4/19/24 The Sphere, Las Vegas
Set 1
As with night 1, some ominous intro music leads us into the first
number. A perfect CRASH into the song, Free is their weapon of choice!
This version SMOKES!!!! Uptempo and RAGING like nuclear fire! It couldnt have been a better opener!
Moma continues the energy but is less impressive. What IS impressive though is....this friggin EIGHTEEN MINUTE AXILLA!!!!!! HOLY CRAP! This thing is complete X Factor Magic. Its like the ultimate slow build kind of jam. The changes are subtle but they are there. An absolutely extraordinary all time rendition...
Mercy is odd coming so early in the show, but it works perfectly after the 40 minutes of head smashing we had to open! This one sounds particularly "extra" to me. Really nice reading!!
A 14 minute Bathtub Gin picks up where Axilla left off delivering the ultimate "rage til you die" 2023-style "keep shifting upwards until you break the shifter off" reading. Pure energy and fire and annihilation. Another must hear. 
Following that we get a 13.5 minute Theme From the Bottom. Pretty
quickly the jamming starts to skew when Trey leads them into a more
rhythmic direction (you'll know it when it happens). From there they slowly toy
with full on jamming or staying in the box. They are teasing us, dang
it! Eventually they commit and out comes the wah pedal and delay! THEY ARE JAMMING THEME! LETS FRIGGIN GO!!!!! After some tasty, quasi-funky playing, they move back into Theme proper and shred this sucker to a close. Holy moly this was incredible!!! Must hear! Must hear!!! X Factor Magic strikes again!!!!!! 
As per usual, Melt shows up in the set closing position, 16 minutes long
tonight. This Melt is a slowly morphing behemoth, textural and massive.
It sounds like a giant swirling wall cloud about to drop a tornado at
any moment. Heavy and DARK and just all kinds tense!!!! Must hear, of
course!!!
All in all, set 1 was another SMASHING success!! Easily as good
(or better) than set 1 of 4/18!!! The Axilla, Gin, Theme and Melt are
all fantastic pieces of music fitting right at home alongside the best
of 2023/2024 so far. My god.
Can you imagine if they played THIS first set back in, say, 2011?!
Set 2
A ripping 20 minute Wave of Hope gets us out of the gate for set 2. Heck
yes. Wave is absolutely killer. It rages hard then dives into dar and
bubbly type 2 befoe slowly and naturally building back out to the
hottest hose peak EXPLOSION imaginable. A+ must hear!!!!!
After a solid WTU, we keep the energy high with a swift move into Ruby
Waves. Ruby toys with jamming but really this one is all about that damn
finale. HOSE EXPLOSION ANNIHILATION. MUST HEAR!!! WOPE 2.0!!! FRIGGIN AMAZING!!!!
After a lovely Lonely Trip to cool us down, things get dark and grimy
and nasty with a really fantastic ASIHTOS. This one definitely sounds
like you are drowning in the murky abyss. Dives deep then bliss rages
out to a conclusion. Probably must hear.
The following Caspian however absolutely IS must hear!!! Absolutely incredible version! A+++++++
YEM closes the set proper. Trey struggles mightily and the composed
section has definitely sounded better elsewhere. Great version other
than that. Grab this!
Velvet Sea into a wonderful Hood to close the show.
All in all this was an AWESOME set and an AWESOME show! If you do
not like HIGH FRIGGIN ENERGY Phish, then stay far away from this gig!!!!
Definitely beat night 1 as a top to bottom full show experience!!!
Gin, Axilla, Theme, WOPE, Ruby, Caspian, ASIHTOS, Hood...thats a LOT of must hear, hose explosion greatness!
Definitely give this a go - its like drinking 5 Red Bulls and popping some Adderall.
Wow....
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