2023-12-29 New York City, NY

 Been a couple days without a review, so since I'm home on this rainy day, I have no excuse to not keep going with MSG2023.

Onwards to night 2. If anyone recalls, set 1 was a total bust for me - missed train and personal issues, songs missed, horrible vibes.... So I'm actually really looking forward to seeing what I think of this one as lord knows in person I couldn't think about it at all

12/29/23 MSG #2

Set 1

Free - Holy crap, listen to the crowd ROAR! I gotta say, from the get-go, this version is SUPER TIGHT and played at the perfect tempo! Sometimes Free can be a hit-or-miss if everything doesn't line up "just so". Not the case with this one! Perfect guitar solo fills as well. Maybe not the Free of the year, but if you're looking for a "perfectly played" rendition, hit this up pronto! This one reaches 9 minutes - the jam has some great little moments of ambience and strangeness. A terrific Free - seek this one out!!!

The Moma Dance - ***I got into the venue during the last minute or so of Moma. I remember hearing this while walking in and thinking "Oh good, it's only Moma", haha.*** At the end of the day, they tear the roof off as usual. Moma is Moma. Really great "whispered section" in the middle. Terrific A+ energy! As with Free, there really isn't anything "special" at all about this compared to other great versions of the year, but it's played straight with so much energy and just sounds damn great! Really not worth highlighting, but know that it is excellent, still.

Maze - Love the robo-ambience in the intro!!! ***Once I got in and to my seats, there were issues with seat-stealers in my place that had to get sorted, so I didn't get settled until Maze was 2/3 over which REALLY sucked! One of my favorite songs I'd been dying to hear.....**** Play it Leoooooo!!!! Absolutely terrific and shred-tastic soloing from Page! The crowd erupts and roars their approval! Then Trey comes along and absolutely tears this sucker to the friggin ground!!!! HOLY MOTHER OF CHRIST ON A CRACKER THIS MAZE IS AS HOT AS ANY VERSION PLAYED IN THE 90s!!!! 100 PERCENT MANDATORY LISTENING!!! OH MY GOD!!!! OUTSTANDING!! 10/10!!! A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Evolve - "Welcome back! I hope everybody slept well..." I remember being a little "bored" by this choice. I enjoy the song but feel it is probably the most overplayed new song by a wide margin. It's starting to approach Ruby Waves territory, except that Ruby Waves jams. Great song, and always played super well, but it seems to be a "you know what you are gonna get" tune for now. When all is said and done, look to Moma Dance. This is another fine-if-unspectacular/noteworthy reading. I remember it sticking out in person that it wasn't that particularly strong (I mean, it's as good as any other, but not good enough to surpass them or make me rave about it).

Stash - 13 minutes on this one. The closest thing this set comes to actual jamming. The song itself sounds excellent, aside from Trey's off-key "WOOOAAAHHHWOAAAH"s, lol. Trey taps back into the Maze energy and just lets it friggin' rip. If you want a facemelter Stash, this is the one for you. This refuses to stray outside of it's Type 1 lines in any meaningful way whatsoever, but holy nuclear bomb did they just EXPLODE this Stash to friggin' bits!!!! A++++++ Type 1 version that needs to be heard!! Fantastic!

Back On the Train - Yet another terrific Type 1 BOTT. There isn't much else to say. As with Moma Dance, it's fantastic, but at the same time, it's just Back On the Train. Don't sleep on this, but does it really need to be highlighted? Not really. BUT IT'S STILL FRIGGIN GREAT!

Theme From the Bottom - At this point, if you hadn't figured out what kind of setlist this was going to be (the pedestrian kind), I don't know what else to tell you. All songs you love but don't need in the same set, lol. That's harsh, but you know what I mean. Thankfully, this one goes above and beyond even Moma and BOTT with it's Type 1 awesome-sauce. MOTHER FRIGGIN OUTSTANDING! A++++ 10/10 THEME. SO POWERFUL. SO JUBILANT! SLEEP ON THIS AT YOUR OWN PERIL!!! MAGNIFICENT TYPE 1!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!

>Mountain In the Mist - Awesome ambient segue from Theme! Absolutely beautiful as always. Same as ever, but ya gotta highlight this on principle.

46 Days - See Maze^^^^^^^


Drift While You're Sleeping - Normally in a "boring" set like this I'd complain, but this version felt extra strong. Great stuff.


All in all, song-wise, this is a yawn-fest, but they had the playing to back it up. Not a single Type II jam to think of, but who cares when the Type I is THIS fantastic. The Maze was a legitimate ALL TIMER rendition (seriously - please go play this NOW!) and Theme>Mountains>46 Days was terrific. Not an amazing set in the grand scheme, but still very strong for what it is - straight ahead, "greatest hits" type Phish.

Set 2

Chalkdust Torture - 23 MINUTE CDT!!!! In person, I recall the Chalkdust sounding good but also sounding a bit slow or "tired", for lack of a better term. You can hear this a little bit on the recording - it's certainly not the "tightest" version, but it's got a sludgy menace to it that I really dig! The jam begins around the 5 minute mark with Trey vamping on CDT while Page does aquatic keys. Like a chilled-out CDT groove or something. Super cool. It's like they are still inside Chalkdust but are slowly turning it into a weirdo chill-funk version or something.
---By 7 minutes, Type II is fast approaching, if it hasn't already arrived. Trey starts setting loopers and playing with delays, Page is on the watery keys, etc. They are still holding on to the last threads of Chalkdust but things are very strange. By the 9 minute mark, we are in full-blown semi-ambient synth bliss. Or something like that. Page is doing that cool "stuttering synth" thing that he has started using. Trey is doing melodic leads over a looper.
---They stay in that area for a long time, building the intensity back up to a rock and roll rhythm so slowly that you don't even realize what happenned. By 13 minutes we have reached rock and roll bliss with a looper in the background and Fishman doing great "tribal" rhythms all over the toms. This jam is friggin' SICK! It sounds like they are playing the whole thing underwater (hard to explain, but lots of great delay and watery keyboards all over this thing!!!!). This is a damn JOURNEY!!!
---Then, right on the dot, at the 15 minute mark, Trey starts playing with robo FX a bit on top of his wah and delays. Very cool. The whole band then sync up on a great stop-start, pulsing rhythm kind of thing with the crowd going "WOO!" in between. At the 16 minute mark, it sounds like Trey wants to kill the jam for a brief moment, but Fishman pushes onwards and we descend into ROBO SPACE!!!! Full-blown, outerspace, black hole Type II!! SQUIGGLES ABOUND!!!!
---SQUIGGLE WARNING!!!!!!!!! WE ARE HURTLING THROUGH THE WORMHOLE!!!!!!! WHAT IS GOING ON!!!! IF YOU WANT YOUR PHISH DARK AND WEIRD, THIS IS THE FRIGGIN JAM FOR YOU!!! X FACTOR MAGIC!!! WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENNING!?!?!??!
---By 19 minutes, the rhythmic strangeness begins to subside and Trey kicks off the FX....But the guys are all still linked up hardcore, doing an awesome rhythmic thing again before Trey returns to the Whammy pedal for more SQUIGGLE ABUSE!!! This jam is ALL OVER THE MAP!!! By 20:45, the ROBO FX make a massive return like it's 2021 all over again! Gordo finally kicks on his "growler" effect and we are again being sucked into the proverbial wormhole, being dragged every which way. ROBO MELTDOWN ALERT!!!!! THIS JAM IS THE SOUND OF A DYING DROID!!!! WHAT THE HELL! THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST JAMS OF THE YEAR. TOP 10 or 12, EASILY. BRUH. TOTAL ROBO DEATH......

>Oblivion - 17 minutes on this one, you can hear Trey signaling this from a mile away in the dying throes of that monster Chalkdust (torture, indeed!!!!). I remember being so stoked to get Oblivion and knew we HAD to be in for a lengthy one after that!!! The jam proceeds as usual until things start to get weird around the 8 minute point. A cool rhythmic thing starts happenning and everyone follows on. Page doing weird synths while Trey does melodic soloing. All the while, Fishman is going bananas behind the kit as if to say "HEY. LISTEN TO ME!". The jam is very upbeat and feel-good, which is funny, considering it's birth out of that Robot Hellscape Chalkdust!!!!! Around the 10 minute mark, Trey starts to go ham on the wah pedal and we are just deep into a wonderful rock and roll jam. It almost sounds like they are getting ready to go into Party Time!!! An EXPLOSIVE Party Time!! Then, around 12:45, Trey drops into an ascending motif and the jam just SKYROCKETS into PeakVille, population: this friggin' Oblivion!!! Around 13:45 Trey hits the longest note this side of Divided Sky and holy crap it is OFF TO THE FRIGGIN RACES BOYS AND GIRLS!!!

Yo, that Oblivion was X Factor Magic!!! Pure rock and roll insanity like the Ghost from 12/28!!!!!!! MY GOODNESS!!!!

What's the Use - 7 minutes on this one, it goes deep fast. It doesn't segue out of Oblivion, so it feels a little weird when it comes out of a dead stop, but that's ok, This was absolutely the perfect song choice for the spot. After the robo insanity of CDT and the melt-your-face shred fest of Oblivion, this cools us down while giving us a more "mysterious" and slightly dark vibe. Wonderful version!!!

>My Friend My Friend - YES! That was a true segue! Wow! Again, keeping the darkness going strong, what a great choice of song and a unique set placement as well! 11 minutes, this one felt like the little brother of the much-lauded Alpharetta version from the summer. Following the regular extreme meltdown portion, around the 8 minute mark, Fishman introduces a new drum beat. A true, blue, Type II MyFe!!!! Wow! Trey is going nuts on the RoboWah along to Fishman's new rhythms. They keep this going and jam it hard for several minutes until it slowly starts to slow down with Trey introducing a genuine segue into....

>Sand - Again, the PERFECT choice outta that robo hell!!! YES!!! THIS IS FRIGGIN AWESOME!!! THAT SEGUE WAS PERFECT!!! This sucker is merely 10 minutes, but it does it's sandy Sand thing and melts our faces just like we want. Hell yes.

About to Run - Not really anything THAT special, but it kicks ass just like Sand, so I might as well highlight it

Harry Hood - Hood to close, 15 minutes on this one. I know I'm often not a Hood guy, but I tell ya what, they had me enraptured from the first drum beat. I could not wait to scream "HOOD!" with everyone else. And thankfully this is a wonderful Hood! Very tight, Trey nails his parts and the whole thing sounds dark and angsty to go with the mood of the set. A wonderful Hood to close a wonderful, and oddly DARK, second set!

Lonely Trip - First encore. Is Lonely Trip. Great to hear, imo

Carini - Only 9 minutes, but the Garden friggin' EXPLODED!!!! I lost my mind, that's for sure. First encore Carini since the famous 2021 version!



All in all....set 1 is a snooze pretty much (the playing IS great though), but the 2nd set is where it's at. A terrific set chock full of amazing stuff. The CDT>Oblivion and WTU>MyFe>Sand are MUST HEAR. Seriously, the CDT>Oblivion is one of the finest pairings of the year. The Chalkdust has to be in the top 5 or 6 STRANGEST jams of the year along with the Berkeley SYSF or the Dayton Ruby Waves. Just insane. A great gig on the whole. Many will prefer this show and I wouldn't argue!!!!