The Verdict:
Having been to four of the first five shows of Summer II in person, I remembered the Tahoe run as being a sort of little brother to the Gorge run, and that impression (mostly) holds up upon another listen. Broadly, night one at Tahoe is like night one at the Gorge: average-great S1 with a few above-average standouts, and a strong second set anchored by a big, angry, spacey jam.
The first set has a pretty great selection of largely unexpected songs, and pretty much all of them are tightly executed. "Meat" gets slightly extended, which makes for an interesting take, and "Bowie" is a great-for-3.0 version.
But it's in the second set that this show really shines. Admittedly, "Jibboo" is not an auspicious opener, but shortly after, the band launches into a fantastic version of "Light" that revisits Storage Jam/Gorge "RnR" territory. Definitely worth a watch/listen. It will forever exist in the shadow of its monster brother and thus probably gets less respect than it deserves (including from me), but it's a great jam.
Phish - 8/9/11 "Light" from Phish on Vimeo.
A hot/mellow combo of "Chalkdust" -> "Slave" follows, and while it's good, it leads into a tepid mid-set, unless you're really into lackluster covers of "Rocket Man" for some reason. There are a lot of good song choices here, but things never really move beyond average-great territory again until the set-closing "Walls," which runs about four minutes longer than usual due to an extreme episode of shredding from Trey. All in all, it's a bit like the 8/6 second set in its "Come for the jam, stay for...well, don't stay"-ness. But that "Light" is a winner.
The Live Review:
8/9/11: It's Party Time! No, literally, the opener is Party Time.
8/9/11: Neat little outro jam with Page on organ and Trey chording.
8/9/11: Interesting to see Oh Kee Pa in the two-spot. And not followed by Suzy, but Bag.
8/9/11: Really hot ending solo from Trey and then a loopy sort of coda tacked on after. > Mellow Mood!
8/9/11: Really swanky Mellow Mood cover.
8/9/11: Rift!
8/9/11: Pretty smooth take on Rift, > PYITE.
8/9/11: Meat! Loving this setlist and energy.
8/9/11: Neat little funk breakdown in the middle of Meat. Don't remember that usually being there.
8/9/11: Mid-S1 Bowie. So that's weird.
8/9/11: Bowie going off in an almost Round Room (the album) or Victor Sessions direction. Neat.
8/9/11: Unique, Type 1.5 style Bowie that explodes into the peak effectively.
8/9/11: Bouncin is a nice Bowie follow-up.
8/9/11: > Horn
8/9/11: Fast Water in the Sky next. Great soloing from Page.
8/9/11: Trey going to town on a set-ending 46 Days now.
8/9/11: Well if you like Trey playing rock guitar while everyone else just plays along, you'll like this 46 Days :)
8/9/11: Really enjoyed that S1, though. Only really lagged a bit after Bowie. Great song selection, Bowie and Meat worth a relisten.
8/9/11: Jibboo opens the second set.
8/9/11: Standard Jibboo > Light.
8/9/11: Excited to hear this Light again.
8/9/11: Starts off in the usual way, but Trey starts snarling the arpeggios up (on purpose) at around 6:00.
8/9/11: Pitch-shifted tone from Trey starting at 7:30.
8/9/11: Full-on Storage Jam direction at 10:00.
8/9/11: Sort of like space plinko now.
8/9/11: This is a little less angry than the Gorge jam. Fish switching up the beat to something peppy.
8/9/11: Sudden build of noise.
8/9/11: Jam lands in Chalkdust.
8/9/11: Dixie and Hedwig's Theme teases in CDT.
8/9/11: So, Trey has teased Hedwig's Theme twice, and they were both shows I was at. Weird.
8/9/11: Mellow wind-down from the band at the end of CDT, which sets up a nice -> Slave.
8/9/11: Slow build coming out of the composed part. More so than usual.
8/9/11: Slave was a bit short and to the point. > Free.
8/9/11: Rocket Man cover.
8/9/11: Love Page on vocals on this, but they play it like they just decided to learn it five minutes before getting on stage.
8/9/11: Rocket Man > Hood.
8/9/11: A bit more going on in this Hood than in the Slave, for sure, but still a pretty standard version.
8/9/11: > Walls.
8/9/11: Walls gets a super-extended rock and roll ending from Trey. End set.
8/9/11: Bug > Coil is a great encore. I love Coil as the encore during N1s.
8/9/11: Overall, fantastic first set, and an uneven second set. Though the Light is great and worth lots of listens. Encore is great.
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