2-3 shows like that.
So, excellence comes from turning in really good, category 2-style shows regularly instead. And that's fine. Over twenty-five shows, if twenty or so of them are category 1 or 2, that's pretty incredible. You aren't going to get much better than that. Having a great tour is about consistency, not about blowing the roof off every night. And I actually never realized this until I was listening to MPP 2 and coming to grips with the fact that such a strong show could strike me as so boring only because by consistently playing great shows this year, Phish made "just" very good seem normal. But I don't think they, or anyone else, will ever consistently play transcendent shows (like 8/15 or, say, Mann 2, or at least the second set of Shoreline) because there are just too many shows to play to keep up that level of quality. I've listened to most of Fall '13, the only recent tour mentioned in the same reverent tones as Summer '15, and honestly I don't find it nearly as good. I think that the only reason it's remembered so well is because there were so fewer shows as compared to most tours. There were less than half of the amount of shows that there are in Summer '15. And as the band has shown from Mann on through Dick's, it's actually capable of maintaining an extremely high level of quality for 12 or so shows...almost. Over twice that many? Not so much.
Anyway, this show is (relatively) a blemish on a great tour, and a weird note to end the "regular season" portion of the tour on. The show starts off in Jukebox Mode, and continues that way for half of the first set, before a series of four straight set-ender songs hit, in "No Men," a minimal and languid "Stash," an extended "David Bowie," and a "Possum" that features some fun Trey/Page interplay. The flow is strange in the second half of this set, the last three songs are all worth a listen.
When it comes to the second set, "Disease" is notable, I guess, for running for twelve minutes and never deviating from the Type I mold. The jam features a nice segue into "Slave," and actually playing "Slave" this early in the set seems to give it an energy that's rare for the song. "Light" goes to a near-atonal place, and is one of those compact-but-fascinating jams that 2015 Phish excels at, there's another great segue into "Twist," and then just as its jam seems to be winding up to something interesting, it suddenly peters out. We spend the rest of the set more or less circling the drain. Even the "YEM" sounds a little worn-out.
So again, this isn't a bad show, and the highlights are legit, it's just an anomaly in the consistently great (but not consistently transcendent) tour of 2015.
The Live Review:
8/16/15: MPP2 right here, right now, folks!
8/16/15: YES! Trey starting up Sleeping Monkey again!
8/16/15: Fish adds the ending harmony vocals that they joked about last night.
8/16/15: Not the full song, just Trey playing the progression through a few more times.
8/16/15: Golgi opener.
8/16/15: Golgi gets butt-slammed into Undermind.
8/16/15: Undermind is the typically short, ooey-gooey version of the song the guys have been playing this year.
8/16/15: In short: awesome.
8/16/15: Okay, so I still feel the same as I always do about Julius, but I AM surprised to hear it in a first set.
8/16/15: Slanky version of 555 coming up after Julius.
8/16/15: Solid playing so far, but the most interesting part was that Sleeping Monkey 'opener.'
8/16/15: Not comparing favorably with last night's strong S1.
8/16/15: Nothing is a nice surprise. Definitely should show its head in S1s more often.
8/16/15: No Men! That should pick the energy level up a bit.
8/15/16: Clav-driven jam gets rolling, much to the delight of the crowd.
8/15/16: Short take on No Men's leads into Stash.
8/15/16: Stash went a little more muted in the jam, similar to the 8/12 version.
8/15/16: Sounds like we might get a Bowie set closer. Spooky ambient noise building under Fish's drumming.
8/15/16: This is probably as close as we've gotten to a legitimate Bowie opening since...2004? I don't know.
8/15/16: Okay, so that Bowie was longer than the usual these days, but it still pretty much followed the template.
8/15/16: Except for the spooky intro :)
8/15/16: Not end set. Possum.
8/16/15: So this has been a weird set. The first half was pretty rote, the second half is just a pile of set-closer songs in a row.
8/16/15: Also, ignore all the tweets I began with '8/15/16.' IT IS NOT THE FUTURE.
8/16/15: Neat back-and-forth between Trey and Page in this Possum jam.
8/16/15: Weird, sort-of-Frankenstein set finally ends.
8/16/15: S2 opens with Disease.
8/16/15: Trey having trouble with the opening chords to Disease, changes lyric to be about the demons 'Dancing in Mike's head.'
8/16/15: Super-extended Type I soloing from Trey in this version. It's really good, but definitely stays in the box. Weird way to open S2.
8/16/15: 2009-style wind-down now.
8/16/15: Trey makes a pretty natural segue into Slave. Weird placement for this guy!
8/16/15: I don't know if it's just because it's earlier in the set, but this Slave seems particularly jaunty to me.
8/16/15: Slave > Light.
8/16/15: Some wild pitch-shifted soloing from Trey here, backed by calypso piano from Page. Really weird.
8/16/15: Mike taking over now. This has the potential for some serious evil.
8/16/15: Evil Space Loops descending!
8/16/15: Page is on the electric piano and trying to move to a bliss space, but Trey is blaring over him.
8/16/15: Nice -> Twist. Great assist by Fishman.
8/16/15: More neat loops worming into this Twist jam.
8/16/15: Oops. It sort of fell apart right after that.
8/16/15: Shine a Light!
8/16/15: This is a decent 2015 Phish show so far, and that last jam was awesome...
8/16/15: ...but I have to say that this is probably the worst I've heard Trey ever play over the course of 2 or so hours.
8/16/15: He's not playing at all about 20% of the time, and when he does play, he's hitting bad chords/notes like crazy.
8/16/15: He's completely biffed on Shine a Light many times already, and it's basically a four chord song.
8/16/15: This is one of those cases where the bum notes are actually making it harder to enjoy the show because there are so many of them.
8/16/15: Fuego!
8/16/15: The entire Fuego jam was basically just Trey holding a single note for sixty seconds.
8/16/15: Drone fades into Sneakin' Sally.
8/16/15: Trey is unleashing the echo-funk on Sally.
8/16/15: Echo funk winds down, but instead of a breakdown, > YEM.
8/16/15: In the year of unearned YEMs, this might be the least-deserved one.
8/16/15: I'm pretty sure Trey just yelled 'MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTHER FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKER' at the beginning the YEM vocals.
8/16/15: If so, hilarious.
8/16/15: So the YEM is pretty pedestrian, but, and this won't surprise you, the funk jam has a little extra spice in it.
8/16/15: Sigh-based vocal jam turns into screaming, turns into Sleeping Monkey vocal teases.
8/16/15: Number Line encore.
8/16/15: Typically strong 2015 Number Line, with the high-velocity Trey chording and whatnot.
8/16/15: That was a totally weird show, especially considering it was technically the tour-closer.
8/16/15: Gotta say, I don't feel too good about it.
8/16/15: However, 8/15 might have been my favorite show of the year. So there's that.
8/16/15: More thoughts in the long-form reviews coming hopefully tomorrow.
2015-08-15 MPP I
The Verdict:
As much as I want to hold on to the dream of being able to make a case for a show I attended being the best show of the tour (in this case, Shoreline), the first MPP show forced me to give up on that wonderful illusion. Because this is almost certainly the best show of the year for me. Something from Magnaball might unseat it, because I haven't listened to that yet, but damn. This show's crazy, and outclasses the "easy" pick for best show, Mann 2, by simply being better at more things than it is.
First off, the first set is one of the best first sets of the year. There isn't a surprise big jam here like there is in many of the other great S1s of this year, but the playing from the opening "Simple" pretty much all the way through is spotless, the setlist choices are impeccable, the "BBFCFM" > "Your Pet Cat" > "BBFCFM" sandwich is fun as hell and perfectly placed, and right as a great set seems to end on a rote note with "Antelope," the boys jam it out a bit for the first time since, oh, maybe Utica '10? There are probably opening frames I like better from this year, but not many and then OH MAN THAT SECOND SET.
This is the set that Phish has been trying to play for two years. All of those shows during '14 and '15 where they passed up monster jams in obvious places to work in clever segues and neat little 2-3 minute jamlets never quite seemed to land right because there just wasn't the right balance between deep jamming and segue-based improv. When you come for the jams, it's hard to swallow "only" the song-to-song momentum and brief flickers of occasional brilliance in their place. But this set has both, and in perfect balance.
"Halley's" doesn't really belong in this set because "46 Days" is where the magic starts. This is the peak (so far, at least) of the Bend "Simple"-style jamming that the guys have been flirting with all tour. This "46 Days" is nasty, then takes a now-predictable but still gorgeous turn to Bliss Town before landing in a perfect segue into "Bug," of all things. A short "Steam" follows, which segues perfectly into "What's the Use?" before heading back into "Steam" to finish the final verse and then segue into "Piper." "Piper" is easily the best version of the year, moving from a lurching, grinding, murky jam into straight-up rock territory which leads to a flawless "Tweezer" segue, and "Tweezer" proper features a heavy funk jam that gets spacey enough for Mike to perform "NO2" over it while the rest of the band continues to jam "Tweezer." Yeah. Fuck.
"Walls" closes the set in typical fashion, and the banter-laden "Sleeping Monkey" > "Tweeprise" is the perfect encore. This is the show, folks. It's not as if we haven't had an embarrassment of riches this tour, but this show feels like a culmination. If Magnaball is anywhere near this good, I've got plenty of A+ Phish to get me through my holiday travels...
I am so serious about how good this show is, instead of posting select videos, I'm just posting the entire show below. Click through to YouTube to be able to select particular tracks in the video description.
The Live Review:
8/15/15: Alright, time to knock out the MPP run!
8/15/15: Simple opener. Now that's interesting.
8/15/15: Fantastic Simple solo from Trey to open the show. Page beating up on the keys.
8/15/15: Glide!
8/15/15: Now that was neat to hear.
8/15/15: Buried Alive! So far, another great setlist for S1.
8/15/15: Great little solo in Buried Alive. Trey is on fire. Next up is McGrupp.
8/15/15: Roggae! I love it!
8/15/15: Great version. I didn't get as peaky as some other recent versions, but stayed muted and gorgeous the entire time.
8/15/15: Pretty standard but energetic take on LxL next.
8/15/15: When I get up for work, I try to kill youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
8/15/15: WHY
8/15/15: BBFCFM gets mashed up with a Your Pet Cat sample. Then, 'Why am I running?!' > Your Pet Cat.
8/15/15: > BBFCFM!
8/15/15: Well, that was fun. Now, Horn.
8/15/15: Quick Horn > Blaze On.
8/15/15: Straightforward Blaze On, but with a loopy fade-out that lands in Antelope.
8/15/15: Nice little Trey/Page breakdown in the middle of this Antelope.
8/15/15: Antelope is nowhere near one of my favorite Phish songs, but I love it about 1000% more when it breaks away from the usual pattern.
8/15/15: Now, it's a soupy, note-bendy little jam that's sort of a Type 1.5 space...and moving back into usual Antelope territory.
8/15/15: End set.
8/15/15: S2 opens with Halley's Comet. I sure doubt that this'll be the one that goes deep, but one can always hope.
8/15/15: Typical Halley's gets butt-slammed into 46 Days.
8/15/15: Trey laying down a nasty, distorted solo. Sort of 2003-2004.
8/15/15: After vocal refrain, we're headed almost immediately into a Bend Simple-like EVIL jam.
8/15/15: Page plinking out rapid notes on the piano, now over to the clav.
8/15/15: Trey keeping the distortion coming, and now Mike it taking over.
8/15/15: I'm pretty sure that bass-led Phish jams are the best Phish jams.
8/15/15: Fadeout w/ loop foundation. Might be doing one of those patented '15 bliss-jam transitions here.
8/15/15: If so, this is one of my favorite iterations of it so far this year.
8/15/15: Blissed out over here. Trey laying down a solo now. First real, clean melody playing he's done in the entire jam.
8/15/15: Trey teases Bug during the outro, then -> Bug. Nice segue.
8/15/15: Bug fades into Steam. Interesting.
8/15/15: Straightforward rock solo from Trey out of the lyrics, backed by creepy screaming from who I assume is Fish.
8/15/15: Awesome sort-of -> What's the Use?
8/15/15: > Steam! Back to finish the remaining verses, I guess.
8/15/15: Trey interweaving Piper's opening with the Steam progression now. Fish switching over.
8/15/15: Interesting organ-driven Piper jam right now.
8/15/15: Now we're in space-funk territory.
8/15/15: Murky jam space blossoming into a rock throwdown.
8/15/15: Nasty Piper jam -> Tweezer. Holy shit, what a segue.
8/15/15: Starting to think...could this be...better than the Mann show?!
8/15/15: Pretty sure, yeah.
8/15/15: This Tweezer is definitely of the loop-heavy funk variety.
8/15/15: Loop is almost a siren now.
8/15/15: Or maybe it's Mike's drill?
8/15/15: Hoooooooly shit. Mike starts lyrics for NO2 over the Tweezer jam.
8/15/15: This is my favorite fucking thing.
8/15/15: Show of tour, folks. *Slams book*
8/15/15: Back into the Tweezer jam. Dying over here.
8/15/15: Oooh...they end the jam almost immediately. Taking that jam deep would have made this show literally incomprehensibly good.
8/15/15: But we'll have to settle for Walls instead )
8/15/15: If there's a song that's going to get me to play air guitar in my office 100% of the time, it's the last few minutes of Walls.
8/15/15: Website that rated Phish songs didn't include Page's favorite song at #1.
8/15/15: (It's Sleeping Monkey)
8/15/15: I love this ongoing thing about Page loving Sleeping Monkey.
8/15/15: Sleeping Monkey > Tweeprise.
As much as I want to hold on to the dream of being able to make a case for a show I attended being the best show of the tour (in this case, Shoreline), the first MPP show forced me to give up on that wonderful illusion. Because this is almost certainly the best show of the year for me. Something from Magnaball might unseat it, because I haven't listened to that yet, but damn. This show's crazy, and outclasses the "easy" pick for best show, Mann 2, by simply being better at more things than it is.
First off, the first set is one of the best first sets of the year. There isn't a surprise big jam here like there is in many of the other great S1s of this year, but the playing from the opening "Simple" pretty much all the way through is spotless, the setlist choices are impeccable, the "BBFCFM" > "Your Pet Cat" > "BBFCFM" sandwich is fun as hell and perfectly placed, and right as a great set seems to end on a rote note with "Antelope," the boys jam it out a bit for the first time since, oh, maybe Utica '10? There are probably opening frames I like better from this year, but not many and then OH MAN THAT SECOND SET.
This is the set that Phish has been trying to play for two years. All of those shows during '14 and '15 where they passed up monster jams in obvious places to work in clever segues and neat little 2-3 minute jamlets never quite seemed to land right because there just wasn't the right balance between deep jamming and segue-based improv. When you come for the jams, it's hard to swallow "only" the song-to-song momentum and brief flickers of occasional brilliance in their place. But this set has both, and in perfect balance.
"Halley's" doesn't really belong in this set because "46 Days" is where the magic starts. This is the peak (so far, at least) of the Bend "Simple"-style jamming that the guys have been flirting with all tour. This "46 Days" is nasty, then takes a now-predictable but still gorgeous turn to Bliss Town before landing in a perfect segue into "Bug," of all things. A short "Steam" follows, which segues perfectly into "What's the Use?" before heading back into "Steam" to finish the final verse and then segue into "Piper." "Piper" is easily the best version of the year, moving from a lurching, grinding, murky jam into straight-up rock territory which leads to a flawless "Tweezer" segue, and "Tweezer" proper features a heavy funk jam that gets spacey enough for Mike to perform "NO2" over it while the rest of the band continues to jam "Tweezer." Yeah. Fuck.
"Walls" closes the set in typical fashion, and the banter-laden "Sleeping Monkey" > "Tweeprise" is the perfect encore. This is the show, folks. It's not as if we haven't had an embarrassment of riches this tour, but this show feels like a culmination. If Magnaball is anywhere near this good, I've got plenty of A+ Phish to get me through my holiday travels...
I am so serious about how good this show is, instead of posting select videos, I'm just posting the entire show below. Click through to YouTube to be able to select particular tracks in the video description.
The Live Review:
8/15/15: Alright, time to knock out the MPP run!
8/15/15: Simple opener. Now that's interesting.
8/15/15: Fantastic Simple solo from Trey to open the show. Page beating up on the keys.
8/15/15: Glide!
8/15/15: Now that was neat to hear.
8/15/15: Buried Alive! So far, another great setlist for S1.
8/15/15: Great little solo in Buried Alive. Trey is on fire. Next up is McGrupp.
8/15/15: Roggae! I love it!
8/15/15: Great version. I didn't get as peaky as some other recent versions, but stayed muted and gorgeous the entire time.
8/15/15: Pretty standard but energetic take on LxL next.
8/15/15: When I get up for work, I try to kill youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
8/15/15: WHY
8/15/15: BBFCFM gets mashed up with a Your Pet Cat sample. Then, 'Why am I running?!' > Your Pet Cat.
8/15/15: > BBFCFM!
8/15/15: Well, that was fun. Now, Horn.
8/15/15: Quick Horn > Blaze On.
8/15/15: Straightforward Blaze On, but with a loopy fade-out that lands in Antelope.
8/15/15: Nice little Trey/Page breakdown in the middle of this Antelope.
8/15/15: Antelope is nowhere near one of my favorite Phish songs, but I love it about 1000% more when it breaks away from the usual pattern.
8/15/15: Now, it's a soupy, note-bendy little jam that's sort of a Type 1.5 space...and moving back into usual Antelope territory.
8/15/15: End set.
8/15/15: S2 opens with Halley's Comet. I sure doubt that this'll be the one that goes deep, but one can always hope.
8/15/15: Typical Halley's gets butt-slammed into 46 Days.
8/15/15: Trey laying down a nasty, distorted solo. Sort of 2003-2004.
8/15/15: After vocal refrain, we're headed almost immediately into a Bend Simple-like EVIL jam.
8/15/15: Page plinking out rapid notes on the piano, now over to the clav.
8/15/15: Trey keeping the distortion coming, and now Mike it taking over.
8/15/15: I'm pretty sure that bass-led Phish jams are the best Phish jams.
8/15/15: Fadeout w/ loop foundation. Might be doing one of those patented '15 bliss-jam transitions here.
8/15/15: If so, this is one of my favorite iterations of it so far this year.
8/15/15: Blissed out over here. Trey laying down a solo now. First real, clean melody playing he's done in the entire jam.
8/15/15: Trey teases Bug during the outro, then -> Bug. Nice segue.
8/15/15: Bug fades into Steam. Interesting.
8/15/15: Straightforward rock solo from Trey out of the lyrics, backed by creepy screaming from who I assume is Fish.
8/15/15: Awesome sort-of -> What's the Use?
8/15/15: > Steam! Back to finish the remaining verses, I guess.
8/15/15: Trey interweaving Piper's opening with the Steam progression now. Fish switching over.
8/15/15: Interesting organ-driven Piper jam right now.
8/15/15: Now we're in space-funk territory.
8/15/15: Murky jam space blossoming into a rock throwdown.
8/15/15: Nasty Piper jam -> Tweezer. Holy shit, what a segue.
8/15/15: Starting to think...could this be...better than the Mann show?!
8/15/15: Pretty sure, yeah.
8/15/15: This Tweezer is definitely of the loop-heavy funk variety.
8/15/15: Loop is almost a siren now.
8/15/15: Or maybe it's Mike's drill?
8/15/15: Hoooooooly shit. Mike starts lyrics for NO2 over the Tweezer jam.
8/15/15: This is my favorite fucking thing.
8/15/15: Show of tour, folks. *Slams book*
8/15/15: Back into the Tweezer jam. Dying over here.
8/15/15: Oooh...they end the jam almost immediately. Taking that jam deep would have made this show literally incomprehensibly good.
8/15/15: But we'll have to settle for Walls instead )
8/15/15: If there's a song that's going to get me to play air guitar in my office 100% of the time, it's the last few minutes of Walls.
8/15/15: Website that rated Phish songs didn't include Page's favorite song at #1.
8/15/15: (It's Sleeping Monkey)
8/15/15: I love this ongoing thing about Page loving Sleeping Monkey.
8/15/15: Sleeping Monkey > Tweeprise.
Nov 6, 2015
2015-08-14 Walnut Creek
The Verdict:
So, the Walnut Creek show is in an unenviable spot, sitting as it does between the Mann run and the MPP run. But it shouldn't be overlooked: it's certainly not one of the better shows of the year, but there's a lot here to enjoy nonetheless.
Note: I'm pasting in audio-only "videos" for this show because for some reason it's missing from phishtracks, and there are almost no quality videos from the show.
The first set starts off with the awesome slow "Llama." I really enjoyed this retooling of a classic and am hoping that we might see more of this done with other S1 mainstays next year. There aren't really any more surprises in the opening frame, but the playing is strong and kinetic up until "Maze"...but then things just sort of sputter out. It's not that the playing is bad or anything, but there are just too many "sit down" songs in a row, and then when the band ramps back up, they do so with a tepid version of "Wolfman's," a song that's been revived to the point where a monster S1 jam is a given...usually.
The weirdness continues when S2 opens with "The Wedge," which stays completely in the lines. Luckily, next is "Golden Age," and like the 8/4 and 9/4 versions, it gets pretty far Out There. This guy goes after the echo-funk jam first, before eventually segueing into a "Split"-soundalike space that carries through for a few minutes. Ultimately, we get a fadeout into "Reba." The rare second-set "Reba" is choppy through the composed section, but Trey leads the band through the jam to a typically strong 2015 version.
The "Mike's" that follows sort of sums up the rest of the show: incredible energy, but no big jam. The second "Mike's" jam is apparently a thing of the past already, but this version is a powerful, guitar-led ride nonetheless. The "Ghost" goes the way of the Bend "Simple," with evil echoes and loops filling most of its running time until a great segue into "No Quarter." This is the hardest-rocking and cleanest version of the band's cover of the Led Zeppelin song yet, and the "Groove" that closes off the Mike's sandwich returns to the guitar pyrotechnics that started this sequence. Especially compared to Mann 2, there's nothing here that jams on that level, but this closing sequence is fantastic anyway, and that "Golden Age" ain't too shabby either. Don't write this one off.
The Live Review:
8/14/15: Slow Llama to start. Awesome.
8/14/15: Dear @phish, please play Llama like this more often.
8/14/15: Great opener. Chalkdust next.
8/14/15: Re-envisioning some of the classic S1 songs might be a way to keep opening sets fresh.
8/14/15: I imagine it's not terribly hard for consummate musicians to say 'Let's just play a funk version of Llama tonight.'
8/14/15: Moma Dance third. Trey MuTroning it up during the intro.
8/14/15: Trey trying to do something different with the outro solo. It's not really working.
8/14/15: On the other hand, this is one of those days when it's just really fun to be listening to Phish while I work.
8/14/15: Yarmouth Road! Nobody will ever stop me from loving this song. It is GOOD.
8/14/15: This one keeps the little jam before the bridge lyrics, like the version in Bend.
8/14/15: Tuuuuuuuube.
8/14/15: Bouncin'. They've been playing this a lot this year. Kind of neat.
8/14/15: Bouncin' > Maze.
8/14/15: Another day, another great Maze.
8/14/15: Waiting All Night next. Setlist flow is a little herky-jerky now, but loving the song choices.
8/14/15: Lawn Boy.
8/14/15: Devotion is next. Considering how this set started, this is starting to feel a little saggy.
8/14/15: Wolfman's now. This set seems long.
8/14/15: Rather than going the funk direction with this one, the guys take it in a more straight-up rock direction.
8/14/15: Compact but peaky version there.
8/14/15: Suzy Greenberg next. This set refuses to end!
8/14/15: Pretty sure Fish just screamed 'Forgotten my name, huh?! My name is MAX!!!'
8/14/15: So, S2 starts with The Wedge. It's a little weird to me how often they've been throwing this in early in S2s.
8/14/15: There's never really any pretense toward jamming it, either. It just sits there.
8/14/15: Setlist weirdness aside, that was a great Wedge solo from Trey.
8/14/15: Golden Age!
8/14/15: Trey has the ability to either play the guitar correctly or get the lyrics right.
8/14/15: He keeps alternating between each approach.
8/14/15: This tune is responsible for a few of the more interesting jams of the tour. I wish they'd practiced it more.
8/14/15: Page over to the organ right away to start the jam.
8/14/15: That was fucking slick.
8/14/15: I think I like Golden Age jams almost all the time because the basic Type I beat Fish plays is just awesome.
8/14/15: Time for some echo-funk jamming!
8/14/15: Mike is laying down a hell of a bassline for this jam.
8/14/15: SOAM-like jam emerging now.
8/14/15: Page keeping the descending chord jam going while Trey solos over it.
8/14/15: Creepy echo-y fadeout.
8/14/15: > Reba.
8/14/15: That moment when Trey leads the segue into the next song and then can't start the song correctly.
8/14/15: Like the S2 Reba call, though.
8/14/15: Okay, Trey just played the end of the song during the beginning of the chase sequence.
8/14/15: Maybe there's just too many songs in there. Maybe the break before MSG will knock the GD songs out and make room.
8/14/15: Well, gripes about the composed part aside, Trey is laying down a great 2015-style Reba jam.
8/14/15: This song has been consistently great this year.
8/14/15: Mike's Song jam starts off with some chunky Trey chording. Now seamless move into a rock solo.
8/14/15: I think they're playing it a little faster than usual. Feels really kinetic.
8/14/15: Trey's doing some really wild stuff during this Mike's jam.
8/14/15: No second jam in Mike's. Loopy ending leads to Ghost instead.
8/14/15: Stop-start, weird opening to Ghost. I like it.
8/14/15: Last two Ghosts have had beginnings that are more playful, like Bowie or Hood. It's cool.
8/14/15: Totally evil Ghost jam. Reminiscent of Bend Simple.
8/14/15: Rock solo emerging from the fuzz, now.
8/14/15: Serious blues rock happening now.
8/14/15: Trey picking the outro riff up, but Page moving to the organ.
8/14/15: Angry chords mixing with a gorgeous Page melody now.
8/14/15: NO QUARTER
8/14/15: My favorite Zeppelin song, and will never forget screaming my damn head off when Page started it at Dick's '14.
8/14/15: I could not believe it. Thought for sure the 'N' was going to be 'Nothing.'
8/14/15: That was probably the hardest-rocking and 'best' (whatever that means) No Quarter yet.
8/14/15: > Groove.
8/14/15: Groove is a bit uptempo.
8/14/15: Trey laying down a hell of a little solo already.
8/14/15: Trey is teasing something and I'm going to fucking freak out if I can't figure out what.
8/14/15: Oh, duh. No Quarter. It's been a long day, folks.
8/14/15: Well, that was fun. A huge Mike's Groove powered almost entirely by Trey's insane rock and roll guitar.
8/14/15: For as great as the whole band has been playing lately, that sort of guitar domination doesn't happen very often post-2010 or so.
8/14/15: Frist Tbue!
8/14/15: Just checking to see if you were paying attention.
8/14/15: First Tube was super hot. Farmhouse encore, though? Weird.
(Sorry, forgot to review the encore last night)
8/14/15: Page piano solo in Farmhouse!
8/14/15: No offense to Trey, but this immediately became one of the prettiest Farmhouses I've heard in a long time.
8/14/15: Fire! Well, that's an interesting pair of songs for an encore.
8/14/15: Some drill there at the end of Fire.
So, the Walnut Creek show is in an unenviable spot, sitting as it does between the Mann run and the MPP run. But it shouldn't be overlooked: it's certainly not one of the better shows of the year, but there's a lot here to enjoy nonetheless.
Note: I'm pasting in audio-only "videos" for this show because for some reason it's missing from phishtracks, and there are almost no quality videos from the show.
The first set starts off with the awesome slow "Llama." I really enjoyed this retooling of a classic and am hoping that we might see more of this done with other S1 mainstays next year. There aren't really any more surprises in the opening frame, but the playing is strong and kinetic up until "Maze"...but then things just sort of sputter out. It's not that the playing is bad or anything, but there are just too many "sit down" songs in a row, and then when the band ramps back up, they do so with a tepid version of "Wolfman's," a song that's been revived to the point where a monster S1 jam is a given...usually.
The weirdness continues when S2 opens with "The Wedge," which stays completely in the lines. Luckily, next is "Golden Age," and like the 8/4 and 9/4 versions, it gets pretty far Out There. This guy goes after the echo-funk jam first, before eventually segueing into a "Split"-soundalike space that carries through for a few minutes. Ultimately, we get a fadeout into "Reba." The rare second-set "Reba" is choppy through the composed section, but Trey leads the band through the jam to a typically strong 2015 version.
The "Mike's" that follows sort of sums up the rest of the show: incredible energy, but no big jam. The second "Mike's" jam is apparently a thing of the past already, but this version is a powerful, guitar-led ride nonetheless. The "Ghost" goes the way of the Bend "Simple," with evil echoes and loops filling most of its running time until a great segue into "No Quarter." This is the hardest-rocking and cleanest version of the band's cover of the Led Zeppelin song yet, and the "Groove" that closes off the Mike's sandwich returns to the guitar pyrotechnics that started this sequence. Especially compared to Mann 2, there's nothing here that jams on that level, but this closing sequence is fantastic anyway, and that "Golden Age" ain't too shabby either. Don't write this one off.
The Live Review:
8/14/15: Slow Llama to start. Awesome.
8/14/15: Dear @phish, please play Llama like this more often.
8/14/15: Great opener. Chalkdust next.
8/14/15: Re-envisioning some of the classic S1 songs might be a way to keep opening sets fresh.
8/14/15: I imagine it's not terribly hard for consummate musicians to say 'Let's just play a funk version of Llama tonight.'
8/14/15: Moma Dance third. Trey MuTroning it up during the intro.
8/14/15: Trey trying to do something different with the outro solo. It's not really working.
8/14/15: On the other hand, this is one of those days when it's just really fun to be listening to Phish while I work.
8/14/15: Yarmouth Road! Nobody will ever stop me from loving this song. It is GOOD.
8/14/15: This one keeps the little jam before the bridge lyrics, like the version in Bend.
8/14/15: Tuuuuuuuube.
8/14/15: Bouncin'. They've been playing this a lot this year. Kind of neat.
8/14/15: Bouncin' > Maze.
8/14/15: Another day, another great Maze.
8/14/15: Waiting All Night next. Setlist flow is a little herky-jerky now, but loving the song choices.
8/14/15: Lawn Boy.
8/14/15: Devotion is next. Considering how this set started, this is starting to feel a little saggy.
8/14/15: Wolfman's now. This set seems long.
8/14/15: Rather than going the funk direction with this one, the guys take it in a more straight-up rock direction.
8/14/15: Compact but peaky version there.
8/14/15: Suzy Greenberg next. This set refuses to end!
8/14/15: Pretty sure Fish just screamed 'Forgotten my name, huh?! My name is MAX!!!'
8/14/15: So, S2 starts with The Wedge. It's a little weird to me how often they've been throwing this in early in S2s.
8/14/15: There's never really any pretense toward jamming it, either. It just sits there.
8/14/15: Setlist weirdness aside, that was a great Wedge solo from Trey.
8/14/15: Golden Age!
8/14/15: Trey has the ability to either play the guitar correctly or get the lyrics right.
8/14/15: He keeps alternating between each approach.
8/14/15: This tune is responsible for a few of the more interesting jams of the tour. I wish they'd practiced it more.
8/14/15: Page over to the organ right away to start the jam.
8/14/15: That was fucking slick.
8/14/15: I think I like Golden Age jams almost all the time because the basic Type I beat Fish plays is just awesome.
8/14/15: Time for some echo-funk jamming!
8/14/15: Mike is laying down a hell of a bassline for this jam.
8/14/15: SOAM-like jam emerging now.
8/14/15: Page keeping the descending chord jam going while Trey solos over it.
8/14/15: Creepy echo-y fadeout.
8/14/15: > Reba.
8/14/15: That moment when Trey leads the segue into the next song and then can't start the song correctly.
8/14/15: Like the S2 Reba call, though.
8/14/15: Okay, Trey just played the end of the song during the beginning of the chase sequence.
8/14/15: Maybe there's just too many songs in there. Maybe the break before MSG will knock the GD songs out and make room.
8/14/15: Well, gripes about the composed part aside, Trey is laying down a great 2015-style Reba jam.
8/14/15: This song has been consistently great this year.
8/14/15: Mike's Song jam starts off with some chunky Trey chording. Now seamless move into a rock solo.
8/14/15: I think they're playing it a little faster than usual. Feels really kinetic.
8/14/15: Trey's doing some really wild stuff during this Mike's jam.
8/14/15: No second jam in Mike's. Loopy ending leads to Ghost instead.
8/14/15: Stop-start, weird opening to Ghost. I like it.
8/14/15: Last two Ghosts have had beginnings that are more playful, like Bowie or Hood. It's cool.
8/14/15: Totally evil Ghost jam. Reminiscent of Bend Simple.
8/14/15: Rock solo emerging from the fuzz, now.
8/14/15: Serious blues rock happening now.
8/14/15: Trey picking the outro riff up, but Page moving to the organ.
8/14/15: Angry chords mixing with a gorgeous Page melody now.
8/14/15: NO QUARTER
8/14/15: My favorite Zeppelin song, and will never forget screaming my damn head off when Page started it at Dick's '14.
8/14/15: I could not believe it. Thought for sure the 'N' was going to be 'Nothing.'
8/14/15: That was probably the hardest-rocking and 'best' (whatever that means) No Quarter yet.
8/14/15: > Groove.
8/14/15: Groove is a bit uptempo.
8/14/15: Trey laying down a hell of a little solo already.
8/14/15: Trey is teasing something and I'm going to fucking freak out if I can't figure out what.
8/14/15: Oh, duh. No Quarter. It's been a long day, folks.
8/14/15: Well, that was fun. A huge Mike's Groove powered almost entirely by Trey's insane rock and roll guitar.
8/14/15: For as great as the whole band has been playing lately, that sort of guitar domination doesn't happen very often post-2010 or so.
8/14/15: Frist Tbue!
8/14/15: Just checking to see if you were paying attention.
8/14/15: First Tube was super hot. Farmhouse encore, though? Weird.
(Sorry, forgot to review the encore last night)
8/14/15: Page piano solo in Farmhouse!
8/14/15: No offense to Trey, but this immediately became one of the prettiest Farmhouses I've heard in a long time.
8/14/15: Fire! Well, that's an interesting pair of songs for an encore.
8/14/15: Some drill there at the end of Fire.
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