For context, im clocked in at work, sitting in my car doing nothing,
waiting for another dump truck to come in since they sent mine out while
I went to an appointment this morning. 
Onwards to 7 12 23 Huntsville #2
Night 1 may not have been classic but it was still a damn strong outing, imo
Night 2's first set opens with.... Plasma! I dont think Plasma has ever
opened a show before, no?! Great version, 9 minutes long, that wastes no
time getting down to latin-funk business. Awesome opener. Gotta love
the wah abuse.
Holy crap the fire-from-the-sky peak on this sucker! My god!!! Peak! Peak! Peak!!
Talk about comin out swinging! And into a...16 minute Sigma Oasis!!! The
song itself is super tight and full of ultra-passionate energy. This already feels like a "classic" version. The jam is crazy. It begins out of the back of the song as this rapid fire, robo-funk thing. Totally unexpected!!! This thing FUNKS to high heaven!!! Holy crap!!!!
Eventually the funk slows down. Page sneaks in some synths and the jam
develops a more chill, ambient sound. Interesting beats from Fishman
keep the danceable groove going, but we are in an utterly positive and
uplifting soundscape. Trey noodling with delays, Page doing water Clav
stuff, Gordo locked in with Fishmans thumping kick drum....
Slowly, the jam rebuilds itself back into a fiery and roll finale. Just
kidding, they bring it back to the funk and send us out groovin!
Unique!!! Spectacular!!! MUST HEAR!!! Now THAT is how you jam!!!!
My god....
Sigma Oasis - Guys, that was magical! That was one of the top to bottom most perfect pieces of music I have ever heard. Multi sectional. Smooth transitions. Inspired playing. And again, uniqueness!!!
And the groove train keeps rolling! An ultra funky Wolfman is up next.
It does its Wolfman thing witu aplomb but is nothing you need to rush
out to hear. Unexpected and amazing peak though!!!
Evolve is up next!!! Ive only heard the, I think it was, 8/4/21 version.
I know I loved that and im glad to see this song becoming a staple
after a "delayed" launch of infrequent performances. Jesus christ
you need to hear Page on this! Absolutely ripping up the piano! THIS IS
FANTASTIC! THIS HAS NO BUSINESS BEING THIS GOOD!!! And by golly, Trey's solo is oh so perfect.....this was a massive surprise to me! WOW!
Also, does Evolve sound like a rocked up Water In The Sky to anyone else?
Up next is a 9 minute Mull. So glad this song is sticking around. It freaking rocks AND grooves AND is ultra catchy!!!!! Im a Mike fan but this is the best song of his theyve learned in a while, imo. And I swear each version is better than the last! "CAN YOU PASS ME A TACO?!" Good lord that chorus is such an earworm....Awesome Mull!!!
YO! THIS MULL FRIGGIN JAMS, TOO!!!!!
Right away, you think the song is concluding, but instead they keep the
red hot groove going. Cactus is TEARING it up!!! Trey is doing his rock
riffing thing. This is a friggin steamroller!!!! Trey and Page both working the songs melody into their solos is so choice as wel!!
The overt rocking eventually chills out a bit, but the power and
intensity remain. Things even threaten to go the distance at times, with
the band hitting upon a stomping robot groove for the last few minutes,
seeing the song dissolve into a scary mess.
UGH!! I NEED MORE OF THIS!!! INJECT THIS DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS!! THIS IS AWESOME!!! MUST HEAR!!
Bouncing Around the Room. Great placement to cool us off after having our faces melted!
Stash is up next and, ew, Trey totally butchers the intro... Thankfully
the rest of it is pretty tight. The song itself is good but nothing
special, but the jam gets quite hot! Unexpectedly, it goes into full
blown "classic rock" peak mode for most of its duration! Very cool!!
Then back to the darkness to close...Good Stash overall...
David Bowie to close the set. Much more ramshackle than the immaculate Los Angeles version. This is what we expect
Bowie will sound like these days, unfortunately. Some parts are super
tight, some are on the verge of falling apart. An ok Bowie, not great.
Set 1 was a pretty mixed bag. The heights felt stronger than those of
set 1 from 7 11, but then the set kinda petered out to a substandard
conclusion with that "eh, I guess they were ok" Stash and Bowie
The first five songs Mull, Evolve and Plasma are all terrific and that
Sigma Oasis was an all-timer version if Ive ever heard one
.
I cannot overstate the greatness of that Sigma Oasis. It was PERFECT.
So basically, keep the first 5 songs then skip to set 2
Set 2
A destructive-as-always Wave of Hope starts the set with us headbanging.
Quickly, the jam gets into uptempo dark chill (or whatever). Fishman
and Gordo are tearing it up, but Page and Trey are doing that bliss
stuff on top. Its good, but feels like it clashes with the rhythm and
the jam struggles a little to "lock in". From here the guys just ride it
to a blissful conclusion. Not a "bad" version by any means, but
the jamming never went anywhere and Trey sounded lost/unsure throughout.
Not the finest outing for Wave....
Mercifully, Trey abandons the sinking ship by ripcording us into Fuego.
Thankfully, the other guys pick up the slack and somehow the segue isnt a
trainwreck! There is no way in hell that transition should have worked .....but it did!!!
And Fuego is a POWERHOUSE tonight! Holy crap on a cracker, they grab our heads and smash them into the ground... Best part?! This sucker is almost 20 minutes long!!!
Right at the 7 minute mark we achieve liftoff. Trey hits upon a riffy
rhythm and the guys pick up on it. Around 8 minutes the jam dies down to
a watery darkness. Its sink or swin time. Thankfully they decide to swim!
Page on his No Quarter keys while Trey and Fishman are doing more rhythm
based playing. Then at 9:30, the 1999 whammy pedal comes into use and
those synths creep into the background.
Type 2 achieved!
The guys stay in this for a few minutes, slooowwwlllyyy getting
darker and building the intensity. But then, just as you think its
gonna start rocking back up, they bring it down dark and bluesy!!!
Trey is deep in the robo wah swamp and its glorious. Then here comes Page with his major key synths to change the jam up.
Check out the synthesizer hellscape at 13 minutes!!!
Trey soloing melodically, Page inserting synth pulses, Gordo and Fishman exploding like a cannon behind them.
This is INTENSE!!!
Then at 15 minutes the jam morphs into a feel good stomp. You can hear
Blaze On coming from a mile away, but thankfully its not to be. Trey is
doing great solo stuff with his delays. Gordo is using his synth FX and
Page is coloring up the soundscape like a child with a pack of crayons
This is sick.
This slowly builds back into a rocking groove and they bring Fuego to a close. Awesome.
Wow! That wasnt "better" than the Berkeley Fuego, but it was still
awesome. If you like synthesizer Phish, this is the jam for you!
And, perfectly, they keep the intensity going by launching into another
crazy, FX driven Piper. I think I like this better than the Seattle
version. Great full band interplay! The guys sound locked in and navigate deftly through a couple different soundscapes.
Super kickass delay jam in the back half!! Sounds like a spinning vortex!!! Killer little Piper!!!!
Maybe not must hear, but coming out of THAT Fuego, its a pretty sick addendum, basically, to the jam that came before!
And out of Piper into the Phish debut of Ether Edge
Im a new Trey apologist, but im not a massive fan of this song just yet. I really like the jaunty, Evolve-esque verses, but the whole construction of the song feels a bit all over the place.
Good stuff, but im looking forward to better versions. Oblivion's debut this was not.
Mercury! Yes! A lengthy version! 16 minutes on this sucker. And
thanfully, Mercury sounds pretty tight and well played tonight!! The
full band type 1 on this is terrific. It never goes into outer space,
but it grooves like a mofo until its conclusion. No need to rush to hear
this, but this was very, very nice!!!
Awesome little Mercury!!!
The jam slowly starts to peter out, then we get a friggin AWESOME segue into Free that slams you like a piano dropped from the sky! Hell yea!!!
And Free CRUSHES tonight!!! Insane OOMPH factor!! Super funky as well. Trey lays back a good bit, but it contributes to the overall feel in a great way. GET IT, GORDO! Im involuntarily headbanging, lets put it like that. WELCOME TO THE GORDO SHOW!!! Seriously,
his solo is like 3 minutes long tonight. Then Trey takes his time
rejoining, doing minimalistic funk noodling that is oh so perfect. They
aint rushing this one!! Eventually they build back to the rock and bring
it on home like a guided missile nuking the enemy in their sights.
12 minutes of pure, unadulterated, grade A, Free-type destruction.
That was MUST HEAR!! Holy crap. Great set ender!!!!!
Encore
Alumni Blues suite! Wow, that was unexpected!!! The boys kill it! Always great to get
Antelope closes the show. AND IT DESTROYS!
All in all, Id say this was easily the stronger of the two shows.
This show was a bit more "up and down" from song to song, but the
highlights were pretty massive and mostly blew away the majority of 7/11
Id say 7/11 deserves like a 3.9 or 4.0 and this deserves a solid 4.2 or so
Killer show that was a blast from start to finish!!!
Must hear highlights:
Sigma Oasis
Mull
Fuego
Free
Antelope
Almost-must hear highlights:
Piper
Mercury
Evolve
Plasma
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