So, the second night of the Gorge run is a solid show, for sure. However, following on the heels of the mostly-spectacular Red Rocks run and a possible best-of-tour candidate in Gorge I, it's a bit of a letdown. But not much of one.
The "Mango" opener is much appreciated. It's well-played, and the harmonies (something which seems to often suffer in 3.0) are spot-on. There's also an excellent little Page solo with Trey doing some nice chording work during. "Chalkdust" is a great, rock-y followup (as usual), but while "Middle of the Road" is a great Mike-centered surprise, Trey sort of drops the ball on the soloing.
Anytime you get "Tweezer" in the four spot, you know the guys are trying to get something serious started. This version is worth a listen, though I have to say that in a year full of amazing "Tweezer"s this one isn't anywhere near my favorite. The jam starts off with some guitar loops, of all things, followed by some of the minimalist funk that's been popular through late June and early August. Fishman then pushes the band forward with a more driving beat, and Trey responds with the fuzz. The last few minutes abandon any semblance of improvisation, though, and just feature TreyShredzz (TM) all the way through, and then the song just suddenly ends. Like I said, not a bad version by any means, but not as satisfying as some of the Leg One versions (or the Hampton version!).
Fortunately, "Driver" is next, which is one of my favorite "cool down" songs. "20 Years Later" is a great song, but it's a weird follow-up to "Driver," and this version is just sloppy as all hell. Fortunately, at this low-energy point there's still about an hour left in the first set (this might be the longest first set ever). The energy kicks back in with a "Ya Mar" that features some great interplay between Mike-thumping and Trey's high-neck noodling action, and then there's an excellently-played "It's Ice" with some extra spaciness in the middle for good measure.
Here's my actually-self-made video of part of "It's Ice":
Next, there's an 11-minute "Wolfman's" featuring some standard summer funk-rock that seems destined to end the set...but nope, we're still going. "Character Zero" is actually quite good, and Trey's guitar tone at the beginning is so dirty and distorted that it almost wanders into Frampton-talking-guitar territory, which is at least interesting to hear if nothing else. Then there's the "Antelope." In a summer where "Antelope" has just been flat-out rocked out of the park on many occasions, this one stands out in quality by being just as exciting, but in different ways. There's a lot of back-and-forth and brilliant little telepathy moments in the intro, and the early part of the jam is dominated by Trey's surprisingly melodic and restrained soloing. Then, just for good measure, the last few minutes launch into that ridiculous shredding that has characterized most "Antelope"s so far this year. Then the first set is finally over. Just by virtue of it being so fucking massive, I'd say that there's a good moment or two for everyone here in this set. It sags a bit in the middle, but the last few songs patch things up nicely. In fact, if you're a big fan of "Tweezer" and/or "Antelope," you could probably make an argument for this being the second show in a row where the first set trumps the second set. It sort of depends on how you feel about a 23-minute "Rock and Roll," though.
Here's a video I shot during "Wolfman's":
Phish apparently loves "Rock and Roll" in the Gorge. This version is nowhere near on par with the 2011 version in terms of quality, but it's actually quite a bit longer. Up until about the 10:00 mark, it's all type 1 shredding, but then the bottom drops out, and Page's clav and Trey's guitar play back and forth for a few minutes over a spacey background. Next, Trey brings out the whale pedal (to good effect) while everyone else works on building funk textures in the background. At about 18:00, we return to standard-ish rock, with Mike, surprisingly, leading everyone to the peak of the song and then back into the vocal refrain. Overall, this is the rare 23-minute jam where I left feeling neither bored/annoyed or particularly blissful. It's good and all, and good enough to justify the 23-minute run-time (unlike a lot of, say, 2.0 long jams), but it's also not necessarily in the top 10 (or even maybe like top 25) of the year. Take that as you will.
The rest of the second set features a lot of standard versions of songs with interesting little moments built into them. For example, "Makisupa Policeman," which is played pretty much like it usually is, except for the fact that Mike and Trey trade instruments partway through. Then there are standard versions of "Alaska" and "The Wedge," followed by a pretty standard "YEM" that suddenly spotlights Mike playing a sinister, spacey bass near the end of the jam while Trey noodles "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter underneath him before Mike just bursts into flames and starts ripping off an excellent solo. Similarly, "Number Line" is plain old "Number Line" right up until the end of the jam, where Trey busts out the whale again to great effect and then leads the band in a neat segue into "Piper" while everyone else keeps playing "Number Line" briefly under the "Piper" riff. "Piper," also, is pretty straightforward in terms of the jam, but Trey's and Page's tones are much more distorted than usual, so the effect is a jam that's pretty average in terms of playing, but that sounds a lot weirder than usual. "Good Times Bad Times" > "Tweeprise" is just a ridiculously good run-closer; there's not really anything else to say about that.
One more self-indulgent link:
Overall, I definitely didn't appreciate these shows as much as I could have in the context of the entire comeback back when I saw them live. However, on relisten, while the second night pales in comparison to the first, the two shows together stand up to any two shows from the Red Rocks run, and it's safe to say that Phish left the Gorge in '09 playing better than they'd played at any point since the comeback began. I've actually never heard any more '09 Phish after the Gorge before, so I'm excited to finish out this run and get in to fall tour. What the hell ever happened to fall tours, anyway?! Can we get some more of those someday? Like this fall, maybe?
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