The Verdict:
The third night at UIC was a bit of a bummer for me. There's something about a consistently great three-night run that appeals to me. Maybe it comes from the days of collecting Phish and DMB box sets on CD and loving the idea that every disc (of 9, or 12) would have a few highlights on it. I don't know. Anyway, when 8/15 and 8/16 quickly became two of my favorite shows of 2011, it was hard not to have high hopes for 8/17. Unfortunately, it's just not as good. This is the rare case where I'd argue that the show's phish.net rating is too high rather than too low :)
So, the excellent-first-set policy is still in place, I will say that. There are a lot of old-school tunes, including the "Forbin's" > "Mockingbird" opener. There's the great variety and excellent flow that we've come to expect after the previous two nights. But, none of the songs ever really go anywhere interesting, and maybe that's an indication of what to expect in the second set.
I read a lot of reviews of 8/17, trying to understand the enthusiasm for it. You see, to me, S2 is a ripcord set. Trey just sort of ruins it. And, usually, Phish fandom c. 2011 is super happy to point out and jeer at ripcords. But everyone loves this set, which makes me feel like a curmudgeon for not being excited about it. But I'm just not. Like most 2011 "Crosseyed"s, this one is straightforward Type I, but for a little aimless ambient noise at the end. In this case, there's a (obviously premeditated, but decent) segue into another strong version of "No Quarter." But yeah. From there, we get a "Tweezer" jam that gets passed on just as it's starting to develop (~8 minutes) for a "Caspian" that goes nowhere. "Piper" is maybe the legit highlight of the show, going immediately for the space-funk and staying there. It's cut short, too, but for "Ghost," which seems okay until "Ghost" runs for three minutes and then segues into "Makisupa." From there, it's a run of mid-S1 songs out of nowhere for the rest of the set before they wind up with a standard "Antelope."
Needless to say, it's a weird note to end this run on.
The Live Review:
8/17/11: Show opens with Forbin's. That's gotta mean another great S1, right?
8/17/11: > Mockingbird. Trey struggling a little with the arpeggios, but I think they're playing faster than usual.
8/17/11: Gumbo! I don't think I'll ever get sick of this song, especially Page's outro.
8/17/11: Crowd freaking the hell out for Possum.
8/17/11: Yet another great 2011 version of Possum. Weigh is next.
8/17/11: Some fun vocal improvisation throughout Weigh. Divided Sky next.
8/17/11: Divided Sky, Alaska is not necessarily my favorite combination of songs.
8/17/11: Strong version of Alaska, whatever that means. Gin, now, and maybe a chance to open things up before the end of the set.
8/17/11: Gin was a straight-up rock version. Maze keeps the first set going.
8/17/11: Maze, Cavern. Set finally falling a bit into jukebox territory here.
8/17/11: Still a remarkably strong (and interesting) set by 2011 standards, but not up to 8/15 or 8/16 levels.
8/17/11: Some nice rarities, but fewer interesting musical moments otherwise.
8/17/11: Gotta love the First Tube closer, though.
8/17/11: Crosseyed opener. They've been opening a lot with it lately, but not really doing much with it.
8/17/11: Trey is seriously rocking this solo, but staying Type I so far.
8/17/11: Fade out into a slow, almost-ambient jam. Page on the No Quarter organ tone.
8/17/11: Slowly but surely, the electronica-sounding outro jam fades into No Quarter.
8/17/11: Brief but hot solo from Trey before going back into the outro vocals.
8/17/11: Timber's an interesting choice to follow that pair.
8/17/11: Crosseyed teasing during Timber jam.
8/17/11: Now 'Still waiting!' vocals.
8/17/11: Timber ends, but then continues with a weird Birds/Timber hybrid jam. Huh.
8/17/11: Out of that weirdness comes Tweezer.
8/17/11: Short little Tweezer jam, but a nice plinko-like space forming there nonetheless.
8/17/11: Sudden end of the Tweezer jam > Caspian. Short Caspian > Piper.
8/17/11: Immediately move to space-funk.
8/17/11: Angry sort-of ambient space opening up now.
8/17/11: Crosseyed outro jam starting up again w/ vocals.
8/17/11: Neat little Piper jam. Sounded a bit like a sped-up version of Light by the end, there.
8/17/11: Trey cuts off jam for Ghost.
8/17/11: Page sets up a neat synth effect to start the Ghost jam...and Trey just rides over it with the Makisupa riff.
8/17/11: Less than 4 minute Ghost.
8/17/11: Taking a trip to Page's House after a series of terrible/wonderful puns from Trey.
8/17/11: Neat Makisupa. Sleep is next, which seems weird. But I do like this song.
8/17/11: Buffalo Bill continues a really weird Q4.
8/17/11: Rough take on Golgi is next.
8/17/11: Character Zero. Clearly ending this run on a rock-and-roll note.
8/17/11: Crosseyed teasing in Zero.
8/17/11: > Antelope.
8/17/11: Funky Bitch is a good choice for an encore.
8/17/11: Some more Crosseyed teasing.
8/17/11: Show of Life is not a good choice for an encore.
8/17/11: Tweeprise to end the run.
8/17/11: More 'Still Waiting' vocal quotes.
8/17/11: Well, S1 followed in (but slightly behind) the footsteps of the great opening sets of 8/15 and 8/16.
8/17/11: S2 was a bizarro hybrid of 2010-2011 jukebox Phish and a bunch of promising jams garroted by Trey.
8/17/11: The constant Crosseyed teasing was kind of neat.
8/17/11: In Q3 you've got a Type I Crosseyed that never really goes anywhere, an 8-minute Tweezer abandoned for Caspian...
8/17/11: ...and a promising Piper jam abandoned for a 3 minute Ghost which gets abandoned for Makisupa Policeman.
8/17/11: Then 17 more S1-style songs to close out the run. So weird.
8/17/11: On the other hand, 8/15 and 8/16 were GREAT.
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