8/17/12 San Francisco, CA
Awesome looking setlist and woah - what is that sandwich in set two?!
Nice. High hopes for this gig after the unbelievable 2nd set of two
nights prior. 
Set 1
AC/DC Bag - Great sprightly tempo on this one. No dragging
tonight! Great part about 4 minutes in where Fishman alters the drumming
a bit and starts playing around with different feels. It feels like a
good jumping-off point to go into a jam, but alas it is not to be.
Either way, terrific raging Bag to open the show with a bang!!! This one
has extra mustard!!!
The Moma Dance - And with a "1!, 2!...." we are off! And this sucker is sick.
Hell, the opening jam lasts almost 3 whole minutes before the vocals
begin! As with Bag, there is extra noticeable energy/enthusiasm/whatever
tonight. It's the vibe, dudes. I know every Moma is hot, but this one is next level heat. This is SICK!!! MOMA OF THE YEAR?! HOLY CRAP THEY DESTROY THIS!!!
Possum - Triggered by Page doing his keyboard motif, the guys take their time getting into the song and then hit it hard. ABSOLUTELY 10/10 MELTING THE SUN SCORCHER! NUFF SAID!
Corinna - And the hits keep comin'!!! Absolutely perfect choice
as a cool-down after the opening trio of fire. Check out Page's
beautiful keys that just float along like water on this lazy river of
joy. This is fantastic. Too bad its only 5 minutes. 
Sand - AWESOME!!! Totally unexpected to get it smack in the
middle of the first set. That's 2012 for ya! Ambient interludes and
setlist shakeups! As with Bag and Moma, this sucker just has that
extra "oomph" to it tonight. It doesn't matter that it's not a 20 minute
beast - what's here is prime rib, baby! Just extra X Sauce all over
everything!!!!! FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!! HOLY CRAP THIS WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!
Halley's Comet - Great energy and great version but no jam or anything,
so literally nothing really to raise it above the usual level of
awesomeness.
>Funky B - Another count off. HOLY FREAKING CRAP THIS IS
INCREDIBLE!! EVEN THE CROWD IS CHEERING AUDIBLY THROUGHOUT THE SONG!
EVERYONE IS JUST PLAYING NEXT LEVEL AND THE ROOF IS BLOWN OFF THE
BUILDING!! DANG!!! SEE SAND.
Sample In a Jar - See Halley's Comet - A fine version that just doesn't
do anything extraordinary. You get what you expect and what you get is a
typically-strong 2012-vintage Sample. Good stuff but not list-worthy.
Roses are Free - The absolute smashing intensity of Bag, Sand and Moma returns. A terrific version that even threatens
full on Type II for an entire beautiful minute long jam that ends like
the worst case of blue balls your girlfriend ever gave you.
SCREW YOU, TREY! NOBODY WANTED YOU TO STOP THAT JAM. WHAT THE EFF IS WRONG WITH YOU.
>My Friend My Friend - What a
freaking shame this is that they killed that jam. Go listen to that
right now. No its not 1998, but in 1998 that one minute ABSOLUTELY
would've been a launchpad for something amazing. That was beyond
stupid!!!!! Don't care how good this MyFe is, nothing can make up for
the atrocity that was that ripcord.
Slave to the Traffic Light - Is Slave. Is great. Wonderful to get as a first set closer instead of a late 2nd-set slog fest.
All in all, a pretty damn-near
spectacular 10/10 first set up through Roses!!!! Really, truly, this is
one of the best SETS of the year (that is the theme for summer 2012.
Great SETS.) BUT HOLY FREAKING MOLY THAT
RIPCORD ON ROSES WAS ONE OF THE MOST UNFORGIVABLE ACTS OF AURAL SABOTAGE
THESE EARS HAVE EVER HEARD. YOU MUST GO LISTEN TO IT TO HEAR HOW AWFUL IT IS!!!!!!!
But other than that, yea the set freaking KILLED with a capital K!!! HOLY CRAP!!!
Set 2
Down With Disease - Oh yea, here we go baby!!! 2022 Phish can only dream to rock one out this hard!
The jam rocks along hard as usual until around 6:30 we start to get
hints that this might head in a different direction than usual. Things
get very blissful-yet-rocking. Lots of piano vamping, drum smashing and
major key soloing all around. Then Page jumps on the organ and it starts
to build a little bit more. At about 8 minutes Trey starts some
stoccato picking and everyone locks into a new groove. IT'S ON! Oh
yea, you know we are going for some kind of ride now. Things slowly
climb down from the Peaks Of Bliss upon which we formerly stood. Trey
starts some funky rhythm playing and the guys adjust accordingly. At 9
minutes Gordo (or is that Page?) comes in with that synth bombing. Heck
yea!!! Cactus on the FX tonight! Page picks up on that and rides along
with him on his own keys. But Gordo takes the reigns back and just freaking lets it rip on the funky 4 string, yo!!!!!!!!!! Phil would be proud! Around
11 minutes Trey hits upon a repeating motif - Gordo picks up on and
tries to play along for a bit. Then Fishman switches the rhythm up and
everyone locks into some new weird - and spastic - vibe. Trey is laying
back in this and the whole band is really building the jam together! Love
it!!! Things start to mellow out, heading towards blissful ambience.
The drums drop out in favor of tom hits and cymbal splashes. Everyone is
still playing together like this is a song. This is freaking
awesome!!!! This is really beautiful music! It's not full on ambient -
it's this weird "middle ground" of blissful type material. Feels like
we are flying in the sky or something. Very uplifting!!! At 14
minutes the intensity starts to rebuild and Gordo drops some more Synth
Bombs. But this only lasts for a moment before Trey jumps in with some
1999-style sustained notes and we head for the foggy ambience. Things
are still major key, but there is a brooding darkness just beneath the
surface. Page does some trills on the keys and Trey picks up on this,
leading to a cool bit that sounds like birds chirping or something!!! At
15:30 Trey hits a dark power chord and the mood shifts INSTANTLY. Unfortunately the guys don't know what to do I guess and Trey leads us out of the jam from here. THIS WAS AWESOME!!!! DONT SKIP! QUICKEST 16 MINUTES OF MUSIC IVE HEARD!!!!!!
>Birds of a Feather - Another count off and we off to the
races!!! Great choice to get the feet tapping again after Disease slowly
drifted into the ether. This sucker is short but WOAH BABY TALK
ABOUT FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE!! It's exactly what you expect and then some.
Absolute Machine Gun Trey and exploding band. Holy crap.
>Tweezer - Ok, I guess we are doing Tweezer next! This
Tweezer is really awesome. It's less "sectional" than Disease was. It's
just one big, gooey miasma of funky fun. Really fantastic! The final 5
mintues dissolve into pure 1.0-style Type II insanity. Loops, whale
sirens, bass solos, oddball weirdness, darkness.....MUST HEAR! THIS
TWEEZER IS INSANE!
>Twist - Another short Twist, who cares when it is played/jammed this great! Absolutely CRUSHING Type I raging on this. DANG TREY!!!!
Wading In the Velvet Sea - I'll allow it. Great spot for it as a cool down. Great as always but Velvet Sea is Velvet Sea.
Chalkdust Torture - See AC/DC Bag or Moma Dance
Joy - Beautiful! But nothing too special really. See Halley
Run Like an Antelope - See Joy. Great but nothing special.
Shine a Light - NOW THIS IS FANTASTIC!!! The Stones would be proud!!!!
First Tube - See Halley's, Joy, etc
All in all, set two is absolutely must-hear from start through
Twist. After that everything settles into a "we've blown our load so
we're just gonna play some songs - very well though!!!" kind of set of
tunes. Nothing too memorable post-Twist other than perhaps Shine a
Light. That's ok though because the peaks of this show and set were
MASSIVE!!!!
Definitely one of the best shows of the year so far, even by the
standards set by some other gigs. Probably top 4 or so of the gigs
played so far. I really, really thought this show KILLED!!! Nothing was
less than "GREAT". Even the "unmemorable" renditions were still
completely excellent and energized versions of said tunes.
Enough already - THIS SHOW FREAKING KILLS GO PLAY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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