2021-10-19 Eugene, OR

 Home again early from work, so on to the next 2021 show.

10/19/21 Eugene, OR

What the hell is this first set?!

Down With Disease - A friggin' 26 minute monster Disease as the show opener?! Yes, please!!! Let's get it out of the way - the song itself is way too chill for its own good, BUT, it does sound excellently played and performed. I can get down with this. "Mature Disease", if you will, haha. Things continue in the patient-if-boring Type I vein up through about the 10 minute mark. From there, Trey starts to play with some robo fx for a brief minute or two. Then around the 12 minute mark, the jam takes a focused turn towards a lovely round of chill bliss playing. Great stuff. Somewhere around the 14 minute mark the jam begins to slowly regain a head of steam. Trey playing patiently with loopers, Fishman going nuts on the kit. Page is on the keys again. The jam is back to a "type 1" Disease style rock and roll jam. All this changes again when things finally start to get funky around 16:30. Trey turns on the robo FX loops again and everyone gets their funk FX going. Hell yes. By the 18 minute point, the jam is cooling off again quickly, but the robo funk FX remain. We are firmly in Type II. They spend the next few minutes half-assedly going into outer space, not really committing fully, before Trey kills his FX and they turn back to blissful, melodic playing around the 21 minute mark. The final minute or so see the jam getting pretty gnarly again, escaping the bliss. You think they are going to take it far into the black hole this time, but alas it's not to be....Hmm, I'm undecided on this Disease. I know we all can't get what we want, but like the Set Your Soul Free from San Fran, this still just didn't feel all that great despite the length. A lot to like, sure, but not much to LOVE. Still, A+++++ for effort. It's a friggin' 26 minute Disease - it's must-hear no matter the quality.

>Runaway Jim - Hey, the didn't end Disease! Jim is friggin FANTASTIC tonight!!! MORE HEAT ON THIS FACE MELTING JIM THAN THE ENTIRETY OF THAT COLD-ASS DISEASE!!! MUST HEAR!!! KILLER!!! WOW!

Ocelot - Terrific version. Had our song about a dog, so why not the song about a cat as well? As great as any other great rendition. Killer!! No, seriously, this thing rips.

>Rift - Page absolutely tears it up on this sucker. Overall it's not perfect, but considering it's modern Phish track record, this one probably belongs in the upper eschelon of recent versions!! Very strong overall!

Horn - Is Horn. Great but doesn't really need to be highlighted.

Ya Mar - Not my favorite version. Vocally very fun "play one for your grandpa, Leo!!!". It's pretty slow and rather disjointed sounding. Others will love it, but I personally didn't really care for this one. Still, good solo from Page as always.

Stash - Up next...a friggin 16 minute Stash! To quote the Jam Chart: "Moves out of the typical tightly-wound "Stash" jam into an upbeat and almost tropical groove, then moves into a stomping classic rock mode with some standout play from Fish and Trey....". That about sums it up perfectly. A wonderful Stash that takes you on a bit of a journey without straying TOO far from home. Killer.

***Following Stash, Trey takes a few emotional minutes to speak about the people that fell in San Fran and whatnot....

Walls of the Cave - To close the set, of course. The intro is pretty rough. Thankfully they pull it together quickly and turn in an absolute SCORCHER to close the set. Maybe not must-hear, but it'll melt your face all the same!


All in all, a mixed bag of a set. A lot to like but I was disappointed by the Disease. Stash, Jim, Ocelot and Disease are all still must-hear though. A great, if uneven, set.

Set 2

Twist - 15 minute Stash to open set 2. Proceeds as usual until the 5 minute mark when things start to get dark and growly!!! AGGRESSIVE ROBO TWIST!!! Out come the loops and the robo wah fx. This eventually subsides and they slide perfectly into a more "classic rock" type of feel. Still with hints of the latin-flavor Twist themes, but more straightforward now. Very cool stuff!!! The patience is working in their favor this time - nobody is lacking for direction or pulling their punches. This powerful rock flavor persists until around the 12 minute mark. Suddenly things start to shift towards RoboBliss. Loopers are set once more but the rhythms are staying funky. This is sick. It's like it's caught half in Type 1 and half in Type 2. I'd call this jam must-hear. Felt way more "cohesive" and overall rewarding than the opening Disease. EVERYBODY DO THE ROBOT TWIST! Then suddenly Trey reintroduces the Twist riff and the fun is over....

Blaze On - Terrific type 1 reading. It is worthy of a highlight, but this was better suited to set 1 if I'm being honest. Still, another killer type 1 Blaze. Trey is hitting all the right notes with his soloing. Perfection. Around the 7 minute mark, it takes a turn towards a very chill and more dark kind of area, but alas, with only two minutes to go, they don't get to explore the Type II all that much. A minute and a half of darker chill bliss is nice, but we needed more, dang it! But that's actually ok, because they start to get rhythmic and all of a sudden, out of friggin nowhere, we get a segue into....

>Plasma - Hell yes! THAT SEGUE WAS THE BEES KNEES!! Right away, Plasma gets dark and watery. The darkness they didn't pursue in Blaze On comes back with a vengeance. Very cool section. They move in and out, never going TOO deep, but teetering on the brink of going for it. Great stuff. This Plasma is short but pretty must-hear, imo. Unfortunately, the jam dies way too soon and we go into...

>Leaves - If I didn't love this song dearly, I would complain to high heaven about the Plasma jam getting axed for this. Hey, if ya gotta cut short Plasma to get another Leaves, I'm fine with it! Gorgeous and powerful as ever, this is just great. Seriously, Trey goes nuts on this. Powerful and majestic and just all kinds of ass-kicking. A+!!!
Wow....

I Never Left Home - Debut and only version played so far to my knowledge. Sounds great and it gives the set a unique sense of flow coming out of Leaves like that. This should kill the set in its tracks, but it doesn't. Really gives a sense of "journey" to the proceedings! Freaking sick psychedelic jam in the back half - no, seriously, this jam is where it's at. This is must-hear. Synths and loops abound. Killer!!!

Sparkle - Yup, the set is dead, lol

>2001 - Yup, that was a segue!!! Almost 14 minutes on this sucker, wow! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. MUST HEAR. X FACTOR MAGIC. BEST 2001 IN FRIGGIN YEARS!! GO HEAR THIS NOW!!! THEY ACTUALLY JAM IT!!! AND ITS AMAZING!

>Sigma Oasis - See 2001. THIS IS FRIGGIN FANTASTIC!! HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE GREATEST SIGMA IVE EVER HEARD!!!!!! A+++ MUST HEAR!!!! KICKS SO MUCH TAIL!!!!

Drift While You're Sleeping - How could they possibly encore with anything else on such an emotionally charged night? Killer version - LOVE WILL CARRY US THROUGH!!!


All in all, set 1 was a mixed bag, but set 2 was fantastic from start to finish. QUALITY OVER QUANTITY is the name of the game for this set. It felt like a constructed album, each song perfect in it's unexpected place. A total journey from start to finish. Fantastic set - honestly, for as strange as it looks as a playlist, it might be my favorite set of the fall tour so far!!