If my one complaint about the reemergence of jam-heavy Phish during 6/22's show was that the jams weren't allowed to develop (and it was), 6/23's show goes a long way toward addressing that complaint.
The first set is perfectly delivered summer-lawn Phish. The setlist flows perfectly, the playing is high-energy throughout, and the set ends with a "YEM" that pretty much caused my feet to want to burst into flames six years after the fact, while I was standing at my desk at work. Notably, "Scent of a Mule" gets weird during the duel section, and Page busts out the theremin briefly...other than that, though, it's just a really fun set with no particular highlights but a constant enthusiasm that made me smile a lot while listening.
Sure, the second set opens up with "Jibboo," but things really get rolling after that. The sequence starting with "Mike's Song" and ending with "Seven Below" is quite possibly my favorite bit of music from this year so far. Trey goes so rock and roll during "Mike's" that the band can't decide when to wrap the song up, but when they do, it's to move into a "Simple" that features a more-beautiful-than-usual outro jam and then an ambient space that develops briefly before moving into "Light." "Light" is the clear highlight here, with a minor-key Floydian jam leading to a plinko space. It feels like it's abandoned for the return to "Groove" too soon, but then "Groove" itself rides a series of teases and some off-kilter (in a good way) playing into a standard ending, and then a totally bizarre and abstract after-song jam that fades after two or so minutes into "Seven Below." It, too, gets this semi-deconstructed treatment, and the result is nearly an hour of extremely experimental playing from the band after a series of shows where they seemed to be content to stay in the box. No more box, says I!
An particularly delicate take on "Slave" and a "Lizards" encore is the icing on the cake of what I'm going to call the first truly great show of 2012.
The Live Review:
6/23/12: Funky Bitch opener. Can't argue with that.
6/23/12: Whole band just killing this version. Great opener.
6/23/12: > Number Line
6/23/12: Yeah! What happened to playing this at the *beginning* of a show?! Much better than ten minutes into a thirty minute Tweezer...
6/23/12: Gumbo next. Great song choices so far.
6/23/12: > Maze. High-energy set so far.
6/23/12: Is Maze never not just pretty great?
6/23/12: Finally a slight breather after a huge Maze ending.
6/23/12: Torn and Frayed.
6/23/12: A bit more mustard on the outro solo than usual here.
6/23/12: Another brief break, then Moma Dance.
6/23/12: I think if I was trying to give someone who'd never heard Phish before the less-than-seven minute introduc… https://t.co/Mwn5MVivqz
6/23/12: I would definitely not pick Scent of a Mule.
6/23/12: Which, incidentally, is what's playing after Moma.
6/23/12: Mule Duel section picking up the tempo.
6/23/12: Things getting weird. Crescendo section got way extended, and now I believe Page is playing the theremin.
6/23/12: After that weird Scent, Trey just lit into 46 Days like it killed his pa.
6/23/12: YEM to close a great opening set.
6/23/12: Well-placed Scent tease in the middle of the YEM jam.
6/23/12: That was about as good as a Phish set gets without any 'real' jamming.
6/23/12: Really...umm...'percussive' vocal jam.
6/23/12: End set.
6/23/12: Jibboo opens the second set.
6/23/12: I think Trey forgetting the words to Jibboo is the funniest lyrical flub I've ever heard. The song literally has six words in it.
6/23/12: Okay, maybe seven?
6/23/12: Concise take on Jibboo > Mike's.
6/23/12: Trey almost accidentally second-jammed that, he was going so crazy on the gee-tar.
6/23/12: Mike's > Simple.
6/23/12: Really pretty bass-led jam now.
6/23/12: Ambient jam now. Page adding some great synth-y effects.
6/23/12: A bit sinister.
6/23/12: This reminds me of the noise jam at the end of the '09 Gorge Hood.
6/23/12: > Light.
6/23/12: Trey using loops after the initial arpeggio-palooza. Eerie minor-key jam.
6/23/12: Floyd-style jam happening now.
6/23/12: Plinko is happening now. Great jam.
6/23/12: This is so cool. Trey playing melody over the plinko jam now.
6/23/12: At the peak of the chaos, jam segues into Weekapaug Groove.
6/23/12: Loops and such still going in the background.
6/23/12: Pretty sure Trey just teased Divided Sky in Groove.
6/23/12: Slowing down the tempo, adding more loops. Surprisingly experimental Groove here.
6/23/12: Weird, arrhythmic after-song jam.
6/23/12: Weird Nothing Jam > Seven Below
6/23/12: Groove tease by Page in Seven Below.
6/23/12: The delightful unhinged-ness of this set continues through Seven Below.
6/23/12: Bouncing is next. I'm going to assume they'll play this straight. If Trey starts looping I'm just going to hit STOP.
6/23/12: > Julius.
6/23/12: Solid take on Julius leads into Slave.
6/23/12: If I had twelve minutes to introduce someone to Phish, I might choose Slave as my song.
6/23/12: Excellent lead in to the jam from Mike on this version.
6/23/12: End second set. Whew, that was pretty good, guys.
6/23/12: Lizards encore! Great Scott!
6/23/12: Trey forgot the second verse, but the audience reminded him.
6/23/12: Crowdsourcing ftw.
6/23/12: Page is annihilating his solo.
6/23/12: Lizards is a really good encore song. I wish they'd use it in that position more often.
6/23/12: Actually heard my first-ever live Lizards as an encore song on 9/2/17. Unfortunately the effect was a litt… https://t.co/loRECLh64a
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