So far in my yet-brief review of 3.0, there have been three kinds of shows:
1. Average shows that, while solidly played, don't contain any moments that make them worthy of a relisten above any of Phish's many other average shows.
2. Shows that are like (1), except with the addition of a standout jam or two.
3. Shows that are legitimately unique and worth a relisten all the way through (with the possible exception of a song here or there).
Jones Beach III doesn't really fall into any of these categories. It sits somewhere between (1) and (3), with absolutely no movement toward (2) at all. In the end, I found it very dissatisfying, but there were a lot of well-played songs. Something didn't sit well with me, but at the same time I could easily see this being someone else's favorite show of early summer '09. It's weird.
Anyway, there's probably somebody who really likes this first set. I am not that person. "KDF" has a little extra mustard on it in the guitar area, but nothing worth tuning in for really happens until "Ya Mar," which is the seventh song. This is a really playful version of the song, with Trey improvising some fun lines introducing Leo's solo, and then doing the same for Mike. Mike steps up with a solid and suitably wacky bass solo, and things seem like they might finally be about to pick up. The band moves into "Theme" next, though, and unlike the Hampton version, this one is botched to high heaven, killing any leftover momentum. "Boogie On" is always a winner in 3.0, but this one doesn't do anything exceptionally interesting, and then we've got "SOaM" to close the set. One of my great failings as a Phish fan is, I'm certain, that I have almost never gotten the point of a "SOaM" jam. I love the song, but the jam almost always just loses me and tempts me with hitting the "Next" button. This version isn't any different: it's spacey, and dark, and abstract...and falls totally flat. Again, though, I could see this jam being the highlight of someone's summer...just not me.
Things are a bit better in the second set, though the highlights don't come from the part of the setlist you'd expect. They start off with "DWD," and based on the show's previous Hampton outing, it seems like we might be off on a magic carpet ride right away. Instead, the 12-minute version is mostly a Trey wankfest, albeit a solid one. It's in the smooth, brilliant segue into "Twist" that really gets things going, though. If you're a jam "purist" who needs something to be 20 minutes long to be worth your time, you can move along at this point, but I'm a firm believer in 3.0's mid-length jam brilliance, and here's a great early embodiment of it in the following "Twist" > "Piper" combination. Both songs cover a lot of ground in a short period, with "Twist" entering almost calypso/Caribbean territory and "Piper" blending the spaceyness and the funk of some of the bigger Hampton jams into an uptempo throwdown that's just 3-4 minutes of straight awesome. There's no real ">" to speak of from "Piper" to "Number Line," but this early "Number Line" is an interesting version, with some thoughtful and varied soloing from Trey. "Free" is "Free": it's one of the few Phish songs where the album version is always going to sound better than anything done live (more or less). This version does nothing to change my mind. I had high hopes for "Twenty Years" > "2001" > "Slave," but there's not much to say about it except another short and extra juicy "2001" a la the Hampton version and a little interesting whale-y action from Trey in the "Slave." "A Day In the Life" is one of my favorite Phish covers, so that was nice to hear at the end, I guess...
As you can probably tell, I'm less than enthused here. Plus, there's no real decent videos on YouTube of this show.
My favorite show of this run is the "Hood" and the "Ghost." Just those, over and over, for three hours. Nothing else, please. Moving on.
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