It's the end! Rather than reinventing the wheel, Phish plays to their strengths in this final BD show, and wraps things up on a high note, including an encore that packed a surprising emotional punch even for me, who's only listened to the recordings of the shows, months after the fact, separated out over a few weeks.
Like 8/5, the first set is another assortment of random short songs: some rarities, some typical first-setty tunes. Collectively, they slot together into something approaching coherence and sent me into setbreak feeling good about the show so far. It's possible that the rough take on "Rift" precipitated the following "Ha Ha Ha," but either way, it's always good to hear the Fishman tune. "Camel Walk" is a nice setlist surprise as well.
"Crazy Sometimes" is quickly becoming one of my favorite non-jammed Phish songs, but it's certainly begging to extended, too. That does not happen here. It does kick of a trilogy of "crazy" songs, though, segueing nicely into "Saw It Again," which in turn leads to "Sanity." Page's "Most Events Aren't Planned" is definitely the highlight (read: "only") jam of the set, but it fits Phish as well, and "Bug" serves as a nice cooldown after. The exclamation mark of the set, though, is of course the "Izabella" bustout. Not only do they play the tune, though, but Trey lays into it like it's twenty years ago. A run highlight indeed.
The second set opens with a massive "Simple," the last of the many, many twentysomethingminute jams from this run. It's definitely not the most creative, the most interesting, or the most complex, but as it plows through a few minutes of filthy groove to reach a patient, extended build into a series of massive rock peaks, it captures the fundamental essence of so much of this summer's Light Side jamming an sends us on that particular magic carpet ride one last time.
The jam fades into recent Trey favorite and excellent jam landing pad "Rise/Come Together," then there's the surprise "Starman" cover, and, of course, "YEM." This "YEM" is a doozy and is delivered with all the energy and intensity that the Baker's Dozen version deserves.
The rest of the set and encore is a great Phishy victory lap. "Loving Cup" closes the set proper, before the encore sees a surprisingly emotional take on "On The Road Again," then revisits "Lawn Boy" via a "Tweeprise"-like riff, gives Mike a chance to play his previously aborted "Weekapaug Groove" intro riff, and then explodes into "Tweeprise," referencing the first-night "Tweezer" and bringing the whole shebang to a close.
I'll likely say more about the run as a whole in my summer wrap-up post later, but a thought, prefaced by the acknowledgment that the Baker's Dozen run is, frankly, unparalleled in terms of audacity (and, arguably, musicality) by anything else Phish has done in its career.
That said, I've heard a lot of people say that you can't analyze these shows individually and must only consider the run as a whole. Over the course of reviewing each show of the run, I've thought about this a lot and ultimately understand it in two ways.
Positively speaking, this statement implies to me that there's something special about this entire event (there is) and that to analyze its constituent parts too deeply distracts from the overall effect. I agree, all things considered. Every time I've written one of these thirteen reviews and found myself being negative about this or that aspect of this or that show, I've internally chastised myself for being whiny in the midst of what is perhaps the band's greatest achievement, perhaps the band's most consistent tour. On the other hand...
...taking each of these shows as they are, individually, reveals the weaknesses in the run's approach as well. There are lots of first sets with little to no flow, setlists that are, at first glance, collections or rarities in keeping with the no repeats gimmick, but are often, on balance, piles of weird songs thrown together just for the sake of playing a lot of different songs. First sets are just flat-out better when Phish plays with a smaller pool of songs. Do I want to hear "Ocelot" three times during an eight-show Phish run down the west coast? Of course not. But these sets feel less deliberate than usual. When the band is experimenting and taking chances musically in the first sets (as in the first five shows of the BD) this is offset a bit. But later on in the run, I found myself plodding through a lot of these first sets, happy to hear bustout after bustout but wishing for a common feel or groove to latch onto as well.
Similarly, lots of the rare songs, debut songs, and one-off songs just aren't played that well. Obviously, these guys are throwing out an unbelievable variety of songs over thirteen nights, and I don't expect them all to be played pitch-perfectly. But there really were times when I wished there were repeats, just so I could hear a full set of Phish playing songs they clearly know pretty well.
I like the BD's focus on jamming just like every other Phish fan on earth, but listening to these shows also made me reconsider the wisdom of wishing Phish would just JAM EVERY SONG. By the end of the thirteen nights, it was clear that pushing themselves to jam every night had led them to some really phenomenally interesting places that they likely wouldn't have reached otherwise. At the same time, the jams that didn't push boundaries ended up sounding so much the same that it was difficult for me to focus in on the details of, say, the "Simple" at all because it felt like I'd heard it all before. Maybe it goes without saying, but I don't think it's an accident that most of the highest-tier jamming in the BD came in the first few nights. From then on, it seemed like ideas where revisited and then repeated more and more often. Can Phish jam big every night? Yeah, obviously they can. Can Phish innovate every night? Not really, and it's unlikely any band can. So...should Phish jam big every night? It's something to think about.
Anyway, it's been really fun listening to this whole run. And I'm even more excited to relisten to Dick's now, the only shows I saw live this year. 9/1 was my 39th show and easily my favorite, and I can't wait to hear it again. DICKS IN MY EARS Y'ALL
The Live Review:
8/6/17: Here we go. BD Night 13.
8/6/17: Dogs Stole Things opener.
8/6/17: Rift next.
8/6/17: Trey struggling with Rift a bit more than usual, but Page killing his piano solo.
8/6/17: Ha Ha Ha next. Reference to Rift flubs, perhaps?
8/6/17: If so, Trey is getting meta by flubbing Ha Ha Ha riff, too.
8/6/17: > Camel Walk
8/6/17: I've really liked the most recent few versions of this tune. It's got a new energy lately.
8/6/17: Crazy Sometimes! Loving Phish's take on this song lately.
8/6/17: Page is either making good use of the synth during this song or he's playing the keytar.
8/6/17: Fun little piano-driven jam forming out of Crazy Sometimes.
8/6/17: This song seems to have crazy jam potential. Each time they've played it, they've hinted at a big jam then pulled back.
8/6/17: This time, it's for a segue into Saw It Again.
8/6/17: Raucous take on Saw It Again leads into Sanity.
8/6/17: Those two seem like a perfect pair. Wonder if they've ever been paired up before.
8/6/17: Page with a clever use of the Very Long Fuse samples during Sanity.
8/6/17: > Bouncing
8/6/17: Most Events Aren't Planned. Really enjoyed this at Dick's. Hope it stays in Heavy Rotation (heh).
8/6/17: First set Bug following that expansive Most Events Aren't Planned. 8/6/17: Extra-solid solo from Trey on the back end of that Bug. Now, I Been Around!
8/6/17: This song should probably end most first sets.
8/6/17: Okay, I *guess* it's fine that Izabella ends this set instead.
8/6/17: Ha ha ha.
8/6/17: Nothing else sounds like a Hendrix song. I could have told you this was a Hendrix cover even if I'd never heard it before.
8/6/17: Izabella has temporarily revived 90s shredding Trey. Wow.
8/6/17: End set.
8/6/17: Simple kicking off the second set!
8/6/17: Band breaking away from the usual Simple jam structure almost immediately in favor of something more chordy.
8/6/17: Funk chording from Trey but Fish drumming something a bit more complex than usual at this juncture.
8/6/17: Really great use of synths and loops now to build up a really complex jam.
8/6/17: Nice move out of the fuzziness into something a bit more jaunty.
8/6/17: Fish has an almost Golden Age style beat going. Feels like he's driving the jam here.
8/6/17: Patient development of this second movement. Fish continues stringing together some impressive beats.
8/6/17: This is developing into pure 3.0 bliss jamming. Nothing new here, but seems appropriate for the last 20+ minute jam of the run.
8/6/17: Going out on a triumphant note.
8/6/17: Trey noodling softly over the synth drone as an outro.
8/6/17: Drone fades nicely into Rise/Come Together.
8/6/17: Band has been excellent at placing this song thus far.
8/6/17: Starman!!
8/6/17: Nice extended outro to Starman with some vocal stylings from Mike.
8/6/17: Ah, and now the long-anticipated YEM.
8/6/17: Slow build during the YEM jam, but Trey is on FIRE now.
8/6/17: > Loving Cup
8/6/17: End set two.
8/6/17: Encore starts with On the Road Again. Band trading verses.
8/6/17: On the Road Again segues into a weird Trey riff.
8/6/17: Page says this is still Lawn Boy.
8/6/17: Band reprising Lawn Boy lyrics over a mellow version of what sounds like Tweezer Reprise.
8/6/17: That weird little bit segues into a brief rehash of the intro to Groove. Huh.
8/6/17: Then Trey blasts into Tweeprise, of course referencing the first night's Tweezer.
8/6/17: And that, my friends, is that.
8/6/17: For my money, the last 8 shows of the run never really reached the heights of the first five, but in the context of...
8/6/17: ...3.0, and really Phish overall, there hasn't been anything else like that.
8/6/17: Almost every show since Northerly could stand up to any other Great Show of 3.0, and a few are easily all-timers.
8/6/17: I was at Dick's and that's true of at least night one and maybe night three as well.
8/6/17: When was the last time, if ever, the band did an entire summer tour (albeit a short one) without any real clunkers?
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