2012-07-07 SPAC II

The Live Review

7/7/12 Set One: Show opening with Grind. Gotta love those a capella show openers.

Possum is the first instrument-ed song of the show.

Trey is going nuts here. Will probably be another all-Type I summer lawn show, but at least he's FREAKING BRINGING IT early.

Set is proceeding apace to be a typical summer '12 first set, but I'm enjoying it more than usual for some reason. Song selection, maybe?

The hits keep coming (in a good way)! Mini plinko-esque breakdown in Cities is the highlight so far.

Really rad -> Maze from Cities jam.

Peaches En Regalia: setlist selection A+

Nice, patiently building rock jam in the Gin.

Damn, Trey is going to TOWN.

And an awesome set one closes out with a shredtastic GTBT.

 

7/7/12 Set Two: DWD opener.

Trey teasing Blister in the Sun in the jam.

Band going all in on the tease. Trey singing lyrics now.

Full verse/chorus from the song, then -> Disease jam. Awesome.

Manteca-like jam now.

Short(ish), but really excellent jam after the Blister tease. Boogie On is next.

Eerie looping jam in Boogie On. Loving this. The band is showing a willingness to be weird musically in this show that's been missing for most of the summer so far.

-> Golden Age!

Mini space jam out of Golden Age -> 2001.

That was a short, but really neat and legitimately jammy take on 2001. Number
Line next.

Blister in the Sun jamming in Number Line!

Caspian follows Number Line with a really mellow, bass-and-piano-led jam.

Loving this.

-> Scent of a Mule. I know that sounds weird, but it makes sense.

Blister in the Sun jamming again during the Scent jam. Trey singing the lyrics now.

Band weaving Blister in the Sun and Scent of a Mule together now. So good.

Mike's Song. Lots of Blister in the Sun teasing throughout.

Some teasing in Contact and Groove as well.

Set two ends with one more tease.

Sabotage encore. That seems right.

That second set/encore was fantastic. No huge jams, but great flow and a lot of fun experimentation throughout. I've been struggling through a lot of these early 2012 shows, honestly, except for a few bright spots. This was definitely one of them.

2012-07-06 SPAC I

The show's first set is another fun-but-light summer '12 affair, elevated slightly by some "tucking" antics, a few great covers ("Corinna," "Light Up") and a "Tube" > "Psycho Killer" > "Tube" sandwich. In the second set, "Carini" and "Sand" both get interested jam spaces that get truncated way too early. Fortunately, the later "Sally" > Jam > "Ghost" sequence is worth a second look.

The Live Review
7/6/12: Alright, it's been awhile, but now that school's back in session, I'm going to try t7/6/12: Alright, it's been awhile, but now that school's back in session, I'm going to try to get back into going r… https://t.co/dGJRfT29GB      
7/6/12: I'm not sure how well it will work due to my recently, weirdly decreasing interest in all things Phish, but… https://t.co/Iv7NcmFXMF      
7/6/12: Anyway, first show of the three-night SPAC run playing now. Runaway Jim opener.      
7/6/12: A very 2012 start to the show with Jim, Ocelot, Heavy Things, BOTT, Funky Bitch. That said, everything sinc… https://t.co/XSWMY8AxuX      
7/6/12: Tube next. Almost immediately, a segue into Psycho Killer.      
7/6/12: Full-ish take on Psycho Killer there in that Tube -> Psycho Killer -> Tube sandwich.
7/6/12: Here you go: https://t.co/543d0BzZ7i      
7/6/12: HYHU next. Trey singing Psycho Killer lyrics.      
7/6/12: Fish says 'You tucked it once, why tuck it again?!'      
7/6/12: Trey ends the song by yelling 'Why not tuck THRICE?!' Fish responds 'We're playing all the hits tonight, folks.'      
7/6/12: Always good to hear Paul and Silas.      
7/6/12: Corinna! This cover is the best thing about Phish 2012 so far.      
7/6/12: Light Up Or Leave Me Alone is back, too!      
7/6/12: End set with an extended Type I jam on Light Up.      
7/6/12: All told, it was a pretty fun, summery set. Also 17 songs and 90 minutes long. Set two opens with Chalkdust.       
7/6/12: After Chalkdust, Carini is the first real jam of the night. Trey soloing in a dark tone while Page adds organ chords.      
7/6/12: Fish changing up the beat to add some tension.      
7/6/12: Transition to a mellower space. Great melody playing from Trey.      
7/6/12: Second jam peters out pretty quickly. Segue into Sand.      
7/6/12: Crowd roaring during composed section of Sand. Not sure why.      
7/6/12: Neat, loop-based breakdown in the middle of Sand.      
7/6/12: Okay, it wasn't actually the middle, it was the end because there was a weird segue into Roses right after I typed that.             
7/6/12: Band tried briefly to recreate the Worcester Roses there, but it didn't go so well.      
7/6/12: PYITE instead.             
7/6/12: Spooky, loop-filled ending to PYITE, leading into Sneakin' Sally.      
7/6/12: Absolutely nasty groove in this Sally jam.      
7/6/12: Trey using his guitar muscles to transition into a second jam here. Sounds sort of like a cross between a Light jam and Rift.      
7/6/12: Seems like by summer '12, LivePhish stopped labeling jams as separate tracks. Too bad in this case, because… https://t.co/wRkNhpAS0e      
7/6/12: Make that Sally > Jam > Ghost.
7/6/12: Angry haze building in this Ghost jam.      
7/6/12: Haze modulating into an uplifting progression. Shades of 2015 jamming here.      
7/6/12: > Suzy  
7/6/12: Welp, I'm pretty much going to say the same thing about this show that I've been saying about most of 2012… https://t.co/ecjgdMEC6c      
7/6/12: ...and most of the second set was the same except for that great Sally > Jam > Ghost sequence.
7/6/12: I feel like the band is actually playing better now than they were between '09 and '11, they just aren't st… https://t.co/jbIvToeM1H