2022-05-28 Orange Beach, AL

 5 28 22 Orange Beach

Set 1

Off to a bangin start when we begin with a damn 20 minute Sigma!!! I still cant believe this song became a primo jam vehicle when it screams "first set type 1 rocker". But thats Phish for ya! Sigma itself spits and snarls tonight - hot energy on this one.
------Immediately at the 8 minute mark they drop into a funky, delay-slashing kind of rhythmic jam akin to something out of, say, Golden Age. Aw yea, lets friggin go! Immediate type 2!!!
-----Fishman drops into the 2001 beat (pretty much!) for a solid 3 or 4 minutes while a chill funk takes over. Gordo THUMPING it up, Trey motifing all over the place, Page on the Rhodes....super 1997 style jam!!!
-----Around 13 minutes Trey starts wah soloing and the jam goes into super funky rock and roll jamming. Definitely slowly working towards some kind of peak down the line.
----At 16 minutes everyone syncs up on an ascending melodic motif and they definitely commit to some peak building for real!! From here they slowly rock it out to a majestically triumphant conclusion. "Youre already there!!!"

Yo, that was fantastic!!! Total X Factor all over that. The funk jamming was PRIMO. Hot damn, what a way to start a show!!!!

And then straight into Possum. Possum is very relaxed tonight in an excellent way. Everyones playing is just on the mark and Treys soloing feels blusier than usual. Kind of a slow burn Possum - this is actually great! It explodes in the back half and Machine Gun Trey comes to kill. SICK POSSUM, YO!

AC/DC Bag is standard tonight but totally full of energy and is just an overall great little type 1 reading. Nothing essential but its excellent!!!

Up next is an excellent Reba. A+ job, for 2022, on absolutely nailing the technical section!!! Hell yea! Seriously, this is basically as good as Ive ever heard "modern" Phish play it. Terrific. The solo is really fantastic. Super patient tonight, it begins real chill and delicate, moving into a darker, more intense zone before positively erupting out of the dark clouds and into the sunshine for a typically blazing Reba solo finale. Wow, that was a GREAT Reba!!!! Maybe not magical, but definitely excellent! And it even comes with whistling! Must hear!

Roggae is placed perfectly tonight working wonderfully as a cooldown after Reba. Everyone is locked in tight and Treys soloing is sooooooo on point. Nothing special you havent heard before, but this is about as good as a Roggae gets, pretty much!!! Killer! Not essential, but the Roggae equivalen of the Bag from earlier in the set.

Up next we get a MASSIVE 9 year, almost 300 show bustout of My Minds Got a Mind of Its Own. First version since friggin fall 2013! Sounds great, no slop here! Nice.

One of my favorite songs, The Final Hurrah gets us up and boogying again. Sounds great, and boy do I wish this was in regular rotation! Thankfully this version SMOKES and MG Trey is out in full force! Id call this must hear - it is SO hot!!!

Finally, the set concludes with a large and in charge 11 minute Free. Heck yes, lets go. And Free is several magnitudes even better!!! Extreme cyborg robo grooving. All hail our dystopian cyberpunk overlords!!! Holy effing hell though - X Factor Magic ALL OVER this sucker!!! The funk jamming is some of the most intensely headbangable music Ive ever heard. Gordo on FX, Trey doing fantastic delay slashing work, Page on wiry synthesizers. This thing is a damn MACHINE!!! And then Trey just letting it rip atop the mechanical soundscape, slowly leading them back into Free so friggin flawlessly....

That Free was INCREDIBLE!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!

All in all, this was a terrific first set!!! Not a weak link in the chain, the high points are higher than those of nights 1s first set. The boys are LOCKED IN tight tonight with no hint of sticky fingers or slop!!! Id say Reba, Sigma, Hurrah and this insane Free were all genuine must hears, while Bag and Reggae were both A+ type 1. Throw in a 9 year bustout sounding like it never left rotation and you have the makings for a wonderful set!!!

AWESOME. THAT FREE, THO!!!!! 

Set 2

Perfect way to open set 2 but with Wave of Hope. Basically a perfect and red hot type 1 reading. If you want a "go to" reading of the song itself, this is the one. Its still incredibly strange to me to be listening to a time where most versions were still sub 5 minutes! Thankfully this would soon change for good!

Wave ends awkwardly with a full stop but they maintain momentum by launching into a 16 minute Mr. Completely - played at the right effing tempo for once! Yay, a Phish version that doesn drag!!!! Golly, this one is like a dang freight train. So great to hear a tight version for once.
----Initial rocking gives way to uptempo major key rocking via Page taking charge on the keys. Trey is being patient, not playing too much, but playing stuff that fits.
-----Unfortunately, minimalist Trey goes for too long and the jam starts to reach that boring "is anything going to happen??" kind of area. They just languish in a nicely melodic "aquatic bliss" zone for way too long. Music to zone out to - Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
---What they are actually playing is good, they are just stuck in first gear doing the same stuff over and over and over, like a precursor to some 2023 jams or something. It thankfully picks up a serious head of steam and the final 2 minutes see Trey going full psych shred on us, but its too little too late, imo.
The actual playing and energy were GREAT, but overall that was a bit of a "nothingburger" jam.

Thankfully they maintain the energy in the best possible way by launching flawlessly into a rare Walk Away! Guarantee NOBODY could have called that! AND MOTHEREFFING NUCLEAR BOMB WALK AWAY JUST DESTROYS EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH!!! GET TO YOUR SHELTER!! IF YOU ARE NOT UNDERGROUND YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE!!! Also, mad props to Fishman for the FANTASTIC Mr. Completely jamming beneath it all!!!!

HOLY CRAP THAT WAS INSANE!!! FIRE UPON FIRE UPON FIRE UPON FIRE UPON FIRE!!!

And into a nearly 19 minute Golden Age we go. Please, for the love of god, get strange on our asses! Around 8 minutes the jam goes type 2, moving into a late night, laid back funk vamp zone. And holy hell this thing FUNKS.
....also.....ALL HAIL THE MEOWDULATOR PEDAL!!! THANK YOU MIKE FOR GRACING US WITH CUTE LITTLE KITTY MEOWS AT EXTREME VOLUME!!!!
----By 11 minutes, the late night funk is slowly evolving into something more rhythmic. Page on the Meatstick synths, Fishman switching up the beats, Trey doing lots of good melodic motifing. This is killer! The whole band is locked into the GROOVE ZONE, just crushing as one 4 headed monster. Killer.
----Out comes the robo wah for some color for a bit before back to "standard" melodic bliss rocking. Thankfully it is just bursting with energy and the whole jam is positively exploding! From here, they spend the next long while in "hose peak" land just absolutely rocking to a finale.
Yo, that Golden Age was fantastic!! Definitely must hear!!! Normally I complain about jams like this, but not when they are THIS great!!! This is a spectacular Golden Age!!! GO HEAR THIS NOW!!!!

After a short return to the GA theme to close, they launch onwards into a very nicely placed WTU. Awesome version. Most sound alike, but I swear this one is extra, if you will. Just killer. Perfectly delicate yet tense and brooding. Beautiful WTU!

Super refreshingly, we get a rare 2nd set Moma Dance to follow. Bopping hard, its uptempo, tight and rocking!!! A perfect way to get us back up dancing!! This sucker BOPS!!!! Even though this stays type 1, I would put this in the must hear box for this show. This SMOKES! Awesome little Moma!!!!

A very rare If I Could is up next and golly is it a pretty song or what? Excellent placement as well, imo. Not truly must hear but my god this is just fantastic regardless. Gorgeous!! Aw screw it. Just grab this, it's great!

The set proper concludes with a lengthy Antelope. And its a good one!!! Just absolutely blazing with that same fire and intensity as Walk Away, the machine gun section on this is just * slams head into concrete * By modern Antelope standards this is a mothereffing masterpiece!!! Seriously, this is 1994 level HEAT. Must hear!!!!

Terrific encore tonight of I Am In Miami (2nd and last to date ) followed by Izabella. Miami is super fun if a but awkward, haha. Please break this back out!!! And then here comes nuclear bomb Izabella. Machine Gun Trey out in FULL FORCE like its 12/6/97 or something. Absolutely must hear!! Holy smokes!!!!!

All in all, this show was a KILLER!!!! This was an easy 4.2 or 4.3 level show in my book. Inspired setlist again, incredible effing HEAR, interband TIGHTNESS, multiple deep jams, energy out the wazoo...man oh man this show was a HEATER of the first order. Also, it did away with the "ramshackle" kinda nature of night 1 - tonights Phish was a lean, mean, fire spewing machine!!!

Set 2 was so great. Flow out the wazoo, Walk Away, Golden Age and Antelope were all true must hears while everything else was baseline excellent and hot. Special shoutout to that Moma and for Mr. Completely sounding awesome, if not for the bland jam.

This show is a winner. Full stop.