2025-06-27 Austin, TX

 6 27 25 Austin, TX

Set 1

The show opens with the "wait, this is a bustout?!" first version of Crowd Control since 2022! And ya know what? Its excellent! The tempo is up, the energy is high and its all around just a great opener.

Immediately upping the ante 10 fold, they launch into a 13 minute Mikes Song. And this is no ordinary 3.0 MS, no. This is a crushing, stomping, face punching monster. X Factor. X Factor everywhere!! Honestly, im gonna commit treason and state that this is a 1.0-tier Mikes. It absolutely KILLS. Just everything about it!! The tightness, the energy, the bump and groove! The playing is definitely inspired - the first jam just sprays fire, then they go type 2 into this incredible kind of soaring bliss jam for a bit before landing back and shredding the song even HARDER to a conclusion. Must hear at all costs. This is like 10 cuts above the usual modern Mikes. Just exceptional.

Keeping the energy going we get an 11 minute Cities. Terrific type 1 version but unfortunately the jam seems to get cut short just at that point of liftoff.

As if all this face smashing wasnt enough, they rip in Divided Sky. And basically everything I said about Mikes should be applied to this. Tight AF. This is a NEXT LEVEL reading that had my jaw on the floor. Just ridiculously fantastic. Must hear, again. Good lord. I cannot stress enough how spectacular this one is.

After an excellent Type 1 reading of The Well, we get a massive bustout of OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DANIEL SAW THE STONE!!!!

Good stuff. Strong versions of Taste and Dirt then lead us to the closing Weekapaug. Paug is the strongest thing since Divided Sky and definitely goes along with the Mikes from earlier. Great version!!

All in all, I thought the first half of this set was downright exceptional for the most part. Seriously great stuff. After Divided Sky the set seemed to get a little bit more ordinary aside from the excellent song choices.

All that being said, Mike's Song and Divided Sky are what you NEED, but special shoutouts to Crowd Control and Weekapaug.  

 

Set 2.

13 minute No Men into a 23 minute Fuego into a friggin 28 minute Golden Age to start. Holy mother of crap ballz. Getting my fire gear on as we speak!

For No Men, all I need to do is quote the immortal Nigel Tufnel - "This one goes to 11!" . An absolute fireball, just like Mikes it is all kinds of just...extra. Nuff said.

Fuego is a monster tonight. It never gets "weird" or abstract, staying in a hard rocking zone for the duration. The interplay between the guys is just sick - this is a terrific version, like the Hollywood Bowl reading on steroids or something. Must hear!!!

Now Golden Age on the other hand...holy moly what is this monstrosity. After a ridiculously magical soaring round of type 1, at 8 minutes the jam immediately drops into funky robo town. They spend until 12 minutes slowly getting more robotic and gooey and wacky and oddball. This just might be the most bleep-bloopiest bleep-bloop jam that ever bleeped a friggin bloop!!!!!! All the way at 15 minutes the beat slows and the song gets dark and HEAVY. ala Mex 2024 Chalkdust or something. Dude ....We proceed to dive into the wormholiest wormhole that ever wormholed a wormhole. Robo deconstruction at its most extreme!!! No, seriously, the next 6 minutes are among the darkest, most heavy and ridiculous minutes ever heard from modern Phish. Picture if the Mex 2024 Chalkdust, the Mex 2025 20 Years Later, and Led Zeppelins "No Quarter" had a threesome and got pregnant. An absolutely unreal section. You need this in your life. Finally, at 21 minutes, out of NOWHERE, they friggin FLOOR IT!!! PEDAL TO THE METAL 500 MPH LETS FRIGGIN GO!!!!! They spend the remainder of the jam absolutely speeding like a rocket out of control, delivering the peakiest peak fest that ever peaked a peak fest!!! Think Bangor 22 Disease mixed with Pelham 21 Carini. ON STEROIDS. HOLY MOTHER OF BUCKLE YOUR GOSH DARN SEATBELTS LETS GO!!! BANG YOUR FREAKING HEAD!!!!
And then, Trey awkwardly forces them back into Golden Age and the saga of the GOAT reaches its conclusion...

GOAT. GOAT RIGHT HERE. GOAT GOLDEN AGE ALL MOTHER FRIGGIN DAY. MOST INSANE VERSION NEXT TO HAMPTON 2018. WHAT THE CORN.

They finally kinda cool us down with a terrific Squirming Coil before Sand. Sand and the set closing C Zero both definitely do the trick, but neither are more than "average strong".

Oddly kinda rusty encore of Life and First Tube, though First Tube does peak like a mother.


All in all, what a show!!! Kind of a mixed bag - great from start to finish but the highlights were clear, boy were they all friggin MASSIVE.

Mikes Song, Divided Sky, No Men>Fuego>Golden Age!!!! THAT GOLDEN AGE!!!!!!!!!!
Great show - id give it a solid 4.2 or so. The highlights were beyond huge but there was also a lot of "this IS really good, but its also nothing special in the slightest".