Xmas Eve listening!
Onwards to Dick's 2012 (in 2 more shows 
)
Up next:
8/28/12 St. Louis
On paper, the setlist is absolutely STACKED. Song wise, it
doesn't get that much better than this. Song length-wise, most
everything is pretty short, but of course that doesn't mean much as the
.NET rating is almost a 4.5 for this show, so obviously good things were goin' down!!!! 
Set 1:
Punch You In the Eye - As always, my favorite Phish opener. Always great
to hear. Nearly flubless except for Fishman losing his place and
forgetting when to change beats at one part, but the train does not
derail and all is good. Not really noteworthy, but terrific to get as
always.
Runaway Jim - Extra mustard on this one! Gordo gets lots of time
to shine in particular! A perfect one-two punch!! The guys are firing on
all cylinders and this version brings the friggin' heat! EVERYONE
is slaying!!! Get it Trey! He's just tearing the place to shreds near
the end. Fantastic Jim!!!
Ocelot - From the opening beats you can tell this one is gonna be "extra". Love the way they just slide on into it.
Extra slow tempo today, really digging into the beats on this one.
Absolutely terrific slow-build Ocelot. Page is doing lots of tasty
vamping in the background while Trey slooowwwlllyyy takes his
time and builds the heat. Fishman and Gordo get in on the action and you
can practically hear the oven knob being turned one click hotter every
minute. A classic 1.0-style jam where they take their friggin' time and it's glorious. They are relishing in this Ocelot. DON'T SKIP ON THIS OCELOT. IT IS A+!!!!
Reba - The song portion has no screwups. Page is perfect as always but
Trey sounds rusty (though he makes it through!). Pretty great soloing as
usual. I'm ranking Page the MVP of this one though - I can honestly say
I think his playing behind Trey was almost better than what Trey was
doing. Great little Reba! It's nothing special and really not highlight-worthy, but it's still pretty good. It's just nothing special. And when "nothing special" is this, sometimes that A-ok!
I Didn't Know - Rarity and hijinks factor makes this list-worthy Fun as always with a vacuum solo as expected.
The Curtain - Awesome set placement! Believe it or not, it worked perfectly as the "pick me up" to follow IDK. 
Tons of energy, the guys sound like they are having a blast. IT CAME FROM THE BABY'S MOUTH!!!! I mean, there feels like extra oomph to this one, like they were really jonesing to play it and practiced it up. Really great version!!!
>Peaches En Regalia - A for effort. Everyone kills it except for
Trey, who, LITERALLY kills it, butchering the whole thing. Nerves? Lack
of practice? 
>Mound - Talk about a trio of tunes! Great version. Played great. Does its thing.
Sample In a Jar - Super heat! Super fire! Burnin' down the house! DESTROYS!!!
The Sloth - Is Sloth. Kills.
Camel Walk - Absolutely killer! Maybe the best thing in the set so far! FANTASTIC!!
Possum - SLAYS
Mighty Quinn - ABSOLUTELY SLAYS!
What a BALLS-TO-THE-WALL banger of a set!!!! There wasn't much
that was particularly "special", but everything was hotter than the sun
and played with so much raging energy. Killer headbanger-style set!!!
Set 2
Chalkdust Torture - Absolutely slays (word of the day!). 1.0-worthy version. BUSTS THE FREAKIN DOORS DOWN!!! STRAIGHT FIRE!!! Around
8 minutes it dissolves into some jazzy Type II ambient jamming for a
minute. Knowing the setlist, you can hear the Frankie Says coming a mile
away....
>Frankie Says - First one since 2010. Around 4 minutes, the
mood shifts and we go Type II again. A small rock vibe is building.
Think 12/6/97 kinda vibes, if that makes any sense. Funky but rocking.
Woodblock. Page using wah pedal (right?). Cactus taking a lead. Awesome as hell. And Trey sees the opportunity to lead us perfectly into...
Undermind - NOW THAT'S A SEGUE, BOYS AND GIRLS! Normally I'd
complain about that Frankie jam being nerfed, but Trey saw his perfect
transition point and took the shot...and scored! Great segue!!! Of
course this is a friggin' party and I'm sure everyone was dancing their
tales off. Page kills it with a lot of sick organ soloing. Awesome
part at 4:15 where Gordo kicks in his effects, and he Trey and Page all
sync up perfectly for the next minute. Terrific jam "moment". Cactus is absolutely KILLING
it on this!!! The song "winds down" for the final minute with some cool
repeating effects from Trey and everyone slowly shifting gears into....
>Sand - WHAT IT THE MOTHER OF HELL
WAS THAT PERFECT SEGUE! THAT WAS PLANNED! THAT WAS FRIGGIN PLANNED! YOU
DONT JUST SEGUE LIKE THAT. A+++++++++++++++++++ SEGUE!!!! And on top of
it, this Sand itself is exceptionally good. I know I say that about
everyone, but damn, is Sand ever NOT freaking great?! This one sees
exceptional funkiness from EVERYONE, with Page again maybe being the MVP
of it all. Trey is "honking" it up fantastically and Fishman is just
annihilating his kit doing his best Neil Peart "Tom Sawyer" fills all
over the place. ABSOLUTELY FILTHY AND DISGUSTING AND PEAKING FOR
AGES!!!!! JESUS EFFING CHRIST THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SAND'S EVER!!!!!!!
FULL THROTTLE TO THE HILT!!!!!!!! 100/10 Sand. DO NOT SKIP THIS SAND IT
IS THE BEES FRIGGIN KNEES!!!!
>Walk Away - After
they return to the Sand theme, Trey signals them quickly and the boys
are obviously listening as they launch right into WA without any
hesitation at all. And it kills as you would expect.
Limb By Limb - Terrifically
awesome. Magical! Around 5:30 the jam proper begins and we get some
darkness creeping in and out of the music. The boys can't decide whether
to commit or not and toe the line between Type I and II for a while.
Page is doing lovely things on the piano, but Trey is blasting that wah.
Fishman is messing around, dropping in and out (lots of cymbal
washing). The jam comes to a transition at 7 minutes when Trey
introduces a Hendrix-esqu motif and the boys start riffing on it. A
jazzily-uptempo kind of funky jam emerges. Everyone is "vamping" kinda
trying to figure out where they want to go. Around 8 minutes things seem
to coalesce better and Trey goes for some proper leads. This leads to a
couple minutes of THE HOTTEST
FRIGGIN ROCK AND ROLL PEAKING THIS SIDE OF 12/6/97!!!! ROCK AND ROLL
EXPLOSION!! HOLY FREAKING CRAP EVERYONE IS DESTROYING WORLDS!!! MY FACE
IS MORE MELTED THAN PIZZA THE HUT'S!!!!!
>Julius - Red
hot. Has a great relaxed vibe like Ocelot did. Extra "jazzy" tonight, I
guess. Or something like that. Rages hard. Cool outro with another, I'm
assuming, planned segue into...
>2001 - RAGES! LETS GO! LETS PARTY!
You Enjoy Myself - Well,
damn, talk about a way to cap off a set!! The composed section is
performed top notch, with gusto! Terrific reading of the song itself. Running
out of things to say, the first 15 minutes of this is A++++++ You Enjoy
Myself in every way. The playing, the energy, the BASS SOLOING! IT'S
TERRIFIC! EVEN THE VOCAL JAM IS FUN!!!
Shine a Light - One of my least favorite covers. It's great, but pretend the show ended perfectly with YEM.
All in
all, this show is definitely worth the 4.475 rating on .NET!!!! I don't
know what they did differently tonight, but they were just slaying on
another level. UIC 2011 vibes as far as that stuff goes. That kinda
level! INCREDIBLY KICK ASS SHOW. Definitely in the top 7 or 8 of the
year so far, I'd say!
Holy hell doesn't begin to describe it!
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