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Sunday, July 6, 2025

2025-02-01 Rivera Maya, MX

 2 1 25 Riviera Maya

Set 1

14 minute Gin to open. All right, lets go! Slow building type 1. Good energy. Ends up in an awesome swirling kind of peaky section. Awesome little version. SUPER high energy!!! I mean the peak section goes on forever! I'm calling this must hear, yo.

And hey, it wouldnt be Mexico without a Soul Shakedown Party! Shakedown is friggin awesome! Definitely must hear, its about 9 minutes of fantastic type 2 aquatic jamming. Killer.

After a slaying Martian Monster comes an INCREDIBLE Stash! Complete X Factor, its beyond powerful, nailed stupid tight and bursting with more energy than a nuclear bomb. Completely must hear. I cannot overestimate how insane this Stash is. What in the F. Some kind of black voodoo juju magic.

Farmhouse is another must hear tonight. Extended jamming and outstandingly delicate Leslie work. Beyond A+. WOW! No. Seriously.

Reba is an incredibly magical version tonight. The boys NAIL the composed sections and Treys solo is legitimately 90s-tier, imo. Like Chicago 2018 or something. It just goes abd goes and goes, extremely powerful and just incredible from start to finish. Obviously must hear.

Even BETTER is the following 13 minute Golden Age!!! The song rips and is tighter and more uptempo than usual - no drag here! The jam is total X Factor Magic. This jam is amazing!!! It spends its time in a dark kind of uber funkiness that rocks HARD and is just all kinds of filthy. If every GA was as spectacular as this one youd never hear me complain about it like I usually do. My god.

The set comes to a close with a ridonkulous 13 minute MyFe. Not much to say - as with the rest of this nutzo set it just delivers from start to finish. Must hear!

All in all, WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS SET?!?! SERIOUSLY!!! THIS SET WAS BONKERS!!! Literally pretty much EVERY SINGLE SONG was top tier, must hear!!!

Soul Shakedown, Stash, Reba, Golden Age, Farmhouse, MyFe......christ on a cracker!

X FACTOR: THE SET

This was like a 10/10 level set. What in the hell!!!!! 

 

Set 2

WGTYM opens and its a 22 minute behemoth!!! X Factor abound, yo. It doesnt get that strange but its definitely HIGH QUALITY!!! It spends until about 12 minutes exploring a darkly textural late 90s kind of robo sound. Extremely cool!!!! From there it shifts into major key bliss rocking. Around 17 min it slowly starts to build to a peak. And holy friggin moly what a PEAK it is!!! They just explode this sucker! Trey even holds a dang sustain note for a FULL 60 SECONDS!!! It peaks so hard and then they perfectly reenter the song and bring it to s close.

That a bit one-note, but who cares when the quality was that high and thar finale section was just bonkers!!!
And then we launch into an....18 minute Crosseyed!!! Ok!

Crosseyed is the definition of a godzilla sized multibeast. The song itself rips as usual but the jam is pure x factor dark magic. Staying dark the ENTIRE time (thank god!!!) it begins with an incredible round of so effing sick power funk rock raging. Just pure FIRE and molten everything all over the place. Around 12 minutes Fishman takes charge and slows the beat down. Here the song gets HEAVY. The following 5 or so minutes are comparable to the 20 Years Later from night 2. Just the most incredible, spectacular, unhinged, MOLTEN FIRE FROM THE SKY round of dark psych soloing whatever. This effer is INSANE. And the return back to the song is so killer as well. Seriously this blows that WGTYM out of the UNIVERSE to the point that im seriously second guessing my thoughts of it.

I know I say this a lot lately, but its true! If this cant be considered an all time version than I dont know what can. Absolutely ridiculous reading, essily in the top 5 ive ever heard. Pure awesomesauce..... @heathen , if this doesnt impress you.... :)

And then we get a 17 Tweezer!! Yo, wtf dawg!!! :D Tweezer IS awesome and an excellent listen overall, but really is kinda messy a little bit. It languishes in boring, low key chill bliss rock allllll the way to the friggin 11 minute mark. You can literally just delete this 6 minutes. Nothing happens. Finally Trey has enough and tries to get something going. Some slight motif jamming ensues before they go for broke and just rage it to a close.

Really annoyed by that Tweezer - its enjoyable to listen to. In no way is it bad at all, but it absolutely feels ...undercooked?? The rocking end section is great though.

And out of Tweezer they segue into the most perfectly placed Mercy everz I swear to god. That segue and placement was just... * Chefs kiss * good lord. And the song itself is just magic. Oh so delicate and perfect, with inspired piano work from Page. Im calling this must hear for sure.

Another perfect selection, a 10 minute 2001 comes to pick us back up. This one feels pretty inspired. Fishman is a powerhouse and Page is laying such delicious leads throughout, my god. This version is just killer all around. Im calling it must hear. Dude, the robo wah jamming or whatever is just KILLER. They are deep in the FUNK with this one. Definitely a cut above most "average" readings.

As if its 2019 again, we get a rocking More to close. And honestly, from the outset, this More has SO MUCH OOMPH to it!!!! It fits ridiculously well in an emotional way as the show closer and rips hard. A++++ More. Crap man. :)

Kinda boring encore of the obligatory ALBTD, First Tube and Tweeprize. At least they are all base level excellent versions with ALBTD in particular REALLY packing a punch!!!

All in all, wow....this run just kept getting better with each show!!! First set was outstanding in every way and set 2 pretty much followed suit. For set 2 Id say WGTYM, Crosseyed, 2001 and, yes, More are all must hear!

WGTYM is fantastic but that Crosseyed is the easy highlight of th entire show, and possibly this run! Its SPECTACULAR!! Look out for the Funkytown jamming!! :D

The 4.4 rating on .NET is accurate but id even bump it up a point or two. Now THIS is a "OG Live Phish Vol. 1-20" level show. All day.

My only nitpicks are the lousy Tweezer and the super boring encore. Aside from that this is damn near a truly flawless show. And if those are my dumb nitpicks, that should tell you how fantastic this show was.

On to spring tour! :D
 

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