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PLEASE READ!! - Welcome to Warewolf95's "Idiot Review" archive!!

 Howdy folks! As the title says, welcome to my archive of live show reviews as I have posted on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums website! I pr...

Monday, November 15, 2021

2019-06-12 St. Louis, MO

Haven't had any time to listen for a few days, but I'm troopin' on with 2019 and 6/12, St. Louis #2

Absolutely wonderful first set. The flow is just awesome - I could play this as an album!

To refrain from my habit of listing every friggin' song, I'm REALLY trying to be ultra discriminate about what I'm considering a true highlight version.

Yes, this is nerdy overthinking in the extreme. Don't harsh my vibe, yo - I like to overthink dumb things :p

Set 1 so far:

Chalkdust Torture - very good and always welcome as opener. Not that hot though, imo and doesn't really do to much. A nice version and opener but not worthy of "remembering".

*The Moma Dance
- AWESOME version!! This one felt like it was noticeably extra hot. It had a 3 minute intro before the first vocals and this version just SLAMMED!

*Waves - Oh man, this was bee-you-tee-full!!!!! Not very lengthy but Waves standards, but Trey and Pages playing is must-hear.

Bouncing - is Bouncing. Good, but next! :)

*Undermind - Third song for the highlight list tonight. GET IT PAGE! LETS FREAKING GO! Great jam. Threatens Type II but doesnt do it.

Heavy Things - Love the song on Farmhouse, but I almost never dig it too much live. It just doesn't translate well, imo. Trey has vocal problems on this one (too high for him) and it's just a nice HT.

Roggae - Ooh, this one is ALMOST highlights list worthy. It's the little engine that could. It goes and goes and goes but just never reaches the peak it's trying to climb for. A for effort! A strong Roggae that just never totally congeals, unfortunately.

WACTOOB - AWESOME!!! WAVES PART 2!!!! Absolutely stunning interplay between the guys on this one. Type 1 mastery. Trey is just WONDERFUL and Page's watery keys add so much. Mandatory listening!!! This was some X Factor stuff. Really, REALLY great playing.

Funky B - Get it Leo!! Funky B is always Funky B. Hot but nothing special :)

Set Your Soul Free - I am a mega fan of this song. Come at me. It always rocks and I love it. I'm easy to please :p Awesome, awesome version tonight, just a pure Type I Trey Shred Fest. If you want to rock, come here. SICK.

Run Like An Antelope - Very rough beginning from Trey, but he does a valiant effort at rescuing himself. It brings itself to a raging peak as per usual - guitar destruction and all that, but overall not a special version.

On the whole - While the highlights are MAJOR in this set, the whole thing was strong as a whole and flowed great. A very, very strong first set, imo!!!  

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Watching the webcast night for set 2, picking up where I left off last night.

The Gloria>Loving Cup to open is such a weird combo (though so blatantly Phishy :p ).

Wasn't there a Hockey tie-in with Gloria or something? I don't follow sports but remember something about this.

Loving Cup is SICK! Don't think I've ever heard a Loving Cup go into full-blown Type II Ambient Funk Land!!!!


Twist - HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER!!! I'm not a giant Twist fan so, for some reason, I wasn't expecting much. After a few minutes of "basic chill Twist fun", I thought the ride was over. Nope! Chuck Testa!! The guys take this sucker for a RIDE!!! It doesn't get overly wacky with effects or anything (though there are some here and there), but the guys are jamming TOGETHER and hit upon several different motif sections. Also, CK5 is hands down the 5th member of the band - he was following along flawlessly, picking up on patterns and themes being played, timing light accents and bursts and rhythms right to the music. Perfection. This wasn't an all-timer, but it was DAMN IMPRESSIVE!!!!! For 14 minutes, it felt like a 25 min ride. Sensational.

About to Run - Debut performance, this one is hot but nothing special. Great for a debut though! So glad to have caught this in Charleston. I remember it tore the roof off! Trey is doing his best "Nasty Stevie Ray Vaughan" facial expressions while trying to snap his strings :D So much fun to watch, lol

Mr. Completely - First one in 2 years since the Baker's Dozen. Another song I wasn't expecting but am SO glad to have caught live. The song portion of this one isn't as coked up as some other ones seem, and RIGHT away they waste no time jumping into the jam. This one starts off dark and melancholic - think Scents and Subtle Sounds territory. Spooky dark funk. Oh yea, baby!!! Trey is holding back a bit in one part and Gordo is seen ripping it up. Also, I swear there's a smile creaking through that he refuses to let the camera see. :) Eventually the watery synths give way to some piano-ish stuff and Trey joins in the jam. Slowly he works his way in, finding his place. Introducing some major key figures, Cactus head bobs away to this new zone Trey has lead us into. I swear, Mike is REALLY into this one!!! Things stay major key now and slowly the band hits upon a repeating motif that they build upon. How did we get here? I have no friggin' idea but this is cool as heck. They took a dark horse and flipped it on its head. Trey and Page start playing together and Fishman introduces some different patterns leading us again in another direction. From here the bliss starts to build, I guess. It's like the raging hurricane has passed and our little vessel has reached calmer waters now, the waves gently batting against the sides of our ship as we gaze into a glorious sunset on the horizon. All is well, all will be well. Hell yea. For 11 minutes and change, this sucker covers so much ground. It also puts the previous Twist to shame. Eventually Fishman reintroduces the opening drum beat and the guys actually segue back into the song proper, lyrics and all. Freaking awesome, yo. WOW! I'll stop talking now - GO LISTEN TO IT! NOW!! :)


Light - Light indeed!!! Talk about perfect segue and set placement! Immediately the jam begins in a very, very soft manner. Dynamics and stuff, yo. This is smooth. Trey starts messing with delay and Page picks up on it, trying to follow along. Very, very cool playing from Page on this. Trey then puts the delay away and starts on some bluesy licks. Mike picks up on what Trey is doing and starts to follow his pattern. Now we are off to the races! Things have quieted back down now into a slightly darker aesthetic - purple light territory. The jam goes for a long while and its all good stuff. Eventually Trey starts playing with wacky delays and the band enter Dark Space Blackhole for about 30 second before returning to the song proper and finishing it out. The song comes to an end and segues excellently into the most perfectly placed Waste ever.


Waste
- I am a Waste superfan. It is most definitely in my 10 favorite Phish songs if you were to ask me. Bascially I'm the guy that can't fathom why people hate the song and don't think its the best ballad they have ever recorded. Rant over :p . Awesome Waste, album-ready version. Nothing special, it's just really, REALLY a good strong version. And that set placement out of Light...FLAWLESS! Also, the album version is in, what, C? Cuz they played it in D and I had to relearn the song on the fly. :p


Suzy Greenberg - Awesome as always. Nothing special (I mean that in the best way!). Suzy is always Suzy. Like Funky B - you know what you are gonna get and thats A-OK. Great Suzy to get the crowd pumped up again after Waste :)


Farmhouse
- The first encore is a gorgeous Farmhouse. Just beautiful, ugh. Not much to say - it's great and that's all that needs to be said.

First Tube - 'Nuff said. See Suzy. Awesome closer as usual.

All in all, a very strong show, imho. Set 1 had its OBVIOUS highlights but both sets had flow out the wazoo and set 2 was LOADED with great jamming.

A solid 4.1 or 4.2 if I was to post on .NET :p
Definitely a show worth your time and worth watching as well 

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6/12/19 St. Louis** (Set 1 is up and down but set 2 is nearly perfect. THAT FLOW!!!)
Moma Dance (3 minute intro! Extra spunky. FREAKING GREAT MOMA!)
>Waves (Short, but really beautiful. Absolutely wonderful playing from Trey and Page!!!)
Undermind (GET IT PAGE! LETS FREAKING GO! Great jam. Threatens Type II but doesnt do it.)
We Are Come to Outlive Our Brains (AWESOME!!! WAVES PART 2!!!! Absolutely stunning interplay between the guys on this one. Type 1 mastery. Trey is just WONDERFUL and Page's watery keys add so much. Mandatory listening!!!)
Set Your Soul Free (Wonderful Type I Trey Fest. FREAKING RAGER)
Gloria (WTF?! Awesome!)
>Loving Cup (NOT AN ENCORE?! Goes FULL ON MULTISECTIONAL TYPE II. WHAT. SICK.)
>Twist (BEAST! WHAT A MONSTER! Only 14 min but felt way longer. Type II rager, lots of motifs and sections. SPECTACULAR!)
Mr. Completely (Extremely awesome Type II bliss fest. Covers a lot of ground. Awesome Cactus within. MANDATORY LISTENING)
>Light (Another Type II jam fest worth the time! Goes from smooth and jazzy to deep space delay hell!)
Waste (A really, really strong normal version placed PERFECTLY out of Light)
Farmhouse (GORGEOUS!)
First Tube (EXPLODES)
 

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