2017-12-31 MSG IV

The Verdict
I tend to come into NYE shows like this one with relatively low expectations. Usually, Phish manages to pull of something really cool for the night's "gag," but it's clear that three sets don't necessarily equal 50% more improvisation and jamming than a typical two-set night. That remains the case with 12/31/17, but there's more here to sink your teeth into than you might expect.

The "Carini" opener is really fun, not just for the surprise setlist call factor, but also because it gets stretched out in a "Mercury"-style jam that wraps back around to the "Carini" riff at the end to start the show in grand fashion. The "Suzy" that follows is a surprise, and keeps the energy level high.

Unfortunately, the "MFMF," "Fluffhead," "Reba" sequence that follows is a bit of a trough. The band in general, and Trey in particular struggle mightily with the composed sections of all three songs (if you can't play "Fluffhead," why play "Reba" next, guys?) and they do so a bit beyond the usual "flub or two" level of struggling. It's awkward at times. Highlighting the dichotomy of 2017 Phish, though, the sloppily played composed section of "Reba" moves into a transcendent jam. This ambivalence continues with a plodding take on "46 Days" that nonetheless features a great, muddy solo from Trey, and a "Maze" that features Page crushing the keyboards and Trey just not playing guitar at all for a good portion of the song.

It's a weird set. I'm not sure how to feel about it.

A long-intro "Possum" kicks off the second set, and is followed by a "Fuego" that jams patiently on the song's main riff for a long time before dropping into a really interesting Floydian space that's quickly abandoned for "Jibboo." Normally, I'd gripe about this, but shockingly, "Jibboo" is perhaps the jam of the night, starting jazz (as usual) before somehow managing to weave the song's usual jazzy feel and more "Gin"-like bliss jamming together for a synthesis that's just really fun.

Not content to rest yet, the band then works their way through another delicate take on "WTU?" before dropping into a surprise "YEM." "YEM" fares a bit better than "Fluff" and "Reba," making it to ending understated funk jam/unhinged vocal jam relatively unscathed.

The third set is all about the gag, which is rad. That's good, because the near-fifteen minutes of "Soul Planet" really isn't. I even like this song, and like Phish's version of it. But they sound like they pretty clearly run out of ideas about halfway through the jam and just keep looping until we get to "Auld Lang Syne."

That said, the rest of the ocean-themed set is really fun. The main attraction is the "ASIHTOS" -> "Party Time" jam -> Ambient jam chunk, which I've affectionately dubbed "That Time I Heard The Ocean Party," but don't skip out on "Moma Dance," which dabbles very, very briefly in a Type II space.

All in all, this three-set show is pretty uneven, but the highs are particularly high, and are a good reprise of what's made 2017 Phish so great as we click over into 2018.

The Live Review
12/31/17: Carini opener. I can't argue with that logic.  
12/31/17: Carini getting extended a bit. Trey adding some tasteful blues licks.  
12/31/17: Mercury-ish jam now.  
12/31/17: Mercury jam gets stoked to a blaze, then brought expertly back to the Carini riff. Now *that's* how you open a show.  
12/31/17: Suzy  
12/31/17: Particularly bouncy take on Suzy > MFMF
12/31/17: Fluffhead.  
12/31/17: This is going to shock you, but Trey has definitely not practiced Fluffhead.  
12/31/17: Rough take on Fluffhead, with a surprisingly tepid outro jam. Playing Reba next is...an interesting choice.  
12/31/17: Some great guitar/electric piano interplay early on in this Reba jam.  
12/31/17: This Reba is 2017 Phish in a nutshell: sloppy, unpracticed-sounding composed section, beautiful, understa… https://t.co/IlTqsPr7vB  
12/31/17: BUT IS IT A GOOD VERSION OR NOT SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT TO THINK AND HOW TO RATE  
12/31/17: Quick Poor Heart, then 46 Days.  
12/31/17: Trey using his new distorted, low-end tone to solo during the jam.  
12/31/17: Some great Mike action during this jam, too.  
12/31/17: Page just destroying this Maze.  
12/31/17: If you like your Maze with a fantastic Page solo and Trey not playing any chords at all, check that one out.  
12/31/17: > Zero.
12/31/17: End set with Zero.  
12/31/17: I'm actually trying to *not* be grumpy about flubs in these shows, so I hate saying this, but aside from… https://t.co/t45ONRVPiP  
12/31/17: Fluff, Reba, and Maze were messy and tentative enough that I just sort of lost interest partway through.  
12/31/17: Set two opens with Possum, though. So that's nice.  
12/31/17: Solid take on Possum. Fuego next. I like Fuego a lot, and find I get excited about it now that it's not in heavy rotation.  
12/31/17: Fuego going a bit deep into gauze-rock territory. Page still anchoring the jam with piano for now.  
12/31/17: About thirteen minutes in, jam finally moves away from the main Fuego theme and gets a bit more abstract.  
12/31/17: Very 2.0-sounding groove happening here. Sort of Floydish.  
12/31/17: Groove is abandoned surprisingly early. Band abandons ambient noise for Jibboo, of all things.  
12/31/17: Trey laying down a seriously jazzy solo in this Jibboo.  
12/31/17: Okay, we just went through a quick echo-funk jam and seamlessly modulated into something I can best describe as 'bliss jazz.'  
12/31/17: This is a really fun jam. Wow.  
12/31/17: Return to the song proper at the end. Nicely done. Golgi next.  
12/31/17: After that transcendent jam, everyone starts Golgi in a different key because 2017 Phish.  
12/31/17: Nice landing in WTU? from the ending of Golgi.  
12/31/17: I've really been enjoying the recent WTU?s that dial it down during the middle of the song. Works really… https://t.co/ysN21RMWSE  
12/31/17: WTU? > YEM
12/31/17: Relatively unpainful run through the composed part of YEM. Understated funk jam coming next. Woos.  
12/31/17: Great YEM jam and the vocal jam seemed a bit longer and weirder than usual.  
12/31/17: End set 2.  
12/31/17: Set three opens with Soul Planet. I like the Phish take on this more than I thought I would.  
12/31/17: Didn't seem like it would translate that well from TAB.  
12/31/17: Okay, I like this song, but this is about five more minutes of 'The ocean is love' than I really need.  
12/31/17: Finally a little after the ten minute mark, the song changes direction a little bit. Trey using echoes.  
12/31/17: Cannon fire (?!) leads into Auld Lang Syne...which Trey promptly flubs.  
12/31/17: > Free
12/31/17: Nice echo-funk middle section in this Free.  
12/31/17: Ocean-themed set continues with ASIHTOS.  
12/31/17: Trey using the octave shifter. Things are getting weird.  
12/31/17: I'm not sure if Trey realizes it or not, but he just modulated this space-funk jam into the exact chord p… https://t.co/o3PTD31PdN  
12/31/17: SOMEONE PLEASE START SINGING THE LYRICS, THIS IS EXCRUCIATING.  
12/31/17: FINE I'LL DO IT PARTY TIME PARTY TIME PARTY TIME PARTY TIME  
12/31/17: That Time I Heard The Ocean Party  
12/31/17: Shipwreck samples as the jam goes ambient.  
12/31/17: > Moma
12/31/17: THE MOMADENS THE MOMADENS      
12/31/17: Moma is *immediately* like 'Fuck the normal jam' and goes Type II bliss. Auld Lang Syne teases.  
12/31/17: Moma jam slams into Caspian, and a short Caspian segues into Velvet Sea.  
12/31/17: Rounding out the set with the decidedly not-ocean-themed First Tube.  
12/31/17: End set.  
12/31/17: Loving Cup to wrap things up.    

2017-12-30 MSG III

The Verdict
The third night of the MSG run is definitely THE SHOW of the run. I'm still unsure whether this is because it's an exceptionally well-played show or because the band played yet another great-for-2017 show that just happens to pile pretty much all of the fan favorite songs into one setlist. Either way, though, it's a great show.

The first set is a surprisingly engaging affair, starting with an exploratory take on "Mike's" that segues into a pretty version of "Hydrogen" before petering out a bit during a plodding "Groove."

From there, a legitimate second-set-style "Tweezer" blows things open and we arguably never slow down again for the rest of the show. This jam doesn't go anywhere unexpected, but it's a long, patient, bread-and-butter-type jam which throws in a neat twist at the end by returning to the song's album-version ending before "seguing" into "Ass Handed."

"KDF" and "Gin" follow, turning in typically energetic and blissful versions, respectively, before we get a really interesting take on "Brother" that takes the song in the "slow 'Llama'" direction, rearranging it a bit from its usual presentation. "More" ends the set with the punch of its "Number Line"-style outro jam.

The second set is a patented latter-day Phish five-song monster. In the opening "Disease," Trey experiments quite a bit with his new effects rig, which seems to inspire the entire band to play around with new tones. What follows is a jam that sounds quite different than your usual "Disease" jam. It isn't necessarily terribly different playing, but the exploration comes more from the tones. It's hard to describe, but definitely worth a listen.

The band wraps up the long "Disease" with another of the Allmans-ish rock-peak jams they've been trying out lately, and in the noise that follows makes a nice segue into "Steam." I don't normally think of "Steam" as a jam vehicle song, but this version challenges that assumption, as the guys move into an ambient jam after the lyrics that extends for a few minutes before moving in turn into "Light."

"Light" gets jammed as well, albeit in a much more predictable fashion, getting rhythm-heavy and sounding a bit like "Manteca" before dropping into a "Farmhouse" that is one of my favorite versions already, featuring as it does a Trey/Page almost-breakdown in the middle that really plays up the ballad quality of the song in a good way.

"Antelope" rounds out yet another second set that never really lets up.

The Live Review
12/30/17: Here we go with N3!  
12/30/17: Opens with Mike's Song. At least it won't be lurking later on to destroy the flow of a second set :)  
12/30/17: Troy deploying a deep, distorted tone at the beginning of the jam.  
12/30/17: Highlight so far is Page's nutso organ work under Trey.  
12/30/17: > Hydrogen
12/30/17: Nice, languid take on Hydrogen leads into a languid take on Groove.  
12/30/17: Trey laying down a solid solo here, but the tempo of the tune is almost plodding.  
12/30/17: And I say that as someone who normally isn't bothered by that sort of thing.  
12/30/17: TWEEZE R.  
12/30/17: Really low tone from Trey here to start off the jam.  
12/30/17: Now settling into a more melodic space. Trey and Page playing off of each other, Mike keeping a Boogie On-ish tone.  
12/30/17: Smooth transition into an airier jam now.  
12/30/17: This is a really solid, slowly unfolding Tweezer jam. Sticking to recognizable jam spaces, but doing so i… https://t.co/vK56uqReYn  
12/30/17: Oh, and it's also in the first quarter of the show. So there's that.  
12/30/17: Jam segues really nicely into the album-style slow-down ending to the song...then Fish starts screaming Ass Handed.  
12/30/17: I guess that's technically -> Ass Handed :)
12/30/17: KDF following up that potent Tweeze -> Ass combo.
12/30/17: Lands in Gin.  
12/30/17: Gin heading out into the same mellow space much of the Tweezer jam hung out in. Page again doing some gre… https://t.co/gANAxJ5FPR  
12/30/17: This is a pretty typical latter-3.0 Gin jam, but with a little extra swing than normal.  
12/30/17: Brother! Tune getting the 'slow Llama' treatment. It's slinky. I like it.  
12/30/17: This version of the tune lends itself really well to a funky, clavvy jam. Which is what's currently happening.  
12/30/17: Now this is how you slow a song down but use that as an opportunity to change it in interesting ways (looking at you, Groove).  
12/30/17: Neat take on Brother drops into More.  
12/30/17: End set. Hard to argue with a first set that has a 19-minute Tweezer in it.  
12/30/17: Second set seems primed to start with Disease.  
12/30/17: After a few minutes of the usual Type I noodling, the band falls into a more mellow space. Page on synth almost right away.  
12/30/17: More heavily distorted playing from Trey. Good stuff. Page is back to the piano. Mike on fire like he has been for the whole run.  
12/30/17: Serious tone clinic happening here from pretty much the whole band.  
12/30/17: Great combination of echo effects and funk at the moment. This is fun.  
12/30/17: This jam is somehow both ambient and full of instrumentation. And it is also awesome.  
12/30/17: I'm telling you, Mike should just be in charge of everything from now on!  
12/30/17: Nice transition into a peaky, Allmans-ish jam now.  
12/30/17: Great 3.0 bread-and-butter jam ends in a 'Woo!' sequence.  
12/30/17: Great segue into Steam.  
12/30/17: Nice mid-song jam unfolding here.  
12/30/17: Full-on ambient 'jam' now.  
12/30/17: This is in the middle of Steam, by the way.  
12/30/17: Ambient jam slowly works its way into Light.  
12/30/17: Somewhat atypical jam here in Light, too. Very drums + bass heavy.  
12/30/17: Almost heard a Plasma tease from Page there.  
12/30/17: Drops into a Farmhouse featuring some exquisite Page and Trey interplay. This is my favorite version of t… https://t.co/QDbIRZqlg0  
12/30/17: Antelope.  
12/30/17: Trey using echo-chording liberally here.  
12/30/17: End set.  
12/30/17: Encore kicks off with Sleeping Monkey.  
12/30/17: End show with Tweeprise.  
12/30/17: Welp, despite my griping over the last two nights, this show was pretty much nonstop awesome.  
12/30/17: Interestingly, they did it by doing pretty much exactly what I suggested at the end of my 12/29 review: c… https://t.co/jPTWWYF4WD  
12/30/17: Of course, it doesn't hurt that they have so many damn songs these days that they can play a four night r… https://t.co/uXaT6wGByg  
12/30/17: That said, Tweezer was a great surprise early on, and the Disease jam was sublime.  
12/30/17: Everything else was smooth as butter. Night and day from 12/28 and 12/29.

Chris Robinson Brotherhood 2017-12-07 Las Vegas (Webcast)

The Live Review
12/7/17: Lazy Days opener.  
12/7/17: This is one of the few CRB covers that I could take or leave. That said, Adam always gets a ripping solo i… https://t.co/Hcf8kqWvoy  
12/7/17: High Is Not the Top next. One of my favorite songs off of the most recent album.  
12/7/17: Loved this webcast because of the light show on the freak flag behind the band. Wish they could do that for every show.  
12/7/17: Great little rockabilly-style jam in the middle of the song.  
12/7/17: Tornado!  
12/7/17: I have a much greater affection for this song now that I know it was apparently the first song Chris wrote… https://t.co/KNcQosfhIA  
12/7/17: Mix is a little weird. Loud vocals, hard to hear instruments when they go low.  
12/7/17: Chris started off a little raspier than usual, but seems to be warming up now. Great take on Tornado.  
12/7/17: Space jamming starting up after the end of Tornado. Likely the intro to Tulsa Yesterday.  
12/7/17: Yep.  
12/7/17: During the middle section of Tulsa Yesterday, I always feel like Neal is like two notes away from teasing… https://t.co/wQO40MysLB  
12/7/17: I feel like the slide guitar part that Neal plays after the song proper might be a new addition to Tulsa for this tour. Am I crazy?  
12/7/17: I love this band what some might deem an inappropriate amount.  
12/7/17: Great, slanky outro to Tulsa.  
12/7/17: This is just reminding me though that I need to relisten to the version of Tulsa from the Portland show. F… https://t.co/XblV5LOr4a  
12/7/17: Something about the way they ended that made me think -> If I Could. Which would have been hilarious and ridiculous.
12/7/17: Instead, > Tumbleweed In Eden, which is basically the same thing.  
12/7/17: This is easily one of my favorite songs of theirs, and the piano jam Adam adds to the end just makes it even better.  
12/7/17: Great outro jam. Chauffeur's Daughter is next.  
12/7/17: I'd originally thought that this was a cover, but apparently it's a CRB original.  
12/7/17: Which is great, because it's a fantastic song.  
12/7/17: Love the way the end of the tune proper just rolls into a swinging blues jam.  
12/7/17: Now slowing down a bit, getting a bit spacier. Tony going heavy on the drums.  
12/7/17: Jazzy fills from Adam.  
12/7/17: > Roll Old Jeremiah
12/7/17: Adam and Tony going to town during the outro to Jeremiah.  
12/7/17: Another great outro jam. Every song is getting stretched out a bit here. Fantastic set so far.  
12/7/17: Looks like the first set's going to wrap up with Poor Elijah/R. Johnson.  
12/7/17: Adam laying down some ridiculous tones in this outro jam.  
12/7/17: Love the call-and-response guitars at the end of this tune.  
12/7/17: Nevermind: that wasn't the end. Neal is back on slide guitar now. Chris reprising vocals.  
12/7/17: End set.  
12/7/17: If I'm remembering right, this second set was a bit less raucous and more songy than the first set.  
12/7/17: Par for the course for the way the band has been doing things since at least early December.  
12/7/17: Slow, extra-spacey intro to Good To Know to start the second set.  
12/7/17: Great little outro jam there, but unfortunately missing the follow piano jam that sometimes comes after.  
12/7/17: Venus in Chrome next.  
12/7/17: Run of newer songs continues with Hark the Herald Hermit Speaks.  
12/7/17: Neal and Chris really getting into the outro jam here.  
12/7/17: Ah! The elusive Blonde Light of Morning!  
12/7/17: Expansive outro jam added onto the end of Blonde Light.  
12/7/17: Loving what Neal's doing here.  
12/7/17: Gorgeous segue into rarity Glow.  
12/7/17: There's a poor man at this show who gets so scared during the silences between the songs he just has to fu… https://t.co/AxytmtbBqF  
12/7/17: Poor dude.  
12/7/17: Behold the Seer next.  
12/7/17: I was never particularly into this song as an album track, but I really like the way they've rearranged it for the live setting.  
12/7/17: Finally moving away from new tracks to Ain't It Hard But Fair.  
12/7/17: Particularly energetic Neal and Chris scat session during the song's breakdown.  
12/7/17: ROSALEE  
12/7/17: Every time they play Rosalee, I wait for them to segue into Magic Carpet Ride like they were doing during last year's winter tour.  
12/7/17: End set 2.  
12/7/17: Old Country Waltz cover for the encore.  
12/7/17: I love this band's tendency to play those old, slow country-ish songs as encores instead of one last huge rocker.  
12/7/17: There's something that just feels right about leaving a CRB show with the last thing you hear being a song like Old Country Waltz.  
12/7/17: Yet another fantastic show overall. I wonder if these guys ever have a bad night.  
12/7/17: First set was insane. Tulsa > Tumbleweed, Chauffeur's Daughter > Roll Old Jeremiah, Poor Elijah -> R. John… https://t.co/dif9tousww  
12/7/17: All five songs jammed out in unique ways.  
12/7/17: Second set was definitely more songy, but I really liked the intro to Good To Know, Blonde Light -> Glow,… https://t.co/SMOliQ7ncj    

2017-12-29 MSG II

The Verdict:
The second night of the band's NYE run sounds suspiciously like the first. Of course, all the songs are different, but the movements all seem to be more or less in the same place. In some ways, that's a bad thing. In others, of course, it's not.

There's an early jam in this one like last night's "Wolfman's," and in this case "Blaze On" gets the nod. It doesn't go as deep as it has in the past, but a fuzz-tinged funk jam powered by Trey's new rig isn't something to sniff at, either. If you're like me, you'll be happy to hear a jammed-out "I Always Wanted It This Way," even if the jam abandons the song's unique-ish electronica sound quickly and goes straight rock. "Destiny Unbound" makes for a nice setlist surprise, but otherwise this set is pretty straightforward. Again, the novelty such as it is comes from the fact that Trey's guitar (and Page's rig, if you haven't been listening since July) sounds different, not necessarily that the band is playing differently.

"Sand" opens the second set, and even though it stays in the box, it showcases that Trey still has the ability to spontaneously create a melody that he can then develop over the course of a few minutes while the rest of the band builds on throughout. This is possibly my favorite type of playing from Phish, even if it's not really Type II jamming, and it makes for a great version of "Sand" here.

"Chalkdust" is next, and like last night's "Twist," it immediately drops into a minimalistic space, before a jazzy build leads to a few minutes of a really beautiful three-way listening session between the melodic players in the band. This is really great stuff, really elemental-sounding Phish, and even when the band finally (inevitably?) starts moving the jam toward a peak, they do so on the back of an Allmans'-ish riff from Trey that's a little different than what we are at this point used to. That they drop into "Ghost" from there isn't awful either...

"Ghost" puts Mike at the helm almost immediately, and like "No Men" from the night before, this is a great thing. This one ends up being a bit short as compared to the other big jams from N1 and N2, but there's a lot there in its short running time.

It crashes into "Number Line," which ends up being part of a one-two punch with "Simple": both songs kept to around seven minutes and boiled down to their very essences...but only because the band was clearly planning on ending the set with a monster "Split." And they do. These days, Phish doesn't seem interested (or able?) to capture the frenetic chaos of an old-school "Split" jam, but they've perfected a great alternative: going abstract. This one goes so deep into abstractness for so long that it feels like they're going to lose the rhythm completely for a few minutes (a redux of the BD "ASIHTOS," maybe?) before they ever-so-slowly bring things back around to the "Split" outro to end the set.

Another show that concentrates the goods in the second set to a surprising degree, but there are a lot of goods there to enjoy. Looking forward to 12/30.

The Live Review:
12/29/17: Cavern opener! That's fun.  
12/29/17: Lots of new tones early in Cavern from Trey and Page. Trey cracks himself up at one point.  
12/29/17: > Blaze On
12/29/17: Some heavy chording from Trey coming out of the usual Type I ending to the song. Page picking things up on the clav.  
12/29/17: Really neat fuzzy-electro groove emerging.  
12/29/17: I'll say yet again how much I respect these guys for still switching things up this far into their careers.  
12/29/17: They could just ride the wave for twenty more years, but instead every tour sounds different. Still.  
12/29/17: Return to vocals after a quick but interesting funk jam. Now, 555.  
12/29/17: Which reminds me: all my praise aside, where's my twenty-five minute apoco-funk 555 jam? I've been waiting for four years now.  
12/29/17: Mike's voice is...not sounding great. Maybe he's sick? Nonetheless, an otherwise typically competent take… https://t.co/27nFmt9hmu  
12/29/17: Troy conjuring yet more space aliens from his new rig. Some great accompanying bass from Mike.  
12/29/17: I Always Wanted It This Way!  
12/29/17: I Always Wanted To Hear This Song Live, Maybe This Year At The Gorge!  
12/29/17: Jam coming your way.  
12/29/17: Actually a little bummed that this jam is departing the usual electronica-tinged IAWITW jams for a more rock and roll place.  
12/29/17: Reminds me of an ASIHTOS jam, but with Trey conjuring metal demons from his low-end guitar tone.  
12/29/17: Cool ambient/loops section to wrap up the jam.  
12/29/17: > Martian Monster
12/29/17: Heavy Things after a pretty typical take on Martian Monster.  
12/29/17: Destiny Unbound!  
12/29/17: Decent melodic solo from Trey at the tail end of this Destiny.  
12/29/17: Weird to hear him play with his usual tone :)  
12/29/17: Oh good. Ocelot.  
12/29/17: Walls of the Cave next, perhaps to end the set.  
12/29/17: End set.  
12/29/17: Sand opens set two. I like the thinking behind that.  
12/29/17: Really great melodic playing from Trey here. Slowly developing a theme through a building Type I structure.  
12/29/17: Chalkdust up next. Song proper plays out like you'd expect, then crashes into a jazzy jam almost immediat… https://t.co/yR2HUPfujV  
12/29/17: Mellow, minimal jam unfolding now.  
12/29/17: Synth put to good use by Page here.  
12/29/17: Some really pretty three-way melodic interplay happening now.  
12/29/17: After a lot of great, meaty improvisation, Trey taking off with an Allman-sounding guitar riff here.  
12/29/17: Nice build here. Still developing the riff.  
12/29/17: Nice on-a-dime pivot from the rock-peak stuff to an echo-funk space.  
12/29/17: Sort-of -> Ghost.
12/29/17: Bringing out lots of the big hits in these first two shows. Interested to see how the setlists go for N3 and N4.  
12/29/17: Awesome jam out of Ghost with Mike taking the lead.  

12/29/17: Great electric piano work from Page. Trey shifting octaves.  
12/29/17: Interesting build now with Mike still leading.  
12/29/17: Nice short but great jam that lands in Number Line.  
12/29/17: As always, Number Line is a great, short Type I jam. Especially good interplay this time around.  
12/29/17: > Simple!
12/29/17: Old-school Simple fades out of its melodic jam and lands in SOAM.  
12/29/17: Split jam getting extended. Going way out there. Flirting with losing rhythm entirely.  
12/29/17: That jam was pure 2017 Phish. Band as a whole bringing it back smoothly to the Split outro.  
12/29/17: End set. Julius encore.  
12/29/17: So far, this run is reinforcing the ambivalence I've felt about 2017 Phish in general (the reason I've be… https://t.co/oFoLeSKRJ1  
12/29/17: Don't get me wrong, the BD was an amazing accomplishment and I loved seeing Dick's '17 in person...  
12/29/17: ...but I've been really feeling the split between jams and not-jammed songs this year, in a bad way.  
12/29/17: For most of my years as a Phish fan, I've struggled with what lots of fans struggle with: that feeling of… https://t.co/3fmwDomp5o  
12/29/17: This was especially bad for me after 7/31/13, a jam and a show that has made every show since feel a litt… https://t.co/fM9MrmnN69  
12/29/17: During '15 and '16, I got much better at this and was starting to be able to enjoy each show in its own r… https://t.co/RzQ6eMBjeD  
12/29/17: This has been harder, though, in '17 because I think (and YMMV) nearly every non-jam piece of music the b… https://t.co/IJSzSSspwo  
12/29/17: The jams are incredible, perhaps better than they've ever been, and the band is just so good right now at… https://t.co/S8gJtI7xFf  
12/29/17: This was easily forgiveable during the BD run, as they were *actually playing tons of songs they hadn't p… https://t.co/2f8UlTWm9B  
12/29/17: But as the year has gone on, the lack of polish during non-jammed songs persists. Do they just not run th… https://t.co/TdQl42leD0  
12/29/17: I don't know. But I do know that it's become sort of painful to listen to the band lately when they aren'… https://t.co/S1K9EJczHn  
12/29/17: I want listening to Phish to feel like how it's felt to me since 2001. Instead, like 25% of the time it's… https://t.co/xXczZsezw6  
12/29/17: Am I nuts? Maybe I'm nuts.  
12/29/17: Maybe 12/30 will make me eat my hat in a good way. Mmmm...hat.  
12/29/17: Part of it, too, is me finally branching out into more jam-band-type music beyond Phish. More of a perspective, I guess.  
12/29/17: Like, I'm obsessed with CRB right now. They don't Type II jam like Phish does, but they're of an age with… https://t.co/pKo86Kq8z9  
12/29/17: They also play 100-150 shows a year...so maybe that's the difference?  
12/29/17: Maybe latter-day Phish would, oddly, be more satisfying if they played Spafford-style shows, where they o… https://t.co/yVPf32wEBE  
12/29/17: I did a little experiment where I cut up the playlists for a bunch of recent, jam-heavy Phish shows and i… https://t.co/uY7VnvOrgt  
12/29/17: I would still happily pay $60 to see a two hour Phish show that was almost entirely Type I/Type II jams,… https://t.co/GtoWqZWfDv  
12/29/17: And don't get me wrong: I love Phish's compositions and am one of those weirdos who actually think a lot… https://t.co/jaoQBeonUG  
12/29/17: But if it's a choice between half-playing them and cutting them from the setlist entirely, I'd choose the latter.  
12/29/17: Okay, time to get back to work...    

2017-12-28 MSG I

The Verdict:
The opening show of the NYE run feels like it picks up where Dick's left off. That is, it's a mixture of rocky takes on songy-songs, straightforward Type I jams, and then a few mindbending Type II jams to make you go home happy even though you may well have not been particularly happy for like 70% of the show.

Time for more 2017 Phish, folks!

Things gets stretched out early, when after the opening "Bag," the band takes "Wolfman's" for a significant walk, leading to a patient, mellow groove that doesn't necessarily develop in any particularly notable way, but is maybe actually more notable for that.

The rest of this set stays firmly in predictable territory with the notable exception of the obvious changes Trey has made to his effects rig since Dick's. So, while there aren't any songs that go off the rails in a good way, Trey's new tones mesh with Page and Mike in a way that breathe some new life into staid Type I tunes like "Back On The Train," "Your Pet Cat," and the set-closing "Theme."

Set two starts off with "Wilson," but quickly launches into space on the back of "No Men." The huge jam culminates in the way nearly every Phish jam culminates these days, but the bulk of the journey there feels new, which makes this one of my favorite jams in awhile. Trey's new effects and Page's synth merge perfectly, adding just a touch of eerie to Fish's groove, and Mike gets out front melodically a surprising amount of the time. I've always said that my favorite jams tend to be the ones where Mike is steering, and this is no exception.

"Twist" follows, and drops almost immediately into a minimalist jam that eventually grows into a darker space before concluding in a similar way as "No Men" and setting up the jam trifecta transition into "Everything's Right."

I actually dig the cheesy lyrics in this tune, and dig even more the fact that it gets jammed pretty much every time it gets played. This time is no exception: a funky outro moves into the unhinged circus-jamming style we heard a few times during the Baker's Dozen before fading out and finally segueing into "2001" to end the Type II portion of the night.

That's not necessarily a complaint: there are three songs left and two of them are "Hood" and "Slave," making for a euphoric one-two punch to end the night.

This show might not have had much punch in the first set (especially compared to some of the better first sets the band has thrown down recently) but the second set is huge and that encore is pretty great, too.


The Live Review:
12/28/17: NYE run kicks off with AC/DC Bag.  
12/28/17: > Wolfman's. Pretty standard Bag for the opener.
12/28/17: Interesting, laid-back groove in Wolfman's jam, with Page on the organ.  
12/28/17: Mostly organ and bass driven for the moment. Trey's tone getting raunchier, though.  
12/28/17: Nice, chill Wolfman's jam. Thirteen minutes. Nothing earth-shattering, but definitely a bit different than the norm.  
12/28/17: A minute's pause, then Roggae.  
12/28/17: Many years ago, I once sung the line from Roggae as 'If life were easy, and not so fast, I wouldn't have to kick your ass.'  
12/28/17: And now I wish I hadn't, because I only ever hear that in my head instead of the real line whenever I hear the song.  
12/28/17: Nice take on Roggae. Tube is next.  
12/28/17: Neat groove for a few minutes, then takes off on the back of Trey's echoplex. Kind of flakes out a little at the peak, though.  
12/28/17: > Bouncin'
12/28/17: Neat melange of sounds during this BOTT. Assuming this is some of Trey's new rig at work. I'm liking it so far.  
12/28/17: Your Pet Cat is next. Similarly new tones and effects coming from the guitar. Stretching the song out a little bit.  
12/28/17: Like Waking Up Dead more and more every time I hear it.  
12/28/17: Theme next.  
12/28/17: Loving Trey's new sounds and this is a solid set of songs for the opening frame. That said, every song fe… https://t.co/6A5erU3PiH  
12/28/17: Nice little bit of shredding from Trey there near the end of Theme.  
12/28/17: End set. Felt weirdly perfunctory, except for the Wolfman's. Good set of tunes, though.  
12/28/17: Wilson opener for set 2.  
12/28/17: > No Men
12/28/17: Great mesh of tones from Trey and Page's synth to start off this jam. Liking where this is going.  
12/28/17: This is great. I was lukewarm about this show until just now. Now I'm pumped.  
12/28/17: Really cool bass-led transition into space now.  
12/28/17: Almost nodding toward What's the Use? there for a minute.  
12/28/17: Page on synth is HUGE in this jam.  
12/28/17: Mike is also ruling this jam. This is what I imagine when I imagine Trey laying back for the good of the jam.  
12/28/17: Me, during set one: 'Oh, this is why I haven't listened to Phish for two months.'  
12/28/17: Me, during set two: 'THEY PLAYED THIS A MONTH AGO HOW HAVE I NOT HEARD IT UNTIL NOW?!'  
12/28/17: Making the turn now to the Trey Plays Four Chords While Everyone Gets Louder Slowly part of the jam.  
12/28/17: My gripe about predictable bliss jamming aside, that was an excellent twenty-four minutes. A return to th… https://t.co/09M4L3YxrF  
12/28/17: Fade out > Twist
12/28/17: Trey playing some syncopated chords, and Page filling it with some great piano runs behind him. Jam #2 off to a good start.  
12/28/17: Ultimately, the Twist is developing into the same sort of jam as No Men's but it's getting there by a dif… https://t.co/Ps2zC863zZ  
12/28/17: Trey darkness-chording his way out of that bliss jam.  
12/28/17: Loping beat from Fishman now.  
12/28/17: Fuzzy jam crashes sort of oddly into Everything's Right.  
12/28/17: I actually like Everything's Right, but that was maybe not the best deployment right there.  
12/28/17: Is it just a mixing thing with the SBDs, or does Trey just not play guitar and sing at the same time anymore?  
12/28/17: Nice gauzy funk jam segueing out of the tune proper thanks to more new Trey tones.  
12/28/17: Demented circus jamming now.  
12/28/17: > 2001
12/28/17: Trey keeping up his super-dopey distorted tone during the intro to 2001.  
12/28/17: I love the new swagger that 2001 has lately. Everybody contributing great ideas.  
12/28/17: Set just keeps rolling with a > Hood.
12/28/17: Good, drum-driven take on Hood there. Wandered into semi-dark territory for a minute.  
12/28/17: Encore starts with The Wedge, which is...weird.  
12/28/17: Okay, Slave follows The Wedge.  
12/28/17: Page doing some serious electric piano work during this Slave build.  
12/28/17: Wraps with an extra-explosive though brief peak.  
12/28/17: Great second set. First set was a little flat, but made more interesting than it would have been by Trey's new rig.  
12/28/17: Fun to hear them playing with their sound so much. I feel like after a few more shows, it'll be super dialed in and awesome.