I remember this show as having been very disappointing. On relisten, it's not so much "disappointing" as it is "mostly workmanlike." When you have a repertoire like Phish's "workmanlike" can be either praise or insult: their songs are so complex just plain good that a straightforward, by-the-numbers show is still better than most live music on earth; at the same time, there are so many Phish shows with brilliantly creative and unique musical moments in them, why would you ever settle for a "normal" one?
Thus, I probably won't be listening to the band's only Fenway Park show again any time soon, save for maybe the "Tweezer" > "Light" sequence.
As the seventh set of 3.0, the first set of Fenway is definitely the worst so far. Song selection and flow are not up to par with any of the Hampton nights, and most of the songs are, again, workmanlike. There's nothing terrible here, but you don't have to look far to find better versions of everything. The a capella "Star Spangled Banner" opener is fun, but the harmonies are also off in a few places, which makes the whole thing a little uncomfortable. As always, "Moma Dance" is a first set highlight, "Chalkdust" is maybe a little more fiery than usual, and "Ocelot" is, well, "Ocelot," even in its debut incarnation. "Limb by Limb" and a late-set "Disease" are slightly extended, but neither goes much beyond your basic Type I Trey-shredding, and his straightforward soloing is nowhere near as engaging as it was during Hampton II or III. "Destiny Unbound" is a nice bust-out, and features maybe the best playing (a little mini funk jam) of the set.
"Tweezer" > "Light" is easily this show's highlight. It's no Hampton I "Tweezer," but it's still a pretty fascinating beast, with some "Theme" elements wound up in the jam, and a few minutes of abstract soundscapes at the end that melt perfectly into the first-ever "Light." This is the old "Light," not the huge jam vehicle the song's become, and it's actually neat to hear it this way. There's a quick solo from Trey and then a vocals-only outro and then the song just ends, in just over five minutes. It works, even if it's weird to not hear a 20-minute version in the post-'11 era. It would actually be really fun if the band would occasionally truncate these jam vehicles like this nowadays, while elevating usual, non-jam songs to 10 or 15 minute heights from time to time ("Tube" or "Halley's" anyone?), but I digress.
The "Gin" is serviceable here and features Trey playing around with the outro melody a bit, to great effect, but again, it doesn't top the Hampton version. "Bowie" is the silver medal highlight of the night; it's well-played and the jam is a lot less dark than usual. The rest of the set is sort of bogged down by the one-two punch of "Time Turns Elastic" and "YEM," minus a nice "Curtis Loew," a song I've been a huge fan of since I saw the cover it at Blossom '10. Don't get me wrong here; I actually love both "TTE" and "YEM," but they're very long, very composed songs, and you really only want one of them at a time in a set or maybe even only one at a time in an entire show. Neither song is known for its improvisation or its jamming, and whenever either one starts, you've got a pretty good idea of what's going to happen for the next twenty or twenty-five minutes...so yeah, having them nearly back-to-back is not so good.
The triple encore is pretty fun, though.
Quick note: I remember hearing at the time that lots of people thought that the '09 Summer Tour LivePhish mixes were shit, and now that I'm listening to them again...yeah, they're shit. Hampton was great, but this Fenway show sounds like it was recorded in the parking lot, through a huge wall of wet sponges, and for some reason the vocals are pushed pretty dramatically to the fore. Because that's what we all see Phish for: the vocals.
Anyway, I'm really excited to move into '09 tour proper...for me, after Fenway this is pretty uncharted territory. I listened intently to the second leg of Summer '09, but everything else (including the Fall and Winter tours) is going to be mostly new. Whoo!
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