On to 11/30/19 Providence, Night 2
Night 1 was the Plasmathon, this show is the "THX Synth intro" show, lol
Set 1 gets off to a terrific start with the triple header steamroller of
Turtle, Punch and Slow Llama. All are very good to excellent but Punch
is must hear (by 2019 standards). They must have really rehearsed it
because its pretty much flawless, aside from the slightly-too-slow
tempo.
The Trey song intro/Page THX synth fun begins song 4, an excellent little Meat. Its just too short!
"This next number, its called The Old Home Place! Hit it, Page! * cue synths *
Great version, everyone nails their parts.
Rinse and repeat the above for Lawn Boy and I Didnt Know! Trey intro>synths>song 
Fun Phish is sometimes best Phish 
Back to business with a standard hot Maze before the next true highlight
if the set. A 10 minute Jibboo of epic proportions, this thing is
essential listening! Its the ultimate slow burn duel between Page and
Trey, the two slowly building it up and up and up, absolutely tearing it
a new one! MUST HEAR!!! FANTASTIC!!!!
Set 1 ends on a bum note with a decent Stash into a butchered "A-for-effort" Plasma reprise and a solide Golgi.
All in all, this was a fine listen, but musically it doesnt hold a
candle to the first set of night 1. Punch and Maze were both strong and
Jibboo was ESSENTIAL, but outside of that this is just all about the
fun, really, and thats ok!! Its a fine listen, just dont expect musical
fireworks. Nothing was poor, but almost not excelled, ya know what I
mean? One of those "straight down the middle, gets the job done" kinda
sets.
Again though, shoutouts to Punch and THAT JIBBOO!!!
Set 2
Set 2 begins auspiciously with a massive 17 minute Gin! It flirts with
Type 2, but it mostly follows the 2023 template of "stay in your lane
and jusy melt your face off". A pure ROCK SHOW Gin. Really good but it
doesnt even particularly peak that well or anything so it ends up with
that "not enough substance for the length" feeling. Id give it a B+
The following Alaska>WTU (you read that right!) is a glorious
shock-surprise!!! Alaska dissolves into the ultra murky swamps of
frog-croak type 2 ambience segueing beautifully into a FANTASTIC WTU!!
A+ must hear stuff!
Thankfully the following 11 minute Piper keeps the goods rolling! Piper
shreds hard and fast for a good while before slowly morphing into a
funky latin kind of feel, full of Fuego teasing from Page (sounds like
it to me). It then gets real quiet as they break it down, Trey doing
massive wah bursts in and out. Gordo kicks on some bass FX and we are
off....into Golden Age... 
GA is ok, but that gets abandoned quickly for Hood to close the set. The
"song" portion is abysmal - flubby and limp as it gets. Yuck. BUT, as
soon as the "build up" jam arrives, the friggin X FACTOR switch turns on
and from there it rockets to the damn moon!!!!! From there it becomes
one of the best, if not the best version of the year!!!! The back 2/3
are MUST HEAR!!! HOSE! HOSE ALERT!!!!
And we get an INSANE encore of friggin BBFCFM, Kung, Wombat, Possum and Plasma to close!!!
All in all, there was a ton to like about this show and, ON PAPER,
it looks like the friggin show of the year. In reality, whatever
"spark" they had on night 1 is just missing this night for some reason.
Everything is good but not much is ESSENTIAL. Its a very strange
feeling. That being said, Punch, Jiboo, Alaska>WTU, Hood and that
dang encore are probably must hear.
Good show but an "off" vibe.
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