Ever since 2011 or so, Phish has been on an upward trajectory. 2009 was a solid comeback year, for sure, and the technical chops were there, but the improv was lacking. There was a lot of interesting improv that year (despite what you might read elsewhere), but by the end the long jams were becoming formulaic. The "answer" in 2010 was to ditch jamming more or less altogether and focus on playing fun, flowy shows...with lots and lots of whale pedal. From the Bethel "Waves" on, though, the band has been consistently putting on shows that stand up to their typical 1.0 and 2.0 output, and since 2013, depending on your taste, they've been putting on shows that match and at times exceed the highlights of those eras.
It makes sense then that 2015 is a high water mark (if not the high water mark) for Phish. And if I learned anything from listening to all of 2015 and 2016 (thus far), it's the power of hype. This tour was, by far, my favorite one that I've listened to yet...and at the same time it didn't come anywhere near to matching the way people have talked about it. And that's okay. Frankly, Phish "fans" usually spend so much time picking apart even the best shows that it takes the fun out of reading reviews. It was refreshing to feel, for once, as if I was being the pessimist while everyone else was basking in the MagnaGlow.
But, yeah. Hype or no, summer tour 2015 was serious fire, and the following few one-off runs built on the main tour in interesting ways. And I am so pumped for 2016
That said, here are some brief thoughts on each show, for your consumption.
7/21: All about the debuts. A bit uneven taken as a whole. "Ghost" and "Fuego" stretch a bit, but not much. The easy highlight is the "No Men" > "Groove" -> "Boogie On" sequence near the end of the second set.
7/22: More debuts, rounding the most adventurous run of the year purely in terms of the setlist. Six-song second set that's actually surprisingly light on jams but features the weekend highlight in an evil, evil "Simple." "Gin" encore almost goes all the way There, too.
7/24: First very 2015 show of 2015. And one of the best. First set is pretty standard save for an excellent late "Reba." The second set opens with the 50-minute sequence of "Blaze On" > "Twist" > "Light" that is just phenomenal. If that's not enough, the six-song set also features an extended, Type II "Hood."
7/25: High-energy show but not as jammy as the top-tier 2015 shows. "No Men" gets jammed out a little, and there are great segues between "Carini" and "Tweezer" as well as from "Tweezer" -> "MFMF." Some fun antics bolster "YEM."
7/28: Disorganized and as a result, the energy is inconsistent throughout the show. 75% of this is filler, but the third quarter's "46 Days" -> "The Dogs" -> "46 Days" > "Piper" > "Ghost" > "Shade" is an absolute must-listen.
7/29: S1 starts strong but quickly moves to jukebox territory. S2's "Chalkdust" is a monster and takes its big jam to a unique space. "Hood" also goes deep a la its best 2014 versions. Everything in between is skippable except for the great segue between "Simple" and "Silent."
7/31: The opening set is impeccably constructed and there's a "Ghost" jam in there that definitely belongs in a second set. Easily the best first set of the tour so far. The second set continues the momentum with a "best-of" monster jam out of "KDF," which leads in turn to a "Martian Monster" > "Twist" sequence which is great, though not quite as interesting as the 7/24 third quarter. Finishing off with an amazing "Gin" helps vault this show up the rankings, though.
8/1: Slightly less impressive first set than N1, but it's still a strong showing. The second set also doesn't quite offer up as many highlights, but the concentration of excellence in the "Tweezer" and the super-dark "Carini" is not to be missed.
8/2: The first set is similar to 8/1's: solid, but definitely second-tier in the context of this tour. The success of the second set sort of depends on whether you find the "Seven Below" to be brilliant or tepid. The "Disease" is great, though, and worth a listen.
8/4: A great show, but doesn't really live up to the hype. The first set doesn't have much going for it that's outside of the box other than a few minutes of plinko-style jamming in "Wolfman's." The second set opens with a fantastic "Golden Age" jam, but then things slow back down until the "Mike's" second jam. It's great to see a "Mike's" second jam again, but honestly there are many, many better jams from 2015 in general and even this show in particular that are more interesting than this one. "Piper," for example. And the "Groove," which is easily the most engaging jam of the show and a "best of" candidate for the tour in general.
8/5: The only point of interest in this first set is a strong debut of Mike's "The Last Step." The second set starts off slow, but the "Disease" gets things rolling finally, and the momentum carries over into an echo-funk take on "Sand." But that's about it. This is one of those "one and done" shows in terms of jamming.
8/7: Amazing show. Despite the fact that the first set is pretty rote except for a Type 1.5 "Gin" that comes late. The one-two punch of "Chalkdust" and "Tweezer" to open the first set provides us with quite possibly the best two jams of the year so far back to back. But it's not over there, because "The Lizards," a great "Ghost," and a "Reba"-esque "Hood" follow. Whew.
8/8: If you really enjoy "Maze," "Mercury," and/or "Reba," then this show opens with a strong first set. Otherwise, it's yet another opening frame that breaks down after the first few songs. There are some nice jam moments in the second set, but they're spread out across a bunch of songs and there's no tentpole jam to look to. If you need a twenty-minute jam to like a show, you'll be disappointed, but if you don't, there's a lot to like here.
8/9: The first set features a lot of rarities, which makes for a satisfying setlist while also introducing more flubs and missed calls than usual. The second set doesn't have much worth mentioning except for another strong "Tweezer" jam and a "Mike's" second jam that finally fulfills the promise of...a second "Mike's" jam. Unlike 8/4, this one goes places, and it's fantastic.
8/11: Best first set of the year so far. "Martian Monster" references are intertwined throughout, after a "Martian Monster"/"Skin It Back" mashup early on. "Ghost," "Scent," and "Bowie" are all strong, jammy takes as well. In the second set, "Fuego" Goes Deep and lands in bliss territory. The following four songs all poke their toes into the water, but never wade out too far, and then it's jukebox territory from there on. A consistently interesting show, though. Not top-tier, but pushing toward it.
8/12: First set is strong, and anchored by a jammed-out, echo-funk "Cities." And then there's the five-song second set. "Gin," "Hood," and "No Men" are pretty standard by 2015 parameters, but even that's saying something in a way. That said, "Twist" and "Scents" recall 8/7 in how they are both enormously satisfying jams and they happen back to back. That the rest of the set is also made up of long jams just helps catapult 8/12 into the top tier of 2015 shows.
8/14: Slow "Llama." That's all you need to know about the first set. The second set features another "Golden Age" that gets way out there, and that's the main highlight of a 2015-average show, though the "Ghost" > "No Quarter" sequence that happens later ain't bad.
8/15: This is my pick for show of the year pre-Magnaball. The first set is solid all the way through, and though there aren't any weird highlights (minus a jammed-out "Antelope"!), the sum total of great setlist choices and strong playing puts it in "best of" territory. The second set is a perfect marriage of long jams and jams-n-segues, with a huge "46 Days," a "Steam" -> "What's The Use?" -> "Steam," a monster "Piper," and a "Tweezer" that includes a performance of "NO2" within the song. I love this set.
8/16: Might be the worst show of the tour, weirdly enough. Things don't really get rolling until about three songs before the end of S1. S2 just sounds mostly tired, and none of the songs ever really take off (for example, there's a twelve minute Type I "Disease"), except for a delightfully weird "Light."
8/21: The "second leg" of Phish 2015 kicks off with one of the strongest shows of the year. The first set trumps any that have come before, with a legit "Simple" jam as the opener and later on a "Gin" that stands up with anything that's been jammed this year. The "Chalkdust" that opens the second set reprises the territory the "Gin" explored, "Ghost" satisfyingly revisits the 8/16 "Light" jam, and the "Hood" at the end continues the two-year tradition of weird-good "Hood"s. In all, quite a start for the festival.
8/22: This four-set day is the easy pick for show of the year. Not only does it feature a mind-boggling "Drive-In" jam for the fourth set, which in my opinion is one of the more musically interesting festival jams the band has ever put together, there's little lag in the three sets of "normal" music that come before that. Well...okay, that's not entirely true. The only real highlight of S1 is a jammed-out "Antelope," and S2 takes a bit to get going. "46 Days" and "Tweezer" -> "Caspian" are both huge jams, though, that more than make up for the slow start. Rather than taking a victory lap in S3, they lay down quite possibly the best "Blaze On" of the year, and then take that echo-y, loopy template and apply it to the next three songs as well, including a huge "Light." Wow.
8/23: Night three of Magnaball has a lot to live up to, and in some ways it doesn't quite make it. S1 is strong despite never venturing too far out the box save for a few minutes' worth of "Stash." S2 is the total package, with a big jam in "Disease," great exploratory versions of "Scents" and "WTU?" (!), and then a "Mike's Groove" that sandwiches in "Fuego" and "Twist" before ending on a "Groove" that reprises the set-opening "Martian Monster." Anywhere else in the tour, this show would be a beast, and that it seems like a letdown here only shows how amazing 8/21 and 8/22 were.
9/4: The first night at Dick's is full of strong playing hamstrung by what seems like a lot of missed opportunities. "Ghost" and "46 Days" both stop just short of going deep in the first set, though "Gin" gets there in style. The second set starts with a "Wolfman's" Type II jam (yeah, you read that right) and features two great jams in "Blaze On" and "Golden Age" and a short-but-fantastic take on "Fuego" that gets really dark.
9/5: The second set is mostly in the rote category, save for one of my favorite takes ever on "Split," which comes at the end. "Chalkdust" starts off the second set with one of the best versions in awhile, then segues nicely into "Twist." Unfortunately, "Twist" doesn't break entirely free of earth's gravity and thus we don't quite get "Cheezer" or "Tweezerpants" levels of improv here. "Mercury" gets jammed out for the first time and like 9/4's "Fuego," "Light" gets a short take that's nonetheless worth listening to for its immediate depth. Don't pass up the "Hood" encore because it's under 10 minutes, either. Seriously, don't.
9/6: There are a few interesting song choices in the first set, especially "Scent" > "Saw It Again," but it's more 9/5 than 9/4. Set two opens with the bliss jam of the year in "Disease," and then "Carini," "Piper," "Tweezer," and "2001" all come up a bit short individually, but each has a little to offer when you take them as a whole. Minus the "Disease," it's really another one of those "Do you really need 25 minute jams for a show to be good?" kind of sets. Then there's the THANK YOU encore, of course. That's in a whole other atmosphere by itself. Especially if you were there.
12/30: Starts the MSG trend of underwhelming first sets. Then the second set blows everything away. "Chalkdust," "Gin," and "Groove" -> "What's The Use?" -> "Groove" are all "best of"-level jams, and the only real mark "against" the second set is that "Ghost" gets interrupted mid-jam to introduce a new song before seguing cleanly back into the jam to finish.
12/31: Like 12/30, roughly the first half of this show is really straightforward. It's not until about halfway through the second set that the magic happens. But boy, does it happen. "KDF" goes super-weird, and I love it. The later "Twist" is on par with the previous night's big jams in terms of epicness and raw rock power, and then the third set offers up nearly forty minutes of quality jamming between the two 2015 debuts "Blaze On" and "No Men." The show slows down a bit before the end, but that's four huge jams over 1.5 sets of music.
1/1: This show follows the template of the previous two in a sense: first set not so great, second set much better. However, the bar is a little lower in both cases. The first set loses the energy and flow that made the 12/30 and 12/31 opening frames enjoyable in spite of their rote-ness, although the "Undermind," which features a weird jam and teases of many of the first set songs, is worth a listen. "Disease" and "Light" are the big jams in the second set, and while they don't uncover and new territory, they're both satisfying "greatest hits"-style jams in the 2015 mode.
1/2: The first set here also doesn't tread new ground, but it's almost entirely mid-90s era songs played in the style of that time, which, whether intentional or not, is neat to hear. You could almost imagine the guys playing this as a second JEMP Truck set. The "Tweezer" in S2 is just stupefying, and should be in on any best-jam-of-the-year conversation. And yet the band doesn't rest after that huge performance, also offering takes on "Sand" and "Hood" that are worth repeated listens.
1/15: There aren't really any highlights in the first set here, but there's definitely an energy and a verve that's been absent in first sets since August '15. Redemption is coming, though, in that the second set features two amazing sequences in "Drowned" -> "What's the Use?" and "Sand" -> "Ghost" -> "2001." And people say that this run isn't worth listening to!
1/16: The first legitimately interesting first set in awhile. I love the slow-tempo, gooey "Camel Walk," and the "Cities" is way too interesting a jam to be in the first set, even before it segues into a similarly interesting "Light." Also: echo-funk "Timber." "Golden Age" opens the second set and is a bit of a reprise of the Dick's version, minus the hideous flubbing. "Caspian" doesn't go all the way There like the Magna version, but it's definitely coming out of its shell more and more as time goes on. "46 Days" > "Twenty Years" gives you your quota of dark, ambient jamming, and an extended Type II "Hood" puts the exclamation point on another show that really should get more props than it does.
1/17: Another strong first set (three in a row), though there isn't as much meat as 1/16's. You should listen to the "Moma" for the vocal jam and slight ambient bit (!) before a nice segue into "Saw It Again." How much you like the second set probably depends on how much you like "Shipwreck" teases. I really, really love this "Disease" jam, because the samples and the jam that builds around them take Phish music in a different direction than I've ever heard it go before. They're not reinventing the wheel here, but at times I almost felt like I was listening to one of my favorite electronic artists instead of Phish, which is neat and speaks to their jaw-dropping versatility. The other big tune to get injected with "Shipwreck" samples here is "Crosseyed." Though both of those tunes go to some great places, overall this show is a bit slimmer pickings than 1/16 and 1/15 if you're looking for extended improv.
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