2025-06-28 Austin, TX

 6 28 25 Austin

Set 1

Holy crap a 10 minute Punch opener. Holy mother of all my freaking YES!!!! And its another TERRIFIC version!!!!!! In the scheme of the crazy versions played this year its maybe the least impressive but this is the biggest nitpick of all time. By modern Phish standards, this is yet another exceptional reading. Tight, red hot, and UPTEMPO LIKE ITS 1995 LETS FRIGGIN GO!!! A+ start to the show!!

Then, as if this is the cover photo for Pantera's A Vulgar Display of Power, we launch into one of the tightest, hottest, most insanely strong type 1 readings of Free that the last few years has seen. Tight as hell, energy out the wazoo. This one is a pure smash to the face. And that solo?! Gnarbars. Freaking gnarbard, amigos. This is must hear. Big time.

Following that, they cement the fact that this is going to be an incredible show with a typically blazing My Soul. Nothing must hear but its an excellent headbanger as usual.

555 follows next and delivers a terrific type 1 reading. Again, super high energy and nasty enough without dragging. Not must hear but still great.

The first mixed piece of the night is Reba, unfortunately. Trey totally botches the start of the technical section and sounds kinda shaken all the way to the solo. I would not call this anything but average. Except (and its a BIG except!) that effing solo. It starts out kinda lame but eventually "clicks" into place and delivers a lengthy jaw dropping peak explosion up there with the strongest of recent years. Honestly? This is must hear - just for that solo!!!

And on into Hey Stranger. And holy moly what a smokeshow! Must hear all day, it's basically the equivalent of Free from earlier in the set. Hot damn!

Some good song choices up next with Plasma and an uber rare Guelah!!! I don't think Plasma reaches must hear status, but it is excellent regardless, with a killer high quality rock an roll finale.

Guelah is fabtastic to hear and sounds great. Nothing else to say.

The set concludes with Moonage Daydream. A ridiculous version, even by MD standards this one is oh so extra. Must hear. Must hear all friggin day!!

All in all, this was another great set!! Blazing energy and mostly tight as hell. A number of "average strong" versions, but thats a little nitpicky. Free, Hey Stranger, Moonagr and the Reba solo are all must hear!!! 

 

Set 2

The 2nd half starts very badly with a LOUSY Chalkdust. 11 minutes, it lacks energy, going nowhere and doing nothing. They try to "chill bliss rock" it but Trey is lost for what to do and abortd the jam back into the finale (which doesnt even rage). Crapdust Torture is more like it.

Following it with a type 1 Twist is just rubbing salt in the wound. At least this is an excellent version regardless that absolutely SMOKES. Not must hear, but worth a listen.

Up next we are finally saved with the Big Boy McGee of the show, a 30 minute Ruby!!!

Ruby is amazing tonight. The initial jam sees them slooooowwwwllllyyy ramping up the energy, bit by bit all the way to the 10 minute mark. But its not a rock and roll kinda thing, its more of a "lets make this more DENSE" kinda thing. Just adding more and more weight until we reach a point where Ruby has officially reached Hefty Boy status. Then around 10 minutes the jam somhow morphs quickly into this tense, dark, kinda scary zone. Very textural with Trey laying back and Page doing his soundscape synth thing. Extremely cool stuff.
Unfortunately, Page then leads us into melodic bliss jamming at the 15 minute mark. Around 17 minutes this begind to pick up steam and they rock and roll rage it to about 20 minutes with a terrific kind of "quasi peak". Killer. Around 20 minutes, the jam shifts again into a spectacular kind of heavy funk jam. This section STOMPS likes its crushing you. Fantastic. Around 25 minutes it slowly morphs back into rock raging and it rages hard with a purpose until the final minute or so where it morphs back into an extremely cool "bottom of the ocean zone" and they fade her to a close ....

Even better it segues spectacularly into Monster as if it was a suite!
Ruby was fantastic. The flow was out of this world. Multi sectional with just enough variation and time to each section. An absolutely WONDERFUL jam!!! No, seriously, this is what perfection sounds like. Its incredible and this review is the furthest thing from doing it justice.

Anywho, Monsters is INSANE.

Its always a smoke show, but this one goes above and beyond. I know I say this all the time but honestly I think this might be the best version played to date. It's at least tied for that version that I rave about from Summer 2024, Deer Creek, I think? Unreal version.

Limb By Limb is next and is a very mixed bag. The song itself is pretty lackluster with a pretty big near Trainwreck that almost derails the whole thing. Thankfully they turn it around for the solo and trade delivers one of the hottest most searing peak fest solos of recent times. Honestly this is just like Reba - forget the song but you need the solo at all costs.

Split Open and Melt is on the slightly shorter side tonight. No real space robots to be found, instead this one sounds a lot more like careening through outer space hurling head-on towards an asteroid you're about to crash into. Or something like that. It's not must hear but it's pretty darn good!!

Finally the set proper closes with a typically kick ass version of Rock and Roll. Another searing reading it more than does the trick and is a super refreshing setlist choice to hear. Always welcome by me!!!

Nice encore of Waste into SANTOS.

All in all, this was a very mixed bag of a set. Ruby and the Limb solo are really the only must hear materials. Twist and Melt are worth to listen though. The less said about that god-awful Chalkdust the better! Good riddance!!

I would rate the show like a solid 4.0 in terms of the quality of Summer 2024. Lots of highlights but also a lot of lots of highlights but "eh" as well. That Ruby>Monsters is God damn essential though!