2021-09-03 Commerce City, CO

 Onwards to Dick's 2021!!!

9/3/21, this show only has a measly 3.8 rating on .NET, but it has a terrific looking setlist and features a 22 minute Carini AS WELL AS a 20 minute Chalkdust! Surely something is up as, on paper, this show looks set to kill!

We shall see..

9/3/21 Commerce City, CO

Set 1 -

46 Days - Honky and dark off the rip. The "chill fire" energy of 9/1 is back. An excellent version. I don't think it's particularly highlight-worthy, but it was a strong opener!

Party Time - Excellent version that does it's Party Time thing. Great piano soloing throughout. Great soloing from Trey. It's nothing that special but it's probably highlight-worthy!

Steam - Ooh, Steam in slot 3, that's refreshing! A fine Type I reading, but nothing you'll be rushing out to hear again.

>Timber - Great segue into Timber! That flowed like butter! Timber is really, really good! The jam is super patient and pretty lengthy in it's buildup. It's like 8 minutes of rising tension. Don't skip this - it's great!!!

Yarmouth Road - Love this song. Vocal hesitation is made up for some really unexpected funk grooving (seriously, holy hell, what is going on!). They threaten hard to take this to Type II and nearly get there!!! WHAT THE HELL!?! GET THIS IT'S AWESOME!!! A really, really great version!!!

Foam - 2nd version of the year! There hasn't been two versions of Foam in the same year since 2014! Not surprisingly, it's definitely on the ramshackle side of things, especially from Page on the piano which is the major shock. Normally he's the one holding it all together! It gets pretty good during the "meat" of the song, then concludes with one of the most near-trainwreck endings of all time. A for effort, lol.

Vultures - Bustout time! First since Alpine 2019! Overall a strong rendition. Like the rest of this set, you won't be rushing out to hear it, but it pops up, does its thing, and does its thing well. It certainly doesnt sound like it took two years off!!

Pebbles and Marbles - Another bustout! First since the Charleston 2019 show I was NOT able to attend ( ). This sounds well-rehearsed and very passionate tonight. Seriously, this sucker is powerful-feeling. And honestly? This is probably the best thing of the set so far. This has a been a good, "average great" set so far with nothing that disappoints but also nothing that really makes you stand up to take notice (Yarmouth Road and Timber come close!). This sucker has some heft to it. It doesn't go next-level, but it's a definite "step up".!!!! Nice!!!

Carini - And then....a 22 minute Carini to close the first set?! THAT'S SUPER FRESH! And they just launch into it hard like a SLEDGEHAMMER! BAM! CARINI! HERE WE GO! The initial jamming around the 4 minute mark is SUPER tasty. Page is pounding the piano and Trey is using his octave effect for a cool tone. Right about 5 minutes in, things slowly begin the unavoidable crawl towards the light. At 6:30, the Type I rock jamming evolves into Type II bliss-funk with cool-ass robot FX from Trey used sparingly and creatively. Page has moved over to some squiggly synths and the jam has a very cool "feel-good" vibe not typical of other robot excursions!!! Then at 7:30 Trey kills his FX and proceeds to solo melodically on top of Page's wash of synths for a more watery kind of sound. At 8 minutes, the whole band sync up together on a rhythm and terrific new groove appears!!! At 8:45, Trey kicks on some RoboFX again and the jam morphs, in an instant, into some of the hardest funk vibing of the summer. Everyone has their FX going and they guys are friggin GROOVING! THIS IS OUTSTANDING!! Around the 11 minute mark, things start to turn back towards darkness, hard and fast. Trey is playing with his "waterfall delay" FX doing all kinds of sick textures while Gordo and Page both honk it up on their respective synths. This is freaking SICK!!!!! And thankfully, this lasts several glorious minutes before Trey leads them back to the bliss...Grrrr, just keep it dark, mothereffer! That was amazing! Don't change it! At the 13 minute mark, Trey begins some delay slashes and another rhythm emerges for the band to latch onto. He sets a loop of the delay slashes, then proceeds to run it in reverse or something, following that by layering "bleep-bloop" robot sounds on top! The darkness isn't totally back, but at least we are getting deep into the strange again! Eventually they return to lighter waters, but keep the sounds strange, so everything has a fresh flavor about it. Is Gordo using crazy synth effect around 17:30? Or is that Page? So by this point we still have 5 minutes left, which is just enough time to build us to the massive peak we were denied at Shoreline!!! Trey doing his best "regular" soloing, Page absolutely SMASHING those piano keys, etc. The heat is BUILDING! AND PEAK IT DOES! Around the 20 minute mark, everyone is just smashing their instruments into the friggin' ground, Trey is strumming the hell outta his axe, etc. AND THEN WE GET DENIED THE EFFING PEAK! THEY STOP IT DEAD AND RETURN TO THE CARINI THEME OUTTA NOWHERE! NO! THAT WAS AWFUL!! DONT DO THAT!! GIVE ME THE SWEET RELEASE I CRAVE!!! Ugh, that ending. It doesn't ruin it, but my god what a bunch of teases.....


My goodness, that Carini was incredible. It maybe tried to do TOO much, but at the same time they were never lacking for ideas or energy or anything like that. No aimlessness to think of - maybe too much enthusiasm! That's a great thing! Yet another terrific A+ jam! If this was 2015 this would be the jam of the year. In a summer filled with mind-melting improv, this stacks up against the best of the rest, but in the grand scheme of 2021 is just "another jam". That is a massive compliment to this jam and the strength of 2021 itself. In otherwords, I'm sure this sucker is underrated/forgotten in the wake of the titans surrounding it. Please go revisit this Carini again. It is masterful. Every bit as good as the Tweezer from Shoreline. Holy hell!!!! The only bad part was the HORRIFIC conclusion and peak denial. Other than that it was X Factor Magic, baby!


All in all, a good set! Nothing to be bummed about, a very good song selection, etc. But the playing wasn't always super tight and much of it lacked extra mustard, so to speak. I would honestly say seek out the Yarmouth Road, Timber and Pebbles, but the only thing you NEED is the "where did THAT come from?!?!?!" Carini that closes. It's so extraordinary that it almost feels out of place! Good set, but a clear step "down" from Shoreline, but not for lack of effort. It seems like one of those "they all can't be next-level" kind of sets. I mean, they tried, and the energy was there. It just doesn't always happen for whatever reason but in no way was it anything approaching a boring or poor set.

Set 2

Rise/Come Together - I'm sure everyone was pissed at this being the set opener, and it doesn't even jam! No, seriously, it doesn't even reach 5 minutes in length, lol. But, that aside, I still dig the tune and think it brings a killer dose of heat-drenched positivity that gets the set cooking from the start. Not ideal, but actually go listen before judging it. Highlight worthy? Probably not, but it's still really good!

>A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing - Great segue!!! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?! And even better, the intro sounds powerful for once - why do they always half-ass it....This version is tight as hell and features excellent Type I playing. Several minutes in, the jam starts to really spread it's wings and ventures deep into Type I.5 territory, getting slightly more ambient and blissful. It's pretty dang beautiful, actually!!! This is super NICE!!! Perfectly timed delays and gorgeous piano...In the last minute or two this budding ambience begins to build a head of steam and the guys slowly, perfectly, turn it bit by bit back into a rock jam. But they keep from fulling going off, instead opting to pull it back down to darker areas. In the final minute, we return to a darker, more "70s classic rock" style jam, but then Trey completely ripcords us into Chalkdust when it seemed like we were about to go into outer space...dang it! This sucker is short but don't sleep on it - what's here is terrific, there just ain't enough of it!

>Chalkdust Torture - Ok, I can't complain about getting ripcorded for a 20 minute Chalkdust, can I? Yes I can, but I digress....Chalkdust itself is reasonably tight and full of energy and heat!!! The "chill factor" present throughout 2021 is kept at a minimum and this rages about as hard as you can expect from them at this moment. At 5:50, Trey hits a ridiculous held note that will send shivers down your spine! And with that, it's off to the races!!!!!
After this immediate "mini peak", the jam drops quickly into a low-key area with everyone "quietly" jamming along rather than raging hot. The energy and tempo are up but the guys are taking it deep and taking their time.
They are "whispering" this jam to us....At the 8 minute mark, with Trey carefully soloing along, Page sneaks in some dark synths and it seems like we are heading for space. The guys all seem to latch onto a new rhythm, bolstered by Fishman's slight change in drum pattern. By 9 minutes, this has led to the next "section" of the jam. Trey is honking it up carefully on the RoboWah while Page sneaks in synth washes. Electric piano is happenning alongside the synths, giving a very cool feel to this.
All throughout, Trey is taking his damn time - this is a great example of the difference between a "meandering" lacking direction and one that knows exactly what it is doing but is relishing the time it has to it in. This is very much the latter!!! At 10:30, the jam shifts again. Fishman introduces a more upbeat rhythm, accented with tom-tom fills. The jam is still staying lowing and "quiet", but the guys are full of energy throughout. Hard to explain - I can't say I've ever heard such a CHILL Chalkdust before that was this awesome!!!! This is Chilldust!!!
Around the 12 minute mark, Trey finds another cool little descending "motif" that the guys all follow him onto. By 14 minutes, we are still in the super-chill zone. And this is terrific. And then the moment I typed that, the guys switch into a funkier, more groovy twist on the Chalkdust jam. More drum fills and electric keys, with Trey slowly getting more "angsty" in his playing.
The jam is still absolutely, 100 percent "chill as all hell", but things are getting interesting. We are once more in that "peak building" area of jamming where you can tell things are just gonna get hotter and hotter by the second if they let it keep going! At the 16 minute mark, Trey sets a cool, grindy loop and tastefully does a brief moment of RoboWah guitar slashing coupled with delay. This sees the jam striving to escape the eternal ice age it has been trapped in, but they keep themselves restrained and keep it calm!!!
This is so awesome and strange - it's like they are raging hard, but have the "volume" of their playing turned way down. Super chill, but also super energetic - this doesn't make any sense, but it's incredible!!! If the Carini in set 1 was all over the map in the best way, this Chilldust remains "in the box" in the best way!!!! MUST-HEAR!!! SUPER UNIQUE!!! In the very final minute, the jam complete deconstructs and dies a glorious, "flame going out", slow-death finale. One of the best jam conclusions you're likely to hear all year. Now THAT is how you end a jam!!!!!


>Beneath a Sea of Stars - My goodness, they could not have possibly picked a better song to transition into. That ending of Chalkdust and the move into Sea of Stars was the kind of thing you'd hear in the construction of a studio album, if they had chosen to place these tracks as such. Wow. As for Sea of Stars, it's about 11 minutes long and does EXACTLY what you expect. For other songs that can be bad, but for this song, that is always a wonderful thing. Gorgeous piano and the most beautiful starry-night chill-bliss.....The last few minutes see it building a slight head of steam, if you can call it that. The jamming gets more "abstract" and less structural. Page leads the way with his piano tinkling and Trey lets it rip, just throwing out bursts of notes. Throughout this, Fishman perfectly accents the "tinkling" with his cymbals. Following this, they retreat back to blissful ambience to close. Good lord, that was awesome. Exactly what the doctor ordered....deep and reflective and oh so beautiful.....


>Light - Great segue! It feels super TRIUMPHANT coming out of that beauty. It's got such a "SEIZE THE DAY!" feel about it tonight. Killer segue once again - they are really nailing those lately. Great reading of the song itself. Then right at 3:45, the guys drop into some awesome RoboHonking fun!!! Didn't see that coming! SICK! This goes for several awesome minutes and by the 6:30 mark, you can say we have made the genuine move into Type II. Electric keys alongside piano, while Trey is just doing his "melodic solo" thing on top of it all. A blissful vibe underneath it all (this is LIGHT, afterall...)....This is pretty killer.

>Plasma/Party Time/Chalkdust Reprise - Another in the long line of "how the hell did we get here?" segues tonight. One second we are in a great Light jam, the next, Trey PERFECTLY leads us into Plasma! Cool! And it's not just a tease, it's the full song. Within this is a full blown Party Time reprise as well!! KILLER! WE ARE PARTYING, BABY! Then Party Time slowly morphs back into a full-on Chalkdust reprise!!! THIS IS INSANE! WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENNING ANYMORE!!! RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY!!!!

>Runaway Jim - I guess the ASIHTOS teases got Trey thinking about running away! LOL! And the magic continues. The energy is super high and this is a terrific, A+ Type I reading of Jim. This is basically as good of a Jim as you can probably get in 2021. That's a compliment.

>Slave to the Traffic Light - Great choice to finally cool us down again! A wonderful Type I version that feels extra long tonight. It does exactly what you expect, with extra energy and passion. A terrific reading!

Cavern - Feels a bit out of place and disrupts the flow a tad bit. A fine, regular version. Cavern is Cavern. Nothing more, nothing less.

Waste - Ugh, phenomenal as always. I had to strap on my acoustic and play along with this one. Terrific in every way.....Magical!

Good Times Bad Times - Rough around the edges but brings the heat! First version since Mexico 2020. Killer way to end the show!



All in all, a great show! Set was lacking (aside from the must-hear Carini) but neither did it offend. Set two was almost as good as anything from the two nights at Shoreline. The entire set right through Slave was MUST HEAR!!! The whole ASIHTOS>Chalkdust>BASOS>Light>Plasma/PT/CDT segment was insane. I don't know how anyone could be a Phish fan and not have a blast with this 2nd set. It's terrific. Not the best of the year, but probably in the top 8 or 10 2nd sets for sure!!!!!!