2019-11-29 Providence, RI

 2019-11-29 Providence

Set 1

First Tube - Surprise opener! Absolutely KILLED and felt a little more "extra" than usual. Terrific opener.

The Final Hurrah - Wonderfully tight and funky version with so much groove. Moma Dance has some new competition. Very dynamic playing from the guys with some great interplay between Page and Trey while Mike slips in some bombs in-between. A+ FACEPLANT INTO ROKK!!!

NICU - Pretty fun version. Can anybody tell me why the crowd was going wild/what everyone was cracking up about? The crowd is NUTS on this sucker! Overall it probably isn't list-worthy but it's still a very fine NICU with some raging Page on it.

Steam - Pretty dang red hot!! Trey brings the HEAT and this sucker cooks!!!!

>Scent of a Mule - Is Scent of a Mule

Bye Bye Foot - Bustout!! But nothing really to say about it besides that. Great to hear though

No Men In No Man's Land - Pretty hot but not very lengthy. A strong type I rager, but not list-worthy. Still, good stuff!

Gumbo - Felt rather disappointing. It was 5 minutes but seemed to be over before it began and it didn't feel like much of note even happenned. It was gone before it began. Disappointing!!!

My Soul - Absolutely ripping!!! Killer!!!!

Maybe - Page debut. Pretty nice, I can see this having potential, but this isn't really anything super special. Always great to have a Page showcase though!

Sand - Return of the MicroJam! Ok, this doesn't completely get "out there", but we go to some lovely, blissful places, turning the darkness into light. Not the most incredible Sand but a nice little jam sequence in a pretty jam-barren set.

Fire - FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!! RED HOT BABY!!!!! YES!!!!! LET IT RIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Set 1 was a tiny bit of a slog. Not too much jamming (which is fine!) but it felt a little long. Several songs were top-tier renditions, some weren't great (Gumbo), and others were just ok, neither poor nor amazing. A fine opening set that was hot in the right places without totally melting our faces. B+  

 

Set 2

46 Days - This sucker spits and snarls and delivers some of that 2003-esque darkness. Heavy and groovy, grinding yet elegantly smashing. Trey absolutely murders his axe. RIP Languedoc!!! What a way to kick open a set!!! Not very long but absolutely top level.

>Back On the Train - Exactly as with 46 Days, this doesn't last very long, but the jamming is top notch. Totally beautiful vibe created on this one. Very relaxed and breezy like an uptempo Bird Song. Just beautiful!!!! Fantastic!!! Short but OH SO SWEET!!!

>Plasma - And the Plasma sandwich begins!!! This main portion is 14 minutes of extremely funky Type II goodness. VERY gooey and danceable. Synths-abound!! This slowly turns to a more upbeat vibe for a good while. Pretty dang hot jamming! The guys are killing it! Very feel good! This could easily go into Party Time or Undermind.

>Farmhouse - This version is so stupidly dynamic and beautiful. It really, really is a tearjerker rendition. Oh my goodness this is so friggin' sweet.....ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING 10/10 A+ FARMHOUSE. IF EVERY FARMHOUSE WAS THIS INCREDIBLE NOBODY WOULD EVER COMPLAIN ABOUT IT.

>Light - Slowly they drift into Light, not bashing down the door but rather gently knocking on it. They did this at another recent show and I thought it worked great. I've never been a fan of them just bursting into the song (it never seems to work!). Easing into it like this feels much better, especially doing so gradually out of this Farmhouse. A+ for the flow, guys! This version is primo suprimo!!! It only has a 10 minute run time, but they QUICKLY go Type II and make damn good use of their time, covering every sound you can imagine in that time frame. How the hell they just condensed a show's worth of jamming into 10 minutes is beyond me. Overkill in the best way!

>PLASMA REPRISE #1 - Exactly as it says. The jam morphs seamlessly back into Plasma to end the jam. It's only a minute, but its pretty dang unexpected and cool. Also, the guys use it as a minute of dark space ambience before launching into....

>Birds Of a Feather - Red hot and rages big. Nothing to say that you haven't heard before.

Joy - RETURN OF THE SON OF MACHINE GUN TREY!!! Dang!!!!

Simple - Pretty short and nothing special (though of course its still highly enjoyable!!). Keep your ears peeled for the Manteca tease!

>Set Your Soul Free - So that Simple wasn't anything worth mentioning, but it did manage to facilitate a terrific segue into SYSF!! Talk about SMOOTH transitions!!! At first, the song portion isn't particularly strong. The guys have problems deciding on a tempo and locking in. But once the jamming begins, it's straight down the funky, dark Type II abyss once more!! After a solid 5 or 6 minutes of excellent jamming we are given another Plasma Reprise....

>Plasma Reprise #2 - ....which brings the sandwich to a proper close!!!! Didn't expect that. Awesome stuff!

Walk Away - Seguefest over, we start from scratch with possibly my favorite Phish cover tune. The song itself is ever so slightly rusty, but that can be excused for the rarity of it. As always, it sounds like the guys are having an absolute blast and they rock the joint HARD with this sucker. AWESOME AS ALWAYS!

Meatstick - Not what I would've picked at this point and it feels slightly awkward. Fun as ever but maybe not the best placement?? Look, it's Meatstick. You get what you expect. It's a fine version but nothing special.

Sleep - Very nice. Nothing else to say!

Driver - Great to hear as well.

Bug - Closing the show with 3 ballads in a row, it worked better than it looks on paper! Perhaps this was influenced by Trey's acoustic gigs? It's a surprisingly nice change. I wouldn't want it at every show but worked great in the flow of this one! The perfect come-down sequence to send us gently on our way. Wonderful!


All in all, this show was a very good mixed bag. A great start to the tour! The second set Plasma Sandwich sequence is all high quality and worth grabbing. The 3.4 on .NET is too low. IMO this deserves probably a strong 3.8 to 4.0. Not a perfect gig, but one in which they take a number of chances that pretty much all pay off, do some interesting things with the setlist, and overall just have a damn fun time. Great vibe and flow on this one. Not a classic but very strong B+ kind of gig! Seek out the highlights probably but considering that's half the show, you might as well just listen to the whole thing anyways



>Plasma Reprise #2 - The first time was enough. You get the gist, lol.