2020-02-22 Quintana Roo, MX

 2/22/20 Quintana Roo #3

Willin - Bustout! First since the Waiting For Columbus gag on 10/31/10 Starting this, how many thought it was Velvet Sea, eh? Great choice for an opener to set the low-key party vibe with the Mexico references and a Fishman vocal. Great stuff!

Tube - After the "warmup" of Willin, we get the perfect choice for PROPER opener! Trey seems to be having guitar problems, but once those are fixed, we get an awesome 12+ minute party fest. Oh yes. Perfect beach-dancing music! Goes Type II quickly around 4 minutes. A blissful jam appears and it's off to feel-good paradise. Cool backwards delay from Trey. From here on out they pretty much just give us a strong and blissful peak-laden ride to the sky. Not the most amazing Tube ever, but a damn great way to kick off a beach party! Awesome stuff!!

Evening Song - Love the song and glad to get the 2nd version of it, but I really think they should've waited until later to play it. A slow opener, a raging tube, and then a pop-ballad in spot #3? C'mon, guys. But I digress, this is a fine version and I love the song anyways so I'll take it. Not list-worthy but good stuff.

EDIT - After this I got called in to work unexpectedly. Then got home at 7pm only to be told I need to be awake at 430 so I can be back on the job as 7 am, lol.

Point is, I will restart this tomorrow but I ain't retyping it so you get a mini review of the first 3 songs

 

Restarting my listen of 2/22/20, but I'll pick up the review where I left off

2/22/20 Quintana Roo #3

Set 1 (cntd)

Set Your Soul Free - Gonna be harsh on this because I love this song/jam vehicle so much. This is list worthy but it pretty much stays in Type I rager mode for 3/4 of it. In the last couple minutes they round the corner into some cool Type II delay jamming but nothing really comes of it and the song ends. A pretty good little taster kind of version but disappointing when you expect so much more from it

You Sexy Thing - Fantastic. I believe in miracles indeed! Exactly what the doctor ordered for a beach party!

46 Days - RED FRIGGIN HOT! Return Of The Son Of The Longest Sustained Note Ever. Gnarly guitar wrangling from Trey. Short but oh so sweet

Waste - After a couple barn burner party tracks, NOW is an appropriate spot for a cool down (do you hear me, Trey?). I love Waste. It is my favorite Phish ballad. I will take any version they want to throw at me. On the list it goes

Your Pet Cat - It's YPC. It's short. Too many samples etc. It's fun as always but....NEXT!

Tweezer>Manteca - Oh yes, bring on the Manteca! Ever since the 11/14/95 Stash with that crazy Manteca jam I have been going nuts over this ditty I'm pretty tired tonight so I won't wax poetic, but this is pretty dang sweet. 20 minutes of a raging party. Must-hear, imo!!

>Makisupa-You Sexy Thing-Policeman - Exactly as it says

>Twist - ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN OUTSTANDING!!! DO NOT SKIP!!!


All in all, 2/20/22 is still king for me, but this set had some highlights as big as anything else. The final half hour Tweezer through Twist is MANDATORY listening. A very strong set overall and on a different day I would probably be going nuts over it!

 

 Set 2

Energy - Great choice for set opener! A fun pop-rocker that's also kinda still a rarity. A tad sloppy from Trey. Immediately though we dive headfirst into Type II dark space! OUTTA NOWHERE! Not completely into the wormhole though, we go for more of a 1997 Great Went "2001" funky kind of vibe. A steady and frantic beat coupled with funky keys and some thoughtfully placed notes from Trey. Very cool. Dark but not evil. This jam is freaking awesome, but it doesn't evolve out of this, Trey instead opting to ripcord us into Soul Planet....

Soul Planet - I'll take it! I love SP - it always rocks and is dumb fun - come at me, haters! This one kicks ass! Absolutely loaded with all the ENERGY the ACTUAL song "Energy" was slightly lacking!!!! FANTASTIC!!! THIS SUCKER IS NASTY! THIS IS THE BEST TREY HAS PLAYED ALL NIGHT! THIS SP IS SHORT BUT FREAKING DESTROYS!!! DONT SKIP ON THIS!!!! THIS IS SOME X FACTOR MAGIC RIGHT HERE!!!! OUTSTANDING!!!!

Waves - One of the absolute NASTIEST jams of 2019 (look, it might as well be) gets ripcorded/segued into Waves. Ok, Fishman dropped the ball on that transition - I'll concede that. FINALLY the MicroJam is laid to rest and we get a lengthy (damn near 20 minutes!!!) Waves that is all kinds of awesome. Around 7 minutes the Type I slowly dissolves into some more DARK Type II. Well, not really, but things definitely get a hell of a lot more interesting in a "turn the lights down low" kind of way. Fantastically dynamic playing from all at this point. This continues for a wonderful 6 or 7 minutes. Lots of spastic drumming and gnarly Trey, including full-blown Birds Of a Feather teases (how did .NET miss that?!). Around 13:30 things turn another corner and start to slightly cool down a little bit. Page, Mike and Trey all latch onto a descending pattern and ride the same thing together. Very cool. This slowly morphs yet again into a slow-building ascending pattern for a good long while. A very long peak takes its time to build, Trey layering delays on top of each other. THIS IS FRIGGIN PURE X FACTOR MAGIC RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT SKIP!!!! He leaves all the delays repeating and then starts a reprise of the "Ocean is Love" from Soul Planet bringing this duo full circle. Keep in mind at this point we are still in Multi-Delay-Layer-Hell This is one of the FRIGGIN COOLEST JAMS IVE HEARD OUTTA 2019!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!! This slowly returns to more calm and jazzy waters paving that way for....

>Carini - AND INTO CARINI WE FRIGGIN GO!!!! CARINI HAD A MOTHERFRIGGIN LUMPY HEAD YO!!!! THIS THING IS A GNARLY X FACTOR BEAST! HEAVY AND FACE MELTING AND SOUL DESTROYING!!! FREAKING SPECTACULAR!!! 1.0 WORTHY!!! DO NOT SKIP!!! GUITAR HISTRIONICS! OUTER SPACE SYNTHESIZERS! 1999-TYPE WEIRDO AMBIENT FUNK! 13 MINUTES OF PURE FRIGGIN MAGIC!!!!! MUST-HEAR!!!





I NEED A BREATHER. SOMEBODY GIVE ME SOME OXYGEN. HOLY FREAKING CRAP.

Ok, I haven't calmed down, but let's keep this freak train moving!!!





>Chalkdust Torture - Great choice, thank Icculus!! None of this ballad jibberjabber! Give us the heat! And right away we return to Carini Freak Zone with Page and Trey both going nuts simultaneously. This is total 1995 Chalkdust peak freakout meltdown territory. HOT AS THE CLIFFORD BALL YO!!! WOWZERS!! Towards the end things start getting funky and the reggae starts to sink in, leading us to...

Have Mercy - EVEN THIS IS JAMMED OUT WTF!? THIS IS SICK!!!

Holy freaking crap - 54 minutes of X Factor Magic. Do NOT skip Soul Planet through Have Mercy! That is next-level stuff!!!!

A Life Beyond the Dream - Ugh, just disgustingly beautiful. Guys I'm so spent right now they could crap on a plate and I'd lap it up.

>Harry Hood - The composed section is pretty weak, but they quickly shift into Type II eskewing your typical Hood stylings for some awesome funk workouts. After about 6 or 7 minutes of primo jamming they introduce the "You Can Feel Good" theme, but in a gnarly and spastic, energy explosion, Chalkdust Torture, fire from hell type of way! This is one of the HOTTEST Hoods I've ever heard! This thing is DEMENTED!! HOLY CRAP!!!

Sweet Jane - SPECTACULAR! TALK ABOUT A PERFECT CHOICE AND IT IS FREAKING GREAT OMG I CANT SAY MORE KILL ME NOW

Tweeprise - Who cares?!



All in all, I had some small doubts but set 1 ended up blowing me away. Set 2 absolutely DESTROYED me! This is MUST-HEAR show! I wouldn't hesitate to give this a 4.4 or 4.5 on .NET! FREAKING GO LISTEN TO THIS NOW HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Ok, to overanalyze and sum it up, lol:

Mexico 2020 (so far)

2/20 - Incredible show. Absolutely underrated. 2/22 might officially, imo, be "stronger", but this is terrific all around listening experience, does that make sense? Also, overall I prefer the songs played at this gig for the most part YMMV

2/21 - The 2001 and the Piper are probably the 2nd set highlights, but the majority of the first set is a tour de force: That whole Shafty/Plasma deal and the incredible Bathtub Gin...a much more mixed bag show for me but one can't deny the goods!!!

2/22 - Ok, as I mentioned, I concede this is probably a much stronger show if we are going for jam quality than 2/20, but I will die on my hill that 2/20 is the better overall show. Still, I absolutely was BLOWN away by this gig for much of it. It struggled at times but there was a solid hour + of PRIMO X Factor goodness in that second set AND that whole Tweezer>Manteca>You Sexy Policeman>Twist was of that level as well. that was stronger perhaps than anything on 2/20. It's apples and oranges and I can totally get if you pick this show's apples over 2/20's oranges An incredibly strong outing!!!!

2/23 - Excited to play this tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that Everything's Right that I've been aware of ever since it dropped. And that setlist looks bonkers (I know setlist isn't everything, but c'mon - look at that!)