2012-09-02 Commerce City, CO

 9/2/12 Commerce City, CO

Dick's 2012 #3

Great looking setlist tonight!

Set 1

Cars Trucks Buses - A+ for rarity and FUN factor! Always love getting this! Works like getting a Party Time or Undermind. Absolutely raging Trey soloing in the back half and great Page throughout as expected. Absolutely wonderful opener. Totally kicks the door WIDE open!!!

AC/DC Bag - Ultra high energy!!! I don't know what it is, but that intangible "x factor" seems to be present where it wasn't during last night's first set. The guys just sound absolutely friggin' PUMPED tonight! In the grand scheme of things it's nothing special, but it's just ridiculously hot and shredded out by Trey. A+ Bag!!!!

>Down With Disease - A DWD in SET ONE following a rip-roaring Bag?! Yea, they came to KICK ASS tonight!! This Disease hints at deeper jamming. The potential is there, but instead they simply bask in the Type I glory and rage this one HARD to the finish line. Awesome transition by Trey back into the theme at 8:45 to finish the song properly!!! Definitely worth your time as a little tiny monster of a Disease!!! One of the absolute best 3.0 Diseases out there as far as being tight, compact, and to the point. Don't underestimate this one!!!

Bathtub Gin - Oh crap, talk about a 1-2 punch! See Down With Disease. Pretty much stays "in the box", but they just ride it so damn hard, pushing the Type I to the limit, milking every last ounce of stardust out of the playing. Absolute Mt. Everest Hose peaking!! HOSE! HOSE EVERYWHERE!!!!

Nellie Kane - Is Nellie Kane. Is Fine. Dang, I needed a cool down anyways!

Sample In a Jar - Hot as hell but absolutely nothing noteworthy in the slightest.

Back On the Train - Feels much longer than it's 6 minute run time. Follows the formula laid down by Bag, Gin and Disease. A+ little BOTT!!

Rift - Aw yeah, remember when they could nail Rift like this?! HOLY FREAKING CRAP CHECK OUT THIS RIFT!!!!

Free - See BOTT!! KICK ASS!!

Ride Captain Ride - Now it's a party!!! Need I say more?! Killer! Rages! WHY IS THIS NOT IN REGULAR ROTATION?!?!?!??!

Maze - For the first half, this is all about Page. Trey doesn't do much for a very long time, content to let Leo absolutely destroy worlds. It's not until 6 minutes that Trey finally steps up and lets it rip. Killer Maze as always.

Halley's Comet - TONS of fun as always and played great, but pretty short (barely 5 minutes). Basically, see Sample In a Jar up above ^^^

>46 Days - What in the hell was that segue?! That was one of the best planned (it HAD to be!) segues ever!!! I was watching the time on Halley's thinking my file might've been corrupt and too short as it was approaching the end of the track, but NOPE!! They literally ended it on a dime and launched like a rocket into 46 Days! Dang!!! This 46 Days is outstanding Type I face smashing!! Takes what Gin and Disease brought to the table and elevates it to the next level!! Absolute guitar mutilation!!!

Possum - Is Possum. Kills. Nothing special



All in all an absolute FACE SMASHER of a first set!! There were clear "jam highlights" early in the set, but the bar was raised very high from the outset and the entire set lives up to it. Exceptionally HOT and tight versions of the songs played, even if they were on the whole nothing memorable. I mean, nobody is ever going to cite this Maze or Free or Back On The Train, but they were still fantastic readings, do you get my drift?? Rift WAS absolutely terrific, as was 46 Days and Ride Captain Ride in addition to CTB through Gin. Also, this has to be the longest first set of any "normal" show I can recall - An 1hr 37 minutes!!!!

TERRIFIC SET ALL AROUND!

  

Set 2:

Sand - 24:30 . Listed by .NET as "the most improvisational Sand yet". Hell hot dang if this doesn't live up to the hype I'm gonna be mighty disappointed! The jam absolutely DESTROYS in the best Type I you've ever heard until around 9:30 the mood shifts. Things get even DARKER if you can imagine!!! Trey and Page both begin experimenting with sustained chords to give tension and release. By 10:30 you can easily say we have achieved Type II liftoff - or descent into hell, if you want! Fishman is keeping the cymbals going but Trey and Page are playing around with sustained feedback squalls with bits of piano noodling thrown in. In comes the whale siren and the bass bombs!!! We have turned the corner into 1999! By 11:30 the THX synths come out and we are playing around with upbeat blissful landscapes. At this point the jam reaches a usual "2012 ambient outro" finale and on any other night this is the exact point where they would end it. BUT THEY DONT! THANK CHRIST!! THEY KEEP IT GOING!!! YES! PLEASE! YES!!! At 12:30 Gordo introduces a new bass motif that Fishman latches onto and we have a completely NEW rhythm and sound happenning!!!!!! Feedback ambience is still prevalent in the background, but Page has turned back to his keys and Trey is beginning melodic runs. Fishman and Gordo are maintaining the interesting shuffle-esque rhythm. THIS IS FREAKING INCREDIBLE!!!! By 14 minutes Trey begins his "whale calls to the heavens" sustained notes. Fishman and Gordo are keeping that new rhythm going and it's fantastic!!! Page and Trey are just riding out this feel, taking their damn time.But then around 15:20 the guys all slowly begin to sync back up, and it almost sounds like Trey could perfectly introduce the Light riff if he wanted to! Thankfully he does NOT, haha. By 16 minutes Fishman turns the page back to a more "standard" rhythm, this time incorporating latin-feeling cowbell motifs on top. Trey is slowly letting out melodic leads and Page is laying it down on the keys. At 17 minutes Page and Trey both turn the energy up and start "scratching" it out as if preparing for an eventual launch into Llama or Buried Alive!! Fishman picks up on this and starts incorporating lots of spastic drum fills. Trey returns to chordal vamping, content to let Page solo in piano for a bit. By 18:30 Trey and Page slowly start doing heavy bluesy figures, along the lines of a 46 Days jam or something. Around 20 minutes Trey starts spraying the proverbial hose and we are shifting firmly into "classic rock Type I rager jam" territory! Page on piano and organ, going bonkers, Gordo laying it down THICK and the boys in general just ROCKING THE F OUT. Seriously though, around the 21 minute mark, the all but return to a 46 Days jam. They could've PERFECTLY segued back into 46 Days right here and blown everyone's minds!!! But instead around 21:30 the boys hit some sustained chords and kill the jam in its spot, making us think we are going to just drift away into ambience like usual. THANK THE LORD FOR JON FISHMAN!!! HOLY HELL!!! HE SLOWLY BRINGS THE SAND RHYTHM BACK INTO PLAY LIKE A DJ TURNING UP A VOLUME FADER!!! HOLY FREAKING CRAP THAT WAS ONE OF THE COOLEST THINGS IVE EVER HEARD!!!!!! And with that we return to Sand proper and ride it to it's conclusion!! Absolutely incredible A+ jam. Just mind blowingly good.

>Ghost - In another example of one of the best segues you've ever heard, somehow they transform the Sand groove perfectly into the Ghost stomp like someone is using digital audio editing software or something. Absolutely incredible. Around 4:30 the guys shift into Type II. Trey jumps on the wah and things get REALLY murky and dark (not that they weren't already!). Love Gordo just walking all over the damn bass. Trey just honks it up for a few awesome minutes, while Page jumps to pounding the piano keys. Fishman and Gordo are increasing the balls of the jam and slowly we are turning this into an upbeat rock fest! By 7:20 Trey is doing his patented Guitar Hero Destruction and it's just ON! It sounds like we are going up a roller coaster or climbing a mountain!!!! Slowly just ascending upwards, things building and building and building....Around 9 minutes we haven't peaked, but we seem to have reached a new plateau upon which to build. We are in full-on rock show mode with this Ghost now. No funk here!!! Just rip-roaring rock and roll destruction!!! But this quickly subsides around 9:45 when Page jumps back to the guys and starts using HIS wah pedal, leaving Trey to spastically vamp with Gordo, just tearing it up rhythmically, again, like they are prepping to launch into Llama or something. Upbeat Disco Porno Music. This goes until 12 minutes when the dreaded "2012 ambient outro" creeps in once more, this time with Page introducing some calm keyboard playing and Fishman dropping out completely. Almost get some I Am Hydrogen vibes at this point. And it fades out slowly....

Piper - Leading us perfectly into Piper!!! Well hot damn if there wasn't a more perfectly placed Piper!!!! In recent 3.0 times Piper often feels "shoehorned" in rather than coming properly out of something else like this. And hot dang if that wasn't a phenomenal segue!!!! Literally couldn't have been any better. Piper is pretty fun tonight. It's only 9 minutes+ but they definitely go into some cool rhythmic Type II jamming!!! Seriously, this is a weirdo, unique little Piper! DON'T SKIP THIS!!! ITS FANTASTICAL!!!!

>Twenty Years Later - Somehow Piper ends up here! Fits the dark theme of this set very nicely!!! Who knows if this was planned or not, but it sounds really great!!! Doesn't sound like a rarity tonight!! Tight and perfectly performed, a perfect peak for this jam bananza.

The Lizards - PLAY IT, LEO!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously....This Lizards is great as usual but the big reason to hear it is to just bask in the glory that is Page's piano shredding. Fantastic. The melancholy peak on this Lizards is goose-bump inspiring. It's like a massive sigh of relief or an exhale of "completion" for the awesome year they have had. A++++++ Lizards.

Harry Hood - Not much to say. I never know what to say about Hoods. They are always terrific but often sound very alike. This one is no exception. Just an exceptional reading loaded with emotion capped off with the band thanking the crowd for an awesome summer.

Character Zero - Is Character Zero



All in all....WOW!!!! This show was possibly the best of all three shows in my opinion. And 3/4 of this show was among the best Phish played in 2012. Absolutely A+ gig all around.