The Verdict:
This show definitely falls in the same company as CMAC and Northerly II for me. It's an early-3.0-style show in the sense that it's mostly well-played, straightforward takes on "greatest hits"-type songs, with one big jam thrown in at the beginning of the second set. It's certainly not a bad show when it comes to shows of this type, but it feels like we've moved a bit beyond this template this far into 2014, and as a result 7/29 feels like a regression.
S1 has some interesting setlist choices ("Timber" opener, "GTBT" to close), but what you see is what you get, except for the "Melt," which deviates from the typical style outro jam to deliver something a little more smoothly undulating and strange. This is actually probably the jam highlight of the night.
The second set is, at first glance, all about the "Chalkdust," which is another monster version. For whatever reason, though, in a summer packed with extended "Chalkdust"s, this one didn't do much for me. It starts off promisingly enough, but then falls into that change-styles-every-three-minutes trap, and as a result it never develops in an interesting way. If the show ever elevates beyond the "Not very good" level of 7/15 or 7/19 to the "Not quite good enough" level of 7/16 or 7/25, though, it's in the rest of this set. "If I Could" features a short, beautiful outro jam, "ASIHTOS" breaks into a funk beat of all things near the end, and the "Caspian" > "Waves" sandwich inside of "Mike's" is more interesting than it has any right to be, considering the short running time of both songs. "Groove" lives up to its name and goes straight to yet another funk jam, and the encore is brilliantly chosen. If you can appreciate the little jamlets the guys have been recently throwing into shorter songs without needing a super-deep big jam to anchor the set, you might actually really enjoy this one. To me, it's still a backward step, but it's by no means uninspired.
The Live Review:
7/29/14: Timber opener. Is it just me, or are setlists way more interesting this year than anytime lately?
7/29/14: I mean, there are a lot of repeats, sure, but also lots more songs in unexpected places.
7/29/14: Nice Page and Trey interplay for an opening song. Good sign.
7/29/14: Straightforward Undermind. Trey providing some nice guitar lines, though.
7/29/14: Mellow-y beginning to 555. Bluesier than usual?
7/29/14: I have not tweeted for awhile because Divided Sky is happening. Solid, up-tempo, rolling version.
7/29/14: Once again, nothing great happening here, but good song selection. Like 7/27 S1 all over again. Halfway To the Moon is next.
7/29/14: There was an Ocelot in there somewhere, too.
7/29/14: So far, it sounds like trey might have finally learned how to stay the hell out of the way during a Page song.
7/29/14: I like Ocelot and KDF in theory, but when they both show up in the same set...bad news, man.
7/29/14: Split! Redemption for this immaculate-but-boring set?
7/29/14: Melt jam getting satisfactorily loopy (literally).
7/29/14: Once again, they've left behind the usual Split outro, which make-a me happy.
7/29/14: And now, back to it for the exciting conclusion!
7/29/14: Having a great jam like this at the end almost makes a set like this more frustrating.
7/29/14: GTBT set closer. What's with using all these show-ending songs at the end of the first set lately? Like it.
7/29/14: S2 opens with CDT. Haven't heard this version yet.
7/29/14: Trey conjures up a neat, bouncy riff almost right away as the jam starts.
7/29/14: Continuing at length here in the 'bouncy' vein. Lots of organ/electric piano. Slowly switching to Trey-chording.
7/29/14: Mike leading a funk-like section now with his bubble-bass.
7/29/14: Fade out. I'll be honest, compared to some of the others from this year, that didn't do much for me.
7/29/14: Not coherent, too many sections. Some nice interplay, but generally just sort of all over the place.
7/29/14: > If I Could, though, which is awesome!
7/29/14: Great little jam here, with Trey and Page riffing off of the outro part.
7/29/14: The Line is probably not the best follow-up to If I Could.
7/29/14: Birds of a Feather. I haven't called the 'jukebox set' for awhile, but I think we might hit it here.
7/29/14: Every time the guys start ASIHTOS and they all start singing in the wrong key, my blood pressure spikes.
7/29/14: Mini space jam in Birds and some interesting chording in ASIHTOS is keeping this from being firmly in greatest hits territory.
7/29/14: Okay, this is a pretty neat melodic jam in Caspian, too.
7/29/14: Waves has an interesting fade-out, with a nice sort-of segue into Groove.
7/29/14: Immediate funk jam in Groove, with 'Shock the Monkey!' lyrics.
7/29/14: CAEVRON!.
7/29/14: Golgi next. We've fully embraced the jukebox at this point.
7/29/14: I'm going out on a fucking limb and guessing that they're going to close with Antelope.
7/29/14: STUNNAR
7/29/14: First time for Wingsuit in the encore slot?
7/29/14: Wingsuit > Coil.
7/29/14: A bit conflicted on this show. More thoughts later on the blog.
Oct 2, 2014
2014-07-27 MPP II
The Verdict:
So, I finally got to the much-hyped 7/27 show. I "watched" this show unfold live over Twitter and have since wondered if it could possibly be as amazing as those reacting live made it sound.
Well, it's not. I imagine this has a lot to do with the fact that seguefest-style shows are always more amazing in the moment, and a huge part of what makes them amazing is the surprise. Knowing what's coming next, seeing that after 1:43 of "BOTT" there's going to be more "Tweezer," makes it less awesome and less mysterious to listen to on tape than seeing "23:20" after "Disease" and being excited to play the track and see what happens during the jam, even if someone on Twitter already told you it's a badass funk jam.
So, yeah. S2 is clever, and fun. I honestly expected tunes like "BOTT" and "Free" to get full run-throughs, and it was hilarious to hear how little of them were played before the band jumped back into "Tweezer." Most of the segues were excellently done, and the only ones that seemed a bit forced were a few of the ones that came up after it was clear that Tweezerfest was going to be a thing, so it's hard to be put off by that. Wrapping back around to finish "Free" after abandoning it for "Tweezer" was brilliant. The eight-minute "Tweezer" jam before "Waiting All Night" was great. "Slave" was a great landing pad for the entire thing, and "Disease -> NICU" was short but surprisingly sweet, with a great segue and then the sudden funk jam that begins the closing goofball sequence. This section in particular was just sort of silly and awkward on tape, but it's hard to imagine it wasn't amazing as it was playing out. I mean, "Jennifer Dances," even a butchered, half-ass version with Fish rhyming "this song" with "my dong"? The playing is top-notch throughout this set, too, and the band definitely doesn't just coast to the finish, as "Boogie On" in the encore slot is given a weird, spacey treatment, at least from Trey.
The opening frame drags things down a bit, as the guys' setlist experimentation went a little awry for me. Lots of great song choices, but it still felt a bit like the first time I tried to drive a stick shift. "Sand" is probably the improvisational highlight from the set, and hearing "YEM" to close was a nice surprise. But, for the most part, these are normal songs being played normally, and the setlist surprises aren't as good as they look on paper ("The Curtain With" is flub-heavy, for example, and "Saw It Again" clocks in under four minutes).
For me, this show has one of the weaker S1s in awhile, and while the setlist shenanigans are neat, when the boys are jamming as well as they've been lately, it's actually sort of disappointing to see a whole second set given over to setlist antics. They've melded the jamming and segueing well a few times recently, and I think I would have been happier if we'd gotten another of those shows. That said, there's no doubt in my mind that if I'd made it to MPP in person this year, this set would have been my hands-down favorite moment of the summer.
The Live Review:
7/27/14: Fee to open.
7/27/14: Trey, over the megaphone, at the end of the song 'Wait, I think I forgot the nectarine line...' Band obliging plays it through.
7/27/14: Curtain!
7/27/14: Trey struggling a bit with this version, but With is still always nice.
7/27/14: Early 46 Days is next.
7/27/14: I haven't listened to any #phish in a few days and this is a good reminder of how awesome 555 is.
7/27/14: My Sweet One. So far, loving the song selection.
7/27/14: Loopy-weird Sand. If this gets some traction, it's going to make this set even more awesome.
7/27/14: Okay, a pretty mellow Sand that stretched just slightly out there. But a good sign for things to come nonetheless.
7/27/14: Bouncin' comes next, of all things. But then a standalone Saw It Again!
7/27/14: Short Saw It Again, quick > Fuego from Page.
7/27/14: Short Fuego, but then...first set YEM?! What's going on?
7/27/14: Great Trey and Mike interplay on the YEM outro jam. Now Trey playing with his megaphone siren w/ the vocal jam.
7/27/14: Wilson > Tweezer to start what I'm sure will be a glorious second set.
7/27/14: Weird little funk break at 2:15. Back to the Tweezer riff and verse.
7/27/14: Fish initiates a great segue into a high-tempo BOTT.
7/27/14: Just one verse of BOTT, then back into Tweezer.
7/27/14: Aaaaaand right back into BOTT. Crowd goes nuts. Love it.
7/27/14: Trey cracking up.
7/27/14: Another verse of BOTT and straight into the Tweezer jam.
7/27/14: Loopy, Mike-heavy jam developing now.
7/27/14: This is developing really well. Page building volume, Trey putting some great chording together.
7/27/14: Now they've hit on some bizarre reggae/salsa/space robot hybrid jam space.
7/27/14: Great placement of Waiting All Night at the end of that jam fadeout.
7/27/14: Right at the beginning of the Free jam, Trey goes back into Tweezer. Nice quick adjustment by Page to make that make sense.
7/27/14: Trey just fucking butt-slammed into Simple. Awesome.
7/27/14: Simple breakdown. Page on electric piano. Sounds great.
7/27/14: Now Mike's running the show...and a build back into Tweezer!
7/27/14: Mike leads a segue back into Free! What the hell is going on?!
7/27/14: Free is not the end...Trey keeps strumming the last chord...and...Catapult!
7/27/14: Catapult > Slave.
7/27/14: Slave is the perfect breather at the end of this madness.
7/27/14: Late-set Disease initiated by Mike. Interested to see if they do anything with this after the seguefest.
7/27/14: Disease jam does an interesting slowdown, then lurches back up to speed as Fishman takes over.
7/27/14: Clavs and drums.
7/27/14: Brilliant segues just keep on coming as Disease -> NICU.
7/27/14: Not sure if Fish is doing something weird with the drums here or if he's just gotten lost.
7/27/14: Based on his previous track record, I'll suspect the former.
7/27/14: Trey is now trying to start an NICU jam. Like, a real one. This show just doesn't stop.
7/27/14: Little Under Pressure action going on here.
7/27/14: This 'jam' is slowly morphing into HYHU!
7/27/14: Fish is out on the carpet, now. He knows no words to anything b/c he forgot to practice 'any songs.'
7/27/14: Fish sings the first two lines of Jennifer Dances, then 'That's all the words I know to this song / Uh...my dong.'
7/27/14: Chorus now being sung over a vacuum solo. Clearly the Tweezerfest propelled the guys all the way back to '93. > HYHU.
7/27/14: Banter leads into I Been Around.
7/27/14: Little Tweezer tease at the end of I Been Around.
7/27/14: Boogie On for the encore!
7/27/14: Some surprisingly weird, spacey, loopy guitar from Trey on Boogie On. Mike holds down the funk end. Neat juxtaposition.
7/27/14: > Tweeprise, of course.
7/27/14: Hate to harp on 'flow,' whatever that is, but despite great song selections, S1 is totally lacking it. Sand, YEM highlights.
7/27/14: Tweezerfest was fun and nicely executed, but probably more exciting live than on tape. Missed the jams hiding under the surface.
So, I finally got to the much-hyped 7/27 show. I "watched" this show unfold live over Twitter and have since wondered if it could possibly be as amazing as those reacting live made it sound.
Well, it's not. I imagine this has a lot to do with the fact that seguefest-style shows are always more amazing in the moment, and a huge part of what makes them amazing is the surprise. Knowing what's coming next, seeing that after 1:43 of "BOTT" there's going to be more "Tweezer," makes it less awesome and less mysterious to listen to on tape than seeing "23:20" after "Disease" and being excited to play the track and see what happens during the jam, even if someone on Twitter already told you it's a badass funk jam.
So, yeah. S2 is clever, and fun. I honestly expected tunes like "BOTT" and "Free" to get full run-throughs, and it was hilarious to hear how little of them were played before the band jumped back into "Tweezer." Most of the segues were excellently done, and the only ones that seemed a bit forced were a few of the ones that came up after it was clear that Tweezerfest was going to be a thing, so it's hard to be put off by that. Wrapping back around to finish "Free" after abandoning it for "Tweezer" was brilliant. The eight-minute "Tweezer" jam before "Waiting All Night" was great. "Slave" was a great landing pad for the entire thing, and "Disease -> NICU" was short but surprisingly sweet, with a great segue and then the sudden funk jam that begins the closing goofball sequence. This section in particular was just sort of silly and awkward on tape, but it's hard to imagine it wasn't amazing as it was playing out. I mean, "Jennifer Dances," even a butchered, half-ass version with Fish rhyming "this song" with "my dong"? The playing is top-notch throughout this set, too, and the band definitely doesn't just coast to the finish, as "Boogie On" in the encore slot is given a weird, spacey treatment, at least from Trey.
The opening frame drags things down a bit, as the guys' setlist experimentation went a little awry for me. Lots of great song choices, but it still felt a bit like the first time I tried to drive a stick shift. "Sand" is probably the improvisational highlight from the set, and hearing "YEM" to close was a nice surprise. But, for the most part, these are normal songs being played normally, and the setlist surprises aren't as good as they look on paper ("The Curtain With" is flub-heavy, for example, and "Saw It Again" clocks in under four minutes).
For me, this show has one of the weaker S1s in awhile, and while the setlist shenanigans are neat, when the boys are jamming as well as they've been lately, it's actually sort of disappointing to see a whole second set given over to setlist antics. They've melded the jamming and segueing well a few times recently, and I think I would have been happier if we'd gotten another of those shows. That said, there's no doubt in my mind that if I'd made it to MPP in person this year, this set would have been my hands-down favorite moment of the summer.
The Live Review:
7/27/14: Fee to open.
7/27/14: Trey, over the megaphone, at the end of the song 'Wait, I think I forgot the nectarine line...' Band obliging plays it through.
7/27/14: Curtain!
7/27/14: Trey struggling a bit with this version, but With is still always nice.
7/27/14: Early 46 Days is next.
7/27/14: I haven't listened to any #phish in a few days and this is a good reminder of how awesome 555 is.
7/27/14: My Sweet One. So far, loving the song selection.
7/27/14: Loopy-weird Sand. If this gets some traction, it's going to make this set even more awesome.
7/27/14: Okay, a pretty mellow Sand that stretched just slightly out there. But a good sign for things to come nonetheless.
7/27/14: Bouncin' comes next, of all things. But then a standalone Saw It Again!
7/27/14: Short Saw It Again, quick > Fuego from Page.
7/27/14: Short Fuego, but then...first set YEM?! What's going on?
7/27/14: Great Trey and Mike interplay on the YEM outro jam. Now Trey playing with his megaphone siren w/ the vocal jam.
7/27/14: Wilson > Tweezer to start what I'm sure will be a glorious second set.
7/27/14: Weird little funk break at 2:15. Back to the Tweezer riff and verse.
7/27/14: Fish initiates a great segue into a high-tempo BOTT.
7/27/14: Just one verse of BOTT, then back into Tweezer.
7/27/14: Aaaaaand right back into BOTT. Crowd goes nuts. Love it.
7/27/14: Trey cracking up.
7/27/14: Another verse of BOTT and straight into the Tweezer jam.
7/27/14: Loopy, Mike-heavy jam developing now.
7/27/14: This is developing really well. Page building volume, Trey putting some great chording together.
7/27/14: Now they've hit on some bizarre reggae/salsa/space robot hybrid jam space.
7/27/14: Great placement of Waiting All Night at the end of that jam fadeout.
7/27/14: Right at the beginning of the Free jam, Trey goes back into Tweezer. Nice quick adjustment by Page to make that make sense.
7/27/14: Trey just fucking butt-slammed into Simple. Awesome.
7/27/14: Simple breakdown. Page on electric piano. Sounds great.
7/27/14: Now Mike's running the show...and a build back into Tweezer!
7/27/14: Mike leads a segue back into Free! What the hell is going on?!
7/27/14: Free is not the end...Trey keeps strumming the last chord...and...Catapult!
7/27/14: Catapult > Slave.
7/27/14: Slave is the perfect breather at the end of this madness.
7/27/14: Late-set Disease initiated by Mike. Interested to see if they do anything with this after the seguefest.
7/27/14: Disease jam does an interesting slowdown, then lurches back up to speed as Fishman takes over.
7/27/14: Clavs and drums.
7/27/14: Brilliant segues just keep on coming as Disease -> NICU.
7/27/14: Not sure if Fish is doing something weird with the drums here or if he's just gotten lost.
7/27/14: Based on his previous track record, I'll suspect the former.
7/27/14: Trey is now trying to start an NICU jam. Like, a real one. This show just doesn't stop.
7/27/14: Little Under Pressure action going on here.
7/27/14: This 'jam' is slowly morphing into HYHU!
7/27/14: Fish is out on the carpet, now. He knows no words to anything b/c he forgot to practice 'any songs.'
7/27/14: Fish sings the first two lines of Jennifer Dances, then 'That's all the words I know to this song / Uh...my dong.'
7/27/14: Chorus now being sung over a vacuum solo. Clearly the Tweezerfest propelled the guys all the way back to '93. > HYHU.
7/27/14: Banter leads into I Been Around.
7/27/14: Little Tweezer tease at the end of I Been Around.
7/27/14: Boogie On for the encore!
7/27/14: Some surprisingly weird, spacey, loopy guitar from Trey on Boogie On. Mike holds down the funk end. Neat juxtaposition.
7/27/14: > Tweeprise, of course.
7/27/14: Hate to harp on 'flow,' whatever that is, but despite great song selections, S1 is totally lacking it. Sand, YEM highlights.
7/27/14: Tweezerfest was fun and nicely executed, but probably more exciting live than on tape. Missed the jams hiding under the surface.
Sep 26, 2014
2014-07-26 MPP I
The Verdict:
This show is, for my money, the show that the band was working toward playing on 7/16 and 7/25. It's got great segues, (mostly) solid playing throughout, and a big jam sequence to anchor it all. Basically, there's something for everybody and after I was done listening I didn't wish there'd be more of this or more of that: everything in its right place.
S1 isn't anything stellar, but it has a consistent momentum, the song selection is great, and the Trey-Mike interplay in "Roggae" is excellent. Sure, there have been more interesting first sets this year, but this one's nothing to sneeze at.
S2 is pretty magical, with a "Carini" that goes deep, and though it never really gets that weird, the jam space the guys carve out is really brilliant in a straight-rock-and-roll sort of way. The "Ghost" that follows is one of those where Trey latches on to a riff that's so catchy you're sure you've heard it before, and then the band follows him on a weird Rolling Stones/hair metal odyssey for a few minutes before a funk space sets up a segue to "Steam." "Steam" is notable here for its "second jam" that comes after the outro lyrics and is brief but all kinds of weird. Next is the segue-of-the-night into "Mango Song." There's a bit of a lull, including an extended "Light" that is perfectly serviceable but doesn't really live up to the jam-standards of 2014, before the set closes with an amazingly powerful "Hood" that potentially dethrones 7/1's version as the best of the year.
The Live Review:
7/26/14: Sample opener. REAL ORIGINAL, GUYS
7/26/14: Funk time as they follow Sample with Moma, Wombat.
7/26/14: Short but sweet Wombat.
7/26/14: Early Number Line.
7/26/14: Roggae next! Like 7/25, this is a rote-played set so far buoyed by great song selection.
7/26/14: Trey going a little whale-heavy on this Roggae jam, but Mike is going to town in a good way.
7/26/14: Trey ditches the whale, starts straight-up rocking. Good Roggae jam all the way around. Injects a bit of the jam into S1.
7/26/14: Short Wedge (by 7/20 standards), and then back to the funk with Wolfman's.
7/26/14: Nellie Kane!
7/26/14: Monster of a bass solo from Cactus in Lawn Boy.
7/26/14: This set's developing a little of that mid-set sag. I blame The Line, which is a great song but tricky to place.
7/26/14: Stash gets broken waaaaay down. Super mellow jam. Lots of whale and piano.
7/26/14: Set's not over yet! Suzy time! Page with a mini-talkbox-solo.
7/26/14: Pretty mellow Suzy, except for Page, who apparently thinks it's the encore right now.
7/26/14: This Carini is developing really nicely into gooey rock mess.
7/26/14: Feedback build now.
7/26/14: Back out of the distortion haze with a driving riff from Trey.
7/26/14: Neat segue into Ghost. Probably could have been done a little bit more patiently, but still cool. Great Carini jam.
7/26/14: Really Rolling-Stones-style jam coming your way from this Ghost. Cool.
7/26/14: Transitioning from hair metal-pop jam to funk now.
7/26/14: Once again, and almost-fabulous-but-still-decent segue, this time into Steam.
7/26/14: Echo-y, plinko-style jam *after* Steam. Steam 'second jam'?!
7/26/14: Trey just goddamn nailed a segue into Mango Song. Great goats!
7/26/14: Mango Song was slightly extended, and led into the best live version of Sing Monica so far.
7/26/14: Late-set Light.
7/26/14: First few minutes of solid Type I Trey soloing, now we're in the chords-and-electric-piano space that the band loves lately.
7/26/14: Manteca-sounding piano from Page now.
7/26/14: This jam has chosen 'sexy swagger' as its direction and is sticking to it.
7/26/14: Page teasing 2001...and here we goooooooo
7/26/14: 2001 >
7/26/14: Trey digging into a riff here early on in the jam. Great interplay between him and Mike.
7/26/14: Trey developing the riff. This is EXACTLY what I was complaining about him not doing anymore yesterday. So happy now.
7/26/14: This shit might dethrone the 7/1 Hood for best of the year.
7/26/14: OH MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN YOU'RE KIDDING ME
7/26/14: Longest, if not most intense, Hood peak in the universe?
7/26/14: YOU CAN FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD
#2000Tweets #phish
7/26/14: @phish, can we have a Hood like this one in Eugene, please? Thanks!
7/26/14: Julius'd, but who cares after that Hood?
7/26/14: Probably should have planned ahead and made tweet number 2001 happen during 2001.
This show is, for my money, the show that the band was working toward playing on 7/16 and 7/25. It's got great segues, (mostly) solid playing throughout, and a big jam sequence to anchor it all. Basically, there's something for everybody and after I was done listening I didn't wish there'd be more of this or more of that: everything in its right place.
S1 isn't anything stellar, but it has a consistent momentum, the song selection is great, and the Trey-Mike interplay in "Roggae" is excellent. Sure, there have been more interesting first sets this year, but this one's nothing to sneeze at.
S2 is pretty magical, with a "Carini" that goes deep, and though it never really gets that weird, the jam space the guys carve out is really brilliant in a straight-rock-and-roll sort of way. The "Ghost" that follows is one of those where Trey latches on to a riff that's so catchy you're sure you've heard it before, and then the band follows him on a weird Rolling Stones/hair metal odyssey for a few minutes before a funk space sets up a segue to "Steam." "Steam" is notable here for its "second jam" that comes after the outro lyrics and is brief but all kinds of weird. Next is the segue-of-the-night into "Mango Song." There's a bit of a lull, including an extended "Light" that is perfectly serviceable but doesn't really live up to the jam-standards of 2014, before the set closes with an amazingly powerful "Hood" that potentially dethrones 7/1's version as the best of the year.
The Live Review:
7/26/14: Sample opener. REAL ORIGINAL, GUYS
7/26/14: Funk time as they follow Sample with Moma, Wombat.
7/26/14: Short but sweet Wombat.
7/26/14: Early Number Line.
7/26/14: Roggae next! Like 7/25, this is a rote-played set so far buoyed by great song selection.
7/26/14: Trey going a little whale-heavy on this Roggae jam, but Mike is going to town in a good way.
7/26/14: Trey ditches the whale, starts straight-up rocking. Good Roggae jam all the way around. Injects a bit of the jam into S1.
7/26/14: Short Wedge (by 7/20 standards), and then back to the funk with Wolfman's.
7/26/14: Nellie Kane!
7/26/14: Monster of a bass solo from Cactus in Lawn Boy.
7/26/14: This set's developing a little of that mid-set sag. I blame The Line, which is a great song but tricky to place.
7/26/14: Stash gets broken waaaaay down. Super mellow jam. Lots of whale and piano.
7/26/14: Set's not over yet! Suzy time! Page with a mini-talkbox-solo.
7/26/14: Pretty mellow Suzy, except for Page, who apparently thinks it's the encore right now.
7/26/14: This Carini is developing really nicely into gooey rock mess.
7/26/14: Feedback build now.
7/26/14: Back out of the distortion haze with a driving riff from Trey.
7/26/14: Neat segue into Ghost. Probably could have been done a little bit more patiently, but still cool. Great Carini jam.
7/26/14: Really Rolling-Stones-style jam coming your way from this Ghost. Cool.
7/26/14: Transitioning from hair metal-pop jam to funk now.
7/26/14: Once again, and almost-fabulous-but-still-decent segue, this time into Steam.
7/26/14: Echo-y, plinko-style jam *after* Steam. Steam 'second jam'?!
7/26/14: Trey just goddamn nailed a segue into Mango Song. Great goats!
7/26/14: Mango Song was slightly extended, and led into the best live version of Sing Monica so far.
7/26/14: Late-set Light.
7/26/14: First few minutes of solid Type I Trey soloing, now we're in the chords-and-electric-piano space that the band loves lately.
7/26/14: Manteca-sounding piano from Page now.
7/26/14: This jam has chosen 'sexy swagger' as its direction and is sticking to it.
7/26/14: Page teasing 2001...and here we goooooooo
7/26/14: 2001 >
7/26/14: Trey digging into a riff here early on in the jam. Great interplay between him and Mike.
7/26/14: Trey developing the riff. This is EXACTLY what I was complaining about him not doing anymore yesterday. So happy now.
7/26/14: This shit might dethrone the 7/1 Hood for best of the year.
7/26/14: OH MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN YOU'RE KIDDING ME
7/26/14: Longest, if not most intense, Hood peak in the universe?
7/26/14: YOU CAN FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD
#2000Tweets #phish
7/26/14: @phish, can we have a Hood like this one in Eugene, please? Thanks!
7/26/14: Julius'd, but who cares after that Hood?
7/26/14: Probably should have planned ahead and made tweet number 2001 happen during 2001.
2014-07-25 Charlotte
The Verdict:
The second show of the year I got to see live was in Charlotte, and at the time I came away a bit more satisfied than I'd been with the DTE show. On relisten, I found more to like about the DTE show, and was curious if something similar would happen here.
Well, the first set is one of those where nothing terribly exciting happens, but the song choice is solid enough to keep things interesting. Had it not been for the band's tendency to toss out some S1 curveballs earlier in the year, this would have been a solid warm-up set; as it is, it's a little disappointing. That said, this is by far the best "Winterqueen" yet, with a stretched-out jazz-jam. The "Tube" is its usually-short self, but there's some interestingly weird chord-chopping action from Trey that makes it a standout modern-era version for me.
The second set is remarkably similar to the DTE show, actually, in the way it delivers its thrills. One big jam, and a lot of little jamlets connected by some great segues. Only this time around, the big jam is bigger and the great segues are greater. "CDT" is once again the highlight jam here, and it stays in a cohesively dark space throughout without losing momentum, changing and modulating without the distinct and sometimes jarring "Hey! It's funk!" > "Hey! It's rock!" jam style the band ends up in from time to time. It's one of the better (if not the best) non-Randall's "CDT" of the summer for me. And there's no video on YouTube because apparently nobody on earth was at this show but me.
Anyway, "Fuego" gets a short-but-sweet outro jam that dissolves beautifully into "Twist," and then there's the segue-of-the-summer -> "Circus." "Piper" is ultra-short, but moves organically into a surprise late-set "Rift," and then the guys land in "Waiting All Night" for a great take on the song, and a necessary cool-off. "Reba" is a late-set surprise as well, but this version is pretty standard.
The Live Review:
7/25/14: Relistening to my 2nd show of the summer now. Like 7/16 quite a bit more after, let's see if I find more to appreciate about 7/25.
7/25/14: Mike's Song opener is a great choice. Remember thinking that if they went into a 'second jam' my brain would bust.
7/25/14: Mike's B> BOTT to start.
7/25/14: Seriously sexy work from Fishman on this BOTT.
7/25/14: Good chords 'n' piano jam in Groove.
7/25/14: Good Wingsuit placement.
7/25/14: Wingsuit outro solo is a little shaky, until it dives back into the Dark and Down style.
7/25/14: Pretty mellow, chord-driven Possum instead of a shred-driven one.
7/25/14: TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBE
7/25/14: Neat little Ghost-like funk jam here, a little darker than usual. Trey distorting notes now.
7/25/14: MFMF is next. Except for Tube, everything's been played straight. Song choice is keeping it interesting, though.
7/25/14: Winterqueen! this tune is really growing on me live.
7/25/14: Extended Winterqueen jazz-jam > Beauty of a Broken Heart. Love hearing Page songs live, just wish Trey would play something decent.
7/25/14: Bowie to close the set. Page teasing the Bowie riff on his talkbox-thing at the beginning of the song.
7/25/14: Surprisingly purposeful Bowie jamming so far from Trey.
7/25/14: Slow to commit to the peak at the end of Bowie. Good version, though. Better than most recent ones.
7/25/14: Set's not done. Golgi.
7/25/14: Surprised me the first time, and just surprised me again. Because I'm stupid.
7/25/14: Major Trey flops on Golgi riff.
7/25/14: Someone in the audience is having a long, one-person conversation about how #phish should 'Play whatever they want.' #crowdbanter
7/25/14: 555 opener. Was bummed when this didn't go deep. But it's a solid version. Looking forward to hearing the CDT in SBD quality.
7/25/14: Trey trying to push things into the Weird Zone early in this CDT (< 4 minutes). Rest of the band is catching on now at 5:30.
7/25/14: Space-Darkness-Woos commence.
7/25/14: Loops and echoes abound early.
7/25/14: Weird. I remember thinking at the time that this CDT was a bit prone to jumping around. It sounds pretty consistent to me now.
7/25/14: Really dark and spacey. Of course I love it.
7/25/14: I'm not sure what Mike is doing right now but EVERYTHING IS AWESOME
7/25/14: That was a much better and more cohesive jam than I remembered. Nice > Fuego.
7/25/14: Had a proper Fuego jam come next, then BOOM! But, alas. StudioFuego it is.
7/25/14: Neat jamlet at the end of Fuego here, over a guitar loop that sort of approximates the song's main riff.
7/25/14: Actually, on relisten, totally sounds like they were trying to jam this Fuego and it just didn't work.
7/25/14: Really clever -> Twist to make up for it, though.
7/25/14: Page is owning the electric piano underneath Trey's chording here.
7/25/14: Oh yeah, that AWESOME segue into Circus!!
7/25/14: One of my favorite #phish things is when they segue brilliantly into a new song but not exactly that song... (1/2)
7/25/14: ...and then continue to play the whole song in the 'new' style instead of forcing a full transition. (2/2)
7/25/14: Anyway, Circus > Piper. My second hope for a jammed-out Piper this summer = SHORTEST PIPER EVER (srsly, 4:56 on LP).
7/25/14: A whole 30 seconds longer than the studio version!
7/25/14: At the tail of this Piper, Trey can't seem to decide if he's going for Rift or Scent of a Mule, but Rift wins out.
7/25/14: Frankly, though, that was a pretty natural ->. Despite truncated jams in this set, no official ripcords yet, according to my RCI.
7/25/14: Really solid Waiting All Night after the seguefest ends.
7/25/14: Forgot about the late-set Reba, too.
7/25/14: Trey teasing the Fuego theme a bit here.
7/25/14: Really mellow jam now, bolstered by huge Mike bombs.
7/25/14: Zero'd. Again.
7/25/14: End set with Page teasing Fuego.
The second show of the year I got to see live was in Charlotte, and at the time I came away a bit more satisfied than I'd been with the DTE show. On relisten, I found more to like about the DTE show, and was curious if something similar would happen here.
Well, the first set is one of those where nothing terribly exciting happens, but the song choice is solid enough to keep things interesting. Had it not been for the band's tendency to toss out some S1 curveballs earlier in the year, this would have been a solid warm-up set; as it is, it's a little disappointing. That said, this is by far the best "Winterqueen" yet, with a stretched-out jazz-jam. The "Tube" is its usually-short self, but there's some interestingly weird chord-chopping action from Trey that makes it a standout modern-era version for me.
The second set is remarkably similar to the DTE show, actually, in the way it delivers its thrills. One big jam, and a lot of little jamlets connected by some great segues. Only this time around, the big jam is bigger and the great segues are greater. "CDT" is once again the highlight jam here, and it stays in a cohesively dark space throughout without losing momentum, changing and modulating without the distinct and sometimes jarring "Hey! It's funk!" > "Hey! It's rock!" jam style the band ends up in from time to time. It's one of the better (if not the best) non-Randall's "CDT" of the summer for me. And there's no video on YouTube because apparently nobody on earth was at this show but me.
Anyway, "Fuego" gets a short-but-sweet outro jam that dissolves beautifully into "Twist," and then there's the segue-of-the-summer -> "Circus." "Piper" is ultra-short, but moves organically into a surprise late-set "Rift," and then the guys land in "Waiting All Night" for a great take on the song, and a necessary cool-off. "Reba" is a late-set surprise as well, but this version is pretty standard.
The Live Review:
7/25/14: Relistening to my 2nd show of the summer now. Like 7/16 quite a bit more after, let's see if I find more to appreciate about 7/25.
7/25/14: Mike's Song opener is a great choice. Remember thinking that if they went into a 'second jam' my brain would bust.
7/25/14: Mike's B> BOTT to start.
7/25/14: Seriously sexy work from Fishman on this BOTT.
7/25/14: Good chords 'n' piano jam in Groove.
7/25/14: Good Wingsuit placement.
7/25/14: Wingsuit outro solo is a little shaky, until it dives back into the Dark and Down style.
7/25/14: Pretty mellow, chord-driven Possum instead of a shred-driven one.
7/25/14: TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBE
7/25/14: Neat little Ghost-like funk jam here, a little darker than usual. Trey distorting notes now.
7/25/14: MFMF is next. Except for Tube, everything's been played straight. Song choice is keeping it interesting, though.
7/25/14: Winterqueen! this tune is really growing on me live.
7/25/14: Extended Winterqueen jazz-jam > Beauty of a Broken Heart. Love hearing Page songs live, just wish Trey would play something decent.
7/25/14: Bowie to close the set. Page teasing the Bowie riff on his talkbox-thing at the beginning of the song.
7/25/14: Surprisingly purposeful Bowie jamming so far from Trey.
7/25/14: Slow to commit to the peak at the end of Bowie. Good version, though. Better than most recent ones.
7/25/14: Set's not done. Golgi.
7/25/14: Surprised me the first time, and just surprised me again. Because I'm stupid.
7/25/14: Major Trey flops on Golgi riff.
7/25/14: Someone in the audience is having a long, one-person conversation about how #phish should 'Play whatever they want.' #crowdbanter
7/25/14: 555 opener. Was bummed when this didn't go deep. But it's a solid version. Looking forward to hearing the CDT in SBD quality.
7/25/14: Trey trying to push things into the Weird Zone early in this CDT (< 4 minutes). Rest of the band is catching on now at 5:30.
7/25/14: Space-Darkness-Woos commence.
7/25/14: Loops and echoes abound early.
7/25/14: Weird. I remember thinking at the time that this CDT was a bit prone to jumping around. It sounds pretty consistent to me now.
7/25/14: Really dark and spacey. Of course I love it.
7/25/14: I'm not sure what Mike is doing right now but EVERYTHING IS AWESOME
7/25/14: That was a much better and more cohesive jam than I remembered. Nice > Fuego.
7/25/14: Had a proper Fuego jam come next, then BOOM! But, alas. StudioFuego it is.
7/25/14: Neat jamlet at the end of Fuego here, over a guitar loop that sort of approximates the song's main riff.
7/25/14: Actually, on relisten, totally sounds like they were trying to jam this Fuego and it just didn't work.
7/25/14: Really clever -> Twist to make up for it, though.
7/25/14: Page is owning the electric piano underneath Trey's chording here.
7/25/14: Oh yeah, that AWESOME segue into Circus!!
7/25/14: One of my favorite #phish things is when they segue brilliantly into a new song but not exactly that song... (1/2)
7/25/14: ...and then continue to play the whole song in the 'new' style instead of forcing a full transition. (2/2)
7/25/14: Anyway, Circus > Piper. My second hope for a jammed-out Piper this summer = SHORTEST PIPER EVER (srsly, 4:56 on LP).
7/25/14: A whole 30 seconds longer than the studio version!
7/25/14: At the tail of this Piper, Trey can't seem to decide if he's going for Rift or Scent of a Mule, but Rift wins out.
7/25/14: Frankly, though, that was a pretty natural ->. Despite truncated jams in this set, no official ripcords yet, according to my RCI.
7/25/14: Really solid Waiting All Night after the seguefest ends.
7/25/14: Forgot about the late-set Reba, too.
7/25/14: Trey teasing the Fuego theme a bit here.
7/25/14: Really mellow jam now, bolstered by huge Mike bombs.
7/25/14: Zero'd. Again.
7/25/14: End set with Page teasing Fuego.
Sep 23, 2014
2014-07-20 Northerly Island III
The Verdict:
It's too bad that the band's final night at Northerly Island doesn't pay for all. It's a far better show than the first two nights, and with two more nights like this, the run could have trumped SPAC, Randall's, and maybe even Dick's. N3 likely won't end up being my best show of the year, but it's got that special something to it that's missing even in a lot of the heavyweight shows.
S1 is by turns solid-standard and interesting. The song selection more than makes up for the more rote parts, though. We lead off with "Gumbo," "Jim," and "Tela," for example. "Scent of a Mule" is even weirder than usual, eschewing the typical Fish marimba solo for a full-band marimba jam with Trey on drums and Page on candles (yeah, you read that right). The wackiness on display here is the highlight of the set, but rock-solid versions of "Gin," "Maze," "Walls of the Cave," and a charmingly mellow "Ocelot" round out the typically-weak back half of the set.
S2 actually starts off a bit slow. The "Disesase" that opens is less sprawling than other recent versions, but more interesting, as it takes a spacey, almost-dissonant tack and runs with it for the entire jam rather than jumping from "movement" to "movement." "Winterqueen," "Theme," and "Mike's" all have a little extra mustard on them but they're standard tunes...fortunately, just when it seems the set is about to fall into greatest-hits territory, the guys drop a Type II "The Wedge" (yeah, you read that right) that's not just a surprise, but also one of the more effortless and interesting jams of the summer. It's a jazz-funk synthesis that never really lets up until Trey leads the guys back to the typical "Wedge" coda. As if that wasn't enough, "Ghost" is great, too, going the blues-rock route before a perfect segue into "Groove." "Groove" conjures a bit of the old show-off-Phish magic as the band jumps back into "Ghost" for a few seconds and then into "Stash," a song which wasn't even played earlier in the night. All in all, a wonderfully solid entry and a sign of great things to come, as the band is meshing huge jams with smooth transitions with seemingly effortless abandon.
The Live Review:
7/20/14: Gumbo opener is a good sign.
7/20/14: Holy third-slot Tela! And after solid takes on Gumbo and Jim no less. Will this be the first non-shitty Northerly Island '14 S1?
7/20/14: Love that little (big) gasp that rolls through the crowd at the onset of an early-set Tela. Or any Tela at all, really.
7/20/14: I like The Line and all, but it sort of mucked up the magic of the set. Scent is next though.
7/20/14: Scents rolls along on some great Trey chording to a marimba/bass jam from Fish/Mike. Trey joining in now.
7/20/14: This is much cooler than the Fishman marimba solos from other recent Scents.
7/20/14: Scent B> Gin.
7/20/14: Trey teases the jam portion of Scent in Gin.
7/20/14: Solid Silent, Trey flubs lyrics sheepishly in Maze.
7/20/14: Really neat, almost-'Woo!' jam in the middle of Maze there for a second.
7/20/14: Super slow and mellow Ocelot. Sort of suits things after that Maze.
7/20/14: Walls! Presumably this is the set closer, since this set has been like 2 hours long.
7/20/14: Somewhere between the Gorge and Los Angeles last summer this became one of my favorite #phish songs.
7/20/14: Overall, that set was solid in a way that's been lacking in the other S1s of this run.
7/20/14: Great song selection, great Mule, interesting Ocelot (!), strong finish.
7/20/14: S2 DwD opener. Easy to forget that there's been some very good Disease jams so far this summer, mixed in w/ all the surprises.
7/20/14: Trey bringing his chording fetish to this Disease jam early, to great effect.
7/20/14: Page leading here on electric piano. Trey adding great accents.
7/20/14: That was a really sustained, interesting jam (i.e., no quick style shifts like many longer recent jams). I like it. > Winterqueen.
7/20/14: Short-but-sweet take on Winterqueen.
7/20/14: Theme, then Mike's. Already disappointed by this Mike's at 0:44, because it's not 8/31.
7/20/14: Fond remembrances of Dick's aside, Trey is tearing this Mike's solo apart.
7/20/14: Mike's > Wedge? Bold move, guys.
7/20/14: Okay, shit. Wedge just went Type II.
7/20/14: Really great jazz/funk melange going on here.
7/20/14: And Trey manages to wrap it all back around to the typical Wedge ending. Great Scott!
7/20/14: Now it's time for some fuckin' GHOST.
7/20/14: Blues-rock jam growing some momentum. Fishman stole the steering wheel.
7/20/14: Lot of awesome guitar echoes from Trey. If this was at a lower tempo, it would be a great Floyd jam.
7/20/14: Truly wild noises coming from Trey's area now. Space bass, too.
7/20/14: Holy shit, perfect -> into Groove, just as Page nails a gorgeous descending piano run.
7/20/14: Groove -> Ghost!!!
7/20/14: Quick Ghost -> Groove. I don't normally use this word because I'm old, but that was sick.
7/20/14: Trey just teased the Stash riff, too, which is a song they haven't even played tonight.
7/20/14: First Tube with Trey on oddly subdued guitar. Not sloppy, just muted.
7/20/14: Often don't take the time to appreciate Page's organ washes in First Tube properly.
7/20/14: Every show this tour has been great, but this joins 7/1, 7/3, 7/5, 7/8, 7/11, 7/12, and 7/13 as amazing shows with two great sets.
7/20/14: As I hit enter on that, the band Zero'd me on the encore. Doesn't matter, though. Still awesome.
It's too bad that the band's final night at Northerly Island doesn't pay for all. It's a far better show than the first two nights, and with two more nights like this, the run could have trumped SPAC, Randall's, and maybe even Dick's. N3 likely won't end up being my best show of the year, but it's got that special something to it that's missing even in a lot of the heavyweight shows.
S1 is by turns solid-standard and interesting. The song selection more than makes up for the more rote parts, though. We lead off with "Gumbo," "Jim," and "Tela," for example. "Scent of a Mule" is even weirder than usual, eschewing the typical Fish marimba solo for a full-band marimba jam with Trey on drums and Page on candles (yeah, you read that right). The wackiness on display here is the highlight of the set, but rock-solid versions of "Gin," "Maze," "Walls of the Cave," and a charmingly mellow "Ocelot" round out the typically-weak back half of the set.
S2 actually starts off a bit slow. The "Disesase" that opens is less sprawling than other recent versions, but more interesting, as it takes a spacey, almost-dissonant tack and runs with it for the entire jam rather than jumping from "movement" to "movement." "Winterqueen," "Theme," and "Mike's" all have a little extra mustard on them but they're standard tunes...fortunately, just when it seems the set is about to fall into greatest-hits territory, the guys drop a Type II "The Wedge" (yeah, you read that right) that's not just a surprise, but also one of the more effortless and interesting jams of the summer. It's a jazz-funk synthesis that never really lets up until Trey leads the guys back to the typical "Wedge" coda. As if that wasn't enough, "Ghost" is great, too, going the blues-rock route before a perfect segue into "Groove." "Groove" conjures a bit of the old show-off-Phish magic as the band jumps back into "Ghost" for a few seconds and then into "Stash," a song which wasn't even played earlier in the night. All in all, a wonderfully solid entry and a sign of great things to come, as the band is meshing huge jams with smooth transitions with seemingly effortless abandon.
7/20/14: Gumbo opener is a good sign.
7/20/14: Holy third-slot Tela! And after solid takes on Gumbo and Jim no less. Will this be the first non-shitty Northerly Island '14 S1?
7/20/14: Love that little (big) gasp that rolls through the crowd at the onset of an early-set Tela. Or any Tela at all, really.
7/20/14: I like The Line and all, but it sort of mucked up the magic of the set. Scent is next though.
7/20/14: Scents rolls along on some great Trey chording to a marimba/bass jam from Fish/Mike. Trey joining in now.
7/20/14: This is much cooler than the Fishman marimba solos from other recent Scents.
7/20/14: Scent B> Gin.
7/20/14: Trey teases the jam portion of Scent in Gin.
7/20/14: Solid Silent, Trey flubs lyrics sheepishly in Maze.
7/20/14: Really neat, almost-'Woo!' jam in the middle of Maze there for a second.
7/20/14: Super slow and mellow Ocelot. Sort of suits things after that Maze.
7/20/14: Walls! Presumably this is the set closer, since this set has been like 2 hours long.
7/20/14: Somewhere between the Gorge and Los Angeles last summer this became one of my favorite #phish songs.
7/20/14: Overall, that set was solid in a way that's been lacking in the other S1s of this run.
7/20/14: Great song selection, great Mule, interesting Ocelot (!), strong finish.
7/20/14: S2 DwD opener. Easy to forget that there's been some very good Disease jams so far this summer, mixed in w/ all the surprises.
7/20/14: Trey bringing his chording fetish to this Disease jam early, to great effect.
7/20/14: Page leading here on electric piano. Trey adding great accents.
7/20/14: That was a really sustained, interesting jam (i.e., no quick style shifts like many longer recent jams). I like it. > Winterqueen.
7/20/14: Short-but-sweet take on Winterqueen.
7/20/14: Theme, then Mike's. Already disappointed by this Mike's at 0:44, because it's not 8/31.
7/20/14: Fond remembrances of Dick's aside, Trey is tearing this Mike's solo apart.
7/20/14: Mike's > Wedge? Bold move, guys.
7/20/14: Okay, shit. Wedge just went Type II.
7/20/14: Really great jazz/funk melange going on here.
7/20/14: And Trey manages to wrap it all back around to the typical Wedge ending. Great Scott!
7/20/14: Now it's time for some fuckin' GHOST.
7/20/14: Blues-rock jam growing some momentum. Fishman stole the steering wheel.
7/20/14: Lot of awesome guitar echoes from Trey. If this was at a lower tempo, it would be a great Floyd jam.
7/20/14: Truly wild noises coming from Trey's area now. Space bass, too.
7/20/14: Holy shit, perfect -> into Groove, just as Page nails a gorgeous descending piano run.
7/20/14: Groove -> Ghost!!!
7/20/14: Quick Ghost -> Groove. I don't normally use this word because I'm old, but that was sick.
7/20/14: Trey just teased the Stash riff, too, which is a song they haven't even played tonight.
7/20/14: First Tube with Trey on oddly subdued guitar. Not sloppy, just muted.
7/20/14: Often don't take the time to appreciate Page's organ washes in First Tube properly.
7/20/14: Every show this tour has been great, but this joins 7/1, 7/3, 7/5, 7/8, 7/11, 7/12, and 7/13 as amazing shows with two great sets.
7/20/14: As I hit enter on that, the band Zero'd me on the encore. Doesn't matter, though. Still awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)