Watching 7/31/21 Alpharetta today! Since I'm watching it
instead of listening to it, I guess I can't "timestamp" the jams like
normal, so I'll do my best when I get to them 
7/31/21 Alpharetta
Set 1
Sand - Ooh! A Sand opener! When the heck was the last time Sand ever opened a show?! Has this happenned before? Trey
is looking uber-serious/tired in this Sand. Love it when the crowd
chants along in unison "I'D HAVE MYSELF TO BLAME!". All throughout, Trey
is stalking around the stage looking like a lion on the hunt for his
next victim. All snarl tonight! He's doing that "mouthing along to his
soloing" thing, lol. As for the music, it's a pretty "standard" Sand
that is a nice "warmup" intro to the show. You'll never seek this one
out on purpose but there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and it more
than gets the job done! It's actually got a slightly subdued feel about
it as opposed to the party-rager vibes of earlier 3.0 ones. This one is
kinda chill until the last couple minutes where we hit a nice peak for a
bit. Not "the greatest Sand of all time", but an excellent way to
open the show!!! Highlight-worthy? Eh, not really, but that ain't no
knock! 
Everything's Right - What are they doing, playing a 2nd set in place of a first set?
A lengthy 16 minute rendition tonight!! The chill vibe of Sand
continues at the start. It's like the guys are "whispering" the song.
The initial round of soloing before the music-less "This world" refrain
section is excellent. Trey busts open his grin and the guys get the
track rocking good. No more whispering!
The jam proper begins with lots of Trey refrains of "It's gonna be
alright!" over and over, punctuated with "yea" samples from Fishman.
Quickly they then move into the expected funky areas. Page on Clavinet
or whatever, Trey playing with cool delay effects, carefully "building"
his solo like stacking a Jenga tower....Very quickly we are leaving the song in the DUST! Trey
just plays around really nicely for a good while with the
aforementioned "Jenga Tower" motif as I'm choosing to call it, before
the guys all lock in a bit better and decide to amp up the intensity a
bit more. Fishman is going spastic with his cymbals, doing lots of those
"David Bowie"-style beats. By now things are starting to "settle", but
Page averts this by jumping onto the synths and leading us down a darker
alleyway. Trey noodling around and Fishman doing his rapid-fire
rat-a-tat-tats. You can see Mike looking around and playing with his pedalboard - I'm pretty that's him doing synth work on the bass!!! The
crowd acknowledges this with their vocal approval! Things straddle the
line between light and dark for a brief moment before they decide to
head for the sky. Mike drops out for a bit as he is nerdily perusing his
rack of FX! 
By this point Trey is doing some nice melodic motifs that Page and
Fushman pick up, creating a new rhythm focused on a fast, triplet-led
cymbal pattern (you can't miss hearing this section). The lights are a
literal cavalcade of rainbows and Fishman is inserting "yea" samples
throughout, kinda "deflating" the blissful seriousness of this jam in a
funny way. They guys are in the zone and Trey is just vibing it up with all his heart. No hint of darkness at all. The guys are doing lots of "hitting a motif and riding it out" in this jam. Very nice to hear!! After a bit in Rainbow Wonderland, the intensity starts building back up once more when Page jumps back to the synths. The lighting looks like a descending UFO and that's what this jam is starting to sound like!!! Things are going sideways! We
are now in....late-night bliss??? It's like they are playing a
typically "dark" style of jam in an upbeat fashion. If that at all makes
any sense. Things are getting funky again and Mike is renewing his
presence on the bass. Then Trey signals the end of the jam with a return
to the "It's gonna be alright" refrains. And just like that, this
little journey is over! A very, very nice jam! Worth a listen or
two I think. Excellent stuff - it was pretty cohesive and felt like a
smooth journey, not a stitching-together of sections (like some jams
feel...). Great stuff!!
Turtle In the Clouds - Yes! My favorite KV song!!! Terrific version! Full of power! No sleepiness on this one!! And of course being able to watch Cactus and Trey do the dance routine is icing on the turtle cake. Everyone in the room - band and crowd - seem like they are having a friggin' blast and it's palpable. Also, it's
funny watching that Mike has clearly forgotten the dance steps half the
time and is having to "cheat" off of Trey, lol. Love it!
Maze - Alright, now it's go time, will it sink (like many recent
Mazes...) or will it soar? Trey looks overtly happy during the initial
verses and his first guitar solo is hot right out of the gate. Not 1994
hot, but it's perfectly "composed" in the best way and just ticks all
the right boxes with a pick scrape to cap it off! And over to Page the Rage we go! Love watching Page rock out like "watch this guys, I got this"
Throughout his soloing, Trey is watching Page intently like a hawk,
slack-jawed gaze and all. Slowly Page works the song to it's peak and
the whole band jives along with him, reaching a great burst of energy
all at once. The guys are definitely rocking the F out. Then Page passes the torch over to Trey who proceeds to give us a patiently melodic solo with intent. He's totally feeling that solo, dawg. And then Trey lets it rip and hit's the gnarliest sustained note this side of Divided Sky! CK5 is going BONKERS with the lights, quick-flashing purple to red and back. I think I'm going to have a seizure! Then during the final explosion, he turns on the bright whites for maximum effect. Trey is headbanging the F out of this, even giving us some short Pete Townshend jumps! And then the song concludes. Wow!!!
That was pretty damn terrific!!! I've definitely heard WAY worse ones
in latter 3.0! That was just about as hot as I could imagine them
getting a Maze these days. The crowd in Alpharetta caught a hot one!!! This one was definitely enhanced by viewing it. A great watch!!!!
Destiny Unbound - Nice choice to give us a breather but also keep it
cookin. Immediately, Trey starts playing with some plinky-sounding
effects and Fishman begins the "yea" sample again.
Trey takes his time vamping out the song's "lick" for a minute before
dropping into a very nice and quiet-sounding solo. He is "picking" out
those notes, one by one. Very nice! They nail the F out of the Type I
solo section of the song and you can see Trey grin like a fool when they
slide back into the song smoother than melted butter.
On the whole it was a genuinely excellent version, but nothing that
special. It was perfect in the way every friggin' early 3.0 version of
Funky B or Reggae Woman is, ya know? Great stuff, but not list-worthy
for me.
Foam - Ooh, a nice 1-2 punch of rarities! The guys sound pretty
darn good in the composed sections. Trey's "quieter" picking style is
actually benefiting him on this one, giving the playing a nice delicate
feel. And thankfully, it appears they all practiced as well. I mean,
seriously, this was one clean Foam!!! No, I mean seriously, this is cleaner than one or two 1.0 Foams I've heard. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!!!! I'm calling this one a list-worthy triumph! Really REALLY great 3.0 Foam!!
Stash - Fine version of the composed section, but definitely not
as tight as Foam was. Not sloppy by any means, but you've heard better
versions of the composition. The jam proceeds as expecting, going all
"arabian sand" on us, with wacky rainbow lighting accentuating the
craziness, lol. Some cool bits in this jam! It kinda stays within the
Stash frame but still manages to explore - hard to explain. It goes
synth-fx Type II for a bit, with some back-and-forth, light-to-dark
stuff going on too. They flip flop between darkness and bliss.
Eventually it reaches a natural conclusion point and they seamlessly
work back into the song! A great version! Proof that not every jam needs to be 20 minutes to be terrific!!!! Wow!! Pretty cool version!!
Bathtub Gin - And the hits keep a-comin'!!! The guys are having an absolute friggin' BALL during the song portion. Fun
vocals from Trey and Mike, Fishman cracking the whip on the drums,
right in sync with Trey, Leo even scatting by the end of it...In the
jam, Fishman has locked in perfectly with Page's piano. Very cool to
hear Fishmand and Page being the ones in sync! It proceeds as feel-good
Type I as expected. It starts to build a bit when Page steps on the
sustain pedal on his piano and an "urgency" comes out. Slowly, the whole
band just work the groove, Page and Trey both soloing melodically
together-but-apart. Very nice! It sounds like Trey is doing some subtle
stuff with delay, but I'm not sure. Gotta say, Page just hammering the F out of his Yamaha is always glorious. We
build to an eventual peaky section with Trey "quietly" trilling his
little heart out along to Page's Yamaha. Then he lets it rip, soloing up
and down the fretboard. CK5 comes in clutch with the perfect light
transitions.....Great overall peak on this!!! It's a party!!! A
really great little Gin!!!! I'd say it's the equivalent of the Stash
preceeding it. It's only 12 minutes but by golly do they milk those
minutes!!!!!!! Awesome stuff all the way around!!!
All in all, set 1 was an absolute triumph!!! The whole thing was
base-level excellent, the guys were ON FIRE throughout, the flow was
great, the song choice was very much to my liking (always a bonus )....not much to say!!! "Standard" first sets don't get all that much better!
I would say Everything's Right, Maze, Foam and Stash were the must-hear
materials, with Gin just about as good as the Stash (or better,
depending on your taste!)
Set 2
Chalkdust Torture - A fine version of the song proper, a little
rusty in a "shaking off the jitters" kind of way, but absolutely not
lacking in energy or enthusiasm! The song may be "rough", but
IMMEDIATELY the jam starts to branch out from the very first measure of
post-song playing. Trey hits on his delay and does some nice "chord
slashing" for a bit. Following that, things quickly quiet down a bit.
Tempo maintained, but going into "whisper" zone. "Type I" playing at
this point. Things are gradually getting more and more chilled out with
every passing second and before long CDT is starting to fade from the
rearview mirror.
Things slowly pick back up over the course of a few minutes but remain
firmly in "chilled out classic rock" land. This jam is extremely fluid sounding!!! It's like water just slowly pouring all over you. No janky, angular, messiness to be found yet!! And the blissful "Grateful Dead jam" keeps on tickin'!!! After
several beautiful minutes, Trey signals the first change by slipping
over to his synthesizers to begin inserting new sounds.
Also, I've gotta friggin' say, HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP THIS IS THE
GREATEST LIGHT SHOW IVE EVER SEEN AT A CONCERT. MY FREAKING GOODNESS.
So at this point, Trey is still in "classic rock land", doing his
glorious, blissful soloing, but he has also turned on a subtle octaver
effect. Meanwhile, Page is just layering gooey synthesizers on top of
everything. Fishman is still keeping the CDT tempo but things are
getting very scientific for lack of a better descriptive
Page jumps back to his electric piano and lays off the synths. The jam
gets nicely quiet. Trey is vamping it up and we could go right into a
Back On The Train if we wanted to.
Thankfully we don't and the jam takes it's first major tonal shift!
Things move towards a more "late-night", late-90s, chill-groove kinda
flavor. Not dark, but heading in that direction. Like the aural
equivalent of the sun creeping down below the horizon....
This almost gets diverted by Trey "chord slashing" it up again and
trying to lead us back towards the light. Towards the light we do turn,
but the jamming is staying right on course. Page jumps over to some
watery, aquatic keyboard sounds and it's like we are sailing the oceans
of uptempo bliss.
Trey eventually stumbles onto a nicely melodic ascending motif. The guys
latch on a little bit and we ride this idea for a bit. Still in
"aquatic bliss land", Page starts to incorporate more sparse sustained
notes/chords in place of soloing. Trey is still just doing his thing,
noodling wonderfully up and down the fretboard, but also starting to get
a little more minimalist.
The guys all hit upon a new groove and the jam slowly, NATURALLY (!!!!!!), shifts
towards a more flowing kind of feel. Trey is "vamping" it up like he's
dying to go into NICU or something. Everyone is still riding the same
"aquatic bliss" train to oblivion. Trey finally abandons his natural
tone and turns on one of his wonky robot synth effects for some new
textures.
Wish Fishman now incorporating bell hits (a sample?), the band suddenly
takes a quick turn towards nasty ville. Trey has his robo synth thing
going but seems to be adding in wah pedal "stabs" on top. Very awesome.
Delays added to the mix, this is just all kinds of cool....and things are slowly going sideways little by little....
After about a minute of that, they move areas once more, still keeping
the uptempo bliss going, but heading for a slightly ambient area. Lots
of delay action, extended keyboard hits, Fishman riding those cymbals,
etc....Everyone is just building this magical Jenga Tower of awesomeness
bit by bit.
Page returns to pounding on his Yamaha with an occasional synth stab for
good measure. He and Trey lock in on yet another musical motif for
everyone to build off of. Trey turns on wonky effects again and the band
hits upon a vein that is clearly heading in a skyward trajectory!
The crowd picks up on this section immediately and goosebumps are
now erupting all over my arms and legs! We have struck the X Factor
vein at last!!! We are heading skyward like the proverbial rocketship!!
Everyone is in their own weird little land, but at the same time they
are riding this wave of music together, building this thing organically.
Mike kicks on some bomb FX and the crowd erupts yet again.
This is friggin' glorious. They hit upon a section
where Trey is just going NUTS with squealing feedback, yet keeps the
notes melodic at the same time. Robot Feedback! And the jam gets into
"Camden 99 Chalkdust" territory - it's got that "flying through the sky"
feeling to it, ya know?
And then the guitars die down, the synthesizers blare up, the crowd goes wild, and we move into a quiet breather section....This lasts about a minute and then things die down perfectly and we transition into....
Chalkdust Epilogue - Holy crap. That is MUST HEAR for any Phish fan.
The fist 10-15-20 minutes are great, but it's the last 7 or 8 when they
strike gold and that higher-resonance or whatever kicks in and
just....Like, wow.....They kept the jam pretty "basic" for the first 15
or 20 minutes, just making the most of everything, not succumbing to the
temptations of new effects, and it absolutely paid off. Absolutely,
absolutely, ABSOLUTELY must-hear!
>Steam - Ooh baby, nice set call! Perfect choice to fit the feel the
jam had reached by it's conclusion. They coulda used that damn
transition for an album if they wanted to. A fine version with a nicely
"gritty" solo from Trey (more chord slashing to be found). Unfortunately
the song dies down before anything more can transpire, so it's not
worth listing it, but it was a nice interlude version! Great version,
just not long enough!
>Prince Caspian - Normally I'd get mad at Trey for ripcording
us like that but the crowd goes nuts and the vibe is A+. Let's get them
feel-good vibes going, boys and girls! Actually works better than you
would think to bring us back from the "darkness" of CDT and Steam. And
the crowd is going BANANAZ! I swear, I've never seen more
fist-pumping-in-unison in my life! A+ for the crowd at this show!!! The
jam quickly begins evolving to sound like the back end of a good Theme
From the Bottom or something. Slowly-emerging dissonance, endless
feedback-squaling awesomeness from Trey, you name it....Trey is absolutely having a BLAST on this one, trying out his FX array, headbanging away and grinning like a fool. The jam eventually reaches that psychedelic droning thing we all love. Trey is going BONKERS, shredding it up (as much as 2021 Trey can shred). This
is SPECTACULAR!! How can such a simple "nothing" of a song like Caspian
(not a knock!) evolve into a trippy beast like this!?!?!?!? Page joins in the fun and goes insane on the keys and synths along with Trey. My
head is exploding - this is MAGICAL!!!! I've not yet heard the
Magnaball Caspian, but I can't imagine this isn't good competition!!!!
THIS CASPIAN ISNT EVEN 10 MINUTES LONG AND GOES MORE BANANAS THAN THAT
26 MINUTE CHALKDUST DID!!! WHAT IN THE HOLY HELL AM I LISTENING TO! THIS
IS FREAKING INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!
X FACTOR MAGIC! X FACTOR MAGIC! X FACTOR MAGIC! X FACTOR MAGIC! X FACTOR MAGIC! X FACTOR MAGIC!
>Golgi Apparatus - And from, after melting down into a
psychedelic, robot-destruction miasma of sonic ridiculousness, Trey
breaks the tension with the best/worst placed Golgi Apparatus ever.
The song is a total slop fest, but only because Trey is laughing his
ass off (presumably at the fact that he called a Golgi out of that
Caspian, lol). It's adorable. This is definitely not one for the highlights list, but ya know what? It's still an effin' blasty blast. FUN IS CONTAGIOUS!!!!
>AC/DC Bag - Great call!!! Keeps us rockin'!! Also, nice to
see it in an unusual (for the song) set slot. Love the crowd singing
along audibly to the whole thing!!!! "Let's get this show on the road" crowd erupts On
the whole it's a "standard" Bag, but it's played to perfection, the
crowd amps it up to another level, and everyone is just having the
absolute time of their life (which means a lot). Really, really NICE Bag!!!
>Shade - Lovely. One of my faves. And well-deserved at this
point. Hell, there really hasn't been a proper ballad at all this show
yet, eh? And it's absolutely perfect. Trey's solo is so simple yet
beautiful...goosebumps down my arms again....Wow. This has to be one of
the best versions, I can't imagine it being performed much better!!!
Mike's Song - Not very long, but super NICE! The jam
immediately goes "chill late night funk heat". CK5 keeps the lights
various shades of dark blue throughout and it sums up the vibe
perfectly. A total groover!!!
>Silent in the Morning - Alright! Nice to see another setlist
shakeup!! I always complain about this song killing the back end of
shows for me, but this is unique enough to be cool. And I tell you
h'what, that segue worked so naturally you'd think they'd been playing
it like that for years!!!!! Seriously, that pairing works way better
than you might think!!! It's not a particularly great version - the guys
just can't get in sync with the awkward rhythms - but again, it's the
passion and enthusiasm, and again let's hear it for the crowd as well! I
can't justify listing this, but the segue is damn cool and it's worth
it to hear this pairing at least once!
>Weekapaug Groove - Fishman Sample Hell. And the crowd laps it up....Ok,
it's not that bad, but I'm still 50/50 on if I can jive with the
samples or not. Paug stays pretty dang chill. It's like low heat
bubbling under waiting to erupt. The guys are tearing it up, but they
are doing it in that "whisper" mode again. It does eventually reach the
inevitable turning point and turn into the heated peak fest we know and
expect.
As with Mike's, it ain't the longest out there, but it makes good use
of its time and left us all with massive grins on our faces and love in
our hearts. Watching Trey struggle not to crack up at Fishman's
egregious sample usage during the outro vocal refrain just warms my
heart.
A Life Beyond the Dream - Great call for first encore, imo. This show has been emotions-on-their-sleeves, almost like 7/28 in Rogers was. I don't understand the hatred for this song. It's a terrific Trey ballad. Yes, people hate Trey ballads, but, c'mon now....I
guess I will always have a soft spot for the song, especially in late
show/encore slots. The version I got in Charleston in 2019 is a standout
memory for me. I didn't know the song at the time (pre-studio
release!!). Maybe I had heard it once or twice in passing while perusing
recordings, but I definitely didn't "know" it yet. And to this day that
version is one of the standout memories of those shows for me. And this
version from Alpha 2 years later is just as good (or better!). A fine
reading, full of passion, at the peak slot of the show. It's like watching the credits roll after a great film has just concluded.
Cavern - And then Cavern is the "exclamation mark" on the whole shebang! A fine version, but Cavern is Cavern.
On the whole....wowzers!!! I'd say the rating of 4.1 on .NET is
basically accurate for the show. The entire thing was a blast from start
to finish. Set two definitely became a "song fest" after Prince
Caspian, but thanks to the rocking song choices, they kept the energy
high and it made all the difference.
Set 1 felt like one of the best complete "sets" out there. From start to
finish it was a perfectly paced powerhouse with choice song selections
and MULTIPLE excellent jam vehicles!!!!
Also, look at the setlist for this show - it's STACKED!!!!
Must hear material:
Everything's Right
Maze
Foam
Stash
Bathtub Gin
Chalkdust Torture (Incredible 26 minute journey)
Prince Caspian (THE jam highlight of the night for me)
A Life Beyond the Dream
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