2022-08-13 East Troy, WI

 Welp, I just heard one of the greatest first sets ever played in existance.....

8/13/22 East Troy

Set 1

Tributing the famed 1999 show, we get an unbelievable opening triple threat combo of 1999>22 minute Fluffhead>Saw It Again. Good lord!!

1999 is absolutely killer. About 6 minutes long, everyone is locked in, the groove is hard and deep and the soloing is spectacularly perfect. A+ all around, an absolute must hear!!

Even better is Fluffhead. 22 minutes long, the song itself is FLAWLESS. Seriously, thats a 1.0 level Fluff, imo. I didnt head ONE single flub! And immediately, instead of concluding the song, they drop headfirst into an interesting and kind of darker rock jam. This is so sick. The whole jam goes through 2 or 3 sections and is just magical. X Factor. X Factor for friggin day!!! MUST HEAR AT ALL COSTS!!!!! BRING ON THE WHALE SIREN!!!

Eventually the jam somehow winds its way into Saw It Again. Another true must hear, this one is very lengthy by SIA standards (7 minutes!) and exceeds the usual awsomeness of the song. This has extra writen all over it. Killer.

After nearly 40 minutes of "wtf!?" magic, we get a gorgeous Leaves to give us a break. The X Factor continues to shine brightly and we get about a 4 minute jam tacked on the end! Quickly going type 2, this things goes FAR into the strange, whale sirens and whacky synth craziness. You would never know this was a Leaves.
Must hear, of course.

Unfortunately the jam is cut short, but at least Trey allows them to transition into BOTT instead of ripcording them. Excellebt type 1 as always.

Taste is as strong as any other recent version. Totally excellent if not truly essential.

Placed perfectly, imo, is the next song. The first post covid Petrichor (as far as im aware?), this is about as good as the song has ever been played. Apparently they soundchecked the crap out of it and boy did it pay off! Seriously, as with Fluff, this bad boy is, again, to my ears at least, flawless!!!! Good god!! All hail Petrichor!! Let the rains come down! Wow!

Following the non-peak conclusion of Petrichor, we get a perfect Squirming Coil to wrap the whole thing up. Coil is terrific and the piano outro is the most perfect ending this insane set could have received.

All in all, I thought this was one of the finest sets Ive ever heard from any era!! The playing is tight and energetic, Trey is ON, they nail the technical parts, the setlist is incredibly inspired and, the jams are fantastic and unexpected and the FLOW was out of this world - this set felt perfectly constructed!

Id say the opening trio of 1999, Fluff and Saw It Again as well as Leaves are the true must hears, but the entire set was just excellent across the board.

Id rate this set itself like a 4.5 or 4.6.
Wow....

 

Set 2

Tonight we get the first Number Line opener since 2011!! And on top of that its 14 minutes long! Unfortunately, the jam never escapes excessive bliss rock territory. While its enjoyable, is also kinda boring and the playing isnt especially good - its just kinda uninspiring and the attempt to peak it out at the end is janky and basically a total failure. It sounds like they simply just "give up" and limp the song out of existence. FINALLY in literally the last 30 seconds it goes type 2 and the FX come out but its too late and it just collapsed into Maze (great segue though!)

Bummer. That jam pretty much just straight up sucked!!!

On into Maze, that was one of the best setups/transitions ive ever heard. Killer! Thankfully Maze kicks serious ass. Absolutely unhinged feeling in the best way. Hot Maze is Hot Maze but dang is it always great to get a standout reading!!!
Trey takes his time slowly building his solo. Slowly he gets more and more off the rails. The crowd roars its approval and the song just EXPLODES with the final peak section. Hot damn, this is a spectacular modern Maze!!! Im calling this must hear. Trey botches the outro but who cares, lol

And they keep the energy going with a rocking 14 minute Mr. Completely, actually sounding energetic and slightly heavy tonight instead of the limp Phish versions we usually get. Really nice Trey and Page interplay to begin the jam while Fishman goes bonkers. This thing is GROOVIN! Trey sounds a little lost for what to play, like in Numberline but otherwise this is super tight and definitely enjoyable. Awesome part where Trey, Page and Mike all sync up on this interesting, circular kind of melodic motif for a good long while. The delays and subtle FX usage come out and the jam finally starts to get interesting. Trey keeps teasing robo wah while Page brings out the stuttering THX synths. Finally, the jam starts to get kind of ethereal, moving into an uptempo robo bliss, with Fishman teasing the Mr. Completely beat here and there, leading them to a lengthy bliss rock conclusion. Really excellent peakage. This is pretty sick - its a thick, soupy kind of slow burn groove fest. Noone is particularly soloing and they all seem to be more interested in building it all "together". Very textural jam. Im calling this must hear - its great! Sometimes it feels minimalist, but it also just, well, delivers as the same time. Absolutely worth your time!
Really, this is AWESOME!!

The song finally finishes not with a hard stop but a series of noisy "smashes" leading into another ridiculously smooth "how did they pull that off?!" segue into an interestingly placed Roggae. Seriously, its like they "crossfade" into the song. Its SO cool! And I must say, a mid 2nd set Roggae is actually really refreshing!
And HOLY CRAP THIS ROGGAE IS FREAKING MAGICAL!!!! X FACTOR MAGIC, BABY!!! ALL TIME GREAT VERSION UP THERE WITH THE BEST EVER PLAYED!! THIS IS MINDBLOWINGLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLY CRAP!!!

Even more insane, they follow it up with a mindblowing, truly nuclear bomb (way more than usual!!!) About to Run. Trey just murders everything in sight. Total bloodshed. Honestly, if someone wanted to try to pick the single greatest About to Run of all time, this would have to be in the top 2 or 3. Even by ATR standards, this over delivers in the extreme. X FACTOR MAGIC!!!

*An aside note - the first few songs of the set felt kinda "rusty" and slightly unsure, despite eventually delivering great results. With Reggae and ATR everything "clicks" finally and the quality level of the playing gains a new fluidity and is elevated drastically!!!

Another fresh move is the following late set Waves. Really excellent and delicate. Doesn't do anything special, but its REALLY, REALLY, good!!!!!

Another super inspired call is the set ending Undermind! (First ever 2nd set closer? And very rare in set 2 anyways!). Very lengthy, about 10 minutes. Undermind is hot, featuring robowah and synthy goodness off the rip. The robowah is just all goofy and terrific. Wacky in the best way!!! And then Trey kicks it into MAXIMUM FRIGGIN OVERDRIVE and destroys like we are back in About to Run. Total X Factor on this. Must hear!! One of the best Underminds ive ever heard!!!

Nice encore of a nicely jammed Blaze On. An incredibly molten hot rendition, you absolutely need to hear this! As good as Undermind! PURE FIRE!!!!


All in all....top 8 show of the year. This show BURNS. The 2nd set looks weird but delivers completely once you get past Number Line.

Maze, Completely, Roggae, About to Run and Undermind and Blaze On were all magical, spectacular readings, especially that mind blowing About to Run

How this has a 3.9 rating is beyond. Easy 4.4-ish level show for me.
Holy crap.