The Verdict:
Happily, the second Bethel show is just as good, if not better than, the first. "Theme" is another weird/fun opener, and the rest of the set continues with interesting song choices, including an extended rock jam in "Cities," a twelve-minute Type I "Halley's" (!) and a plinko-infused "Jim." The highlight of this very-2015-seeming opening set, though, is by far the propulsive rock-jammed "Gin" that segues into a heavy version of "Manteca" and then back into "Gin" to close the set. It's for real.
The second set begins with an excellent "Disease" that first recalls the just-finished "Gin" jam and then, later, the delicate, melodic outros of both recent versions of "Waves." "Number Line" gets one of those Type I jams that are so energetic that you almost prefer it to a deeper jam: Trey guides the band into and then back out of a tension-and-release segment pretty much perfectly. The "Makisupa" that follows prefigures the "Page's house" joke that will pop up now and again for the rest of the summer, and though the "Hood" and "Bowie" that round out the second set don't go anywhere new, they're both longish, satisfying versions.
In short, damn. The band is two for two so far this year. Excited for night three.
The Live Review:
5/28/11: Theme opener. That's fun.
5/28/11: Hard-rocking Theme outro > NICU.
5/28/11: Slow-tempoed but busy-sounding Cities is next. Loving Fish's beat.
5/28/11: Great straight-up rock solo from Trey in this one.
5/28/11: Rarely does Cities seem to just get rocked the hell out. Today is that day.
5/28/11: HELL IS COMIN
5/28/11: Ripping lead in the Halley's solo, and then Fish changes the beat COULD THIS BE A REAL HALLEY'S JAM?!
5/28/11: Mike droning on the bass, Trey and Page skedaddling over top of it.
5/28/11: Type 1.5-style Halley's jam tops out at about 12 minutes (!) > Jim.
5/28/11: Jim featuring a plinko-style jam during the build to the second verse. Awesome.
5/28/11: Gumbo is next. Not only are many of these songs going in interesting places, I'm loving the song choices.
5/28/11: Extended jazzy outro from Page.
5/28/11: Quinn!
5/28/11: Whoa. Trey is exploding. It's been a good set for him.
5/28/11: Butt-slammed into Limb By Limb. Not really a segue, Trey just started LxL while there was thirty seconds or so of Quinn left.
5/28/11: Trey shreds the end of LxL > Horn.
5/28/11: Gin as the set closer. Page starts us off with a bang, and now, entering the jam, Fish is laying down a mellow beat.
5/28/11: Trey leading a bit build-up now.
5/28/11: So this definitely isn't going way Out There, but it's still the real deal. Exciting jam.
5/28/11: 'Crab in my shoe mouth' lyrics now over the jam.
5/28/11: Grungy-style Manteca jam.
5/28/11: That was great. End set.
5/28/11: Disease opens the second set. Trey rips right into it.
5/28/11: Momentum of this new jam section actually reminds of the Gin we just heard.
5/28/11: Going back to a muted soundscape a lot like the end of the Waves soundcheck and 5/27's Waves jam.
5/28/11: If this is where a lot of jams are going to land in 2011, I'm not going to complain.
5/28/11: Maybe if they're still doing it in August I'll complain :)
5/28/11: -> Free. Nice segue.
5/28/11: Loud-but-short Free > Number Line.
5/28/11: Sort of circular jam happening now.
5/28/11: Tension-y, almost evil Number Line jam here.
5/28/11: It's no Blossom '10 Number Line, but damn.
5/28/11: 2011 Trey is actually a bit better at leading the band into hairy territory and then leading them back out smoothly.
5/28/11: Case in point, this goddamn Number Line, which is incredible.
5/28/11: The move out of the tension jam into a reprise of the Number Line outro was like melted butter.
5/28/11: Makisupa is a great cool-down song. Nice choice.
5/28/11: Trey throws the improvised lyrics over to Page and Page 'smokes a big spliff.'
5/28/11: Now it's Fish's turn. I'm pretty sure he just said 'Corn.'
5/28/11: Trey was watching 'House.' In his house.
5/28/11: Everyone screaming 'MIKE'S HOUSE!' while Mike takes a bass solo.
5/28/11: Okay, now we're all screaming about Page house. Page solo.
5/28/11: 'This is what it sounds like...in Fish's house...' > Hood.
5/28/11: Trey struggles a bit with the heavy-metal composed part, but the jam starts off in a really interesting direction.
5/28/11: After a long, patient stay in mellowland, the jam is starting to build up a bit now.
5/28/11: Nice Hood peak > Cavern. This set just ain't letting up.
5/28/11: The hits just keep coming. Cavern > Bowie.
5/28/11: Starting off mellow, similar to the Hood.
5/28/11: Good extended but guitar-led version of Bowie to close the second set.
5/28/11: A Day in the Life encore.
5/28/11: That was a great show. Sure, the jams were necessarily as deep as a top-tier 2015 show, but man.
5/28/11: Both well-constructed sets, Cities and Halley's got extended in S1, and a legit jam in Gin -> Manteca -> Gin to close.
5/28/11: S2 had a strong Disease jam with a cool segue and extended takes on Number Line, Hood, and Bowie, not to mention the 'House' bit.
5/28/11: The first two 2011 shows have been better than almost all of 2010, and that makes me happy.
Feb 24, 2016
2011-05-27 Bethel I
The Verdict:
Jumping back to 2011 after 2015 has been...interesting. As I mentioned a few times during the live reviews, I've been surprised by how tight and high-energy the playing is, easily moreso and more consistently so than 2015 Phish. On the other hand, there's little to no sign of that full-band, four-headed deep space exploration that has so characterized the last few great years of 3.0. That said, 2011 so far is a definitely improvement over the ~50 show doldrums that were 2010. Where some of the hallmarks of 2010 are still in place (technically precise, high-speed first sets and excellent song choices all show long), there are is more of a tendency to stretch songs during the first two shows this year that didn't exist during the previous year. We're not quite to 2015 levels of jamming yet, but, for the first time since I started this project, I'm seeing how we get there.
The first night of the tour opens with "Tweezer," which is a mission statement if I've ever heard one. It's balls-out rock instead of a deep jam, but the quick > "My Friend, My Friend" makes up a bit for that. Trey plays around with an odd scale for awhile in "Wolfman's" before a vocal jam and then a long, patient segue into "Walk Away," making up the biggest highlight from the opening frame. "Stash" is a close second, with an ominous jam in the middle and a peak the likes of which we haven't seen in awhile at the end.
S2 starts with "Carini," but it stays totally in the box, as do the next few songs. It's not really until nearly the end of "Boogie On" when the band lets loose, absolutely deconstructing the song in classic experimental-Phish fashion and then seguing into a "Waves" that admittedly fails to reach the depths of its soundcheck counterpart, but revisits similarly beautiful territory during its outro nonetheless. The last legit highlight from the set comes in "Crosseyed," which goes to a dark, almost metal place for a few minutes before hitting on what sounds suspiciously like the outro to "Twenty Years Later." The rest of the set trades in the kind of precision and energy that the first set did, but there's not much else there to remark on. That said, there are some legitimate highlights from both sets in this tour opener, especially the "Boogie On" > "Waves," which I'll be replaying sooner rather than later.
The Live Review:
5/27/11: So the tour opener is...Tweezer?!
5/27/11: That's just awesome and hilarious. Crowd LOSING it.
5/27/11: Awesome descending piano riff from Page during the Tweezer jam.
5/27/11: Trey is bringing this one home, full-on rock solo style.
5/27/11: Rock-jam starting to peter out, Trey pulls out a quick > MFMF.
5/27/11: Super high-tempo version of MFMF, Fish is losing his mind.
5/27/11: Poor Heart!
5/27/11: Roses is next. So far, a lot more energy and speed in S1 than most of 2015.
5/27/11: Of course, we sort of knew that considering how readily they ripped up every song for all of 2010...
5/27/11: ...but then proceeded to play, like, 2-3 jams the entire year.
5/27/11: Hopefully the Waves soundcheck jam is an indication that there will be more exploration this year.
5/27/11: Hot version of Roses > Funky Bitch.
5/27/11: Page just BLEW UP that Funky Bitch.
5/27/11: Wolfman's Brother's getting a bit of vocal jam outro.
5/27/11: Trey laying down a Wolfman's solo in...a...different...scale? I think?
5/27/11: Well, that wasn't exactly Type II, but it was interesting.
5/27/11: -> Walk Away!! Nice!
5/27/11: Great segue, and Trey is ready to rip it up.
5/27/11: This has been one of my favorite Phish cover songs since the 8/5/11 Roggae > Walk Away.
5/27/11: Never does anything interesting, but just some straight-up quality rock and roll.
5/27/11: Long break after Walk Away. Trey playing some harmonics and saying something to Fish. Then, Stash.
5/27/11: It *almost* sounded like the intro to TTE, but I'm not sure.
5/27/11: MAYBE SO MAYBE NOT
5/27/11: Pretty ominous little jam in the middle of Stash from Trey and Page.
5/27/11: Impressive peak after that. It seems like it's been awhile since there was a peak in Stash.
5/27/11: Bouncin'! It's rare enough these days that I'm happy to hear it :)
5/27/11: Propulsive version of KDF is next. Fish is hulking up.
5/27/11: Trey adding some loops. Page to electric piano.
5/27/11: Difference between 2011 and 2015: Trey is driving pretty much ALL THE TIME in 2011.
5/27/11: In a way, it's nice because he's way more assertive and plays more leads. In a way, it's not nice because jams are one dimensional.
5/27/11: That's a long way of saying Trey just soloed for 11 minutes over the KDF progression and now the song is over.
5/27/11: Bold As Love. Probably the set closer.
5/27/11: S2 starts with someone (Trey?) shouting 'Aw, what the fuck' and then Carini.
5/27/11: Compact Carini and now BOTT. Feeling more like a second first set so far.
5/27/11: Trey and Page bring BOTT up to a pretty satisfying boil.
5/27/11: Boogie On keeps the first set vibe in place.
5/27/11: That sounds like a complaint, but honestly it's hard to knock a show that has both Funky Bitch and Boogie On.
5/27/11: Plinko-style jam. Mike is getting NASTY.
5/27/11: DO NOT STOP DOING THIS FOR AT LEAST 15 MINUTES
5/27/11: Deconstructing jam now. Bass line disappears and plinko-loop jamming filling the space.
5/27/11: Trey drops tempo and pitch. Super weird.
5/27/11: Rest of the band following. Moving up and down between keys and changing tempos.
5/27/11: Jam is totally broken down now. Arrhythmic. Did not expect this.
5/27/11: Synth from Page.
5/27/11: Pretty sure Trey is slowly bringing Waves in.
5/27/11: Yup. -> Waves.
5/27/11: First Waves jam (to lyrics reprise) is pretty standard stuff.
5/27/11: Mike and Page are leading a broken-down, circular jam now.
5/27/11: Really interesting, delicate little jam emerging now. Could easily go into a 2015-style build, but they're being patient with it.
5/27/11: Sort of similar to the end of the soundcheck Waves. Probably not an accident, huh?
5/27/11: 'Ethereal' is a good word here.
5/27/11: > Caspian.
5/27/11: https://t.co/HKtBCVAYH5
5/27/11: Pretty standard take on Caspian. Noise-loop ending. > Crosseyed!
5/27/11: I didn't think Crosseyed really happened in 2011. Shows how much I know about this year.
5/27/11: LOST MY SHAPE
5/27/11: Strong Type I solo into a vocal reprise.
5/27/11: Mike and Trey take the song's main riff into almost a metal place immediately after the vocals.
5/27/11: Jam reminds me a bit of the Twenty Years Later outro.
5/27/11: Jam winding down now.
5/27/11: Trey singing the lyrics to Velvet Sea over the roil. > Velvet Sea.
5/27/11: Mike laying down a really driving bass riff in Wading. It's weird, I don't usually even hear him during this song.
5/27/11: Possum seems like a weird choice here.
5/27/11: I COME FROM TACO MOUNTAIN, BABY
5/27/11: Squirming Coil, possibly to send the second set?
5/27/11: Page adding a bit of jazz flair to his outro solo. Crowd clapping along now.
5/27/11: Julius encore.
5/27/11: Pretty rowdy Julius dere.
5/27/11: After one show of 2011, I can safely say that it sits somewhere between 2010 and 2015 in quality so far.
5/27/11: The high energy and rapid-fire playing of 2010 is there, and the expansive, full-band improv of later 3.0 isn't.
5/27/11: Yet, there's a little more...'extending' of songs here that seems to indicate an interest in exploration...
5/27/11: ...that was missing for almost all of 2010.
5/27/11: That said, the Boogie On -> Waves is a legitimate highlight for any year and you should listen to it.
Jumping back to 2011 after 2015 has been...interesting. As I mentioned a few times during the live reviews, I've been surprised by how tight and high-energy the playing is, easily moreso and more consistently so than 2015 Phish. On the other hand, there's little to no sign of that full-band, four-headed deep space exploration that has so characterized the last few great years of 3.0. That said, 2011 so far is a definitely improvement over the ~50 show doldrums that were 2010. Where some of the hallmarks of 2010 are still in place (technically precise, high-speed first sets and excellent song choices all show long), there are is more of a tendency to stretch songs during the first two shows this year that didn't exist during the previous year. We're not quite to 2015 levels of jamming yet, but, for the first time since I started this project, I'm seeing how we get there.
The first night of the tour opens with "Tweezer," which is a mission statement if I've ever heard one. It's balls-out rock instead of a deep jam, but the quick > "My Friend, My Friend" makes up a bit for that. Trey plays around with an odd scale for awhile in "Wolfman's" before a vocal jam and then a long, patient segue into "Walk Away," making up the biggest highlight from the opening frame. "Stash" is a close second, with an ominous jam in the middle and a peak the likes of which we haven't seen in awhile at the end.
S2 starts with "Carini," but it stays totally in the box, as do the next few songs. It's not really until nearly the end of "Boogie On" when the band lets loose, absolutely deconstructing the song in classic experimental-Phish fashion and then seguing into a "Waves" that admittedly fails to reach the depths of its soundcheck counterpart, but revisits similarly beautiful territory during its outro nonetheless. The last legit highlight from the set comes in "Crosseyed," which goes to a dark, almost metal place for a few minutes before hitting on what sounds suspiciously like the outro to "Twenty Years Later." The rest of the set trades in the kind of precision and energy that the first set did, but there's not much else there to remark on. That said, there are some legitimate highlights from both sets in this tour opener, especially the "Boogie On" > "Waves," which I'll be replaying sooner rather than later.
The Live Review:
5/27/11: So the tour opener is...Tweezer?!
5/27/11: That's just awesome and hilarious. Crowd LOSING it.
5/27/11: Awesome descending piano riff from Page during the Tweezer jam.
5/27/11: Trey is bringing this one home, full-on rock solo style.
5/27/11: Rock-jam starting to peter out, Trey pulls out a quick > MFMF.
5/27/11: Super high-tempo version of MFMF, Fish is losing his mind.
5/27/11: Poor Heart!
5/27/11: Roses is next. So far, a lot more energy and speed in S1 than most of 2015.
5/27/11: Of course, we sort of knew that considering how readily they ripped up every song for all of 2010...
5/27/11: ...but then proceeded to play, like, 2-3 jams the entire year.
5/27/11: Hopefully the Waves soundcheck jam is an indication that there will be more exploration this year.
5/27/11: Hot version of Roses > Funky Bitch.
5/27/11: Page just BLEW UP that Funky Bitch.
5/27/11: Wolfman's Brother's getting a bit of vocal jam outro.
5/27/11: Trey laying down a Wolfman's solo in...a...different...scale? I think?
5/27/11: Well, that wasn't exactly Type II, but it was interesting.
5/27/11: -> Walk Away!! Nice!
5/27/11: Great segue, and Trey is ready to rip it up.
5/27/11: This has been one of my favorite Phish cover songs since the 8/5/11 Roggae > Walk Away.
5/27/11: Never does anything interesting, but just some straight-up quality rock and roll.
5/27/11: Long break after Walk Away. Trey playing some harmonics and saying something to Fish. Then, Stash.
5/27/11: It *almost* sounded like the intro to TTE, but I'm not sure.
5/27/11: MAYBE SO MAYBE NOT
5/27/11: Pretty ominous little jam in the middle of Stash from Trey and Page.
5/27/11: Impressive peak after that. It seems like it's been awhile since there was a peak in Stash.
5/27/11: Bouncin'! It's rare enough these days that I'm happy to hear it :)
5/27/11: Propulsive version of KDF is next. Fish is hulking up.
5/27/11: Trey adding some loops. Page to electric piano.
5/27/11: Difference between 2011 and 2015: Trey is driving pretty much ALL THE TIME in 2011.
5/27/11: In a way, it's nice because he's way more assertive and plays more leads. In a way, it's not nice because jams are one dimensional.
5/27/11: That's a long way of saying Trey just soloed for 11 minutes over the KDF progression and now the song is over.
5/27/11: Bold As Love. Probably the set closer.
5/27/11: S2 starts with someone (Trey?) shouting 'Aw, what the fuck' and then Carini.
5/27/11: Compact Carini and now BOTT. Feeling more like a second first set so far.
5/27/11: Trey and Page bring BOTT up to a pretty satisfying boil.
5/27/11: Boogie On keeps the first set vibe in place.
5/27/11: That sounds like a complaint, but honestly it's hard to knock a show that has both Funky Bitch and Boogie On.
5/27/11: Plinko-style jam. Mike is getting NASTY.
5/27/11: DO NOT STOP DOING THIS FOR AT LEAST 15 MINUTES
5/27/11: Deconstructing jam now. Bass line disappears and plinko-loop jamming filling the space.
5/27/11: Trey drops tempo and pitch. Super weird.
5/27/11: Rest of the band following. Moving up and down between keys and changing tempos.
5/27/11: Jam is totally broken down now. Arrhythmic. Did not expect this.
5/27/11: Synth from Page.
5/27/11: Pretty sure Trey is slowly bringing Waves in.
5/27/11: Yup. -> Waves.
5/27/11: First Waves jam (to lyrics reprise) is pretty standard stuff.
5/27/11: Mike and Page are leading a broken-down, circular jam now.
5/27/11: Really interesting, delicate little jam emerging now. Could easily go into a 2015-style build, but they're being patient with it.
5/27/11: Sort of similar to the end of the soundcheck Waves. Probably not an accident, huh?
5/27/11: 'Ethereal' is a good word here.
5/27/11: > Caspian.
5/27/11: https://t.co/HKtBCVAYH5
5/27/11: Pretty standard take on Caspian. Noise-loop ending. > Crosseyed!
5/27/11: I didn't think Crosseyed really happened in 2011. Shows how much I know about this year.
5/27/11: LOST MY SHAPE
5/27/11: Strong Type I solo into a vocal reprise.
5/27/11: Mike and Trey take the song's main riff into almost a metal place immediately after the vocals.
5/27/11: Jam reminds me a bit of the Twenty Years Later outro.
5/27/11: Jam winding down now.
5/27/11: Trey singing the lyrics to Velvet Sea over the roil. > Velvet Sea.
5/27/11: Mike laying down a really driving bass riff in Wading. It's weird, I don't usually even hear him during this song.
5/27/11: Possum seems like a weird choice here.
5/27/11: I COME FROM TACO MOUNTAIN, BABY
5/27/11: Squirming Coil, possibly to send the second set?
5/27/11: Page adding a bit of jazz flair to his outro solo. Crowd clapping along now.
5/27/11: Julius encore.
5/27/11: Pretty rowdy Julius dere.
5/27/11: After one show of 2011, I can safely say that it sits somewhere between 2010 and 2015 in quality so far.
5/27/11: The high energy and rapid-fire playing of 2010 is there, and the expansive, full-band improv of later 3.0 isn't.
5/27/11: Yet, there's a little more...'extending' of songs here that seems to indicate an interest in exploration...
5/27/11: ...that was missing for almost all of 2010.
5/27/11: That said, the Boogie On -> Waves is a legitimate highlight for any year and you should listen to it.
2011-05-26 Bethel Waves Soundcheck
The Verdict:
Well, it didn't feel right to start off 2011 without first listening to and tweeting about the Bethel Waves jam. The review is below, and here's the audio in case you need to listen for what I assume is at least the fifteenth time:
The Live Review:
5/26/11: Obviously inappropriate of me to start reviewing summer 2011 without reviewing the Bethel Waves first. So here we go.
5/26/11: Nice, propulsive start to the jam, with some 2.0-style soloing from Trey.
5/26/11: 2011 Trey doesn't have the melodic touch that 2015 Trey has, but he's playing a lot more notes, which is good in a different way.
5/26/11: Departing Type I shores at around 8:00.
5/26/11: After an interesting bit of circular riffing, Trey switches to a more distorted tone, and now we've moved to jazz-rock land.
5/26/11: A lot of grungy Trey/Mike interplay going on now.
5/26/11: Never realized what a big role Fish's drumming plays in this jam. He never lets up.
5/26/11: Brief ambient break and then some great melodic riffing from Trey over a murky soundscape.
5/26/11: This picking riff is super-excellent.
5/26/11: The last seven or so minutes of that jam were absolutely gorgeous. Wow.
5/26/11: Great ending, too. Double wow.
Well, it didn't feel right to start off 2011 without first listening to and tweeting about the Bethel Waves jam. The review is below, and here's the audio in case you need to listen for what I assume is at least the fifteenth time:
The Live Review:
5/26/11: Obviously inappropriate of me to start reviewing summer 2011 without reviewing the Bethel Waves first. So here we go.
5/26/11: Nice, propulsive start to the jam, with some 2.0-style soloing from Trey.
5/26/11: 2011 Trey doesn't have the melodic touch that 2015 Trey has, but he's playing a lot more notes, which is good in a different way.
5/26/11: Departing Type I shores at around 8:00.
5/26/11: After an interesting bit of circular riffing, Trey switches to a more distorted tone, and now we've moved to jazz-rock land.
5/26/11: A lot of grungy Trey/Mike interplay going on now.
5/26/11: Never realized what a big role Fish's drumming plays in this jam. He never lets up.
5/26/11: Brief ambient break and then some great melodic riffing from Trey over a murky soundscape.
5/26/11: This picking riff is super-excellent.
5/26/11: The last seven or so minutes of that jam were absolutely gorgeous. Wow.
5/26/11: Great ending, too. Double wow.
2016-01-17 Riviera Maya III
The Verdict:
So, the final night of the Mexico run continues the trend of delivering solid-but-poorly-received-2015-style shows begun by N1 and N2.
The first half of the first set doesn't do anything new, but like the previous two nights' opening frames, it's high on energy and the song selection and flow are miles above any S1 since at least Magnaball. The second half of the set gets satisfyingly weird, with an extra spicy "KDF," an extended "Gin," and a "Moma" that actually, finally changes the script a little with a surprise vocal jam and ambient hum that leads perfectly into "Saw It Again."
Set two is all about the "Shipwreck" teases. The use of "Shipwreck" samples in the "Disease" jam takes what can frankly be a tired jam vehicle these days and injects it with new life, making up easily one of the more interesting, if not necessarily the most flawless jams of the year. "Roggae" is its usual excellent self, and then "Crosseyed" returns to "Shipwreck" jamming and some ghost-howling vocals (that's literally the only way to describe it) from the band. The effect is super eerie, which makes it even more head-scratching when then segue into "Farmhouse." Oh well.
That's really the meat of the second set, as the "Mike's Groove" that wraps things up is a little underwhelming save for the second return of "Shipwreck" samples during the "Weekapaug." A typical "Slave" and then a first-ever-but-rough take on "The Ocean" end the show, and the run.
For the first three-fourths of this show at least I found myself asking the question I've been asking about this run all along: why all the hate? There's a lot to like here, and I feel like Magnaball is casting an unreasonably long shadow. Sure, it was a great festival with some fantastic performances, and an easy all-timer in 8/22, but it certainly isn't the be-all end-all of Phish 2015. This run, MSG, and even Dick's have comparable highlights, if not as many, and it's sad to see the tour often characterized as an amazing year until Magnaball and then a bunch of shitty runs in a row when that's obviously not what these are. There's a few jams from Mexico and a lot of the MSG run that stands up to anything from earlier in the year, and to miss out on that by putting a particular run of shows on a pedestal is dumb.
Oh well. I listened to them all, anyway, and I had fun.
There's not really much video on YouTube from this show and no recordings up on phishtracks yet, so the best I can do is linking to the whole webcast for highlights. Sorry!
The Live Review:
1/17/16: Showtime again!
1/17/16: Mexican Cousin opener!
1/17/16: The Curtain With at #2.
1/17/16: FOLLOW THE LINES GOING SOUTH!
1/17/16: I jumped the gun the bit on the With there, but I was right.
1/17/16: Sample is third. Nice, slow-burning The Curtain With there.
1/17/16: Great (and surprising!) use of bass bombs in Sample from Mike.
1/17/16: Trey takes a minute after Sample to thank the road crew and tell the crowd that Phish is TOTALLY BREAKING UP, GUYS until summer.
1/17/16: Yarmouth Road! Great S1 tune lately.
1/17/16: The Landlady?! Great to see that staying in sets!
1/17/16: Hahaha...Army of One is basically the funniest song Phish could sing on a beach in Mexico. Thanks, Page.
1/17/16: Trey struggling a bit there.
1/17/16: Kill Devil Falls is next. They certainly aren't reinventing the wheel here, but like the rest of the Mexico S1s...
1/17/16: ...it's way more fun than any of the opening Dick's or MSG frames.
1/17/16: Extra-hot KDF (and I don't say that lightly).
1/17/16: Now Gin, and Trey's taking some nasty leads as it moves from a slow jam to a rolling boil.
1/17/16: Type I Gin, but an impressive version. Immediately heads into Funky Bitch.
1/17/16: Keeping up the momentum with Moma Dance.
1/17/16: Impromptu vocal jam initiated by Fish in Moma Dance! Very cool.
1/17/16: Okay, things just got interesting with an echo-funk jam out of Moma Dance -> Saw It Again.
1/17/16: After a great segue, Saw It Again closes the first set.
1/17/16: Some synth swells at the end of Saw It Again gives it that end-of-set-peak feeling.
1/17/16: S2 starts with some Trey noodling and then Mike starting up Disease. Last monster jam of the year?
1/17/16: Some typical Type I action until Mike takes control around the 8:00 mark. Trey filling in the spaces with some looping.
1/17/16: Shipwreck samples from Page while Trey and Mike trill underneath.
1/17/16: Page is doing some super-cool stuff with the samples. Jam building.
1/17/16: That was really awesome. Now the jam is moving toward a more typical rock-funk space. Mike has got a great bassline going.
1/17/16: After the sample jam, the rest was a pretty tasty, momentum-filled 2015-style-chord jam. Neat stuff.
1/17/16: Trey tries to -> Roggae but biffs the intro riff. More like a > Roggae. Eventually.
1/17/16: Extra-minimal beginning to the jam on Roggae. Mike and Trey sort of trading licks for a bit.
1/17/16: Still builds up to a pretty fantastic peak by the end.
1/17/16: Crosseyed!!!
1/17/16: Nice up-tempo version of one of my favorite Phish covers so far.
1/17/16: Big ol' rock jam so far. At 9:00 mark now.
1/17/16: Oh hell yes, the Shipwreck samples are back. Dark space jam developing.
1/17/16: 'I Don't Live Today' vocal tease from Fish (?).
1/17/16: This jam doesn't have the flow of the Disease, but it's eerie.
1/17/16: Creepy ghost voices now from Page. So awesome.
1/17/16: Too bad they already played Ghost.
1/17/16: > Farmhouse might be the weirdest setlist call EVAR
1/17/16: I'd be lying if I said I didn't groan a little there. And I LIKE Farmhouse.
1/17/16: Above-average solo from Trey in Farmhouse, but nobody's going to listen to it anyway. Mike's Song is next.
1/17/16: Looks like Mike's might be headed into echo-funk territory again.
1/17/16: Trey laying down a solo in a weird, atypical mode. Short, but strange version of Mike's.
1/17/16: Seamless drop into Bug. Another strange setlist choice, but okay.
1/17/16: Synth coming back at the beginning of Groove.
1/17/16: Shipwreck samples coming back again.
1/17/16: Slow-tempo Slave coming next.
1/17/16: Love the early bit of this Slave jam.
1/17/16: And, of course, The Ocean closer.
1/17/16: 2/4ths of this band did NOT practice the outro to The Ocean.
1/17/16: And that's that! After writing the blog reviews, I'll be back with 5/27/11 next, believe it or not!
So, the final night of the Mexico run continues the trend of delivering solid-but-poorly-received-2015-style shows begun by N1 and N2.
The first half of the first set doesn't do anything new, but like the previous two nights' opening frames, it's high on energy and the song selection and flow are miles above any S1 since at least Magnaball. The second half of the set gets satisfyingly weird, with an extra spicy "KDF," an extended "Gin," and a "Moma" that actually, finally changes the script a little with a surprise vocal jam and ambient hum that leads perfectly into "Saw It Again."
Set two is all about the "Shipwreck" teases. The use of "Shipwreck" samples in the "Disease" jam takes what can frankly be a tired jam vehicle these days and injects it with new life, making up easily one of the more interesting, if not necessarily the most flawless jams of the year. "Roggae" is its usual excellent self, and then "Crosseyed" returns to "Shipwreck" jamming and some ghost-howling vocals (that's literally the only way to describe it) from the band. The effect is super eerie, which makes it even more head-scratching when then segue into "Farmhouse." Oh well.
That's really the meat of the second set, as the "Mike's Groove" that wraps things up is a little underwhelming save for the second return of "Shipwreck" samples during the "Weekapaug." A typical "Slave" and then a first-ever-but-rough take on "The Ocean" end the show, and the run.
For the first three-fourths of this show at least I found myself asking the question I've been asking about this run all along: why all the hate? There's a lot to like here, and I feel like Magnaball is casting an unreasonably long shadow. Sure, it was a great festival with some fantastic performances, and an easy all-timer in 8/22, but it certainly isn't the be-all end-all of Phish 2015. This run, MSG, and even Dick's have comparable highlights, if not as many, and it's sad to see the tour often characterized as an amazing year until Magnaball and then a bunch of shitty runs in a row when that's obviously not what these are. There's a few jams from Mexico and a lot of the MSG run that stands up to anything from earlier in the year, and to miss out on that by putting a particular run of shows on a pedestal is dumb.
Oh well. I listened to them all, anyway, and I had fun.
There's not really much video on YouTube from this show and no recordings up on phishtracks yet, so the best I can do is linking to the whole webcast for highlights. Sorry!
The Live Review:
1/17/16: Showtime again!
1/17/16: Mexican Cousin opener!
1/17/16: The Curtain With at #2.
1/17/16: FOLLOW THE LINES GOING SOUTH!
1/17/16: I jumped the gun the bit on the With there, but I was right.
1/17/16: Sample is third. Nice, slow-burning The Curtain With there.
1/17/16: Great (and surprising!) use of bass bombs in Sample from Mike.
1/17/16: Trey takes a minute after Sample to thank the road crew and tell the crowd that Phish is TOTALLY BREAKING UP, GUYS until summer.
1/17/16: Yarmouth Road! Great S1 tune lately.
1/17/16: The Landlady?! Great to see that staying in sets!
1/17/16: Hahaha...Army of One is basically the funniest song Phish could sing on a beach in Mexico. Thanks, Page.
1/17/16: Trey struggling a bit there.
1/17/16: Kill Devil Falls is next. They certainly aren't reinventing the wheel here, but like the rest of the Mexico S1s...
1/17/16: ...it's way more fun than any of the opening Dick's or MSG frames.
1/17/16: Extra-hot KDF (and I don't say that lightly).
1/17/16: Now Gin, and Trey's taking some nasty leads as it moves from a slow jam to a rolling boil.
1/17/16: Type I Gin, but an impressive version. Immediately heads into Funky Bitch.
1/17/16: Keeping up the momentum with Moma Dance.
1/17/16: Impromptu vocal jam initiated by Fish in Moma Dance! Very cool.
1/17/16: Okay, things just got interesting with an echo-funk jam out of Moma Dance -> Saw It Again.
1/17/16: After a great segue, Saw It Again closes the first set.
1/17/16: Some synth swells at the end of Saw It Again gives it that end-of-set-peak feeling.
1/17/16: S2 starts with some Trey noodling and then Mike starting up Disease. Last monster jam of the year?
1/17/16: Some typical Type I action until Mike takes control around the 8:00 mark. Trey filling in the spaces with some looping.
1/17/16: Shipwreck samples from Page while Trey and Mike trill underneath.
1/17/16: Page is doing some super-cool stuff with the samples. Jam building.
1/17/16: That was really awesome. Now the jam is moving toward a more typical rock-funk space. Mike has got a great bassline going.
1/17/16: After the sample jam, the rest was a pretty tasty, momentum-filled 2015-style-chord jam. Neat stuff.
1/17/16: Trey tries to -> Roggae but biffs the intro riff. More like a > Roggae. Eventually.
1/17/16: Extra-minimal beginning to the jam on Roggae. Mike and Trey sort of trading licks for a bit.
1/17/16: Still builds up to a pretty fantastic peak by the end.
1/17/16: Crosseyed!!!
1/17/16: Nice up-tempo version of one of my favorite Phish covers so far.
1/17/16: Big ol' rock jam so far. At 9:00 mark now.
1/17/16: Oh hell yes, the Shipwreck samples are back. Dark space jam developing.
1/17/16: 'I Don't Live Today' vocal tease from Fish (?).
1/17/16: This jam doesn't have the flow of the Disease, but it's eerie.
1/17/16: Creepy ghost voices now from Page. So awesome.
1/17/16: Too bad they already played Ghost.
1/17/16: > Farmhouse might be the weirdest setlist call EVAR
1/17/16: I'd be lying if I said I didn't groan a little there. And I LIKE Farmhouse.
1/17/16: Above-average solo from Trey in Farmhouse, but nobody's going to listen to it anyway. Mike's Song is next.
1/17/16: Looks like Mike's might be headed into echo-funk territory again.
1/17/16: Trey laying down a solo in a weird, atypical mode. Short, but strange version of Mike's.
1/17/16: Seamless drop into Bug. Another strange setlist choice, but okay.
1/17/16: Synth coming back at the beginning of Groove.
1/17/16: Shipwreck samples coming back again.
1/17/16: Slow-tempo Slave coming next.
1/17/16: Love the early bit of this Slave jam.
1/17/16: And, of course, The Ocean closer.
1/17/16: 2/4ths of this band did NOT practice the outro to The Ocean.
1/17/16: And that's that! After writing the blog reviews, I'll be back with 5/27/11 next, believe it or not!
Feb 11, 2016
2016-01-16 Riviera Maya II
The Verdict:
So, the second night of the Riviera Maya run is even more poorly reviewed than the first. It probably deserves a bit of this because it's definitely a slight step back in quality, but it doesn't deserve most of it because, like the first night, it's quite a good show.
Like the first night, the opening set is an improvement over pretty much every S1 from MSG, Dick's, and even probably Magnaball. It starts off in swanky style with the gooiest version of "Camel Walk" I've ever heard (and consequently now my new favorite version), follows it with an equally languid "555," and then kicks up the energy a bit with a well-performed "Rift."
The next bit is one for the ages, with a jam emerging from the mid-set "Cities" that gets there quick, and explores a number of spaces over thirteen minutes with a confidence and thoroughness that puts some of the best jams of the year to shame. That it shows up where it does in the show makes it even more jaw-dropping. Trey tries to orchestrate a -> "Light" from the conclusion of the jam, but the rest of the band sort of drops the ball. Nonetheless, the first S1 "Light" since 2010 gets to some interesting places, and suddenly, in the middle of the first set, we have a ball game.
The fire continues to come with a great "Simple" and an echo-funk take on "Timber," of all songs. Page pulls off the now-routine solo piano -> "Wading" at the end of the "Timber" jam, and then, refusing to coast to the end of the set, the guys lay down a solid 2015-style "Reba" and a non-jammed "Chalkdust" that features some of my favorite straight-up Trey shredding in awhile. And that's just the first set.
I say that as if the second set gets better...honestly, it really doesn't. But that's okay, because it doesn't get any worse, either. "Golden Age" follows in the footsteps of the deep-sea Dick's version, minus the gigantic gaffes in the composed section, and it lands in a "Caspian" that ends up somewhere between the typical version and the "Tweezerpants" version from Magnaball: the jam here isn't quite as ecstatic, but there is a serious jam, and it does get pretty abstract and almost ambient in the way that a lot of the bigger Mexico jams have so far.
The middle of the set sags a bit, but picks right back up with a strong "46 Days" that legitimately does go to a dark, ambient place and then continues that vibe into a surprise "Twenty Years Later" that's even more foreboding and pulsing than usual. Lest the "Julius" make you think that's all she wrote, don't worry because there's a fifteen-minute 2014-style "Hood" to close the set. I'm left with the same question I ended the previous review with. Sure, neither Mexico show thus far reaches up there to the highest echelon of 2015 Phish, but these two shows certainly are 2015-quality Phish. I'm looking forward to the third show, which supposedly is "better."
Second set starts at 2:02:00:
The Live Review:
1/16/16: Slow-burn Camel Walk opener. Nice choice.
1/16/16: Really neat, broken-down version of Camel Walk.
1/16/16: Languid 555 is next. I imagine playing at night on the beach lends itself to low-tempo sets.
1/16/16: Mike going to town on 555 outro jam.
1/16/16: Well, Rift ought to pick up the tempo, eh?
1/16/16: Rift is one of those many songs that's super fun to just listen to Fish on and ignore everyone else.
1/16/16: Now a slower, shuffly Cities. I'm liking this laid-back vibe so far.
1/16/16: Clav-and-space-funk jam is building.
1/16/16: Rather than ending the song after the funk jam, Trey hits the mutron. We're entering the Type II zone four songs in, folks!
1/16/16: Surprisingly moody jamming for the first set, here.
1/16/16: Building toward Bliss Land now.
1/16/16: Definitely a tease of the lick from the Dick's Disease/MSG Tweezer jams in there.
1/16/16: Aww, Trey actually built a good -> Light up there, but the rest of the band missed it and had to reset before going into the song.
1/16/16: Fantastic Cities jam tho
1/16/16: Long time since Light was played in the first set, I bet.
1/16/16: Austin 2010, according to @phishnet
1/16/16: Light jam gets away from arpeggios early. Page to electric piano.
1/16/16: Awesome solo bit from Page now.
1/16/16: Trey is playing a riff that actually sounds a bit like Cities now. I wonder if that's on purpose. Probably.
1/16/16: Trey pushes a quick transition into Simple.
1/16/16: One of the great things about 1/15 was the frequency with which the band turned on a dime together to start new songs.
1/16/16: Seems like Trey is trying to do that again tonight but the rest of the band isn't picking up on it.
1/16/16: Pretty typical Simple jam ends in an angry drone. Timber!
1/16/16: Echo-funk jamming in Timber. Interesting.
1/16/16: Echo-funk -> Loop Drone -> Piano outro -> Wading. Nice.
1/16/16: Would have been wild getting to hear this song while IN the ocean.
1/16/16: That's the most pumped I've heard a Phish crowd about hearing Wading in a long time.
1/16/16: Reba!
1/16/16: Typically strong 2015-type version of Reba here.
1/16/16: Chalkdust is next. Trey whistles the Reba outro over the beginning of Chalkdust.
1/16/16: Great 90s-style peak in Chalkdust.
1/16/16: Holy cow.
1/16/16: No jam at the end dere. End set.
1/16/16: S2 starts with a low-tempo Golden Age.
1/16/16: I sort of wish they'd play this song a half-step or a step lower. Trey's voice always sounds strained trying to sing the verse.
1/16/16: Typical Golden Age solo comes to an end with a sudden, crashing chord. Page adding piano accents to a dark space now.
1/16/16: Super ominous jam now. Loving the rhythm section here.
1/16/16: Almost like an Evil Plinko jam going on now.
1/16/16: Really cool, noise-rock sort of build at the end of the jam. > Caspian.
1/16/16: Halfway into Caspian, we've left the usual solo and transitioned into a droning sort of rock-haze area.
1/16/16: That wasn't really a Magnaball Caspian, but it was still pretty interesting.
1/16/16: Halfway To the Moon is next.
1/16/16: Halfway > Joy is sort of underwhelming setlist call.
1/16/16: 46 Days might make up for it, though.
1/16/16: Weird, pulsating ambient jam to end 46 Days.
1/16/16: Fish keeps up a weird woodblock (?) beat through. Nice transition into Twenty Years Later.
1/16/16: Extra angry, rolling synth boil for the outro jam.
1/16/16: I really like this song a lot. Not necessarily this version in particular, but just in general.
1/16/16: Wind-down ending.
1/16/16: Julius. How's that for a complete tonal 180?
1/16/16: Harry Hood!
1/16/16: Trey sounding a little tentative in the early composed section.
1/16/16: Nice, patient delivery in the jam so far.
1/16/16: Oh damn, this is good.
1/16/16: Mike doing more steering than usual so far.
1/16/16: Whenever I think of summer 2016 tour, I first imagine being in the dark on a lawn somewhere listening to a Hood jam.
1/16/16: In short, Hood = Phish.
1/16/16: Huge peak at the end. The hugest.
1/16/16: Trey: 'Can we do this next year, please?'
1/16/16: Zero encore.
1/16/16: Compact and punchy version of Zero. Even more so than usual.
1/16/16: Once again, a little confused as to how this is a 'bad' show.
1/16/16: Great Cities -> Light in the first set, swanky Camel Walk, Simple > Timber -> Wading, solid Reba, HUGE Chalkdust.
1/16/16: Second set had a great Golden Age > Caspian jam, sagged a bit in the middle, but 46 Days -> 20 Years and Hood were fantastic.
1/16/16: Sure, the 'best' jam came in the first set, but should that be exciting instead of an occasion to bitch?
1/16/16: *shouldn't
1/16/16: Anyway, back Tuesday for the last new show before I roll things back to summer 2011!
So, the second night of the Riviera Maya run is even more poorly reviewed than the first. It probably deserves a bit of this because it's definitely a slight step back in quality, but it doesn't deserve most of it because, like the first night, it's quite a good show.
Like the first night, the opening set is an improvement over pretty much every S1 from MSG, Dick's, and even probably Magnaball. It starts off in swanky style with the gooiest version of "Camel Walk" I've ever heard (and consequently now my new favorite version), follows it with an equally languid "555," and then kicks up the energy a bit with a well-performed "Rift."
The next bit is one for the ages, with a jam emerging from the mid-set "Cities" that gets there quick, and explores a number of spaces over thirteen minutes with a confidence and thoroughness that puts some of the best jams of the year to shame. That it shows up where it does in the show makes it even more jaw-dropping. Trey tries to orchestrate a -> "Light" from the conclusion of the jam, but the rest of the band sort of drops the ball. Nonetheless, the first S1 "Light" since 2010 gets to some interesting places, and suddenly, in the middle of the first set, we have a ball game.
The fire continues to come with a great "Simple" and an echo-funk take on "Timber," of all songs. Page pulls off the now-routine solo piano -> "Wading" at the end of the "Timber" jam, and then, refusing to coast to the end of the set, the guys lay down a solid 2015-style "Reba" and a non-jammed "Chalkdust" that features some of my favorite straight-up Trey shredding in awhile. And that's just the first set.
I say that as if the second set gets better...honestly, it really doesn't. But that's okay, because it doesn't get any worse, either. "Golden Age" follows in the footsteps of the deep-sea Dick's version, minus the gigantic gaffes in the composed section, and it lands in a "Caspian" that ends up somewhere between the typical version and the "Tweezerpants" version from Magnaball: the jam here isn't quite as ecstatic, but there is a serious jam, and it does get pretty abstract and almost ambient in the way that a lot of the bigger Mexico jams have so far.
The middle of the set sags a bit, but picks right back up with a strong "46 Days" that legitimately does go to a dark, ambient place and then continues that vibe into a surprise "Twenty Years Later" that's even more foreboding and pulsing than usual. Lest the "Julius" make you think that's all she wrote, don't worry because there's a fifteen-minute 2014-style "Hood" to close the set. I'm left with the same question I ended the previous review with. Sure, neither Mexico show thus far reaches up there to the highest echelon of 2015 Phish, but these two shows certainly are 2015-quality Phish. I'm looking forward to the third show, which supposedly is "better."
Second set starts at 2:02:00:
The Live Review:
1/16/16: Slow-burn Camel Walk opener. Nice choice.
1/16/16: Really neat, broken-down version of Camel Walk.
1/16/16: Languid 555 is next. I imagine playing at night on the beach lends itself to low-tempo sets.
1/16/16: Mike going to town on 555 outro jam.
1/16/16: Well, Rift ought to pick up the tempo, eh?
1/16/16: Rift is one of those many songs that's super fun to just listen to Fish on and ignore everyone else.
1/16/16: Now a slower, shuffly Cities. I'm liking this laid-back vibe so far.
1/16/16: Clav-and-space-funk jam is building.
1/16/16: Rather than ending the song after the funk jam, Trey hits the mutron. We're entering the Type II zone four songs in, folks!
1/16/16: Surprisingly moody jamming for the first set, here.
1/16/16: Building toward Bliss Land now.
1/16/16: Definitely a tease of the lick from the Dick's Disease/MSG Tweezer jams in there.
1/16/16: Aww, Trey actually built a good -> Light up there, but the rest of the band missed it and had to reset before going into the song.
1/16/16: Fantastic Cities jam tho
1/16/16: Long time since Light was played in the first set, I bet.
1/16/16: Austin 2010, according to @phishnet
1/16/16: Light jam gets away from arpeggios early. Page to electric piano.
1/16/16: Awesome solo bit from Page now.
1/16/16: Trey is playing a riff that actually sounds a bit like Cities now. I wonder if that's on purpose. Probably.
1/16/16: Trey pushes a quick transition into Simple.
1/16/16: One of the great things about 1/15 was the frequency with which the band turned on a dime together to start new songs.
1/16/16: Seems like Trey is trying to do that again tonight but the rest of the band isn't picking up on it.
1/16/16: Pretty typical Simple jam ends in an angry drone. Timber!
1/16/16: Echo-funk jamming in Timber. Interesting.
1/16/16: Echo-funk -> Loop Drone -> Piano outro -> Wading. Nice.
1/16/16: Would have been wild getting to hear this song while IN the ocean.
1/16/16: That's the most pumped I've heard a Phish crowd about hearing Wading in a long time.
1/16/16: Reba!
1/16/16: Typically strong 2015-type version of Reba here.
1/16/16: Chalkdust is next. Trey whistles the Reba outro over the beginning of Chalkdust.
1/16/16: Great 90s-style peak in Chalkdust.
1/16/16: Holy cow.
1/16/16: No jam at the end dere. End set.
1/16/16: S2 starts with a low-tempo Golden Age.
1/16/16: I sort of wish they'd play this song a half-step or a step lower. Trey's voice always sounds strained trying to sing the verse.
1/16/16: Typical Golden Age solo comes to an end with a sudden, crashing chord. Page adding piano accents to a dark space now.
1/16/16: Super ominous jam now. Loving the rhythm section here.
1/16/16: Almost like an Evil Plinko jam going on now.
1/16/16: Really cool, noise-rock sort of build at the end of the jam. > Caspian.
1/16/16: Halfway into Caspian, we've left the usual solo and transitioned into a droning sort of rock-haze area.
1/16/16: That wasn't really a Magnaball Caspian, but it was still pretty interesting.
1/16/16: Halfway To the Moon is next.
1/16/16: Halfway > Joy is sort of underwhelming setlist call.
1/16/16: 46 Days might make up for it, though.
1/16/16: Weird, pulsating ambient jam to end 46 Days.
1/16/16: Fish keeps up a weird woodblock (?) beat through. Nice transition into Twenty Years Later.
1/16/16: Extra angry, rolling synth boil for the outro jam.
1/16/16: I really like this song a lot. Not necessarily this version in particular, but just in general.
1/16/16: Wind-down ending.
1/16/16: Julius. How's that for a complete tonal 180?
1/16/16: Harry Hood!
1/16/16: Trey sounding a little tentative in the early composed section.
1/16/16: Nice, patient delivery in the jam so far.
1/16/16: Oh damn, this is good.
1/16/16: Mike doing more steering than usual so far.
1/16/16: Whenever I think of summer 2016 tour, I first imagine being in the dark on a lawn somewhere listening to a Hood jam.
1/16/16: In short, Hood = Phish.
1/16/16: Huge peak at the end. The hugest.
1/16/16: Trey: 'Can we do this next year, please?'
1/16/16: Zero encore.
1/16/16: Compact and punchy version of Zero. Even more so than usual.
1/16/16: Once again, a little confused as to how this is a 'bad' show.
1/16/16: Great Cities -> Light in the first set, swanky Camel Walk, Simple > Timber -> Wading, solid Reba, HUGE Chalkdust.
1/16/16: Second set had a great Golden Age > Caspian jam, sagged a bit in the middle, but 46 Days -> 20 Years and Hood were fantastic.
1/16/16: Sure, the 'best' jam came in the first set, but should that be exciting instead of an occasion to bitch?
1/16/16: *shouldn't
1/16/16: Anyway, back Tuesday for the last new show before I roll things back to summer 2011!
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