The Verdict:
Unfortunately, the downward trend continues at the first Holmdel show. This is the rare show where the first set has more to offer than the second, and in this case it's not a good thing. This could easily be mistaken for a mid-2010 show, and in listening to it I was transported back to when I was writing review after review that essentially said the same thing: that the band was technically proficient and played with a lot of energy, but had all the improvisational gusto of a greatest hits jukebox on shuffle.
During the first set, the shuffle setting is rewarding. It's especially fun to hear an early "Rock and Roll," a S1 "Sand" gets completely blown up by Trey, and "Tube" dabbles in plinko jamming before ending much too soon.
The second set is almost entirely an improv desert, and the great setlist construction that offset this during the opening frame is gone. "After Midnight" gets extended to twelve minutes, but it never goes any further than Trey soloing over the song's progression, "Possum" is oddly placed, "Drowned" takes a few minutes to put a dark spin on the new melodic outro jam trend (with a jam that sounds weirdly like "What's the Use?") before seguing into a pretty standard "Maze." The odd couple of "Dirt" and "Alaska" set up an equally weird set closer choice in "YEM."
Honestly, the only highlight here (unless you count a few minutes of solid soloing from Trey and then Mike in "YEM") is the "Drowned." The rest of the show you're going to feel like you've heard before.
The Live Review:
5/31/11: Chalkdust opener.
5/31/11: Plain old ripping Chalkdust to start. Roggae is next.
5/31/11: Interested to see how this goes compared to 2015 Roggaes.
5/31/11: Not as varied as a lot of recent versions. Just a LxL-sounding solo for a few minutes and then back to the composed ending.
5/29/11: Pretty standard PYITE follows Roggae.
5/29/11: PYITE > Moma. So far, so normal.
5/29/11: Someone (Trey?) is totally in the wrong key.
5/29/11: Okay, now he's back where he should be. That was hurting my brain.
5/29/11: A BITING RAIN TAKING THE MAIN
5/31/11: Go back in time and change the date on those last five tweets to 5/31.
5/31/11: Maybe I'm subconsciously pining for 5/29 because it was a much more interesting show at this point than 5/31.
5/31/11: Though, I pretty much love Moma Dance every time no matter how rote it is. I'm a sucker.
5/31/11: Ooh! Rock and Roll! Now THAT shakes things up a little.
5/31/11: Seriously rocking...umm...Rock and Roll. Nice placement, but no real jam.
5/31/11: Trey dedicates the next song to 'Max, with lots of love, and to family and friends.' Really want him to jump into Carini now.
5/31/11: Sand.
5/31/11: Trey laying down a catchy riff and Page echoing him on the electric piano.
5/31/11: Trey is giving his guitar the bends.
5/31/11: Sorry, that was fucking terrible.
5/31/11: This is what I like to think of, in my stupider moments, as 'Type I with extra cheese.'
5/31/11: But pathetic attempts at humor aside, dude is blowing up that Languedoc.
5/31/11: Trey threatens to take us to Page's house.
5/31/11: Apparently that means Tube. I can see that connection. Might there be some clav in our near future?
5/31/11: YUP. THERE IT IS.
5/31/11: Neat little plinko style jam cut too short, as is the EVERLASTING TRAGEDY of every version of Tube in recent history.
5/31/11: Divided Sky! One immediately obvious difference between '11 and '15 is the presence of these longer composed pieces.
5/31/11: Oh shit, Trey just biffed harder than I've ever heard him do on Divided Sky. Ouch.
5/31/11: Crowd cheers it off, though, which is awesome. Trey says 'I did that on purpose!'
5/31/11: Spends about a minute not playing, then jumps back in during the next section.
5/31/11: Aside from the bizarro-world flub at the beginning, the rest of DSky is pretty standard.
5/31/11: Character Zero set closer.
5/31/11: Okay, so y'all know how I typically feel about Zero. But that was a notable rock-and-roll take.
5/31/11: After Midnight opens the second set. That's interesting.
5/31/11: This song will always make me think of the 9/6/15 encore now. Which is a good thing.
5/31/11: After Trey's solo, the end of the song getting extended a little.
5/31/11: Driving riff from Trey now. Fish picking up the beat.
5/31/11: Extended After Midnight 'jam' now, though it's sort of just Trey soloing again.
5/31/11: Page gets on the organ and plays something interesting just as Trey is petering out.
5/31/11: This entire show could be filed under that 'Missed Connections' section of your local newspaper. #phish #winsomelosesome
5/31/11: Opossum.
5/31/11: That's what I'm calling it now. And I refuse to reconsider.
5/31/11: Some fun Trey/Mike interplay here.
5/31/11: Solid Opossum > Drowned.
5/31/11: Typical Trey solo heading into something approaching a space funk jam...maybe.
5/31/11: Mike going to town over some loops and some synth.
5/31/11: Almost sounds like a synth-y version of the Ghost intro.
5/31/11: Outro jam a bit like the two Waves from Bethel, but a little darker instead of uplifting.
5/31/11: WTU? tease from Trey.
5/31/11: Almost a Floyd-like jam now, led by an intense bass line.
5/31/11: I'm starting to see where maybe the 8/5/11 Rock and Roll came from.
5/31/11: Wall of noise resolves into the Maze beat.
5/31/11: Maze is extra tension-y this time around.
5/31/11: Pretty sure a guy just yelled 'Play something!' after Maze on the sbd.
5/31/11: Purty Dirt follows Maze. Nice Mike bass solo in dere.
5/31/11: Alaska next.
5/31/11: What a weird set. Standard Alaska. Now YEM. On night one?
5/31/11: I'm pretty sure someone is yelling in Japanese on the sbd.
5/31/11: In the crowd, I mean.
5/31/11: Page is absolutely tearing it up during the tramps section.
5/31/11: Trey laying down one hell of an outro solo here.
5/31/11: Now Mike is taking a solo!
5/31/11: Yakety Sax tease from Mike during the solo. That's funny.
5/31/11: Fire encore.
5/31/11: So, that show might as well have been 5/31/10, for all the progression it showed beyond the many, many staid shows of last year.
5/31/11: To put the broken reviewing-2010 record back on: lots of technically spot-on, high-power playing (minus the DSky)...
5/31/11: ...a few interesting setlist choices (though, seriously, who thought up that S2?)...
5/31/11: But a definite and jarring step back from the great Bethel run. Hoping for better tomorrow night.
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