As has been the case for most of summer so far, "real" jamming is pretty sparse in the 6/24 Blossom show. That said, much of this tour is really reminding what's so great about a "standard" Phish show, and how much fun the band can pack into two sets that don't have twenty-minute jams scattered throughout. I'll always be a jam-hound when it comes to Phish, but it's worth mentioning that these jam-light shows aren't bad or uninteresting (mostly not, at least) in the way some '09 and '10 shows were.
The opening set here is some more quintessential summer-lawn Phish. The overall tone of the set is mellower than the last few shows', but it's still fun to listen to. The "Gin" hits a brief-but-satisfying peak, and I'll always love a good "Corinna" bustout. The middle of the set is all well-played, hit-parade Phish, and there's some goofiness during "Meatstick" when Trey invites fans up on stage to dance.
The second set kicks off with a "Golden Age" > "Ghost" > "Sweet Virginia" sequence that is the easy highlight of the show. Both "Golden Age" and "Ghost" are shorter than the set-ending "Antelope," but contain pretty much all the improvisation in the show...and it's all good, if a little short.
"Tweezer" comes next, and while it starts with another promising jam, things get derailed when a Pink Floyd vocal tease transforms into a hilarious-but-imploding "Under Pressure" jam...and the show descends into pretty standard fare after that. It's worth a listen for the humor factor, but it's also kind of a weird moment in the show as the band was really firing on all cylinders before that moment.
The Live Review:
6/24/12: Blossom show opens with Sample.
6/24/12: Sample gets the energy flowing, Axila I keeps it coming.
6/24/12: Corinna!
6/24/12: This is probably the Phish cover I want to hear the most live that I will never get to hear no matter how many shows I see.
6/24/12: Oh, bloody hell. I had shuffle on. Opening set is Sample, Tube, *then* Axilla I.
6/24/12: Corinna doesn't happen until later.
6/24/12: Anyway, Tube now. Sorry about that.
6/24/12: Tube jam getting a little plinko-y.
6/24/12: Okay, *now* Axilla I and then Gin.
6/24/12: Gin jam has a little arrhythmic section early on. Trey playing a little more experimentally than usual.
6/24/12: Jam picking up the pace now.
6/24/12: Roses Are Free! Would love to see this tune reenter rotation this year.
6/24/12: Very, very brief reprise of the Roses jam for Worcester before > Limb By Limb.
6/24/12: Some great Trey/Page interplay here in the outro jam.
6/24/12: FREE
6/24/12: Slow-tempo'd but pleasantly muddy take on Free's middle jam section.
6/24/12: NICU after Free.
6/24/12: > Possum
6/24/12: Trey doing a lot of tension-y bends in Possum, but in a way that's not really doing anything for me.
6/24/12: Giving me flashbacks to the whale pedal tour of 2010.
6/24/12: Hit-parade-style opening set continues with The Wedge.
6/24/12: Okay, this is where Corinna goes in the setlist.
6/24/12: Okay, so Corinna, Meatstick is the weirdest pairing I've heard in awhile.
6/24/12: Trey calling fans up onto the stage to do the Meatstick dance.
6/24/12: Apparently he forgot how to do it.
6/24/12: DANCE FLUB FROM TREY 6/24/12 F++ WILL NEVER LISTEN AGAIN
6/24/12: End set one. Second set kicks off with Golden Age.
6/24/12: Trey transitions neatly into a space funk jam and the rest of the band follows. Great beat from Fish, Page to the organ.
6/24/12: Now Page adding some nice piano flourishes to an otherwise dark jam.
6/24/12: Really cool, murky jam space developing here.
6/24/12: Ambient fade-out, and the whale pedal comes back! More 2010 flashbacks!
6/24/12: Ambient noise goes on for a bit...pretty interesting, actually. Then, segues into Ghost.
6/24/12: Surprisingly open-sounding Ghost jam.
6/24/12: Fish shifting up the beat. Trey laying down some loops. Some seriously spooky chamber-music-style jamming happening here.
6/24/12: Jam winds up after a few minutes. > Sweet Virginia.
6/24/12: Rift, after a Fishman-vocaled version of Sweet Virginia.
6/24/12: > Tweezer
6/24/12: Jam proper kicking off with a neat ascending riff from Trey.
6/24/12: Trey demands to know how we can have our meat if we haven't had our pudding.
6/24/12: Did he just flub a Pink Floyd lyrics tease?
6/24/12: Tweezer momentum needle is dipping slightly.
6/24/12: Under Pressure-like jam now.
6/24/12: Under Pressure lyrics now.
6/24/12: Ice Ice Baby lyrics, too.
6/24/12: Page definitely knows the actual chords to Under Pressure, but nobody else does, it seems.
6/24/12: Trey wants more fans on stage to dance to Meatstick again. Now they're playing Meatstick.
6/24/12: This is hilarious in an absolutely, weirdly unhinged way.
6/24/12: Weird organ vamp from Page leads us back to Tweezer briefly before -> Walk Away.
6/24/12: That was...something.
6/24/12: Trey is shredding the shit out of Walk Away.
6/24/12: Cacophonous ending to Tweezer leads into The Horse.
6/24/12: > Silent > Piper.
6/24/12: A few minutes of Type I jamming and Piper fades away into another murky, arrhythmic space.
6/24/12: Neat landing in Waste.
6/24/12: Looks like Antelope is going to end the set.
6/24/12: Trey teasing Under Pressure again in the Antelope intro.
6/24/12: Meatstick tease.
6/24/12: I like Antelope a lot more when it's used as a sort of 'show review' with teases from songs earlier in the show.
6/24/12: During the Antelope peak, everyone is just screaming 'Orlandoooooo' for some damn reason. It's just that kind of show.
6/24/12: End set.
6/24/12: Loving Cup, the second Stones cover of the night, kicks off the encore.
6/24/12: We'll wrap things up with Tweeprise.
6/24/12: First set was pretty standard except for the Corinna bustout. A little mellower than the last few nights' opening frames.
6/24/12: The second set had Golden Age, Ghost, and Tweezer...and they were all shorter than the usual-length Antelope set closer.
6/24/12: That said, there was some brief, high-quality jamming in Golden Age and Ghost, and some straight-up classic goofiness in Tweeze.
6/24/12: I didn't find as much to like as I did with 6/22 or 6/23, but it's still a good show.
No comments:
Post a Comment