2012-06-15 Atlantic City, NJ

 6/15/12 Atlantic City

Set 1

The Sloth - Wow! Talk about a punch to the face out of the gate! Can't remember ever hearing this as an opener and they absolutely kill it!!! So much energy!! KILLER!!! AWESOME OPENER!!!

My Sweet One - Absolutely RIPPING. GET IT LEO!!! Holy crap.

46 Days - Absolutely rips, hisses, snarls and bites. It's 46 Days and you get exactly what you expect. Fantastic little version.

Camel Walk - Oh man, absolutely perfect out of 46 Days. Nice and TIGHT, yet still slinky and loose. Oh man, if I was there I know I woulda been absolutely grooving....

Tube - Let's get it boys!!!! Yes! Let's go!! Fantastic funky workout as expected. Some incredibly cool playing from all. Awesome, awesome, AWESOME! A+ Tube. Cool stuff from Trey doing some pitch shifting.

Cities - Man oh man, a CW>Tube>Cities trio?! PERFECT! This one is slower than usual and really grooves hard. Mike is just digging right in. This is totally like a late-night kind of Cities. Trey gives some terrifically bluesy soloing near the end. Pretty unique for a 2012 Cities, if I must say! Great stuff!

>It's Ice - WHAT WAS THAT SEGUE!?!?!?! HOLY CRAP YOU HAVE TO HEAR THAT!!!! Literally one second Trey is soloing Cities and his soloing - in a split second - launches stupendously into the opening lick of Its Ice. WHAT. It was unexpected as hell! How did he do that?! Also, they friggin' nail this sucker! Wow! I'm not used to hearing versions this strong recently, haha. Fantastic!!!

Ginseng Sullivan - Ok, Ginseng is Ginseng. It's great but is it list worthy? Not on your life

Stash - Played ever so delicately by Trey, great vibe on this picking up where Cities left off. A little dynamic - whispering the song, then bellowing the "WOAH"s. It builds and builds and builds and eventually the final few minutes see the band climaxing with one of the hottest volcanic eruptions of fire this side of Krakatoa. Fantastic.

Simple - And into a standalone Simple to pick us up off the ground that we have fallen down onto!!! Ugh, the tempo and vibe are just perfect on this one. No dragging here. Dissolves quickly into Type II ambience bliss for a good minute before turning into....

The Wedge - Very nice. Nothing special but great call out of Simple and very fine as always!

Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan - Ooh, deep muddy murk-fest!!! Trey absolutely strangles his guitar - it sounds like he's trying to drown it in the black lagoon swamp!!! You have GOT to hear this!! This isn't just nasty, this is filthy. This is so filthy your mother would tell you to take a shower after listening to this. Awesome.

The Squirming Coil - Excellent as always, gorgeous outro solo as always.



All in all, an absolutely fantastic first set. Loaded with energy, a couple great segues, great set placement and jams (TUBE!!!)....Maybe not an all-time classic, but supremely enjoyable in the moment. Very strong set.

  

Set 2

My Soul - Semi-rarity (7th of 3.0 at this point) to get the second set going with a nice dance party Get it, Page! The song peaks as expected and absolutely RAGES to a fiery conclusion. Fantastic

Birds Of a Feather - Oh yes, let the heat continue!!! 15 minutes on this one! The Type I rages hard til about 6:30. Page hits upon an extended chord and instantly the mood shifts and we are heading towards Type II Bliss at a rapidly ascending rate! Things take their time to build. Eventually we reach a kind of plateau. Very 1999 ambient-yet-frantic kind of jamming emerges with Trey doing some super high repeating patterns while Fishman absolute destroys his kit in the background. Incredibly cool stuff. Eventually this evolves further into an absolutely perfect launching zone for the guys to head, perfectly, into....

>Back On The Train - WOW! Another incredible segue! The crowd absolutely eats it up. BOTT is standard Type I but keeping the energy going from Birds results in just a red-hot straight-up version that won't disappoint and certainly works in the context of this set. Freaking sweet. It hints at some great jamming in the final minute or so but stays firmly in the box. CHECK OUT GORDO TEARING IT UP!!!!

>Heavy Things - In the dying breaths of BOTT's small jam, Trey cues up his repeater and the guys launch into the tune. I love the studio recording - it's a nearly flawless piece of Phish pop rock - and live versions often leave me wanting. If the tempo is wrong it quickly feels rushed or drags - very easy to screw up. The guys absolutely nail the tempo and feel on this one and deliver a rousing rendition! A+ for Heavy Things!

>Twist - Outstanding little Twist. Ultra jazzy and latin as expected. Played so friggin' well....Jeez, the guys are just so ON tonight it's ridiculous! Vibe out the wazoo, ya dig? FREAKING HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!!!!

>Piper - WOOOH!!!!! Wow, a 12 minute Piper out of Twist....classic stuff right here! This thing rages with the white hot intensity of 1,000 suns. Phish 1.0 would be proud. Of course it's not ultra "adventurous", but c'mon, it's a 12 minute long Piper this just EXPLODES! What more do you want!? Around 9 minutes we drift into proper Type II, the band descending into dark ambience. A tiny black-hole kind of meltdown. Strange sounds abound and Trey's looper doing it's job....We have firmly drifted into outer space!

>Billy Breathes - BEST SONG PLACEMENT OF ALL TIME HOLY CRAP!!!! Right out of the murk!! FANTASTIC!!! And good lord is this a thing of beauty. I got goosebumps from this..... Dang.....A+++++ A thing of pure beauty, this was....

Sneaking Sally Through The Alley - GET IT, CACTUS! It's Sally, it's funky as hell. What's here is absolutely terrific - if this were 2018 this would've been a 20 minute monster version. They start heading into some heavy jam zone before unfortunately pulling the cord in favor of....

>David Bowie - Boo! That Sally Jam was awesome and going places!!! Oh well, at least it was actually a transition and not a ripcord. I blame Fishman. Trey nails the composed section flawlessly and the song itself sounds as good as ever. There is an awesome Stash theme reprisal from Trey that gets the crowd going nuts, haha. Then a BOAF tease too!! THEN A SIMPLE TEASE! WHAT ELSE WILL TREY DO NEXT?! Ginseng Freakin' Sullivan! This is hilarious and awesome at the same time. Also, holy crap the energy from the crowd feeding into the band and vice versa. AWESOME crowd on this show!!! Page gets in on the action with his own Stash teases as well. Great peak that goes on forever. Absolutely terrific Bowie and talk about an amazing set closer!! GOOD JOB, LADS!

First Tube - And this incredible set comes to a close with a rip roaring FT.


Holy hell, this set was a BANGER!!! This show has a 4.3 rating on .NET so I wouldn't call it underrated - that being said I've never heard anyone laud it either, so....maybe just a forgotten classic?! Incredible show with awesomeness on every front. Both sets ruled. The jamming was great and the flow was like butter. Can't leave out the crowd - they are the MVP. Can't remember the last time I heard the crowd so well on a show!!!
AWESOME!