It's Christmas morning, so onwards to my 2nd show ever...
12/7/19 Charleston
Some quick thoughts: In person I was exhausted (though of course
excited!!) for night 2. Night 1 was absolutely insane. I've replayed
large portions of this though and have to say, in person and upon
replay, night 1 felt like one of those nights where things
were just on a slightly different level, whereas 12/7 felt like "a
really freaking good show" and nothing more, does that make any sense at
all? 
Also, I scored the setlist jackpot again for night 2 with a Fluffhead
opener that BLEW MY MIND (WHITE LIGHT!!!!!!), a freaking Reba (one of my
earliest Phish conversion songs based on that 12/31/95 masterpiece) and
a damn Guyuute all in the first set. What. I'm not trying to boast but
it was pretty freaking awesome!! And then of course the zany second
set.... 
Anyways, here we go:
Set 1:
Fluffhead - Everybody needs a Fluffhead opener in their lives. My
jaw hit the damn floor when it began and I could not possibly believe
what was happenning in front of me. It was like the gates of heaven
opened up or something. I couldn't believe I got Fluffhead, let alone as
a dang opener!!! Gun to head, this is probably my favorite Phis song
besides Punch You In The Eye and was absolutely on my want-to-hear list.
And on top of that it's a damn fine Fluffhead with almost no flubs and
lots of energy! The entire crowd singing along was amazing and I had
chills down my arms the whole time. Also, as mentioned above, WHITE LIGHT! SO MUCH WHITE LIGHT! Night
1 was great with the lights, but I vividly recall the lights on night 2
being noticeably more memorable. All of my light-based memories of
these shows are from night 2, lol. Anyway, outstanding way to kick off a
show!
Everybody needs to jump up and down screaming
"FLUFFFFHHHEEEAAADDDD!!!!" at least once in their lives. The feeling
cannot be matched.
Ocelot - One of my favorites. I wasn't dying to hear it but was
thrilled when it came on! Loved singing along to this sucker. A great
set choice after that exploding Fluffhead. Trey absolutely annihilates
this sucker, turning in some red hot soloing reminiscent of early 3.0
renditions. He just kills his axe on this sucker. Awesome Ocelot!!!!
Nellie Kane - Is Nellie Kane. I remember being stoked I got a bluegrass tune, lol, but also NK is just NK. Very fine though.
The Dogs - I wasn't familiar with this at the time but remember it
rocked. It doesn't really do anything upon relisten and kinda just kills
a few minutes.
Reba - Now, along with Fluff and Divided Sky, this was among my
white whale songs. 12/31/95 Reba was a major conversion track for me.
The first time I heard that (first Reba I ever heard...) blew my mind.
And then this sucker comes outta nowhere! I was screaming and singing along like a demented lunatic - I couldn't believe I got a friggin' Reba. Now the big question - WILL TREY BUTCHER IT?! I
was really hoping not but had already accepted the chances for failure
were high so I was just gonna enjoy it and love whatever they gave me.
As for the composed section, it starts very rough for Trey but he kinda
pulls it together. He fakes his way through it good enough - I've
definitely heard worse, and again, it sounded better in person, LOL.
Totally gorgeous as usual solo that just elevated the room to the
heavens. I was dying inside in the absolute best way.
Halfway to the Moon - I wasn't ultra familiar with Fuego at that
point and remember having to jump on my phone to look up what song this
was, lol. This sucker SMOKES!!!! Trey goes ballistic and murders the soloing!!! Fantastic! Red hot!!!
Train Song - Is Train Song but great to hear!
Guyuute - YES! ANOTHER FAVORITE! I couldn't believe it - I was
hitting that jackpot with the setlist tonight, holy hell. I love Guyuute
and didn't realize it's kinda a rarity at this point too, so yay! And
they nail it! Reba this was not! KILLER!!!
Strange Design - At the time I wasn't too familiar with the song
but these days its a major favorite of mine and I can't believe I got
it. A pretty big rarity, only the 15th version since 3.0 started and the
2nd since 2016. Awesome. And it's wonderful. Get it Page!
Moonage Daydream - And ANOTHER rarity to end the set!!! I would
never purposefully want this but once it started I knew what it was and
freaked out. Killer. Just killer.
A fantastic set all the way around. Listening back it's hard to choose if I prefer 12/6 or 12/7's first set. Both were amazing.
Set 2
The Connection - UBER Rarity! First time played since 2015, only, I think, 4th time ever?!?! Gotta say, this was the aboslute WORST
set opener ever! I love the song but holy hell this is a cool down
song, not something to blast the gates open with! At the time it was the
furthest song from my mind. Points for bustout status, but c'mon, was
ANYBODY asking for this (and in this set placement?!). Beggars cant be
choosers 
In
hindsight this is great and deserves to be played often, maybe in the
Number Line spot. But in person this was HORRIBLE to open the set.
Mr. Completely - NOW HERE WE FREAKING GO!!!! Fishman starts playing too slow and Trey has to guide him up to tempo. In
person, I knew this song and again knew it to be a quasi-rarity and was
stoked to hear it. It's one of the best rockers Trey has ever written,
imo, and I was stoked to get to headbang to it!
Unlike Scents from 12/6, this thing takes a few minutes to find a
direction for everyone to latch onto. For the first 10 minutes or so
things seem kinda weak - the guys (read: Trey) don't seem to know what
to do. They are aimlessly floating in the funk. Finally though some cool
sounds come in, with Page especially going bonkers on the keys with
some effects Devo would be proud of. Trey lays back and lets him just
rip. Very cool. Around 14 minutes some airy ambient soundscapes that
sound dark and menacing creep in, replacing the funk. Fishman keeps the
beat spastic and uptempo, but Page is just dousing us with air.
Unfortunately Trey totally ripcords us back into MC proper,
reintroducing the theme and the guys following suit. He killed the jam
(that wasn't really going anywhere) but the return to the song was
excellent. A for effort but nothing really happenned! This is a big letdown upon relistening. If it wasn't for the length I wouldn't put this on the list.
Crosseyed and Painless - Oh man and they freaking JUMPED into this one! I've never experienced anything like this before - the
entire crowd EXPLODED in one mass the second the song began. I thought
the building had been nuked. The energy was out of this world. You had
to be there. This was freaking AWESOME at the time. Loved hearing Fishman sing. I can't describe how much FUN this was. This was a freaking BLAST!!!!! STILL WAITING!!!! Now
this sucker does what Mr. Completely should've done. It's like they
wanted to re-do that or something. Around 7 minutes Gordo picks up the
slack and Trey lays back. Page syncs up with Gordo and the band bring
the tempo down to a silent standstill. The drums stop and the guys begin
a slow-chant still waiting back up to tempo from a whisper! INCREDIBLY cool!!!!
Very weird and definitely full on Type II. This turns into some
ambience for a bit with the guys sounding like they might launch into
Piper. Trey starts some angular Zappa-soloing over this mangled mess of
noise. Page brings in the THX synthesizer while Fish keeps the rhythm
going underneath. GRAB YOUR SPACE SUIT BOYS AND GIRLS!!! MY FIRST DEEPS SPACE AT MY 2nd SHOW!! YES!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!! Upon
playback now it is pretty disjointed, but Trey throwing in the Little
Drummer Boy was SICK. I remember standing there going "IS HE REALLY
DOING THAT?!". It was so unexpected and funny and awesome. Really,
really incredible. The guys pick up on it and literally jam The Little
Drummer Boy. What. This is what X Factor dreams are made of. Then in one fell swoop Trey takes in minor key and we get unholy-pray-for-me-lord-im-burning-in-hell-Satanic-Drummer-Beast for an unsettling minute of ridiculousness. I mean, this is jaw on the floor material - picture being there for it...
Dirt - Just when I thought I was going to need an exorcism, we
drop perfectly into my favorite Phish ballad besides Waste. I wanted
Waste, but this was definitely my number 2!!! Dirt is one of my favorite
Phish songs and this is just wonderful. Trey whistling Little Drummer
Boy over the intro, lol. Perfect set placement!!! This was incredible
and you can hear the crowd lap it up. Beautiful piano and guitar and a
bass solo. It's Dirt. You get what you expect and it's great.
Cool Amber and Mercury - At the time this was one of the KV songs
I needed to become more acquainted with. I didn't recognize it at first
and had to wait for the chorus for it to click with me. "FACEPLANT INTO ROKK" This
sucker got it going. I remember dancing my tail off with a drunk girl
in front of me, lol. I was respectful but she kept bumping into me,
lmao.
This is an excellent Type I excursion with the guys just soaking it all
in and letting the music flow. Wonderful version. It gets very dark and
nasty like a spunked up DWD towards the end. Gordo is really grooving
HARD on this one.
Split Open and Melt - Again, stoked to get this. Awesome. The
song itself isn't anything special unfortunately. We are here for the
jam. The dark, nasty, outer space, satan's-hell-hole jam. Again
unfortunately - and I remember this in person as it happenned - the jam literally WHOOSH descended with zero journey. We went from Song>>>Hell with no journey of getting us there. It
was like they literally yanked the rug out from under us and it was
NASTY in a BAD way. I actually had a disgusted look on my face at how
awful it was. Like, what?! And you guys know how easy I am to please so
that's saying something!!! A+ for effort but C+ for execution on that
total lack of transition into the jam....Around 4:30 Trey begins
some dark playing and the other guys follow suit. Page keeps the piano
going and Fish keeps the beat, but the guys sound lost for how to "move"
this thing forwards. It's incredibly unsettling music. Very demented.
About 6:30 the drums completely stop and Page (or is that someone on the
Lumina?) gives us terrifying sound effects that scare the hell out of
us. I remember the crowd was standing still at this point - how can you
dance to this hell-scape from Mars?! You want out-there Type II
ambient insanity?! This will give you that and more. What even is this.
This is atonal abstraction of the terrifying variety. Halloween was 2
months ago - gtfo with that nonsense! So,
the song and the transition were not great but this is one of the jams
of the year for pure willingness to jump head first into the lava pit,
eh? I mean, what even is this?! This is like some weirdo mechanical
robot dying his last breath trying to talk to us but only able to spit
out mutilated machine noise. What. I DONT KNOW IF THIS IS "GOOD", BUT IT SURE IS UNIQUE!!!! And
we still have 6 minutes to go!!!!!!!! Little Drummer Boy reprise from
Trey! I remember the menacing lighting during this and losing my GD mind
over it all. What was I witnessing. THIS IS THE DEFINITION OF "MELTDOWN". PERIOD. END OF STORY. Slowly
around 12 minutes with everyone playing with every toy on their pedal
board, Fishman starts to reintroduce the Split Open theme. Coming from
the abyss like this it takes a minute but Trey turns them instead back
into Crosseyed and Painless! A full on reprisal! The crowd loved it and
lapped it up. Talk about a release!!! STILL WAITING!!!! And then back into Melt to close out.
What do you say after that? My head was put in the proverbial crusher.....
A Life Beyond the Dream - Another unreleased song (at this point)
and one I was completely unaware of. I maybe heard the GOTF version
once or twice months before but that's it. I didn't know this at all but
it hit me hard. After that insane meltdown bonanza, this was literally
the perfect choice to get. We go from thinking we are all going to die
in this auditory slaughter to realizing everything is wonderful and we
are going to be just fine. Spectacular. And that chorus...oh man that
just nailed me at the time. Fantastic....
Wilson - Is Wilson. Was amazing to get to scream "WILSON!" at the top of my lungs Was a great pickup after Dream.
The Squirming Coil - Again, couldn't believe my setlist luck getting
this too. Wow. It's ok! And that's fine. Like Wilson, It's just a good
little Coil that does what you expect. That ending piano though...that
is some sacred and holy stuff - getting a Page solo out of Coil, I mean.
Check another thing off my list!!! I will ALWAYS love that... Awesome end to the set proper....
Grind - Is Grind, but bonus points for only being the 27th version of all time
Frankenstein - Now THIS sucker right here just killed! First one
since the Baker's Dozen! A proper bustout again! AND HE BUSTED OUT THE
KEYTAR! HECK YES!!! KILLER!!
All in all, this was a very different feeling show from night 1.
12/6 felt like it just flowed regardless of how good the performances
were. This felt much more like a "we are trying hard on purpose" kind of
show that didn't 100 percent succeed but tried it's damnedest.
Fluffhead
Crosseyed
Melt>hell meltdown
Get those now!
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