2021-08-06 Noblesville, IN

 

Back on the wagon, boys and girls!

Been a very HECTIC and awful couple of weeks. Zero listening time for the most part (not just to Phish - to music in general!!)

So stoked be starting 8/6/21 today - surely one of the modern "classics", if you will.


8/6/21 Noblesville

Set 1

Carini - I feel like it's usually a great sign to get a Carini opener, no? The boys come roaring out of the gate. The song portion is powerfully excellent, with ultra-enthusiastic vocals abound. Trey's soloing is great from the get-go. Patient and taking it's time, but not for lack of ideas. Great stuff. Right at 4:45 there is an awesome split-second shift from minor to major! The guys sync up out of nowhere! KILLER! Page on the piano bouncing off of Trey's melodic lead work. Also, Gordo is in the friggin' house! Seriously, he is THUMPING IT UP!!! With the recent thread talk of the LP sound/mix quality, I gotta say this show sounds fantastic from the get-go (at least in my $99 Etymotic earbuds, anyways). Up to 6:30 now, Carini is firmly in bliss mode - and it's wonderful. Trey is taking his sweet time, picking his notes and lead ideas instead of just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. I'm finding it hard to comment - this jam is just incredibly "connected" between the 4 guys. The jam is moving "as one", so to speak and everyone is contributing equally. A really, really EXCELLENT Carini!!!!!

Wolfman's Brother - Get it, Cactus!!!! Seriously, this sounds FANTASTIC! Love Cactus singing "coming down on me" throughout. Right at 4 minutes we launch into the jam. Ultra-funky as expected, Page on the Clav or whatever. Trey scat-singing along with his chord stabs. The funky "vamp jamming" continues for a good while as expected, but around 5 minutes in Trey hits on his "robot octave" effect and starts giving us the down and dirty real good like. Watery-sounding wah pedal gooeyness! They ride this for a long time until finally, around 7:30, Page moves over to the piano and Trey turns instead to his "cascading delay" sound, moving us in a slightly more chill but no less funky direction!!! Great stuff around 8:15 where Page starts pounding his piano and the guys latch onto some new sound. It's a subtle shift, but a shift nonetheless - this jam is like a bus taking us on a journey. Extremely "organic" sounding!!! The guys are on a wave just riding it along!!! Trey plays with some effects tastefully, using one here and another there. Page is stomping it on that piano and by 9:30 a slight psychedelic undertone begins to emerge - like something you'd hear from a 1.0 kind of jam (hard to explain but if you hear it you'll know what I'm talking about). Trey starts reaching for the sky, slowly picking all the right notes at the right moments. This Wolfman is a friggin' beast. At 10:30 Page reintroduces - perfectly, I might add! - the Wolfman theme and Trey begins trilling away, leading Page to do the same, taking the jam to a ridiculous, volcano-erupting peak!!! LET'S FRIGGIN' GO!! THIS IS SPECTACULAR!!!! And at 12 minutes they shut 'er down....Holy friggin' moly that was MUST HEAR! That was magical, almost. Not as good as that New Years Run 2012 version, but close to it!!!! WOW!!!

Sand - Another first set Sand!!! Talk about a freaking amazing trio to kick the show wide open with! This one is extra slow and groovy. Perfect for an evening like this where Gordo is front and center, just laying down the proverbial thickness like wood filler or something. He even throws in some bass fills!!! Jam begins around 3:45 with Trey easing into things by doing some quiet delay picking. Not gonna narrate this one - it plays out like the sister to the above Wolfman. Absolutely glorious perfection. Must-hear as well, not because it's so unique, but just to hear the boys playing TOGETHER so damn well!!! I mean, my goodness.....by the end you are going "wait, this jam came out of, wait, what? Sand? That was a Sand we just heard?" Spectacular. Actually, scratch all that - the last 3 or 4 minutes are absolutely MUST HEAR!!! The guys flirt on that Type II borderline for a good long while and have a very lengthy peak of the highest order. Then Trey ripcords us back into the Sand riff (without killing the groove, thank god) and the track has a triumphant close. A+ A+ A+ A+ A+!!!!!

Lawn Boy - is Lawn Boy

We are Come to Outlive Our Brains - For the sake of not highlighting everything, this is an excellent reading but nothing out of the box. A purely straightforward reading, very well done! Well worth your time but you'll never seek this particular version out.

Tube - Wolfman, WACTOOB, Sand and now Tube! Guess the guys want to funk tonight!!! Roaring right out of the gate, the first jam has everyone doing their vamping over Gordo soloing it up. Trey's new FX sound particularly tasty - the watery wah effect, especially!!! Then of course Gordo lays back and lets Trey rip it up. For only 6 minutes, this Tube covers a lot of ground is as good as the jamming in the earlier tracks. Must-hear modern Tube!!! Seriously, this is ridiculously TASTY!!!!!!

Nellie Kane - Is NK

Horn - is Horn

Rift - A slightly rough version. Not a trainwreck, but Trey butchers the whole thing, constantly behind, playing "catch up" or hitting wrong notes. Yea.....avoid this one.
As usual, Page is the MVP here, absolutely laying waste to his poor piano, but an incredible piano solo is not enough to save a butchered reading of Rift, haha

The Wedge - "Limestone capital of the world!" A fine version with some very nice Trey soloing, but nothing you haven't heard a million times before. Nothing special in the slightest.

Walls of the Cave - Holy hell, please let this set end on a high note. And by golly is it a POWERHOUSE! It proceeds to destroy as expected, like a steam engine barrelling down the tracks at 120mph. Fishman in particular is going ape-s#it behind the kit. Trey is playing with his backwards delay, going all psych on us. Page is POUNDING those keys like they just insulted his sister and he's exacting his revenge. And Gordo is laying it thick....Trey is going GNARLY on this, just coaxing dying whale cries out of his Languedoc, soaring peaks and deep depths.....THIS WALLS WILL KICK YOUR ASS!!! This will have you banging your head 'til blood is pouring out of your ears. Holy mother of christ......



All in all..wow!!!! The first half of the set was X Factor Magic good, then after the terrific Tube it's like it fell off a cliff and they floundered for a long while until Walls came with that original energy and just knocked us into friggin' orbit. Jesus christ.

Carini, Wolfman, Sand, Tube and Walls were ALL A++++ versions. All 5 were must-hear. This tour keeps getting better and better, I swear. Please don't tell me there is a dropoff!

WOW

Set 2 - Oh boy, here we go. Please don't suck.

AC/DC Bag - Starts off as Joe Average Bag that is pretty good but nothing special, but it builds, out of nowhere, to a freaking RAGING peak worthy of 1.0 status, imo. On the whole this Bag ends too soon and isn't really anything special, but was a killer set opener regardless!!

>Blaze On - Yay, my least-favorite song. Let's go! Thankfully the energy reached by the end of Bag carries over and Blaze On, the song itself, is an absolutely LIVELY reading of the song (and that's saying something....gosh this song is so stupid! ). Right at 4 minutes the jamming begins - Trey quietly soloing while Page is over on the Clav or whatever, playing with his own wah pedal. Gordo is getting down - seriously, he sounds amazing on this to my ears. Around 5 minutes everyone seems to lock into a specific groove together. This doesn't last too long but sets the stage for more avenues to open up. It's obvious everyone is paying attention to each other - let's put it like that. Around 6:20 Trey turns on his octave effect and he and Page start that "duel soloing" thing. Things are still major key but a slightly more laid back, jazzy kind of vibe is creeping in. At 7:30 this comes to fruition - Page laying back on tinkling keys and Trey kicking on the delay. We have reached Type II. The funky groove is still the bedrock of this jam but what is on top is evolving by the minute. They aren't "jumping" from section to section - thankfully they are slowly building it. Around 9:20 things start to get properly wacky!!! Page begins playing with his noodly synths and Trey begins to rip it up on his "phaser-esque" robot effect sound, honking it up in the extreme. This is sick. At 10 minutes the guys lock into another rhythm for a bit. Then Trey and Page both bust back out, dueling it out on top again. Blissful Robot Funk Jam....or something like that. Very cool. Trey has even begun to play with his Leslie!!!! They ride this wave for a good long while. Eventually by about 14 minutes, Trey has toned down his FX and Page moves over to the piano, signalling a shift to a new section. We are now leaving Robo Funk for Upbeat Bird Song Peak City, if you will. It's that whole "Camden '99 Chalkdust reaching for the sky thing". We are nowhere near the peak yet and this is spectacular. Everyone is just playing so mother effing well and together...Like, good lord. You would be hard pressed to compose better sounding jamming. Right about 15 minutes, the bliss continues, but things begin to drift "sideways" again. Trey AND Page playing with effects. Page in particular using some interesting stereo effect that moves between the speakers. I'm finding it hard to describe this - it's upbeat "bliss" with kind of a slightly tropical tinge to it or something. Everyone is LOCKED THE HELL IN tighter than Houdini's handcuffs. This is absolutely spectacular in every way. But then around 17:45 darkness begins to emerge. But not quite!!! We are in a BLISSFUL outer space vortex - not a dark one!!! Can't say I've heard this before!!!! Page is back on regular keys, Gordo is going BANANAZ with his FX and this is like.....Robo Space Bliss Funk....or something like that. So at about 20 minutes, Trey rejoins us (he sat out for like 2 minutes) and the jam takes a noticeable shift again into a more feel-good, laid back vibe. Things quiet down majorly, Fishman doing a kinda shuffly beat and Page using some weird synth sounds I haven't heard before. Trey is keeping it clean, picking out his leads oh so delicately. This is outstandingly perfect. I want to edit this section out and have it as it's own track - release the single now!!!! Thankfully they milk the hell out of this section for several glorious minutes. Wow. I literally have goosebumps - this is just gorgeous. Powerful yet majestic. Beautiful yet strong in the best way. Right around 23:45 the guys lock into a cool descending motif and give this section of the jam some lovely "tunefulness". Seriously, this is....dude, just inject this straight into my veins. Please. The guys continue to keep this going, but Fishman slowly ramps up the tempo and the jam begins to naturally grow and spread its wings again!!! Somehow we are now approaching magical rock and roll peaking!!! How did we get here?! What is going on?! What is happenning?! Did anyone see my face - it's melted on the ground back there.... WHAT IN THE LOVING HELL IS THIS MAGIC?!?!??!?!??!?!?! And then at 26:45 they blow their load and return to Blaze On.


Wow.


Effing magic, that was. This summer tour keeps getting better and better - I've said this at just about every show so far, but THAT was officially the best piece of music played in 2021 so far. Period. End of story. Not much else - as great as it has been - has come that close to how PERFECT this was. What in the.......


Wilson - No segue here. Just Wilson. Fine version but in hindsight simply a mere interlude.

Simple - Before we get to the obvious, we can't forget that the actual reading of the song is downright terrific tonight!!!! Not dragging, at a brisk tempo, Page throwing in "All Things Reconsidered" piano fills.....NICE!!! Seriously, this might be the best reading of the song itself that I've heard in a long while. Wow. Just absolutely loaded with P and V tonight. Right at 5 minutes we are off to the races. During the "blissful outro" part of the song, everyone latches onto Page's piano trilling (or whatever you want to call it) and proceed to just ride it to oblivion in an up-and-down motion, like a musical see saw. This lasts a good, long while. Everyone just stomping this "motif" into the ground, if you will. Right around 7:20, the storm clouds roll in. Out of friggin' nowhere! Trey starts chord-soloing and Page lets his black-sky-of-doom synthesizers take prominence. Outer space funkiness ensues. Gordo begins to shine. For the next while they all vamp on this watery, delay-drenched, outer space funk groove. Any FX bashers out there, I don't care - this is freaking killer. At 11 minutes we turn a corner into the next section - the groove turns into a melting mishmash of cymbal riding to keep time below a slowly evolving, Melt-esque, horror show of wacky sound FX and synthesizers from hell. Cactus heaven, basically. Basically approaching a Dark Star "meltdown" or something like that. Simple is out the window and long in the distance....Fishman is keeping this going with a cool shift into a new "feel" (6/8-ish David Bowie shuffle or something?!). WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?! This is like a psychedelic trip into the meltdown furnace or something. I am so confused yet entirely enthralled. THEY HAVE MY MOTHER EFFING ATTENTION!!!!! By 13:34 we have been in the black hole for several minutes and STILL things are getting more intense by the second!!! HOW?!?!?!?!?! WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO NEXT, START MURDERING BABIES?!?!?!??!?! This is the music that plays while traveling through outer space. Nobody can convince me otherwise. Someone send this to NASA, pronto! Notice how I'm not even really describing the music anymore? I DON'T KNOW HOW TO!!! By about 15:40, the band latches onto a bluesy groove. Fishman keeps that rattling shuffle beat going but a new corner is being turned with every passing measure. How the hell did this become a Space Blues jam?!?!?!?!? By 17:30 we are in realms of psychedelia even Miles Davis and his 1974 band couldn't dare to conceive of. AGHARTA AINT GOT NOTHING ON THIS SUCKER!!!!


Guys. I give up. My head is in my hands. I can't even keep time anymore. This goes beyond meltdown. This is.....someone please find me a more psychedelic jam from the band. No way there is anything more out-there than this that isn't pure ambience. I haven't heard anything else even approaching this.

I give up trying to review this. What in the mother of......

And then at 22 minutes in the middle of lord knows whatever the hell this is, Trey perfectly reintroduces Simple amid screaming seagulls and crazy synthesizers and hellish outer space soundscapes.

You guys know I am the King of Hyperbole (can't help it - I just love music too much!). Do not take my next statement lightly -

THAT WAS THE GREATEST JAM I HAVE EVER HEARD. PERIOD. END OF STORY. NOTHING COMES CLOSE.

That took Fukuoka 2000 outside, gave it a shovel and said "here, dig your grave".

END OF PART 1
  

Set 2, part 2

Guys....I needed a breather. I.....I still don't know what I even just listened to....

Anyways, let's continue!


Harry Hood - And how do you follow up the Agharta/Pangaea/Dark Magus Space Odyssey? With HH of course! Normally I rag on Hood, but tonight...absolutely the perfect set call!!!! The song itself is slightly flubby from Trey (probably laughing his ass off still from the insanity of Simple, so I forgive him! ), but only just barely. A strong and powerful reading, on the whole, of the main portion of the song. Proceeds perfectly as usual until around 8:30 when Trey starts to rock it up unexpectedly!! This lasts awhile before building to a raging peak as expected. All the while, we haven't even hit the "Good about Hood" section!!! The refrain section seems much shorter than most versions, but that's fine by me. On the whole this was a really awesome little Hood!!!!!!

I Never Needed You Like This Before - GREAT SET PLACEMENT! MORE OF THIS!!! I've never had a guitar riff hit me in a "WAKE UP!" manner so perfectly as when they just launched into this out of Hood! PERFECT! AND THIS FREAKING ROCKS!!!!!!! LET'S FREAKING GO!!!! BANG YOUR HEAD!!!!! TEAR IT UP, TREY!!! HELL YEA!!!! Wow.....freaking SICK!!!

Sanity - Is Sanity. Rarity points, of course. Awesome as ever. Fishman vocal samples not withstanding. Great version on the whole!!!

Limb By Limb - Terrific version! I mean, after Simple, anything else is just icing on the cake, but what tasty frosting it is!!! Trey's soloing is just spectacularly perfect in the BEST way! Nothing special in the grand scheme, but this was A+ as far as the playing goes. A terrific little Limb!!!!

SANTOS - Perfect rock and roll closer to an out of this world show. That Simple was some "Mothership landing on the White House lawn" craziness. Wonder if they got that in their heads (this is what space smells like, haha). It's SANTOS. It kills.



All in all.....yea I give up. GO READ THE FRIGGIN' BOOK - TURN DIRECTLY TO CHAPTER 8/6/21 AND DON'T STOP UNTIL YOU'RE FINISHED! Talk about a show that 100 percent lived up to the hype (and, honestly, completely exceeded it for me). I wish I could go back and hear that Simple for the first time again. If you have not heard at least the Simple (and this is totally overshadowing the incredible Blaze On!!!!), what are you doing with your life.

That Simple....I don't think it's false advertising to state that was one of the top 5 jams of Phish 3.0. I'm serious. I can't even fathom how to explain to you how NEXT LEVEL it was.

Oh my god.