I lied, I'm doing proper reviews of the 4 MSG shows to close things out, well, properly! 
Today it is 12/28/23, MSG #1
I will try my best to put my memories aside for this. That's
pretty easy as it's hard to make out much detail at a show in person
(for me, at least).
Set 1
No Men In No Man's Land - Absolutely CRUSHING and EXPLOSIVE type 1 shredfest!!! A
terrific version bordering on must-hear. Reminds me of the Alpharetta
2021 Sand where it will be quickly forgotten but absolutely brought the
house down while it was happenning. SERIOUS ENERGY!!!! KILLER!
Halley's Comet - One of my sleeper hits of the run. The opening
vocal section sounds downright awful, Trey warbling all over the place
and out of key...Honestly, the song itself sounds a little sluggish.
Thankfully, after a couple minutes, they pull it together and the tight
energy returns. The jam begins right at 5 minutes, then, at 5:50, you
can hear someone hit a wrong note/wrong change (or something like that)
and the jam instantly hits upon a new direction. Into a funky robot area
we go, Trey honking it up with the RoboWah Deluxe, Page mirroring his
playing over on the electric piano. Soon after, Trey returns to a normal
sound and the guys proceed to just straight up Type 1 peak this sucker
to a raging conclusion. Not an all-timer, but a surprisingly
potent version considering the semi-brief runtime (hey, it hits 10
minutes, just about!). Go revisit this - it kicks tail once it gets
going!!!
>Sample In a Jar - Unexpected segue into Sample that somehow
worked better than it should. Super powerful Type 1 on this, ala the
Seattle 2023 version I love so dearly. Nothing special in the slightest,
but this absolutely delivers exactly as you expect. Trey is ALL OVER this thing just going HAM on his axe!!!!! Wow!!!
Runaway Jim - Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! The hits keep a-comin'!!! As
with the first three numbers, this is just all-killer no-filler Type 1
like it's 2011 again. Before the big "hit", I love how they bring it
down to total silence then quickly BAM, right in the face! The jam beins
very quiet and delicate start to the jam. The guys take it nice and
easy, keeping a great "chill" feel for a long while. Trey is having a
good night, hitting all of the "right" notes at the perfect times. This
slowly builds into a SOARING solo from Trey. Totally must-hear little Jim!!! Seriously!!! A+++++ Type 1!!! Must hear!
Bouncing Around the Room - Is BATR. Good set placement for once.
Nice breather. Noteworthy for being exceptionally well performed
tonight. They don't get played better than this. Yes, it's an easy song,
but this version is TIGHT . Super well done!!!! A+.
Axilla - I remember the place friggin' EXPLODED when they
launched into this. First repeat of the run for me, caught this in
Charleston in 2019. Love the outro jam on this one. Slightly longer than
usual, Trey gets to some really great places with it. Love when it gets
super evil with Page's synths blaring in the background!! Total Egg In a Hole vibes! Killer.
Funky B - See Axilla. I remember in person the place exploded yet again and also that Gordo was particularly into
this version, which was AWESOME to see!!! Very cool delay work from
Trey during Page's solo. I haven't heard that in a Funky B. In the back
half, listen to Cactus absolute TEAR it up! Shredding up that bass
and also absolutely howling his vocals. Killer. Must-hear!!! NUCLEAR
BOMB FUNKY B!!!! MACHINE GUN TREY!!!! FREAKING SHRED IT UP!!! LETS
FREAKING GO!!!!!
Bathtub Gin - 17 minutes! Let's go!!!! Right off the rip, the
tempo is UP and the song has a harder-rocking feel about it. It's
subtle, but enough to make you take notice! During the song, EVERYONE is
going hardcore with the vocal scatting, so much so that it even
influences the start of the jam. Sick to hear!! Around 5 minutes the
jamming begins and then around 6 minutes they shift into Type 1.5. The
jam starts all chill like Runaway Jim, almost having a laid-back
nighttime kind of feel to it. Trey hanging back and picking his shots
while Page takes the lead on the keys. Around the 8:30 mark, things start to get weird. They
dive deeper into this laidback nighttime feel. Trey setting backwards
guitar loops while Page plays with some interesting stuttering
synthesizer FX. Gordo is even varying up his playing, doing strange
bends throughout. This lasts a good long time - at least a few
minutes!!! Eventually, around 10:30, Page axes the stuttering synths for
his "No Quarter" watery keys and the jam begins to take flight. Trey
starts soloing it up and the whole thing begins to slowly move skywards.
At the 11 minute mark, Page jumps on the piano and INSTANTLY the
jam rockets up in intensity by about 10 clicks!!!! HOLD ON TO YOUR
SEATS! THERE WILL BE PEAKS!!! At this point we have left weirdo
night-synth land behind and are rocketing to the heavens in a good
old-fashioned "type 1", bliss-fire rager of the highest order. The tempo
keeps increasing bit by bit and you know they are gonna just explode
this sucker sooner than later! Sick mini-peak around 12:40!!! This goes forever until around the 14 minute point where Trey is full on giving us the business, just tearing it up atop Mount Bliss-Peak. Swirling piano, shredding Trey, 90s style x factor magic....THIS IS SICK!!! HOLY CRAP LETS GET IT!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!
AND IT KEEPS GOING!!! AND GOING!! AND GOING!!! MY MEMORY WAS RIGHT!!! THEY PEAK THIS THING LIKE 10 TIMES!!!!! HELL YES!!!!!
Then finally at 16:15, the jam concludes with a great return to the Gin
theme, and by 16:30, this masterpiece of fiery bliss has reached a
conclusion.....
WOW!!!!
>Ghost - THAT SEGUE! Extra bonus shred spectacular to close the set! Don't sleep on this!! Right off the bat, Trey is playing chill, but the band has the same hotter fire from Gin. Awesome. Also, singing along in person was beyond awesome. One of my Phish dreams coming true!
The jam starts slow and swampy, Trey absolutely honking it up on the
wah, but doing so patiently. Wonderful drum-sample fills from Fishman
throughout! Very slowly, they increase in intensity, never rushing,
always taking their time. Around 5:45, there is a great "accidental"
moment where the jam shifts in a major way. They move into more upbeat
waters, Fishman still going strong with the fills and samples, Trey
still going ham on the wah. Page and Trey are almost mirroring each
other at times. Around 6:30, Fishman introduces a much quicker, more
shuffley rhythm, seemingly in an attempt to propel the jam in a new
direction (or at least speed up the one they were heading for).
Thankfully, they avoid going completely into bliss heaven by the fact
that Trey keeps his robo FX going, sets some loopers, and things stay
just askew enough to make this different than your typical latter-day Type I Ghost. At
8:42, Page jumps to the piano while Trey is going nuts with loopers and
the jam begins to head for Peakville. Around 9 minutes, Trey begins his
circular trilling and the jam just LIFTS THE F OFF in a huge way!!!
HERE WE GO!!! HOLD ON TO YOUR FRIGGIN HATS!!!!
THEN AT
10 MINUTES THE JAM FRIGGIN EXPLODES!!! MORE PEAKAGE THAN THAT GIN!!!
MORE SHREDDING THAN THAT FUNKY B!!! WE EVEN GET A NO MEN IN NO MANS LAND
TEASE TO BOOKEND THE SET!!! YES!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!! HELL YEA!!!! 
And
with that....set 1 of YEMSG 2023 is over. An absolute barnburner of a
set, Halley, Jim, Funky B and of course the masterpiece duo of
Gin>Ghost to close are all MUST HEAR with everything else being A+
Type 1 of the highest order. A set that doesn't go TOO far out there but
does it's thing with more pizazz and aplomb than you can shake a
Gamehendge at. An absolute BLAST of a set without a single weak link in
the chain!! WOW! As good as my memory!!!
Set 2
The Howling - HELL YES!! LETS FRIGGIN GO!!! You bet your ass I got the F down to this sucker and howled my tail off! AWOOOOOOOOO!!!! An
absolutely perfect choice to get the set going in a PARTY mood!!! Not
quite the masterpiece from Dicks, but this sucker still rages hard and,
as I said, was the perfect song to get us up and grooving!!!! KILLER!!! SO, MUCH, ENERGY!!!!
>A Wave of Hope - 24 minutes, longest of the year!!!! And that perfect segue, smooth as butter!!! ***I'll
never forget this one in person. It felt like it went on forever in the
best way possible. This was maybe the single new song I wanted to hear
more than any other, equal to how much I was dying to catch Mercury in
2019.*** As usual, this sucker rages hard to high heaven. An absolute Machine-Gun Trey SMOKESHOW.
---Around 6:30, the first sign of deviation occurs with Trey doing these
longing sustains for a while, setting a cool loop of them in the
process. Meanwhile, Page begins to vary up his piano as well. By 9
minutes, we are still rocketing skyward at 200mph, but the jam is
definitely beginning to take on a more introverted yet psychedelic
kinda style. Backwards guitar and loops, Trey playing off of Page,
Fishman slowing down the drums, synths creeping in.....WELCOME TO TYPE 2
BOYS AND GIRLS!
---Around 11:30, we have full assimilated into the Borg hivemind, if you
will. Page takes the lead on the synth while Trey does porno-wah
background accompaniment. At the same time, Fishman amps it up again and
gets us going quick, getting us shooting straight into outer space.
---At 12:30, the drums and synths and psychedelic insanity comes to a halt. We enter Quiet Bliss Heaven!!! Pounding tom-tom fills, Page buttering us up with textural synths, Trey unsure what to do, lol. This is pure, unadulterated Type 2 of the best sort.
---Eventually around the 14:30 mark, we begin to move into a much
heavier space, ala the dark section of the Greezer. Or something like
that. A great midtempo STOMP , if you will. Super heavy and rocking, like a jam out of an About to Run!!!! CHECK OUT CACTUS GROWLING IT UP AT 16 MINUTES!!! HOLY CRAP THIS IS FRIGGIN SICK!!! THIS IS BONKERS!!!!
---Then, at 16:45, they launch back into the Wave of Hope rhythm outta
nowhere! You can tell Trey was planning to conclude the song finally and
they start to build to the expected rock and roll peak!!! This
kind of happens, but they keep averting it and stretching this sucker
out instead. By 19:30 we are back into a blazing lava hot rock and roll
jam like you expect. Fantastic.
OH MY
GOD!!!! CHECK OUT THAT BLAZING PEAK AROUND 21 MINUTES!!!! HOLY CRAPP!!!
CAN HE PLAY ANY HIGHER OR ANY HOTTER?!?!?!? MY FACE IS IN A PUDDLE ON
THE FLOOR!!!!! THAT GIN AIN'T GOT NOTHING ON THIS!!! FANTASTIC!! MUST
HEAR!!! ONE OF THE BEST JAMS OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!
So they conclude it afterwards and we move on to......
>Rift - In a very rare move, Wave of Hope does NOT return to the song and instead we get a GENUINE ambient segue into....THE BEST PLACED RIFT OF ALL TIME. Seriously, this damn segue/set placement is so ridiculously great....And
thankfully, Rift is played mostly flawlessly!!! Trey is picking
everything audibly and hitting all his notes for the most part. Terrific
stuff!! Not a classic Rift, but it'll still get your damn blood
pumping!!! And again, that set placement!!!!
>Mike's Song - And the stellar placements continue! That segue
was killer and the "Howling" "awooooo!!!!!" samples that immediately
follow the main riff were great!!! The song is taken at a slightly
groovy-sounding pace tonight, full of oomph. The initial jam picks up on
this and is SUPER FRIGGIN FUNKY!!!! Lots of easy delay and laid back super-grooves. This is spectacular! Around 6:40, Trey busts out the robo FX. THINGS ARE BEGINNING TO GET SQUIGGLY!!!!!! This
only lasts about a minute and by 7:40 Page is on the piano with Trey
using a clean tone. The next few minutes see them rage this thing to
high heaven. ABSOLUTELY SKULLCRUSHING!!! HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP!!!!! THE X FACTOR IS FLOWING!!!
>Simple - And out of the short Mike's Song of the year into one of the Simple's of the year!!!! 14 minutes on this one. ***Getting
a legit Mike's>Simple like it's the 90s was one of my Phish dreams,
it must be said. I honestly could not believe it was happenning in front
of me!*** The guys lay hard into the chill ambience out of the
song, leading to the start of the jam. Instead of ending and going to
another song, they stay in the zone and just keep it going and going and
going. It's absolutely delightful.
-----Then, right at 6:50, the light comes to an end and Trey begins
riffing. The guys very slowly start to move into another direction. An uneasy, hazy space-ambience is the new backdrop atop which Trey lays down his leads. A very cool sustained note loop persists throughout this section. Still
taking their sweet time, around 9:45, looper still going, the whole
band begins to raise the intensity of the jam considerably. Still at a
slow Godzilla-stomp tempo, Trey lets it loose again like it's About to
Run.
----The jam by this point is a big swirling, fiery mess of guitar
histrionics and robotics juxtaposed against the soothing calmness of
Gordo's bass lines and Page's keyboard playing. Kinda claustrophobic! Then,
at 11:45, the mood shifts again, and slowly a new driving, pulsing kind
of rhythm emerges!!!! This sees the band leading the song to it's
conclusion. No peakage, just a great set up for the following tune....
>Blaze On - Again, great little segue! Your standard blazing
hot version to close the show. Belongs more in set 1, but I'll take it.
Great stuff!
ENCORE - FOUR songs?!?!?
Mercy - I refuse to lowercase that. Only 2nd time ever played by Phish!!! Very nice, I was maybe the only person around me the recognized it, lol
The Squirming Coil - Very tight reading of the classic. Terrific
outro solo by Page. You know something's up when the band stays put and
doesn't leave the stage!
Weekapaug Groove - Is Weekapaug. How could they not?! I was
worried they wouldn't play it and thank god they did! Nothing that
special, but ya gotta have it!
SANTOS - HOLY FRICKIN CRAP HOTTER THAN THE SUN!!!! Being on the
floor for this was absolutely incredible. Those lights spinning at
200mph, blinding me. You have no idea how much I headbanged to this. I
had to be the happiest person in the entire room to get SANTOS.
All in all....THE FRIGGIN REVIEW SPEAKS FOR ITSELF!!! Honestly, they
came out SWINGING HARD this night, with the x factor flowing big time.
One of the most balanced shows you'll ever hear. Starting with the best,
eh?
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