The Verdict:
I almost feel as if the last night of the Dick's run needs two reviews: one that includes the encore and one that doesn't. Having been there in person, The Encore was a huge surprise, hugely exciting, and one of my favorite concert moments ever. On tape, minus the element of surprise and the always-elusive and controversial I-Was-There Factor, it's a sort of funny, random string of roughly-played songs that closes out a tour known for its jams and the third night of a final summer run that's been surprisingly sparse at doling those jams out.
As I said at the beginning of my Dick's I review, and have been saying since, it's hard to consider these shows outside of the long shadow of Magnaball. If you're able, you'll find all three of them have a lot to like, though they all err toward the mini-jams-and-segues style of 2014-2015 Phish more than the monster jams style of 2014-2015 Phish. This run should certainly be more highly regarded than it is, but at the same time I can absolutely understand why it's not. Dick's III is certainly an emotional exclamation point to summer tour, but a musical one? Not as much.
The first set is an amalgam of the first two nights' opening frames: there are some legitimate highlights, but they're sprinkled all over and then mixed liberally with lots of absolutely standard S1 fare. On a normal night, sure, I'll take it, but closing out the tour, at Dick's, a mostly-phoned-in first set sticks out like a sore thumb.
That said, "The Landlady" is a great bustout, and it's played extremely well, with Trey digging in for some monster opening riffs. "Seven Below" is a surprise call, and though its jam never leaves the box, the song itself is weird enough that that box is larger than it is for many of Phish's more predictable songs. This may be my favorite part of the set.
Trey goes to town on "Caspian," and while, yes, it's still just "Caspian" and not the Magnaball "Caspian," I'd suggest a listen. If you like "Scent" in its recently-expanded, marimba-driven mode, you could do worse than this version, especially because it dumps out into a raucous version of "Saw It Again."
The second set is, in a way, a perfect example of what 2015 Phish has been all about. You have a stupid-good, extended bliss jam in "Disease," and then the rest of the set is comprises of smaller, interesting spaces joined by powerful segues and a relentless flow. It's easy for me to feel "Carini" or "Piper" could have gone deeper, or to be disappointed that the Dick's "Tweezer" didn't blow the roof off, but all three of those songs have something going for them: "Carini" is complex, if brief, "Piper" channels (and maybe teases?) the end of the "Disease" jam's bliss, and "Tweezer" gets the echo-funk treatment. Add in a sparsely funky, longish "2001" and you've got a second set that really can't be faulted for anything but track length. And knocking it for that might be missing the point of 2015 Phish. Maybe.
The second set starts at 1:33:00:
Then there's the encore. It's perfect and beautiful and you had to be there. Sorry if you weren't. Just watch it again, because I can't say anything that hasn't already been said:
The Live Review:
9/6/15: Dick's 3 opening with super-rare Landlady.
9/6/15: Rare, at least, to hear on its own, minus the PYITE sandwich.
9/6/15: Nice take, too. Free is next.
9/6/15: Free is its usual loud, messy self, crashing around and being sort of annoying but not apologizing.
9/6/15: I swear, nowadays Trey doesn't touch his guitar for like 33% of that song. I wonder why.
9/6/15: Moma!
9/6/15: Fiery but in-the-box version of Moma leads directly into an uptempo Seven Below.
9/6/15: Driving variation on the main Seven Below riff leading off the jam.
9/6/15: That one never got too weird, but Seven Below jams, even first-set ones, are always interesting. Caspian next.
9/6/15: Caspian is super short, but gets rocked THE HELL out. Wow.
9/6/15: Smooth segue into Number Line.
9/6/15: Number Line is in the vein of most 2015 versions, with the high-neck trilling peak at the end.
9/6/15: Number Line, The Line. Not a fan-favorite setlist call there.
9/6/15: gf: 'I really like 'The Line.' me: 'Yes. That is the best Phish song. That is the song everyone wants them to play at the concert.'
9/6/15: I hate laser beams.
9/6/15: Scent + marimba lumina is always a good time.
9/6/15: Saw It Again, setlist surprise edition!
9/6/15: Short but neat version leads into Halfway To the Moon.
9/6/15: S1 closes with Birdwatcher and Frankenstein.
9/6/15: That S1 was sort of combination of the best and worst of the previous two nights'.
9/6/15: It had all the aimless variety and lack of flow of N2's opening frame, but a lot of the verve and solid playing of N1's.
9/6/15: Aside from The Landlady, though, only real highlights were the peak on Caspian and the Seven Below mini-jam.
9/6/15: Wilson opens the second set.
9/6/15: Disease emerges from the Wilson-ending fuzz, and the jam is straight rock and roll to start. Page all over the place on piano.
9/6/15: Solo taking a darker turn. Page to electric piano.
9/6/15: Heavily distorted, spacey tone from Trey now. Page back to piano.
9/6/15: Circular beat from Fish.
9/6/15: Trey chording a bliss-y little riff, coming up out of the murk. Electric piano washes and lots of snare complimenting.
9/6/15: Aaaaand Trey just pulls this absolutely magical fucking riff out of absolutely nowhere right at 12:00 and here we go.
9/6/15: Picking up speed now.
9/6/15: Loops in with the riff now.
9/6/15: Machine gun Trey is paying us a visit for the big peak.
9/6/15: Rockets out of the riff into a meaty series of chords.
9/6/15: That sounded like it was supposed to go somewhere, but it doesn't. > Carini.
9/6/15: WALRUS ON YOUR FACE WALRUS ON YOUR FACE WALRUS ON YOUR FACE WALRUS ON YOUR FACE WALRUS ON YOUR FACE WALRUS ON YOUR FACE WALRUS ON YO
9/6/15: Carini is getting the 2015 Angry Guitar Loops Jam treatment here.
9/6/15: Lots of satisfyingly angry jamming later, things are mellowing out...and Trey pulls out some Steam.
9/6/15: Steam goes short and Type I, and we go into Piper almost immediately.
9/6/15: I'm pretty sure Trey just teases the Disease jam riff in Piper, and now the jam is taking a really similar direction.
9/6/15: Trey singing 'Rockin' Down the Highway' over a little peppy rock jam that emerged in Piper. Then, > 2001.
9/6/15: 2001 also gets the echo-loop treatment, to great effect. This is the best 2001 in awhile. Long and patient, funky.
9/6/15: Did I mention it's longer than four minutes?
9/6/15: Tweezah.
9/6/15: Some really wacky chording stuff from Trey in what's usually the boring part of Tweezer.
9/6/15: Thus the inevitable echo-funk version of Tweezer comes into being.
9/6/15: Oh, and it's awesome.
9/6/15: Tweezer jam hits a lull and Trey starts up The Horse.
9/6/15: Weird that he began the song with the guitar riff, but then Page took over on piano during the vocals.
9/6/15: > Silent.
9/6/15: Nice, by-the-book Slave to round out the second set.
9/6/15: Time for The Encore.
9/6/15: Chants for Fluffhead after Tweeprise. Missed that at the show. I feel like Harpua is probably even better.
9/6/15: I loved the inclusion of After Midnight here. As a huge Phish fan who will likely never be able to afford MSG or a festival...
9/6/15: ...this might have been the only time I get to see the band play until midnight, so the tune felt like a neat acknowledgment of that
9/6/15: NO2 is fun. I really enjoyed everyone gathering around Page for Keyboard Army, though.
9/6/15: Gave a real communal feel to the song that wouldn't have been there if everyone had had their own keyboards.
9/6/15: 'I love having a pet. I love having a cat. I love having a pet cat. I wonder how long people have been keeping cats as pets?'
9/6/15: The funniest part of the whole encore, imo :)
9/6/15: > Your Pet Cat.
9/6/15: Nevermind. Mike eating the cat is absolutely the best part.
9/6/15: People who complain that this encore sucks because they sort of botch Once in a Lifetime are missing the point.
9/6/15: Love that they bring back 'A doooooooog!' at the end of Once In a Lifetime.
9/6/15: United To Stand to close.
9/6/15: Really should be seen rather than just heard, if you want to. https://t.co/CziR46FJAW
Jan 21, 2016
Jan 12, 2016
2015-09-05 Dick's II
The Verdict:
Night two at Dick's falls short of the heights of night one, mainly because of the disposable nature of the first set. In a year where many first sets have been don't-miss affairs, and most others have at least offered up compelling versions of expected songs, this one falls pretty flat. The one enormous exception is the angry, droning, personal favorite version of "Split Open and Melt," which is likely the highlight of the show. The solos in the two tunes that follow it, "Limb By Limb" and "Roggae," parallel each other in some neat ways, but neither one is a legit highlight. I haven't said this often during this tour, but for this first set, you'd be fine to just skip everything but the "Split."
At first glance, the second set really seems to center on the "Chalkdust," but there's actually much more
going on here. "ASIHTOS," like many of the proto-jams from night one, seems to be ready to open the set with a deep jam, as Trey and company get mellow and weird with it right off the bat; however, nothing happens after three minutes or so of noodling, and they bail in favor of "Chalkdust."
I enjoyed this version of the tune much more the second time than I did in person: there's a lot going on, and it's all good. There's a driving echo-rock section, a great melody solo by Trey, a catchy descending progression that seems destined to drive the jam into bliss territory, they a really interesting, turn-on-a-dime lick from Trey that cuts the bliss short and drives the jam toward a more unique, dark, echo-funk conclusion. This jam definitely stands alongside the first night's "Golden Age" in terms of quality and variety. And the slow, gooey transition into "Twist" is magical.
Another "What If?" moment, here: if "Twist" goes super-deep, we have a top-shelf 2015 set. But, alas, it's not to be. The short, minimally bluesy "Twist" that happens instead is honestly pretty great, but not in the magical category a "Chalkdust" -> "Twist" monster jam would have been.
"Mercury" is next, and it gets an extended dark rock outro (which is new) before "Light" takes a short but deeply satisfying jaunt into darkness.
In case my review hasn't already driven home the notion that you shouldn't ignore the middle of this set because the song timings are shorter than you'd like, the encore offers up one of my favorite "Hood"s in a long time (and in a long line of great 2014-2015 "Hood"s) despite the fact that it's under ten minutes long and stays firmly in Type I mode the entire time. Trey and Page's interplay, and then Trey's powerfully building solo really make this version.
In short, don't sleep on the back half of this show. You'd be missing out.
Set two starts at 1:19:00:
The Live Review:
9/5/15: Finally back for Dick's 2. No Men opener.
9/5/15: Short and sweet No Men's > Martian Monster.
9/5/15: Page going a little sample-crazy here.
9/5/15: The chewing samples during MM are always a little creepy.
9/5/15: Short MM, too. > NICU.
9/5/15: Stealing Time is next. S1 is fast and sort-of furious so far. Not going for any big surprises early.
9/5/15: Bouncin' is next, followed by an extra-punchy 555.
9/5/15: Winterqueen continues a very hit-parade-style set.
Woo! https://t.co/oY1mjgqn18
9/5/15: Well, there have certainly been worse Winterqueens than that one.
9/5/15: It's like the band wants to cut lose, but they refuse to play a song that lets them really do so.
9/5/15: Split starts off typically enough, but really quickly descends into an angry, arrhythmic mess in the best way.
9/5/15: Trey bending notes into the groooooound.
9/5/15: Lurching, ominous soloing from Trey. I love this version of this song.
9/5/15: It's even better with the lights... https://t.co/P684Jg48aQ
9/5/15: Slowly working back to the Split outro now.
9/5/15: LxL is next, featuring a great solo from Trey with a bit of Trey/Page interplay near the end.
9/5/15: Roggae!
9/5/15: LxL-style solo in Roggae now. That's pretty neat. I did not notice that the first time through this show.
9/5/15: Typically great take on Roggae. Set closing with Zero.
9/5/15: First set was about as plain as they come, especially in 2015...*except* for that excellent SOAM, which is one of my favorites ever.
9/5/15: (Favorite SOAMs, I mean)
9/5/15: LxL and Roggae were both strong versions, but nothing I'd put on a highlight reel. Surprisingly plain set, all told.
9/5/15: ASIHTOS opens S2.
9/5/15: Trey going super-distorted early on in the jam.
9/5/15: A few minutes of murky jamming doesn't coalesce into anything, and Trey wraps it up. CDT next.
9/5/15: BOAF-like intro to Chalkdust. That was neat.
9/5/15: Band blows right through the end of CDT and keeps going. Trey switches on the echo almost immediately. Page to clav.
9/5/15: Echo-jamming, but it's kept different than most echo-jams so far this year by Fish's continuing driving beat.
9/5/15: Trey switching to melody now. Fish picking up the beat even more. Page to piano.
9/5/15: Bass bombs.
9/5/15: Descending three-chord progression pushing things further toward bliss-rock territory.
9/5/15: Trey just pulled a 180, pushing things back into a mellower, darker space.
9/5/15: Move into echo-funk territory now.
9/5/15: NICE segue into Twist.
9/5/15: The way that jam slowly morphed into Twist (with Trey singing the opening lines over the jam, even) was awesome.
9/5/15: Wind-down breakdown over the chorus instead of the usual chords.
9/5/15: Soft, mellow, blues jamming during this Twist.
9/5/15: Fish mixing up the beat now.
9/5/15: Rather than propelling the jam, that shift in beat seems to have killed it. Fading out, > Mercury.
9/5/15: Love Mercury. I hope there's a studio version coming in the near future.
9/5/15: This version gets an extended, dark rock outro tacked onto it.
9/5/15: Page moves over to the organ, but Trey starts up Light instead.
9/5/15: First few minutes of the jam here are the usual arpeggios.
9/5/15: Shifting to distorted chording at about 6:00.
9/5/15: Page with some jazzy stylings on the electric piano. Very 2001-sounding, with angry chords crashing over it.
9/5/15: Distortion getting less angry and more spacey. Page continues his 2001-esque playing.
9/5/15: Jam winds down and makes a nice transition into Wingsuit.
9/5/15: Rock and Roll is a neat call here.
9/5/15: This Rock and Roll jam is pretty much guitar-shredding madness immediately. Wow.
9/5/15: Page: 'Thank you, dicks. All of you.'
9/5/15: Sleeping Monkey.
9/5/15: Monkey > Hood.
9/5/15: Got distracted, sorry. Back for Hood.
9/5/15: Really, really gorgeous interplay between Trey and Page to start this jam.
9/5/15: Great ending, with Page-only piano -> Day In the Life.
9/5/15: That is the first sub-10-minute Hood I've heard in a LONG time, and yet it was fantastic. That solo. Wow.
9/5/15: https://t.co/rHIgPadXGr
Night two at Dick's falls short of the heights of night one, mainly because of the disposable nature of the first set. In a year where many first sets have been don't-miss affairs, and most others have at least offered up compelling versions of expected songs, this one falls pretty flat. The one enormous exception is the angry, droning, personal favorite version of "Split Open and Melt," which is likely the highlight of the show. The solos in the two tunes that follow it, "Limb By Limb" and "Roggae," parallel each other in some neat ways, but neither one is a legit highlight. I haven't said this often during this tour, but for this first set, you'd be fine to just skip everything but the "Split."
At first glance, the second set really seems to center on the "Chalkdust," but there's actually much more
going on here. "ASIHTOS," like many of the proto-jams from night one, seems to be ready to open the set with a deep jam, as Trey and company get mellow and weird with it right off the bat; however, nothing happens after three minutes or so of noodling, and they bail in favor of "Chalkdust."
I enjoyed this version of the tune much more the second time than I did in person: there's a lot going on, and it's all good. There's a driving echo-rock section, a great melody solo by Trey, a catchy descending progression that seems destined to drive the jam into bliss territory, they a really interesting, turn-on-a-dime lick from Trey that cuts the bliss short and drives the jam toward a more unique, dark, echo-funk conclusion. This jam definitely stands alongside the first night's "Golden Age" in terms of quality and variety. And the slow, gooey transition into "Twist" is magical.
Another "What If?" moment, here: if "Twist" goes super-deep, we have a top-shelf 2015 set. But, alas, it's not to be. The short, minimally bluesy "Twist" that happens instead is honestly pretty great, but not in the magical category a "Chalkdust" -> "Twist" monster jam would have been.
"Mercury" is next, and it gets an extended dark rock outro (which is new) before "Light" takes a short but deeply satisfying jaunt into darkness.
In case my review hasn't already driven home the notion that you shouldn't ignore the middle of this set because the song timings are shorter than you'd like, the encore offers up one of my favorite "Hood"s in a long time (and in a long line of great 2014-2015 "Hood"s) despite the fact that it's under ten minutes long and stays firmly in Type I mode the entire time. Trey and Page's interplay, and then Trey's powerfully building solo really make this version.
In short, don't sleep on the back half of this show. You'd be missing out.
Set two starts at 1:19:00:
The Live Review:
9/5/15: Finally back for Dick's 2. No Men opener.
9/5/15: Short and sweet No Men's > Martian Monster.
9/5/15: Page going a little sample-crazy here.
9/5/15: The chewing samples during MM are always a little creepy.
9/5/15: Short MM, too. > NICU.
9/5/15: Stealing Time is next. S1 is fast and sort-of furious so far. Not going for any big surprises early.
9/5/15: Bouncin' is next, followed by an extra-punchy 555.
9/5/15: Winterqueen continues a very hit-parade-style set.
Woo! https://t.co/oY1mjgqn18
9/5/15: Well, there have certainly been worse Winterqueens than that one.
9/5/15: It's like the band wants to cut lose, but they refuse to play a song that lets them really do so.
9/5/15: Split starts off typically enough, but really quickly descends into an angry, arrhythmic mess in the best way.
9/5/15: Trey bending notes into the groooooound.
9/5/15: Lurching, ominous soloing from Trey. I love this version of this song.
9/5/15: It's even better with the lights... https://t.co/P684Jg48aQ
9/5/15: Slowly working back to the Split outro now.
9/5/15: LxL is next, featuring a great solo from Trey with a bit of Trey/Page interplay near the end.
9/5/15: Roggae!
9/5/15: LxL-style solo in Roggae now. That's pretty neat. I did not notice that the first time through this show.
9/5/15: Typically great take on Roggae. Set closing with Zero.
9/5/15: First set was about as plain as they come, especially in 2015...*except* for that excellent SOAM, which is one of my favorites ever.
9/5/15: (Favorite SOAMs, I mean)
9/5/15: LxL and Roggae were both strong versions, but nothing I'd put on a highlight reel. Surprisingly plain set, all told.
9/5/15: ASIHTOS opens S2.
9/5/15: Trey going super-distorted early on in the jam.
9/5/15: A few minutes of murky jamming doesn't coalesce into anything, and Trey wraps it up. CDT next.
9/5/15: BOAF-like intro to Chalkdust. That was neat.
9/5/15: Band blows right through the end of CDT and keeps going. Trey switches on the echo almost immediately. Page to clav.
9/5/15: Echo-jamming, but it's kept different than most echo-jams so far this year by Fish's continuing driving beat.
9/5/15: Trey switching to melody now. Fish picking up the beat even more. Page to piano.
9/5/15: Bass bombs.
9/5/15: Descending three-chord progression pushing things further toward bliss-rock territory.
9/5/15: Trey just pulled a 180, pushing things back into a mellower, darker space.
9/5/15: Move into echo-funk territory now.
9/5/15: NICE segue into Twist.
9/5/15: The way that jam slowly morphed into Twist (with Trey singing the opening lines over the jam, even) was awesome.
9/5/15: Wind-down breakdown over the chorus instead of the usual chords.
9/5/15: Soft, mellow, blues jamming during this Twist.
9/5/15: Fish mixing up the beat now.
9/5/15: Rather than propelling the jam, that shift in beat seems to have killed it. Fading out, > Mercury.
9/5/15: Love Mercury. I hope there's a studio version coming in the near future.
9/5/15: This version gets an extended, dark rock outro tacked onto it.
9/5/15: Page moves over to the organ, but Trey starts up Light instead.
9/5/15: First few minutes of the jam here are the usual arpeggios.
9/5/15: Shifting to distorted chording at about 6:00.
9/5/15: Page with some jazzy stylings on the electric piano. Very 2001-sounding, with angry chords crashing over it.
9/5/15: Distortion getting less angry and more spacey. Page continues his 2001-esque playing.
9/5/15: Jam winds down and makes a nice transition into Wingsuit.
9/5/15: Rock and Roll is a neat call here.
9/5/15: This Rock and Roll jam is pretty much guitar-shredding madness immediately. Wow.
9/5/15: Page: 'Thank you, dicks. All of you.'
9/5/15: Sleeping Monkey.
9/5/15: Monkey > Hood.
9/5/15: Got distracted, sorry. Back for Hood.
9/5/15: Really, really gorgeous interplay between Trey and Page to start this jam.
9/5/15: Great ending, with Page-only piano -> Day In the Life.
9/5/15: That is the first sub-10-minute Hood I've heard in a LONG time, and yet it was fantastic. That solo. Wow.
9/5/15: https://t.co/rHIgPadXGr
2015-09-04 Dick's I
The Verdict:
I was really interested to dig back into the Dick's run from this year, not just because they were my last shows of the year, but also because coming after the incredible Magnaball and sitting at the end of the phenomenal 2015 summer tour, these shows had some serious hype to live up to. Unsurprisingly, they failed to reach the ridiculously high bar the recent festival sets had...umm...set. But taken out of the context of this self-defeating line of thought that every show Phish plays needs to be better than the previous show or else it's crap, how do they stand as summer 2015 shows? That's what I'm most interested in, and what I want to weigh in on over the next three reviews.
Night one is absolutely a strong 2015 show. It might fall just short of being worth mentioning as part of the upper echelon of '15 shows, but there's a lot to dig into here. On the other hand, there's a lot of "What If?" moments in the show that are hard to overlook.
On the positive side, the first set is great, with a long, albeit Type I, "Ghost" early on, an extended "Halley's" that features some fantastic playing from Trey, a rocktastic "Gin" that has no business being in a first set except as the closer, and a "46 Days" that gets weird before heading into a patient "Antelope" segue.
On the negative side, "Ghost" doesn't go deep to the degree you might expect, the "Halley's" jam is absolute fire until Trey suddenly yanks it into "Undermind," losing the rest of the band in the process, "Gin" isn't its usual 2015 Type II self, and that "46 Days" jam was seriously going places before Trey jumped over a great Page-and-Mike jam to start up what goes on to be a tepid "Antelope."
On the positive side, the second set features a great mixture of the long jams and short-jams-and-segues play styles we've seen throughout 2015, with a mini space jam emerging from "Wolfman's," a satisfying extended version of "Blaze On" that's up there with the best versions of the year, and a "Golden Age" that reaches the sixteen-minute mark by pulling a lot of tricks that are outside the usual jamming oeuvre of the band this year. The "Fuego" jam is short, but is possibly the most interesting (and angriest) jam of the night, and the way Page directs it into "Wading" is just perfect. And lest you have an appetite for antics, Fish sings "Bike," pretends the vacuum hose is his dick, and climbs on top of Page's piano for the encore.
On the negative side, "Wolfman's" seems to be heading in a promising, ultra-rare Type II direction before it just fizzles and forces a transition into "Blaze On," the excellent "Golden Age" jam is preceded by a badly butchered composed section, and the "Fuego" jam also seems to run out of juice just as it's getting really interesting.
In short, it's hard not to see this as a "What If?" show in many respects. Even as-is, it's a strong entry into this summer's tour, but had a few of those "What If?"s come to pass, we might be talking best-of material here, and it's hard not to think about that in the looming shadow of Magnaball excellence.
Second set starts at 1:28:00:
The Live Review:
9/4/15: Alright, here we go. Tube opener.
9/4/15: Mix sounds different than Magna on LP. Bass is clearer. Mike sounds fantastic.
9/4/15: Maybe it's just because I've been away from the funk for three weeks.
9/4/15: Slow tempo meaty take, > Ghost.
9/4/15: Nice surprise to see this in the first set, but there's something about a Ghost that happens in the sunlight that seems wrong.
9/4/15: 1st show I've listened to in weeks. Can already tell it's going to be biased by that 'Oh shit, Phish is awesome!' feeling.
9/4/15: Trey trading rock riffs with Mike's languid bass spaces. Neat.
9/4/15: Gnarly chords from Trey leading to a rock solo explosion.
9/4/15: That Ghost was Type I all the way, but some strong playing nonetheless.
9/4/15: I hate that this Halley's really starts to develop a serious melodic jam and then cuts your hopes short by Trey ripcording it.
9/4/15: Great little jam, but the 'segue' is not fluid AT ALL and the rest of the band has to come to a complete stop to catch up.
9/4/15: Pretty swingin' version of Undermind, though.
9/4/15: Yarmouth Road brings the tempo down a bit.
9/4/15: Sort of a momentum-killer, but I also unabashedly love this song, and think it's been getting more interesting lately.
9/4/15: Huh. A few of the earlier-summer takes on the song had little bridge jams in them. This one doesn't have anything like that.
9/4/15: Gin is next.
9/4/15: Slow build Gin with some lick-trading between Trey and Page.
9/4/15: No, they're not actually licking each other. You knew what I meant.
9/4/15: Like the Ghost, the Gin isn't really Going Places, but man is Trey tearing up the guitar.
9/4/15: PEAKSPLOSION
9/4/15: There have been at least three distinct peaks in this jam.
9/4/15: Wind-down ending now, just like in Ghost.
9/4/15: WAN'd.
9/4/15: I always say this, but I love WAN when it's played right.
9/4/15: It always makes me think of the solid version that opened the Eugene show, one of my favorite Phish shows I've seen.
9/4/15: The version got stronger as it went, incidentally. Horn next.
9/4/15: The Wedge. Set is drifting a little at this point.
9/4/15: Trey's giving the fretboard a major workout in this Wedge.
9/4/15: 46 Daaaaaaaays.
9/4/15: Trey's laying on the heavy distortion right off the bat, here.
9/4/15: Dark space immediately after the usual solo.
9/4/15: Descending progression from Trey and Page.
9/4/15: Page to the electric piano.
9/4/15: Gorgeous Page-and-Mike space interrupted by Trey's > Antelope.
9/4/15: Trey has a looping note playing over the intro, too.
9/4/15: Pretty standard Antelope, otherwise.
9/4/15: Weird set. Strong playing throughout, but really no flow after that car crash into Undermind.
9/4/15: 'Average-great' first set for 2015, but frustrating in the shadow of Magnaball b/c of missed opportunities.
9/4/15: Aborted Halley's jam, weird segue into Undermind, short, plain Ghost, short Gin (esp. weird for '15), aborted 46 Days jam.
9/4/15: Any 1-2 of those songs really goes deep and this is a different conversation. But they don't.
9/4/15: Wolfman's opens S2.
9/4/15: Chording-funk jam almost immediately.
9/4/15: Loops over a surprisingly heavy, rock-oriented Wolfman's jam.
9/4/15: Murky space now reminiscent of the 46 Days 'jam'
9/4/15: Another potential jam there that didn't coalesce, but now > Blaze On.
9/4/15: End of composed section of Blaze On stretching out into a languid funk-rock jam. Page on the clav, but lower down than usual.
9/4/15: Loop-rock now, with Trey's arpeggios and Page's intertwining.
9/4/15: Evil-sounding progression starts up at about 10:30.
9/4/15: About 5-6 minutes of really interesting, complex jamming finally fades out here and Trey starts up Golden Age.
9/4/15: Trey would be an invincible human who never aged and never died if the third verse of Golden Age didn't exist.
9/4/15: It's like his own personal facet of entropy.
9/4/15: Page has places he wants to go early in this jam, but Trey is just doing the usual solo thing.
9/4/15: Okay, Trey finally got the message.
9/4/15: Funky chords from Trey, while Page is stringing together some absolutely phenomenal piano runs.
9/4/15: Playing with all sorts of different, mellow ideas here. Now Trey seizes on a two-chord progression and Fish picks up the beat.
9/4/15: Synth and bass bombs now. Crowd cheering.
9/4/15: Really bouncy progression now.
9/4/15: Fish is definitely the MVP of this jam. Changing up to some seriously weird beats on a dime.
9/4/15: A build toward the end of the jam, but it's not peaky; instead, it's almost fuzzy, and really busy-sounding.
9/4/15: That jam was totally weird and more interesting for it. Might be a little too all-over-the-place if you're looking for trajectory.
9/4/15: Roses!
9/4/15: Extended ending to Roses. Thought we were going to go Worcester '12 there for a second. But, > Fuego.
9/4/15: Ending section of Fuego is totally going Bend Simple right now.
9/4/15: Trey's heavy riffs and Fish's drumming contrasted with Page's delicate piano notes is pretty fantastic here.
9/4/15: Over the buzz and distortion, a move to a lighter space, now.
9/4/15: Major-key space peters out with a Page fill. Now more loops and distortion building.
9/4/15: -> Wading! Nicely done.
9/4/15: I like the Blaze On jam and really like the Golden Age jam, but the Fuego -> Wading is the best part of the show for me.
9/4/15: Piano outro from Wading -> Walls keeps the piano segues theme going.
9/4/15: Walls gets extended a little more than usual to suit the placement as S2 closer.
9/4/15: Encore starts with HYHU.
9/4/15: Bike.
9/4/15: Fish sucks.
9/4/15: Back into HYHU, with, as I remember, Fish running in circles around the stage like a maniac.
9/4/15: The 'real' encore song is Loving Cup.
9/4/15: Like the first set, I think the second set is a strong addition to 2015 S2s, it just suffers in comparison to Magnaball.
9/4/15: Would like to have seen Wolfman's go deeper, but Blaze On and Golden Age are strong jams.
9/4/15: Fuego was brilliant but too short, and the encore was fun as hell.
I was really interested to dig back into the Dick's run from this year, not just because they were my last shows of the year, but also because coming after the incredible Magnaball and sitting at the end of the phenomenal 2015 summer tour, these shows had some serious hype to live up to. Unsurprisingly, they failed to reach the ridiculously high bar the recent festival sets had...umm...set. But taken out of the context of this self-defeating line of thought that every show Phish plays needs to be better than the previous show or else it's crap, how do they stand as summer 2015 shows? That's what I'm most interested in, and what I want to weigh in on over the next three reviews.
Night one is absolutely a strong 2015 show. It might fall just short of being worth mentioning as part of the upper echelon of '15 shows, but there's a lot to dig into here. On the other hand, there's a lot of "What If?" moments in the show that are hard to overlook.
On the positive side, the first set is great, with a long, albeit Type I, "Ghost" early on, an extended "Halley's" that features some fantastic playing from Trey, a rocktastic "Gin" that has no business being in a first set except as the closer, and a "46 Days" that gets weird before heading into a patient "Antelope" segue.
On the negative side, "Ghost" doesn't go deep to the degree you might expect, the "Halley's" jam is absolute fire until Trey suddenly yanks it into "Undermind," losing the rest of the band in the process, "Gin" isn't its usual 2015 Type II self, and that "46 Days" jam was seriously going places before Trey jumped over a great Page-and-Mike jam to start up what goes on to be a tepid "Antelope."
On the positive side, the second set features a great mixture of the long jams and short-jams-and-segues play styles we've seen throughout 2015, with a mini space jam emerging from "Wolfman's," a satisfying extended version of "Blaze On" that's up there with the best versions of the year, and a "Golden Age" that reaches the sixteen-minute mark by pulling a lot of tricks that are outside the usual jamming oeuvre of the band this year. The "Fuego" jam is short, but is possibly the most interesting (and angriest) jam of the night, and the way Page directs it into "Wading" is just perfect. And lest you have an appetite for antics, Fish sings "Bike," pretends the vacuum hose is his dick, and climbs on top of Page's piano for the encore.
On the negative side, "Wolfman's" seems to be heading in a promising, ultra-rare Type II direction before it just fizzles and forces a transition into "Blaze On," the excellent "Golden Age" jam is preceded by a badly butchered composed section, and the "Fuego" jam also seems to run out of juice just as it's getting really interesting.
In short, it's hard not to see this as a "What If?" show in many respects. Even as-is, it's a strong entry into this summer's tour, but had a few of those "What If?"s come to pass, we might be talking best-of material here, and it's hard not to think about that in the looming shadow of Magnaball excellence.
Second set starts at 1:28:00:
The Live Review:
9/4/15: Alright, here we go. Tube opener.
9/4/15: Mix sounds different than Magna on LP. Bass is clearer. Mike sounds fantastic.
9/4/15: Maybe it's just because I've been away from the funk for three weeks.
9/4/15: Slow tempo meaty take, > Ghost.
9/4/15: Nice surprise to see this in the first set, but there's something about a Ghost that happens in the sunlight that seems wrong.
9/4/15: 1st show I've listened to in weeks. Can already tell it's going to be biased by that 'Oh shit, Phish is awesome!' feeling.
9/4/15: Trey trading rock riffs with Mike's languid bass spaces. Neat.
9/4/15: Gnarly chords from Trey leading to a rock solo explosion.
9/4/15: That Ghost was Type I all the way, but some strong playing nonetheless.
9/4/15: I hate that this Halley's really starts to develop a serious melodic jam and then cuts your hopes short by Trey ripcording it.
9/4/15: Great little jam, but the 'segue' is not fluid AT ALL and the rest of the band has to come to a complete stop to catch up.
9/4/15: Pretty swingin' version of Undermind, though.
9/4/15: Yarmouth Road brings the tempo down a bit.
9/4/15: Sort of a momentum-killer, but I also unabashedly love this song, and think it's been getting more interesting lately.
9/4/15: Huh. A few of the earlier-summer takes on the song had little bridge jams in them. This one doesn't have anything like that.
9/4/15: Gin is next.
9/4/15: Slow build Gin with some lick-trading between Trey and Page.
9/4/15: No, they're not actually licking each other. You knew what I meant.
9/4/15: Like the Ghost, the Gin isn't really Going Places, but man is Trey tearing up the guitar.
9/4/15: PEAKSPLOSION
9/4/15: There have been at least three distinct peaks in this jam.
9/4/15: Wind-down ending now, just like in Ghost.
9/4/15: WAN'd.
9/4/15: I always say this, but I love WAN when it's played right.
9/4/15: It always makes me think of the solid version that opened the Eugene show, one of my favorite Phish shows I've seen.
9/4/15: The version got stronger as it went, incidentally. Horn next.
9/4/15: The Wedge. Set is drifting a little at this point.
9/4/15: Trey's giving the fretboard a major workout in this Wedge.
9/4/15: 46 Daaaaaaaays.
9/4/15: Trey's laying on the heavy distortion right off the bat, here.
9/4/15: Dark space immediately after the usual solo.
9/4/15: Descending progression from Trey and Page.
9/4/15: Page to the electric piano.
9/4/15: Gorgeous Page-and-Mike space interrupted by Trey's > Antelope.
9/4/15: Trey has a looping note playing over the intro, too.
9/4/15: Pretty standard Antelope, otherwise.
9/4/15: Weird set. Strong playing throughout, but really no flow after that car crash into Undermind.
9/4/15: 'Average-great' first set for 2015, but frustrating in the shadow of Magnaball b/c of missed opportunities.
9/4/15: Aborted Halley's jam, weird segue into Undermind, short, plain Ghost, short Gin (esp. weird for '15), aborted 46 Days jam.
9/4/15: Any 1-2 of those songs really goes deep and this is a different conversation. But they don't.
9/4/15: Wolfman's opens S2.
9/4/15: Chording-funk jam almost immediately.
9/4/15: Loops over a surprisingly heavy, rock-oriented Wolfman's jam.
9/4/15: Murky space now reminiscent of the 46 Days 'jam'
9/4/15: Another potential jam there that didn't coalesce, but now > Blaze On.
9/4/15: End of composed section of Blaze On stretching out into a languid funk-rock jam. Page on the clav, but lower down than usual.
9/4/15: Loop-rock now, with Trey's arpeggios and Page's intertwining.
9/4/15: Evil-sounding progression starts up at about 10:30.
9/4/15: About 5-6 minutes of really interesting, complex jamming finally fades out here and Trey starts up Golden Age.
9/4/15: Trey would be an invincible human who never aged and never died if the third verse of Golden Age didn't exist.
9/4/15: It's like his own personal facet of entropy.
9/4/15: Page has places he wants to go early in this jam, but Trey is just doing the usual solo thing.
9/4/15: Okay, Trey finally got the message.
9/4/15: Funky chords from Trey, while Page is stringing together some absolutely phenomenal piano runs.
9/4/15: Playing with all sorts of different, mellow ideas here. Now Trey seizes on a two-chord progression and Fish picks up the beat.
9/4/15: Synth and bass bombs now. Crowd cheering.
9/4/15: Really bouncy progression now.
9/4/15: Fish is definitely the MVP of this jam. Changing up to some seriously weird beats on a dime.
9/4/15: A build toward the end of the jam, but it's not peaky; instead, it's almost fuzzy, and really busy-sounding.
9/4/15: That jam was totally weird and more interesting for it. Might be a little too all-over-the-place if you're looking for trajectory.
9/4/15: Roses!
9/4/15: Extended ending to Roses. Thought we were going to go Worcester '12 there for a second. But, > Fuego.
9/4/15: Ending section of Fuego is totally going Bend Simple right now.
9/4/15: Trey's heavy riffs and Fish's drumming contrasted with Page's delicate piano notes is pretty fantastic here.
9/4/15: Over the buzz and distortion, a move to a lighter space, now.
9/4/15: Major-key space peters out with a Page fill. Now more loops and distortion building.
9/4/15: -> Wading! Nicely done.
9/4/15: I like the Blaze On jam and really like the Golden Age jam, but the Fuego -> Wading is the best part of the show for me.
9/4/15: Piano outro from Wading -> Walls keeps the piano segues theme going.
9/4/15: Walls gets extended a little more than usual to suit the placement as S2 closer.
9/4/15: Encore starts with HYHU.
9/4/15: Bike.
9/4/15: Fish sucks.
9/4/15: Back into HYHU, with, as I remember, Fish running in circles around the stage like a maniac.
9/4/15: The 'real' encore song is Loving Cup.
9/4/15: Like the first set, I think the second set is a strong addition to 2015 S2s, it just suffers in comparison to Magnaball.
9/4/15: Would like to have seen Wolfman's go deeper, but Blaze On and Golden Age are strong jams.
9/4/15: Fuego was brilliant but too short, and the encore was fun as hell.
Jan 1, 2016
2015-08-23 Magnaball III
The Verdict:
Not much in Phishdom is going to be able to compete with N2 of Magnaball, and the following night is definitely a step down in comparison. In fact, it's easily the weakest of the three nights of the run; that said, it's a testament to how strong this run really is that it's still one of the best shows of the year and closes Magnaball on a note that requires it be considered as one of the best three-night runs of all time. Whew.
Minus "Buffalo Bill," there isn't much in the first 2/3rds of S1 that's going to surprise you. As I noted below, though, Trey is an absolute beast throughout, a fact that elevates what would normally be a full-on Jukebox Mode S1 performance to something greater. Riding this momentum, the band takes "Stash" on a brilliant (if brief) Type II excursion and the following "Reba" builds naturally and satisfyingly upon a year's worth of great versions of the tune. There's no "real" standout tune like N1's "Gin," but is by no means just a warm-up set.
S2 begins with quite possibly the meatiest "Martian Monster" yet, which segues niftily into "Disease." As is sometimes the case, this "Disease" jam functions less like an opportunity to explore more territory and more like a time to reprise and remix some of the better ideas from other jams during the summer. As a result, this isn't going to knock your socks off, but almost sounds like a "greatest hits" jam, if that makes any sense. Any lack of innovation, though, should be forgiven when the band slides perfectly into the second "Scents" of the year. This one is the blissful, "Hood"-like opposite of the angry Mann version and it moves gently into a unique take on "What's The Use?". Almost as if the tone of the "Scents" jam is carrying over, "WTU?" is softer and gentler than usual, while still maintaining its anthemic quality.
"Dirt" is a great landing pad, before an echo-funk "Mike's" reminiscent of the Dick's '14 version starts up. It feels a bit like the band is rushing through "Fuego," "Twist," and "Groove," but as in S1, all of these jukebox versions have a little extra mustard on them...and when the "Groove" jam moves brilliant back into a "Martian Monster" funk reprise, it's the perfect end to the last second set of the festival. The encore, of course, is "YEM," which also integrates some echo-funk jamming and an extra intense vocal jam. All in all, even though it pales a bit in comparison to the previous two nights, this is yet another fantastic show in an oversized pile of 'em from summer 2015. On to Dick's!
The Live Review:
8/23/15: Keeping the #magnaball train rolling today. PYITE opener.
8/23/15: Tears of a Clown tease from Mike prior.
8/23/15: This definitely comes from years of listening to 12/31/95, but is there a better show opener than PYITE?
8/23/15: No. The answer is no.
8/23/15: Pretty solid, uptempo take on PYITE to start.
8/23/15: BUFFALO BILL
8/23/15: So, Buffalo Bill > ASIHTOS is pretty weird.
8/23/15: Great soloing here by Trey, with some neat interplay with Page.
8/23/15: > LxL.
8/23/15: Strong take on LxL as well. Trey ripped both of those songs up. WAN now.
8/23/15: I'm currently dancing to WAN in my office. I guess I must suck at Phish.
8/23/15: Love this song when they nail it, which they did here.
8/23/15: Theme next.
8/23/15: Setlist has been a bit all over the place, like 8/22's S1, but the playing is consistently strong here.
8/23/15: Trey nails Theme, too. He's absolutely slain on the last four songs.
8/23/15: I know I often knock first sets for the lack of jamming and general boring predictably, but...
8/23/15: ...if Trey played like this more often, I wouldn't complain, even if the setlists stayed predictable. Man.
8/23/15: Maze.
8/23/15: A bit of extra mustard during the Page/Trey duel part of the jam.
8/23/15: The Line. You knew it was coming.
8/23/15: Stash!
8/23/15: Stash jam starts with some extended refrain vocals and a really minimalist approach.
8/23/15: Quick turn into Type II bliss.
8/23/15: This is more like a Hood jam than a Stash one.
8/23/15: Really graceful turn back into the typical Stash jam.
8/23/15: Reba!
8/23/15: Fantastic beginning to Trey's Reba solo. Page with electric piano washes.
8/23/15: Great interplay later on between Trey and Mike. Don't hear that super often in Reba.
8/23/15: That was a fantastic Reba jam. Whistling ending.
8/23/15: I Didn't Know with a vacuum solo from 'The Little Beast Boy.'
8/23/15: The Little Beast Boy is currently 'sucking love' for the audience.
8/23/15: Long thank-you session in the midst of I Didn't Know. Hilarious with Fish sucking away the entire time.
8/23/15: S1 is ending with Character Zero. At least they aren't ending the show with it :)
8/23/15: S2 opens with Martian Monster.
8/23/15: Love how crazy the crowd goes when that opening sample hits.
8/23/15: It's the opposite of how crazy they go when an opening Sample hits.
8/23/15: Meaty version of MM. Breaking away from Type I structure a bit at the end.
8/23/15: Ending drone over Gordo's DwD intro. Sort of a ->.
8/23/15: Fading into space-rock territory at about 7:00.
8/23/15: Nice driving beat from Fish, and some great melodic contributions from Trey and Page here.
8/23/15: That said, this jam isn't nearly as dynamic as what we've gotten used to by this point in the year.
8/23/15: Some pitch shifter now and some really growly bass tones from Mike.
8/23/15: That died out pretty quickly. Now sounds a lot like 2001.
8/23/15: -> Scents!
8/23/15: Okay, that was an incredibly cool segue. Crowd doesn't seem to know what happened.
8/23/15: Spacey, Hood-like jam after Scents vocals.
8/23/15: Rock chords from Trey now. Picking up the pace.
8/23/15: Distorted rock ends the jam. Outro vocals from Fish (?), then -> WTU?
8/23/15: Page on what I think it electric piano during WTU?. Adds a sort of whimsical feel to it. Less evil than usual.
8/23/15: Very cool variation on WTU? Brighter than usual, but still anthemic.
8/23/15: > Dirt! Great landing pad choice!
8/23/15: > Mike's! Still can't get over the great placement of that Dirt.
8/23/15: Echo chords kicking off the Mike's jam. Reminds me of Dick's '14.
8/23/15: Quick but extremely intense Mike's jam.
8/23/15: Whoa...sounded like Trey was going to go into a *real* Mike's second jam and the rest of the band steamrolled him.
8/23/15: Add to the innovations of Phish 2015: Trey gets ripcorded.
8/23/15: That would have been cool. Instead, > Fuego.
8/23/15: > Twist just as the Fuego jam starts.
8/23/15: Playing quality hasn't slacked here, but it feels like they're trying to jam a bunch of songs into the fourth quarter.
8/23/15: They've resisted that temptation for a lot of 2015, which is part of why it's been so great.
8/23/15: Weird that they're giving in here, after the weekend of shows this has been.
8/23/15: Nice chunky, bluesy Twist jam, with a few complete stops built into the breakdown for fun.
8/23/15: Okay Fish just switched to a swing-style beat (think Julius) and all hell broke loose. Awesome.
8/23/15: Evil build now.
8/23/15: Hahahaha...Fish with what I think are supposed to be Immigrant Song vocals.
8/23/15: -> Groove out of extended Immigrant Song tease.
8/23/15: Nice little compact Groove jam -> Martian Monster.
8/23/15: Lots of echo jamming in the set-closing MM.
8/23/15: Encore is YEM, of course.
8/23/15: The echo funk is even making its way (a little bit) into the YEM jam, now.
8/23/15: Super-intense vocal jam (!!) followed by MM sample and a 'huge explosion.'
8/23/15: Great show, though I imagine it isn't as well received as the first two. Review will go up alongside 9/3 when I get to that one.
Not much in Phishdom is going to be able to compete with N2 of Magnaball, and the following night is definitely a step down in comparison. In fact, it's easily the weakest of the three nights of the run; that said, it's a testament to how strong this run really is that it's still one of the best shows of the year and closes Magnaball on a note that requires it be considered as one of the best three-night runs of all time. Whew.
Minus "Buffalo Bill," there isn't much in the first 2/3rds of S1 that's going to surprise you. As I noted below, though, Trey is an absolute beast throughout, a fact that elevates what would normally be a full-on Jukebox Mode S1 performance to something greater. Riding this momentum, the band takes "Stash" on a brilliant (if brief) Type II excursion and the following "Reba" builds naturally and satisfyingly upon a year's worth of great versions of the tune. There's no "real" standout tune like N1's "Gin," but is by no means just a warm-up set.
S2 begins with quite possibly the meatiest "Martian Monster" yet, which segues niftily into "Disease." As is sometimes the case, this "Disease" jam functions less like an opportunity to explore more territory and more like a time to reprise and remix some of the better ideas from other jams during the summer. As a result, this isn't going to knock your socks off, but almost sounds like a "greatest hits" jam, if that makes any sense. Any lack of innovation, though, should be forgiven when the band slides perfectly into the second "Scents" of the year. This one is the blissful, "Hood"-like opposite of the angry Mann version and it moves gently into a unique take on "What's The Use?". Almost as if the tone of the "Scents" jam is carrying over, "WTU?" is softer and gentler than usual, while still maintaining its anthemic quality.
"Dirt" is a great landing pad, before an echo-funk "Mike's" reminiscent of the Dick's '14 version starts up. It feels a bit like the band is rushing through "Fuego," "Twist," and "Groove," but as in S1, all of these jukebox versions have a little extra mustard on them...and when the "Groove" jam moves brilliant back into a "Martian Monster" funk reprise, it's the perfect end to the last second set of the festival. The encore, of course, is "YEM," which also integrates some echo-funk jamming and an extra intense vocal jam. All in all, even though it pales a bit in comparison to the previous two nights, this is yet another fantastic show in an oversized pile of 'em from summer 2015. On to Dick's!
The Live Review:
8/23/15: Keeping the #magnaball train rolling today. PYITE opener.
8/23/15: Tears of a Clown tease from Mike prior.
8/23/15: This definitely comes from years of listening to 12/31/95, but is there a better show opener than PYITE?
8/23/15: No. The answer is no.
8/23/15: Pretty solid, uptempo take on PYITE to start.
8/23/15: BUFFALO BILL
8/23/15: So, Buffalo Bill > ASIHTOS is pretty weird.
8/23/15: Great soloing here by Trey, with some neat interplay with Page.
8/23/15: > LxL.
8/23/15: Strong take on LxL as well. Trey ripped both of those songs up. WAN now.
8/23/15: I'm currently dancing to WAN in my office. I guess I must suck at Phish.
8/23/15: Love this song when they nail it, which they did here.
8/23/15: Theme next.
8/23/15: Setlist has been a bit all over the place, like 8/22's S1, but the playing is consistently strong here.
8/23/15: Trey nails Theme, too. He's absolutely slain on the last four songs.
8/23/15: I know I often knock first sets for the lack of jamming and general boring predictably, but...
8/23/15: ...if Trey played like this more often, I wouldn't complain, even if the setlists stayed predictable. Man.
8/23/15: Maze.
8/23/15: A bit of extra mustard during the Page/Trey duel part of the jam.
8/23/15: The Line. You knew it was coming.
8/23/15: Stash!
8/23/15: Stash jam starts with some extended refrain vocals and a really minimalist approach.
8/23/15: Quick turn into Type II bliss.
8/23/15: This is more like a Hood jam than a Stash one.
8/23/15: Really graceful turn back into the typical Stash jam.
8/23/15: Reba!
8/23/15: Fantastic beginning to Trey's Reba solo. Page with electric piano washes.
8/23/15: Great interplay later on between Trey and Mike. Don't hear that super often in Reba.
8/23/15: That was a fantastic Reba jam. Whistling ending.
8/23/15: I Didn't Know with a vacuum solo from 'The Little Beast Boy.'
8/23/15: The Little Beast Boy is currently 'sucking love' for the audience.
8/23/15: Long thank-you session in the midst of I Didn't Know. Hilarious with Fish sucking away the entire time.
8/23/15: S1 is ending with Character Zero. At least they aren't ending the show with it :)
8/23/15: S2 opens with Martian Monster.
8/23/15: Love how crazy the crowd goes when that opening sample hits.
8/23/15: It's the opposite of how crazy they go when an opening Sample hits.
8/23/15: Meaty version of MM. Breaking away from Type I structure a bit at the end.
8/23/15: Ending drone over Gordo's DwD intro. Sort of a ->.
8/23/15: Fading into space-rock territory at about 7:00.
8/23/15: Nice driving beat from Fish, and some great melodic contributions from Trey and Page here.
8/23/15: That said, this jam isn't nearly as dynamic as what we've gotten used to by this point in the year.
8/23/15: Some pitch shifter now and some really growly bass tones from Mike.
8/23/15: That died out pretty quickly. Now sounds a lot like 2001.
8/23/15: -> Scents!
8/23/15: Okay, that was an incredibly cool segue. Crowd doesn't seem to know what happened.
8/23/15: Spacey, Hood-like jam after Scents vocals.
8/23/15: Rock chords from Trey now. Picking up the pace.
8/23/15: Distorted rock ends the jam. Outro vocals from Fish (?), then -> WTU?
8/23/15: Page on what I think it electric piano during WTU?. Adds a sort of whimsical feel to it. Less evil than usual.
8/23/15: Very cool variation on WTU? Brighter than usual, but still anthemic.
8/23/15: > Dirt! Great landing pad choice!
8/23/15: > Mike's! Still can't get over the great placement of that Dirt.
8/23/15: Echo chords kicking off the Mike's jam. Reminds me of Dick's '14.
8/23/15: Quick but extremely intense Mike's jam.
8/23/15: Whoa...sounded like Trey was going to go into a *real* Mike's second jam and the rest of the band steamrolled him.
8/23/15: Add to the innovations of Phish 2015: Trey gets ripcorded.
8/23/15: That would have been cool. Instead, > Fuego.
8/23/15: > Twist just as the Fuego jam starts.
8/23/15: Playing quality hasn't slacked here, but it feels like they're trying to jam a bunch of songs into the fourth quarter.
8/23/15: They've resisted that temptation for a lot of 2015, which is part of why it's been so great.
8/23/15: Weird that they're giving in here, after the weekend of shows this has been.
8/23/15: Nice chunky, bluesy Twist jam, with a few complete stops built into the breakdown for fun.
8/23/15: Okay Fish just switched to a swing-style beat (think Julius) and all hell broke loose. Awesome.
8/23/15: Evil build now.
8/23/15: Hahahaha...Fish with what I think are supposed to be Immigrant Song vocals.
8/23/15: -> Groove out of extended Immigrant Song tease.
8/23/15: Nice little compact Groove jam -> Martian Monster.
8/23/15: Lots of echo jamming in the set-closing MM.
8/23/15: Encore is YEM, of course.
8/23/15: The echo funk is even making its way (a little bit) into the YEM jam, now.
8/23/15: Super-intense vocal jam (!!) followed by MM sample and a 'huge explosion.'
8/23/15: Great show, though I imagine it isn't as well received as the first two. Review will go up alongside 9/3 when I get to that one.
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