Took me a month, but today I conclude the 2021 Jon Fishman's Almost TAB run of shows (then I can restart Fall 2021! 
)
10/3/21 New York City, NY
Set 1 -
Back On The Train - A truly wonderful Type I reading. Check out
Dezron's killer playing and Ray's keys give a terrific new feel to it.
Love the percussion as well. Super colorful sounding! Awesome!!! Red hot on all fronts. A+++
The Moma Dance - Yet another Super Moma!!! This one is
roughly 20 minutes. The first 3 minutes, before the vocals even enter,
are SICK! This doesn't even sound like Moma - it sounds like something
else! The friggin' bongos, Dezron's INSANE grooving!!! Jeez.... Around
the 7 minute point, the jam gets quiet-like and Trey takes the first
solo. Strong Type 1 ensues. Following some moments of spastic interplay
between everyone, around the 11 minute mark Trey kicks on the RoboWah
and things get even more heated! Around 14 minutes, just as you
think the jam is gonna stay "in it's lane", Trey sets a whacky looper
and some very odd, funk-psych (whatever the hell you wanna call it)
ensues. Ray is getting things super heated with new motifs over
on the keys, Dezron is keeping that damn groove on LOCK like Mike on a
1999 Sand, and the jam is just exploding with fire and intensity. Overall,
this isn't the most out-there thing ever played, but it's 20 minutes of
purer FIRE with a large dose of colorful weirdness thrown in as well.
Wow!!! The final few minutes see one of the melti-downiest meltdowns in
all of guitar meltdowns!!! MELTING GUITAR FIRE!!! MUST HEAR!!!!
Undermind - Undermind up next, and, what do you want me to say?! It crushes! Dezron, of course, sounds spectacular throughout!
Nothing you wouldn't expect. Red hot Type 1 of the blazing volcano
variety but ultimately not that UNIQUE. Killer, still.
Ocelot - 15 minutes!!! What the hell!! ULTRA FUNKY!! Get it, Dezron!!!! MUST
HEAR!!! VERY UNIQUE!!! THIS GETS SUPER DARK AND LATE NIGHT!!!! ALMOST
SCARY!!!! FREAKING AWESOME!!! X FACTOR MAGIC!!! MUST HEAR MUST HEAR MUST
HEAR!!!
YO. TYPE II OCELOT. THIS IS MASTERFUL. DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO LISTEN TO THIS RIGHT NOW.
Set Your Soul Free
- Raging 15 minute beast! Must hear!!! It does some super amazing
chill-fire kind of jamming. Super, super-stretched Type I I guess, but
it's absolutely must hear!!! A++++++
Dark and Down - Killer as anything else in the set. Slow, powerful, bluesy guitar fun. HOLY
FREAKING CRAP THAT MELTDOWN PEAK!!! MOLTEN GUITAR ANNIHILATION. SWEET
MOTHER OF MERCY SOMEONE PUT THAT AXE OUT OF IT'S MISERY!!! MUST HEAR!!!
All in all...my goodness....Set 1 was
incredible. Moma might be a bit "light" on substance for those averse
to excessive Type 1 groove-jamming, but I thought it was terrific.
Ocelot is X Factor ridiculousness. Easily the most out-there Ocelot I
have ever heard in my life. MUST HEAR in every way, shape and form. Set
Your Soul Free was super, super strong Type 1 that hinted at weirder
waters but never went there. Dark And Down was a friggin' nuclear bomb.
You NEED to hear that at least once....
My goodness...what a set....
Set 2
Sand - Turn this up loud and sink into the groove....
Only 11 minutes, this one isn't really anything all that special, but of
course it's still excellent. Think of this as a warmup....Jesus christ, that final couple of minutes.....
Everything's Right - 36 MINUTE SUPER BEHEMOTH!!!! What the hell?! The song itself begins ultra-CHILL. It
proceeds as expected. Right around the 6 minute mark, the proper jam
begins with Trey jumping on the robowah. Dezron picks up on a motif Trey
is doing and that becomes the new groove. This proceeds until roughly
14 minutes. The jam starts to get quieter and more late-night sounding,
with everyone doing circular, repeating motifs. Trey is laying hard into
his bleep-bloop robo sound and the whole thing is a swirling mess of
rhythm and groove. This is incredible. Around 16 minutes,
Trey begins doing ridiculous, hyperspeed delay patterns!!! He sets a
loop of this and we are off to the races!! Ray solos along and the jam
is getting into the ROBOT SQUIGGLES!!!! Meanwhile, Fishman is
still keeping the latin-jazz vibe going, but the whole thing sounds like
a spacey mess of robo craziness!!! Full blown, genuine, Type 2, boys and girls. Around
the 19 minute mark, an insane section happens where Trey begins an
ascending pattern. Everyone else locks in and we are off to the
sky....Around the 22 minute mark, the craziness subsides completely. The
whole jam quiets right down. Cyro comes to the fore with excellent and
colorful percussion accenting the stop-start rhythm the band has settled
into. This is freaking SICK. This stop-start section
lasts for a very long time. It very slowly spends its time in
bleep-bloop land, slowly building back the intensity until around the 30
minute mark when proper, slow-groove guitar-fire soloing resumes. My god, this is nuts....It basically rages as expected to a conclusion....
Wow, what to say. Of course that was must hear. That was probably tied
with 10/2/21's Mr. Completely suite as THE piece of music from these
shows. Absolutely terrific from start to finish, it never felt lacking
for ideas or overly "vampy". I really, really love the "full" feeling of
the jamming in these shows - in Phish it SOMETIMES feels like Trey
soloing atop everything, but in these jams it really feels like everyone
is always super locked in tight with each other and the whole band is
playing "as one", so to speak.....But yea, that Everything's Right was a
damn masterpiece. Genuine GOAT contender....
Lonely Trip - This honestly made me shed a tear. My god, Ray's piano is outstanding on this - it will send chills down your spine. Lonely
Trip is Lonely Trip, but until I hear a better version (haven't heard a
strong Phish one), this is the GOAT, as far as I'm concerned. If you
pick a version of Lonely Trip to hear forever, it will definitely be
this one. 10/10, A+++++++++++++ Gorgeous in the extreme.
I Never Left Home - HOLY CRAP THIS GROOVES. This is sick. This is freaking awesome. Super, ultra-dark and nasty, crazy robo-delay annihilation from Trey. GODZILLA STOMP DESTRUCTION. GET IT! MUST HEAR!
>Carini - I Never Left Home melts down into a massive, 13 minute, headbanger's paradise reading of Carini. The
freaking POWER behind this!!! This Carini is heavy like a 20 ton
weight!!! Trey proceeds to go on an absolute TEAR!!! Listen to him rip
this thing to shreds!! And then listen to Dezron just annihilating
everything in sight like his bass is a nuclear-powered bazooka cannon!!!
THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!! A++++++ MUST HEAR!!!! FREAKING KICK ASS IN THE
EXTREME!!!!
And with that, the set comes to a close..... My god. The entire
thing was balls-to-the wall. The WHOLE effing set was must-hear, pretty
much. ER is legendary for a reason, Lonely Trip is likely the greatest
ever played (that I've heard so far), INLH>Carini is the stuff
scientists studied to learn how to create nuclear weaponry....
Acoustic encore:
Strange Design - Acoustic Trey is Acoustic Trey, but this was oh so perfect and wonderful. A+
Backwards Down the Number Line - Good stuff!
At this point, the legendary James Casey comes out to join Trey!!!
Evolve - Full electric band again. Yo, the sax soloing is SICK!!!! Must hear!!!
Rise/Come Together - GOAT STATUS! GOAT STATUS!! JAMES CASEY ON VOCALS AND SAX!! THIS SEND CHILLS DOWN MY ARMS!!! FREAKING AWESOME!!!
You can feel the power in the chorus - how obvious they are playing the
song as a "statement" at the end of this run of shows. Incredible!!!
MUST HEAR!!!
A Life Beyond the Dream - And how the hell else were they supposed to end this magical run of shows. Good lord....
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