2025-07-03 Boulder, CO

 7 3 25 Boulder,,

Set 1

Wolfman opener tonight. Nothing special but it rages hard with high energy and is a terrific start to the show.

The first must hear is a very lengthy 13 minute Tube. No funkiness here, this one is all power and melodic bliss rocking. But taken to an extra degree!! It slowly just builds and builds getting more and more dense, eventually peaking for a long while before SLAMMING back into the song and out. Terrific version!!!!! Must hear!!

Next comes the first true magic of the show. A Rare Roses are Free follows Tube. Excellent version of the song, but the real shock is that they jam the crap out of it!! Immediately (and I mean immediately), they go type 2 (im calling it type 2) by jumping into a unique stoccato rhythm pattern. Cool stuff. Some slight FX usage, but from here they basically deviate into an extreme kind of "power rock on steroids" jam or something. Just screaming!!! Hot damn!! The X Factor is just oooozzzziiinnngggg from this version. MUST HEAR!!

Perfectly on cue they drop right into Maze. Heck yes. Maze is typically hot and tight. This one feels very uptempo with extra intensity. Also, I swear Page's solo goes twice as long, allowing them to just quadruple the usual energy by the time its Treys turn to rip. This Maze is off the rails. And HOLY MOTHER OF MOLTEN LAVA TREY JUST ANNIHILATED THE UNIVERSE!! HOLY FREAKING CRAP!! Good god, this was an exceptional modern version. Maze has been awesome in recent times but even still this one is just so "extra". Absolutely friggin must hear, holy crap.

And man, talk about a perfectly placed Bouncing Around the Room after that devastation. No, really, this was so perfect - and needed. Great version.

Slowly they build the energy back with Nellie Kane. Unfortunately its not a particular good version. It drags with tempo issues and they never seem locked in. Gordo is even dropping lyrics and even Pages solo kinda sucks! Wtf, yo....

Thankfully they swiftly launch into a 12 minute KDF. Much better! The jam begins with Trey kicking on some chorus/vibrato and toying around with some darker kind of melodic playing. "Night time" jamming, if you will. Quickly they move back out into a decidedly upbeat bliss rock area. Kinda chill, Trey doing upward motifs echoed by Page. Kind of ethereal? Eventually it picks up more and feels like they are starting to click some. But we are still just exploring high energy upbeat melodic bliss rock. Thankfully they soon turn the energy to 5000 and proceed to melt our faces! For several MINUTES they basially peak the ever loving crap outta sucker!!! Trey is peaking, setting loops of said peaks and then peaking again on top of those to creat one massive UBERPEAK. No, seriously, this is must hear for that final section. Holy moly.....

Finally, this fireball set concludes with the double whammy of Sand into Fluffhead. Sand is awesome. Very textural and late 90s sounding. Patiently building the dark mood, Trey using whale sirens (that are unfortunately mixed almost inaudible...), Page echoing throughout on his synths. This is a very patient version. Its not low energy, they are just taking their sweet time and it is glorious, slowly raising the energy bit by bit. Eventually Page turns back to piano and it's off to the expected raging peak. Is this must hear in the grand scheme? Probably. This is damn "perfect" version, perfectly grown and executed. I would definitely say this needs to be heard.

As with the rest of the set, Fluffhead is perfectly uptempo, high energy and generally tight as hell. In other words an excellent reading and a fantastic ending to a crushing set. Really though, this is a STUPENDOUS reading of the song!!!! Man, they absolutely nailed it!!!!! This has to be the most well played Fluff Ive heard in a long time. I mean, its basically flawless and TIGHT. 10/10, A+ reading. For real.

All in all, for some reason I get a slight "vibe" of this being a lesser set (whatever the hell that mean), but I also thought it was basically all killer no filler aside from Nellie Kane.

Tube, Roses, Maze, KDF, THAT FLUFF and probably Sand are all definitely must hear. Nothing really gets strange in this set, just an excess of energy and tight playing even higher than the already high standards of the tour so far. Basically, you like fire? This is the set for you.  

 

Set 2

The second half of the show opens with a 12 minute Carini. As expected Carini. Right away its apparent this will be another "extra" version. Just subtle things, like the extra vocal prowess or the way Page is creeping in synths. The jam begins with Trey doing that patient thing again from Sand. Page echoing him underneath with dark synths is awesome. Trey kicks on a demented Leslie type sound and the jam starts to sound like the depths of the ocean. Trey then proceeds to do some excellently demented wah pedal texturing. They all eventually link up and the jam feels like its moving upwards and back towards the surface. That is indeed what happens and the jam morphs into high energy melodic bliss rockin. Man, is Fishman on fire this tour or what?! He is just exploding. The upbeat rocking takes on an introspective kind of "floating in the sky" vibe. Check out Fish, Trey and Page all in sync, reacting to each other. There is a cool section in the back end where Trey and Page are doing call and response kind of jazzy noodling. And then, this being Phish, they straight up start jamming Deliverance, lol. The jam kind of fades into a strange, screwed up, airy kind of wash from here. That was a really interesting Carini. Not my favorite but that jam was....something! Lots of cool "subtleties" to pick up on. I personally wouldnt call it must hear, but if someone else did I wouldnt argue.

On cue, squalling feedback leads straight into a perfect launch into YEM!! And just like Fluff, they proceed to friggin nail it! Treys playing is TIGHT!!!! Wow! I mean, this is 1.0 tight, lets put it like that. During that "ascending minor key staccato" part, Trey throws in some terrific fills with his sustained notes. Smashing! They rage it to a short vocal jam. They proceed to segue spectacularly back into jamming and proceed to let it rip for another 5 or 6 minutes of type 1 magic. Overall this, like Fluff in set 1, is basically a straight up A+ "standard" reading played as flawlessly and energetically as the very best of modern Phish. Its not "unique" in the grand scheme but it absolutely deserves recognition. Its must hear for sure - not because it gets weird or is particularly "special", but because they friggin nail this m-effer to the board. Tight, tight, tight, tight, TIGHT!!!!!

The jam concludes and Trey counts them off into a 17 minute Sally. As expected, this sucker is gooey and funky. Gordo has it BUMPIN, yo. Stellar type 1 funky raging.
All the way around 9 minutes it finally shifts, moving into upbeat major key rocking. Unfortunately the jam never gets strange preferring to stay in rocking up tempo type 1. I wish it got exploratory but you can't complain too much when it's this hot. Great stuff. The peakage on this sucker is ridiculous, even crazier than KDF. Yet another must hear!

Sally winds down nicely and oh so perfectly they rebuild us up into a short version Light. Nothing special but its a terrific type 1 reading played, again, uptempo and with extra tightness. Good stuff! The jam quickly finds itself moving into a really cool low key kind of chill out jam. Listen to Gordo and Trey playing off each other. Killer. The jam spends a bit meandering in this funky darkness. Trey sounds out of it, unsure what to do. There is a cool/funny moment where Trey does the opening chord of Plasma and they easily could have moved right into it - Gordo heard and immediately begins playing the Plasma bass line harder and harder, as if to signal Trey on. Trey instead kills the jam and weakly moves them into Whats The Use.

And I guess thats a proper thing to say about that lousy jam! The following WTU and Pillow Jets....im not sure if these are good, grimy versions or supremely average readings never worth hearing again. You be the judge.

Average readings of Possum and 2001 close out the set.

Nice encore tonight of a surprise Stash and Rocky Top. Stash is a tight type 1 reading that goes nowhere but Rocky Top is awesome.

All in all this show seem to lose major steam once Light hit, which is a real shame considering how high energy and tight the playing is throughout. The first set was genuinely excellent and the second set started on the same track.

The Carini tonight isn't my favorite but I can't deny that it at least goes quite out there. The the following YEM and Sneaking Sally are both smoke show readings as well. Then it's like the show just falls off the rails huh.

I would rate this show like a solid 3.8 or so in comparison to the shows around it. There is very, very little in terms of exploratory jamming - this is a HIGH energy, TIGHT as hell ROCK SHOW kinda gig. Far from poor but honestly maybe the 2nd "worst" of the tour so far. Or something like that.

Do not sleep on the highlights though!!!