The Curtain With was a fantastic opener. I'm not as intimately familiar
with it as I am Fluffhead or Divided Sky (yet!!!) but for the most part
all the sections I recognized sounded great and there were no obvious
flubs anywhere. Great start to the show!
The Birds (only the 5th one ever and the last one to date!) was
interesting - I've actually never beothered listening to this song
before as I haven't sat through the 2014 Halloween set, but this was
kinda boring. It was enjoyable, but the song itself never really goes
anywhere and instead of letting loose and jamming it felt like the guys
were tethered onto the structure of the song.
Nice to get a wonky BOAF next then. It's pretty ragetastic but nothing special other than "just another really hot BOAF".
Now we get Waiting All Night. This is one of my favorite songs off Fuego
but this set is kinda weird so far. This WAN, however, is pretty
excellent to my ears. Really great soloing from Trey and lovely backing from the rest of the guys! We got us a winner!
WAN goes very smoothly into STFTFP. I wouldn't call it a segue but it
was surely planned. Faulty Plan is surprisingly funky tonight (or at
least funkier in 2018 than teh 2009 and 2010 versions I've heard!). Trey
is using cool effects and its pretty dark and brooding. Very nice.
Faulty Plan comes to a stop and almost-segues straight into Reba. No
stop at all! THANK YOU! I enjoyed the previous 30 minutes, but it was
all kinda a downer for the most part. Reba is performed very well (For
2018....) with the composed sections being nearly flub-free. Yay! AND,
Trey is mostly picking loud enough to hear (though still not as loud as
I'd prefer...).
Trey lets it RIP in the Reba solo. Page is POUNDING those keys! At the
end of the day though, as with BOAF, this is just a "very good, worth
hearing Reba". Nothing more, nothing less. Not incredible, no flubs
within. Pure middle-of-the-road. But sometimes that's ok. If there's
anyone that can make middle of the road enjoyable its Phish 
And then...WOMBAT!
WOW! This little critter gets OUT THERE! It's only 11 minutes, but it
feels like 20 glorious Type II 1999 minutes instead! Just...outer space
funk of the highest order. I'd say this is the first true MUST-HEAR of
the evening
Thankfully the greatness continues into Tela. One of my favorite
Gamehendge tracks, this version reaches quite the climactic peak!
Awesome version worth seeking out!!!
Walls Of The Cave closes the set in monster fashion. Truly one of the
best tracks in the entire canon of work, imo. Hell, just the ballad
first-half is great. But then they smash us in the face with the raging,
rocking and rolling 2nd part of the song. And tonight its as powerful
as can be in 2018.
Great end to a so-so set. Some up, some must-hears, some just-ok's.... YMMV
First Set Must-hears:
The Curtain With
Waiting All Night
Wombat
Walls of the Cave
Set 2:
Crosseyed and Painless
Words can't describe. Best jam of the run so far. Easily. Takes that 24 minute Chalkdust to the curb and pulverizes it.
So, C&P was beyond mind blowing. Twist doesn't reach quite that far
but it tries its best and gets 3/4 of the way there. Definitely
must-hear, for sure!!! And that's saying something as Twist is one of my least-favorite songs
And like butter we segue into Waves, one of my favorite songs! Awesome, awesome combo! Wow! This 2nd set is absolutely phenomenal!!! Waves went into Miss You perfectly. It's my first time hearing the song and it feels like Waste 2.0 That is a VERY good thing. And this version KILLS! JUST TERRIFIC!!!
SICK
Up next is a near-flawless Fluffhead that just RAGES!!!! Freaking loving the heck out of this!
THIS FLUFFHEAD IS FREAKING INCREDIBLE!
AND THEN A WORLD DESTROYING SPLIT OPEN AND MELT!!!! CAN IT GET BETTER THAN THIS?!?!?!
A simple Wilson to close, what a freaking show!!!!!!
Ok, so, in review of The Gorge 2018
7/20 - best overall (as far as full show experience goes) in my opinion and my favorite of the 3. It's, as they say, "just right"
7/21 - Pick and choose the highlights. Great song selection and some unexpected surprises. Debut of Infinite.
7/22 - Best 2nd set of the 3 by a wide margin. Just
balls-to-the-friggin'-wall insanity. If you want to be blasted with
fire, get this set.
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