10/25/24 Albany
The show opens with the magical Box of Rain tribute to Phil Lesh. Sounds
pretty flawless to me for such a complicated song. Downright magical
and essential!
The following Free and Moma Dance are both LOADED with extra snap, crackle and pop. Probably must hear, both CRUSH.
Unfortunately tonight, Dirt is pretty poor. Completely botched intro abd the whole thing is just clunky.
Thankfully the following Wolfman and No Men both absolutely slay. Wolf
is totally must hear, just loaded with hose and x factor. Incredible
version.
Following those, Theme is another downright must hear explosive reading. Holy crap its great. X Factor everywhere!!!
Steam is good but unimpressive tonight. Hold on to your friggin hat though, because tonights Sand is just insane. This Sand is an all timer. Yes, a classic for any era. I strongly feel that. Its is ridiculously great. It
has wonderful laid back whale siren grooving that slowly builds to the
most epic, incendiary, nuclear hose explosion finale this side of the
90s. Utterly masterful. Wow.....
And with that, set 1 comes to a close...
All in all, I thought this set KILLED! Remove Steam and Dirt and
it is all killer, no filler. Box of Rain, Sand, Wolf and Theme are MUST
HEAR and the Moma and Free come close (especially Moma). A spectacular
little set. Wow!!!!!
There was SO much "extra" energy and vibr tonight. They were just BLAZING.
Set 2
The second half opens with a very nice Blaze On. It has a kind of
slightly dark/tense feel about the jam that is subtle. Very nice if not
must hear.
They execute a great segue into a killer 18 minute Piper!!! Piper is
like a giant swirling vortex tonight, just raging supreme. Thankfully it
goes type 2, robo fx and different rhythms etc. Its not a boring type 1
rager like normal!!! Definitely must hear, this is a pretty sick
Piper!!! Very 2021 sounding!!! This Piper is friggin amazing!!!!
10/10!!!! So much awesomeness!!!! THAT PEAK EXPLOSION FINALE!!!! MOVE
OVER PELHAM 2021 CARINI, THERES A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN! HOLY MOTHER OF
ICCULUS THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!!!
And then suddenly into Light we are yanked. Just like that. 
Light is nice, having a very relaxed and laid back vibe. Very gooey
sounding, love it when the synths appear and it goes slightly
psychedelic for a bit before segueing into...
...a 15 minute Tweezer! All right! Lets go!!! Tweezer is very good but
ultimately inessential, staying in upbeat bliss rock throughout. Great
segue into a very good Wedge, however!!! I never need Wedge in a 2nd
set, but this one is great (I think, anyways. The mix on this show
is GARBAGE! Trey and Page are BURIED and all you hear are Fishmans
drums smashing you in the face - its headache inducing!!! Wtf?!)
SERIOUSLY, THIS MIX SUCKS THE BIG ONE!
So after Wedge, we get a standard Howling into another absolutely evil
version of Monsters. Buried in awful room ambience, Trey just unleashes
full bore. Probably on par with 8/3. Ill call this must hear. It
crushes.
Rescuing us from the darkness and dread, they ease us back in with
Numberline. Unfortunately its a do nothing version even lacking a solid
peak. Skip this.
The set ends with an absolutely insane Carini. Definitely must hear,
this one has x factor all over it, just exploding like a nuclear bomb.
However, the LivePhish mix completely RUINS it!!! Trey is effing
BURIED, Page is an ambient echo in the background....this mix is
INFURIATINGLY BAD. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD DISGUSTINGLY BAD. Guess I
need the AUD for this show. What a shame.....
Inspired encore of Sleeping Monkey, Ghost and Tweeprize. All are great
but also none are essential. Ghost actually begins to jam good but Trey
full on ripcords them into Tweeprize like its 2010 again or
something....
All in all, set 2 had wonderful flow and the
Blaze>Piper>Light>Tweezer>Wedge sequence is just flow city.
All really enjoyable as one big connected piece!!! Piper is definitely
the only thing in that group that I would call must hear - the rest is
really good but also excessively "ordinary"/in the box, if you will.
Monsters is mega Cash Money. Hands down. Carini is essential as well.
This was a great show in the whole, but the 2nd set felt like it
underdelivered a little bit. Piper and Carini are the only things you
NEED. The big sequence was great as one piece, but as individual parts,
Piper was the only thing that excelled. The final quarter of this show
felt kinda by the numbers as well.
Id say the 4.3 rating on .NET is incredibly overblown. Id give this show a solid 3.8 or 4.0
The highlights of this show absolutely KILL, but as a whole listen its not in the same universe as Bethel>Mond>Dicks
Also, after Mexico 2023, Im nominating this as the worst LivePhish
recording I have ever heard. Absolutely atrocious and proof that nobody
is listening or even attempting to actually mix these!!! UTTER GARBAGE.
UGH!!! IM DISGUSTED AND TICKED OFF!!!!
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