The Verdict:
Well, even the Super Ball IX closer fails to reach the heights of the great late-May/early-June 2011 shows (which are looking increasingly more and more like an anomaly as the summer stretches on). However, it's closer to them than most shows since, and the most cohesive show of the entire festival.
The opening set features a "Soul Shakedown" opener, and a lot of old-school tunes, including a "Forbin's" > "Mockingbird" featuring a bonkers narration from Trey about the Storage Jam being a manifestation of a jam from 1988 that we're all living in still...or whatever the fuck. It's fun, and it's clear that the band is having a great time. "Destiny Unbound" shows up too, and then as we ease out of the all-1.0-songs-all-the-time portion of the show, Trey extends "Mound" a bit with an uncharacteristically driving guitar solo.
Then, wonder of wonders, a first-set "ASIHTOS" goes deep. Yes, you read that right. It gets Storage Jam-y a few minutes in and just runs with it, becoming the clear highlight of the set, if not the show. "Reba" follows, and despite a rough start, actually becomes a pretty unique version, with some Trey/Mike dueling midway through that's worth a listen.
The second set opens with the fun (and obligatory) "Big Balls" cover before moving to a "Disease" that stays pretty in-the-box before ending on an ambient note that sets up a great -> "No Quarter." This is probably the strongest version of Phish's Zeppelin cover that I've heard, though the head-scratching "Party Time" follow-up seems to send the band scrambling for direction for most of the rest of the show.
Though much of the rest of the show is a jumble (including a sadly tossed-off "Ghost"), there is another highlight in the last-second "Waves" -> "What's the Use?" sequence. "Waves" starts off as a standard Type I jam before pretty much just...stopping...and then starting again as a very minimal ambient space. This slowly, slooooowly builds over a few minutes before reaching the requisite boil, after which Trey transitions to the "What's the Use?" riff. It's patient, in-synch, interesting, and unexpected. Which, unfortunately, is the exact opposite of what most of the festival that took place outside the storage shed was like. But hey, 7/3 ain't bad by the standards of a 2011 show.
On to the Gorge and that monster "Rock and Roll"!
The Live Review:
7/3/11: Opens with a Soul Shakedown Party.
7/3/11: Uptempo Bag in the two-slot.
7/3/11: The Curtain!
7/3/11: The Curtain ends before the jam section. > Forbin's.
7/3/11: Absolutely nuts narration from Trey about being trapped with the band in a storage unit in 1988 and how we're all still there.
7/3/11: Love it, but am not even going to attempt to summarize it.
7/3/11: > Mockingbird.
7/3/11: Destiny Unbound! This set is taking a seriously old-school direction.
7/3/11: Mike taking a solo of sorts after the lyrics.
7/3/11: BBFCFM.
7/3/11: Old-school-ness continues with Wilson.
7/3/11: Nice, slightly-extended Wilson fades into Mound.
7/3/11: Trey just laid down a really cool solo at the end of Mound. I feel like that doesn't happen all the time.
7/3/11: ASIHTOS is next!
7/3/11: ASIHTOS heading into a rhythm-y, bass-led place.
7/3/11: Bit of a callback to the more structured bits of the Storage Jam here.
7/3/11: A more lighthearted variation on the Storage Jam style now.
7/3/11: Weird space jam eventually fades out. Time Loves a Hero is next. Great choice!
7/3/11: Reba.
7/3/11: It sounded to me like Trey was struggling to find the right key through a bit of that Reba composition.
7/3/11: Really dexterous, atypical Reba jam. Dueling between Mike and Trey.
7/3/11: Some 2015-ish chording now.
7/3/11: Great Reba with the whistling outro.
7/3/11: Trey is doing that thing where he confuses whistling with laughing.
7/3/11: Weird, Storage Jam-y bit after the whistling outro.
7/3/11: -> Bowie.
7/3/11: Though, really, it was Reba (whistling outro), Jam -> Bowie.
7/3/11: Nice uptempo Bowie to maybe close the set.
7/3/11: Fish mixing up the beat a little bit going into the jam.
7/3/11: Circular tension jam starting about ten minutes in.
7/3/11: Smoothly into the song's peak from there.
7/3/11: End set.
7/3/11: Probably my favorite S1 since very early June. Curtain > Forbin's > Mockingbird sequence was great, Destiny was a strong take.
7/3/11: Wilson and Mound both got a little weird, ASIHTOS went full Storage Jam, and Reba and Bowie were both great versions.
7/3/11: Second set opens with Big Balls, with Fish on vocals.
7/3/11: 'Super balls' lyric changes in Big Balls.
7/3/11: > Disease.
7/3/11: Typical Type I solo leading into a mellower space.
7/3/11: Slowly working its way to Plinkotown.
7/3/11: Sort of a slow-tempo, eerie space jam now.
7/3/11: Nice, slow -> No Quarter.
7/3/11: No Quarter jam reminds me of the awesome bit of jamming about halfway through the Storage Jam last night.
7/3/11: Great version of No Quarter. Next, oddly, is Party Time.
7/3/11: Great organ solo from Page during Party Time.
7/3/11: Weird choice aside, the guys are rocking Party Time.
7/3/11: Probably my favorite version, in case that matters.
7/3/11: Ghost!
7/3/11: Mostly standard Type I Ghost jam with a wind-down ending that lands in...Jibboo? Okay, that's weird.
7/3/11: Jibboo getting extended a bit, with more distortion than usual.
7/3/11: > Light.
7/3/11: So far Light jam is just a procession of furious arpeggios, as usual.
7/3/11: Rest of the band comes down a bit and Fish switches up the beat in an attempt to break Trey out of the zone.
7/3/11: It's sort of working. Almost a Manteca-style jam now.
7/3/11: Okay, so far except for Mike's bass drone, this is basically just a normal Type I Light jam, but quieter.
7/3/11: A little bit of stop-start noodling now.
7/3/11: And the third stop was just a full stop. Song over.
7/3/11: Well, that was weird.
7/3/11: Waves is next.
7/3/11: Extended vocal outro to Waves ends up in an extremely mellow ambient space.
7/3/11: As much as I'm generally bored reviewing this year, I've been loving the occasional flashes of '99 and '00 sound that pop up.
7/3/11: The fuzz is getting louder.
7/3/11: Potential for a perfect -> 2001, but Trey goes for the perfect -> WTU? instead.
7/3/11: This is a nice late Q4 sequence to cap off a festival I've been mostly underwhelmed by (except for Storage Jam!).
7/3/11: Meatsucke!
7/3/11: Looks like Stealing Time is going to close S2. Welp, that's my least favorite thing ever.
7/3/11: In Trey's defense, he just shredded the shit out of that solo.
7/3/11: A capella Star Spangled Banner.
7/3/11: Trey thanking the crew now.
7/3/11: First Tube to close the Super Ball!
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