2021-08-08 Noblesville, IN

 Onwards with 2021!!!

8/8/21 Noblesville #3

Very songy-looking show tonight (and long too, 3hours 4min!).

Set 1 -

Sigma Oasis - Like most new songs, it usually takes a few reads before they really hit their stride, and this feels like the lock-in version for Sigma!!! It sounds like they've been playing it for years, it's got a special quality about it tonight as well. It just has this...vibe going on. I don't know. It doesn't do anything special, but i'd wager this is the best standalone version of it thus far. Great opener!

The Curtain (without) - Ooh, that was perfect out of Sigma!!! Great set call! The ultra-upbeat nature of the song perfectly compliments the feel-good groundwork laid by Sigma. Best part is that it's played with GUSTO and nary a flub in sight!!!! Terrific reading for 3.0!!!

>Mike's Song - Ooh!!! Another A+ set call! Going oldschool tonght I see! Oh hell yes, the jam begins and the crowd roars and you know some schit is about to go down. Right off the bat, the first thing Trey does is play with those cascading delays, absolutely nailing home the dark-yet-funky vibe. This goes for a few minutes with everyone "vamping it out", so to speak, before around the 5 minute mark where things suddenly shift into major key blissfulness. Huh?! Again, it's so on-a-dime, these transitions, that it's crazy to hear how smoothly they execute them. It takes it's time to grow, but after a few minutes we end up with a classic-rock-style, piano pounding, sustained notes to infinity rock jam that is just building more and more with every passing measure. PEAK APPROACHING! PEAK APPROACHING! PEAK APPROACHING!!! Also, jesus christ Trey, but you held that one note for almost 2 minutes!!!! But then at 10 minutes the jam changes corners from bliss-peak-ville back into the proper, darker Mike's jam we expect!!!! At first it feels like they never reached the peak they were building to, but thankfully, changing back to the darkness, they kept the intensity and continued to build it. This was epic as hell for only 12 minutes. This felt like some 20-minute jam condensed into a smaller package. Absolutely glorious!

>My Soul - Didn't see this one coming! What is this, a summer 1997 show or something? Check out Trey's solo around 3:20 - that's one of the most perfect guitar solos I've ever heard, holy crap. Wow! Can't believe I'm saying this, but My Soul is a friggin' MUST HEAR tonight! It RAGES!

>Weekapaug Groove - I'm calling this a segue but it almost wasn't. My Soul concluded, then from the ashes, Trey quietly began picking the Weekapaug riff. At first it sounded like Antelope but quickly became Paug. Paug is pretty damn chill for the most part. It's excellent, with everyone going nuts, but they are doing it quietly. Very nice! Eventually around the 5 minute mark, Page seems to go "hey guys, we need to rock!" and starts pounding the piano harder, leading to the other guys falling in behind him. And we are finally off to the races! Let the rock and roll peaking commence!!!! When all is said and done, it concludes maybe a few minutes shorter than we would have liked and the "peak" never REALLY felt as explosive as it should have, but this is nitpicking in the extreme. Awesome stuff.

Mercury - Musically, this sounds well-practiced and played as any other version, but the guys are having lyrical hesitancy throughout like they are trying to remember the order of them after not playing the song for a bit. Chill-ass jam that delivers the goods, but not enough of them. This Mercury concludes just as it feels like it's about to liftoff or "turn the corner", so to speak. BOO!!! ACTUAL RIPCORD!!! I am Mercury Lover #1, so it pains me to not have it be list-worthy tonight It's a great little Mercury, but absolutely not anything must-hear, and jettisoning it right at THAT moment was unforgivable.

>46 Days - Love 46 Days but I guess Trey just wasn't feeling Mercury tonight because he just slammed us into this (and thankfully everyone adjusted immediately, averting a near trainwreck!). This sucker gets thick and nasty quick! Whatever tension they had building for a Mercury jam comes out in this. Trey is just going bonkers and playing as dirty as he possibly can. Think something approaching Fall 1997 Tweezerbella stuff (of course nowhere near as crazy because it's 2021, but you get the idea). I'm begrudgingly listing this as must-hear. It's awesome, but killing off Mercury like that left such a disgusting taste in my mouth. EDIT: I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID! THAT PEAK IS DIGUSTING, HOLY HELL!!! LET'S FREAKING GO!!!

Taste - Semi-rarity that is always a breath of fresh air, they nail the rhythm for the most part (I still get "confused" by it) and it's the perfect "chill-out-but-also-keep-rocking" choice to follow that bombastic 46 Days! YO! CHECK OUT PAGE'S GORGEOUS PIANO TINKLING!!!! HOLY CRAP!!! It's still official - Page remains the best musician in the band But then Trey decides he needs to upstage him and delivers gorgeous melodic lines, picking all the perfect notes at the perfect times. And Taste just builds and builds and FREAKING BUILDS TO THE HEAVENS!! HOLY CRAP CAN THEY POUND THAT RHYTHM ANY HARDER?!?!?!??!?! THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST INSANE PEAKS IVE EVER HEARD!!!!!!! WOW!!! MUST HEAR! MUST HEAR! MUST HEAR!!!!!!



Casual Enlightenment - Ooh! New Mike song! Sounds great, rehearsed, etc. Very funky and dark. DARK SUGAR SHACK! Sick, this totally has a crazy psych jam buried within in, I know it. C'mon guys, it deserves more than only THREE plays....Awesome stuff, well worth at least one listen! Maybe not must-hear just yet, but definitely on the level of that opening Sigma. Shows major promise!!

David Bowie - Flubby from Trey. Perfunctory reading of the song. Thankfully, it actually develops a very nice, slightly old-school jam reminiscent of The Curtain! Bookends to the set, perhaps? I won't call this Bowie must-hear, but it does turn into something very enjoyable once the jamming starts!



All in all....wowzers! What a set!!! Not perfect by any means - it felt like a lot of "separate" elements that just happened to end up working together rather than a great example of set construction. I tell you what though, it takes the first set of 8/7/21 out back, hands it the shovel, makes it dig it's own grave, then hands it the pistol, tells it to lie down and then shoot itself in the mouth. Better in ever-single-way. Period. Adventurous song selection/placement, terrific jamming when called for (just not enough of it!). Some ripcords and hesitancy at times in certain songs keep it from being an all timer, but holy crap you need to hear this set at least once, me thinks.

   

Set 2

Bathtub Gin - Alrighty! A 15 minute Gin to open proceedings bodes very well! Things proceed as expected until about 7 minutes. Trey turns on the Robo Honker 5000 Deluxe and gives us a reprise of the Nashville robot Gin! He quacks around darkly for a minute or so then returns to his base tone, leaving Page to pick up the slack with his synths. That stereotypical 2021 jam sound is fast emerging, tempo slowly increasing throughout. Check out Gordo on the synth bass!! Around 9:30, things take a turn for the brighter. Page is still on gooey synths, but Cactus is actively funking it up. Trey steps on his waterfall delays and does a bit of "what FX do I feel like using". He settles on his basic rock tone and the band seem to gently fall in behind him, not sure of where they are heading but aware of the peak-building about to happen. You know when you can "tell" what is going to happen, haha. This jam is excellent. It IS one of those "every 2021 jam sounds the same" type of jams, but that doesn't lessen how enjoyable it is to listen to!!! By 12 minutes the guys are still just vamping it up, content as a cucumber to just ride this sucker til the wheels come off. In the final frames of this jam Trey does begin to play with his FX again, leading the whole thing to develop that "hurtling through outer space" vibe. The final 2 minutes or so are pretty adventurous-sounding. I'd say this Gin was excellent but not Must-Hear. Felt like a terrific warmup platter for the set more than anything. Great stuff!!!!

>Waves - Gin eventually winds up winding down into blissful ambience briefly, like steam dissipating off the blacktop on a hot day. And then it morphs into the opening frothy sizzle of Waves! Goosbumps on my legs for this one! Waves proceeds to Type I dominance as expected. And it's friggin' majestic as hell!! INCREDIBLE WAVES!! THE GUYS ARE JUST OWNING THIS SUCKER!! I have no shame in saying I firmly believe this lays waste to the Gin that preceeded it. Holy hell, all Waves fans need to hear this, PRONTO! A+ A+ A+ A+ The final minute and a half go Wacky Robot Type II, but it's just icing on the cake!

>Ghost - Ok, thanks for ripcording that blossoming monster version of Waves Trey, but A+ for being creative and wedging in Ghost! It's funny, the guys keeps the Waves rhythm going and give this short Ghost interlude a very different feel!!! This is only 2 minutes long, but you need to hear this. Wacky Phish is Good Phish.

>Sneaking Sally - Please, Trey, I beg, stop changing songs. This ripcord from Ghost was ATROCIOUS! YUCK! F your crowd pleasers, that was awful! Ok, complaints out of the way, at least it's Sally and not a Boogie On or Funky B ala early 3.0 Not much craziness here unless you love song teases more than jamming. "I think I never told you, the story of sneaking sally" etc etc I get the love for this stuff but give me jams over ripcords and teases, please. I beg. I gotta highlight this because it is pretty damn cool, it's just annoying as hell that Waves got butchered like that.

>Twenty Years Later - Sally wasn't ripcorded but it did kind of "peeter out", if you will. Nice song call. Love getting it's darkness in a second set! This sucker is dark as always and gets ready to go into outer space when, surprise surprise, RIPCORD!

>Waste - My favorite Phish ballad but jesus Trey, STOP IT! PLEASE! ITS NOT FUNNY ANYMORE! I THOUGHT WE LEFT RIPCORD BACK IN 2010?! That being said, actually listening to it, the transition is pretty damn sick - the darkness melting into the softness of the Waste intro. Kinda like the Disease>Velvet Sea from the previous night. That transition was must-hear, I think. And ya know what? They end up turning in one of the greatest, most epic, most beautiful version I've ever heard. Spectacular.....

>Twist - Is Twist. Is Short. Is Nice. Is friggin' left in the dust for....

>Makisupa Policeman/Twist Reprise - Never been a fan of the song. I get it's a jokey comedy number but I don't smoke weed so.... Just gimme my damn Twist back Thankfully, this is just wacky enough to be fun and engaging with minimal annoyance. Sally, Gin, Twist...they all make reapparances. Sea! Sea! Sea! Sea! The story of the ghost! This is Tease City right here. Primo Phish whackiness. I FEEL IVE NEVER TOLD YOU THE STORY OF THE POLICEMAN! (Crowd ERUPTS!) Must-hear zaniness!

>Martian Monster - With the Makisupa beats still going, Page throws in the Trip is Short samples and the guys transition almost-seamlessly into MM with lots of "YOUR TRIP IS SHORT!" scatting from Trey. Very fun!! YO THIS IS MUST HEAR! Fishman is going bonkers on the kit and this evolves into the dark Type II that Twenty Years Later was heading for. Surely this is the most-jammed version of MM out there, no? Incredible. Amazing. MUST HEAR!!!! Squealing feedback and darkness.

No, seriously, Martian Monster, yo. This is incredible!

>Twist Reprise - Is Twist Reprisal

>Most Events Aren't Planned - I will always remember the Alpharetta 2018 version hitting me particularly hard, so I always look forward to hearing this. Definitely my favorite Page song at the moment next to Beauty of a Broken Heart. Nice set placement on this to change things up! When this sucker takes off at 3 minutes....buckle up for safety motherf.......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It goes like a runaway train down the tracks. Trey lets it friggin' rip. All is right with the world! GIVE ME MORE OF THIS!!!!!! ROCK AND ROLL DESTRUCTION!!!!!! HELL YES!!!!



More - I'll take it! Let's rock! Give us the good vibes! The exclamation mark on a terrific part of a set! Is More, doesn't last long, isn't anything special, but it sure is good either way!

>Gin Reprise - A short reprisal of the Gin theme with Trey concluding it by going "THE STORY OF....SALLY!!!" Belly laughs

Contact - First encore. Contact is encore. Always wonderful to hear as it's pretty rare these days!

Slave to the Traffic Light - As with Harry Hood, this is probably the "classic" I'm least enamored with and rarely look forward to on a setlist (because it is ALWAYS a damn closer/3rd quarter "cool down" song). End of show, terrific raging version. Yadda yadda. It's Slave, it does exactly what you want it to. It's perfection tonight.


All in all...isn't this long enough already? Holy crap...That second set may not have been what I "wanted" but I guess it was what we all NEEDED, ya know? A 100 percent "party" set for sure. The weaving in and out and teasing of songs was ridiculous. In all seriousness though, Night 1 had perhaps the best jams, night 2 was weird but set 2 was maybe the best complete "set" of all 6, and then tonight was probably the best complete SHOW from top to bottom. This show was like a crazy sugar rush with a dash of Adderall thrown in for good measure (I took mine this morning, if you couldn't tell!). This show was an absolute BLAST to listen to! It won't be considered legendary, but good lord, there is SO MUCH HAPPENNING in this gig!!! WOW!!!