2025-07-05 Boulder, CO

 7 5 25 Boulder

Set 1

Buried Alive kicks things off tonight. Heck yes. Excellent reading with lots of heat. Great start to the show!

Up next are 46 Days and Birds. Neither are must hear, but at the same time both are genuinely excellent "in the box" type 1 readings. 46 has a great kind of grindy peak and Birds just rages better than you expect it to. Good stuff. What a killer trio to open the show, eh?!

The first must hear piece of the night follows with a spectacular 11 minute Sigma Oasis. This sucker spends its time i this fantastic kind of "type 1.5" area. Quickly the synths come out and Gordo is on growly FX. The jam is very ethereal, maybe majestic you could say! Unfortunately they slide out of going deep but they proceed to rage it hard to a close instead. The flow on this was magnificent. This was one of the most "complete" sounding versions Ive heard. Definitely some X Factor on this one! MUST HEAR!!!

Up next is David Bowie. The song begins with a near trainwreck and there are a few shakey spots rhythmically throughout, which is a shame as this is otherwise another spectacular recent version. As with the Fluff, YEM and Guyuute from this run, Trey 99% straight up nails this with crazy tightness and energy. This Bowie just EXPLODES. I mean, they all do, but ....I wont call this must hear but its dang well worth a listen!!

We get a cooldownn finally with Evolve. Evolve is seemingly always spectacular and this one is no exception. Must hear all day on this sucker - Trey's solo is one of the best Ive ever heard, doing lots of cool "unique for Evolve" stuff. Sick version, seriously.

Up next comes a 15 minute Blaze On. This version is freaking INSANE!!! Man, this HAS to be in the top 3 or 4 type 1 readings of the last few years. Initially going through rounds of heavy m, bubbly kind of gooey funk, it turns to the expected rage fest. And it just explodes. 10 times harder than usual. It goes, and goes, and goes, and goes. It's like a Catholic mass - its STILL goin on! Picture the greatest Blaze On peak explosion finale you've ever heard taken to the nth degree. X Factor. X Factor all over this bad boy. My god.

The set closes terrifically with the duo of Lizards into A Day In the Life. Lizards is killer. Trey has 1 or two vocal flubs but on the whole this is an explosive reading. This is the first thing from a delicate reading of the song! It's just heavy and emotionally girthy and just explosive in the best way. It's slightly too loose for me to call it must here but like Bowie hot dang is it worth a listen!!

ADITL is ADITL. Awesome.

All in all, this was definitely an excellent set on the whole. There were a few small shakey spots and there were "definite" highlights, but this was a strong set regardless and my criticisms are mostly "listening too closely" nitpicks.

Sigma, Evolve and Blaze On are massive must hears. Especially Blaze On. Oh man ...  

 

Set 2

Very sick rocking start with a "now rare" Wilson into a 15 minute Fuego. Actually, its a Fuego>MyFe>Fuego sandwich! Holy mother of corn lets friggin go!!! The first section of Fuego is legitimately outstanding. In two halves, it begins in a dark minor key area. Not exactly robo synthy, but more "dark and depressed". Its extremely cool and sounds pretty unique to my ears. Terrific stuff. Eventually it shifts major and we are off to the FUNK OLYMPICS SUPREME. For a very gloriously long time they proceed to build upon 7/4's Oblivion and deliver the nastiest, funkiest, most godzilla stomping funk jamming Ive heard out of modern Phish in a hot minute. I honestly dont recall ever hearing another Fuego even in this ballpark of straight of funkyness. I mean, this is ROBOFUNK SUPREME DIRECT FROM NEPTUNE.

GOOD GOD THAT WAS SICK!!

Eventually (and sadly...), the jam reaches a natural conclusion point. With a "I think that was a segue?" transition out, they slide into MyFe!!! MyFe is merely a transition piece tonight bridging the two halves of Fuego. Would love to see the stats - this is surely the shortest MyFe in years.

MyFe reaches the jam and instead of going dark as usual, Trey immediately begins the Fuego themes again and leads them perfectly back into it!!! This is what dreams are made of.....slowly the new 11 minute back half of the song turns into this ridiculous kind of Melt-like wall of sound. Fishman never loses the beat but everyone else is basically completely deconstructing this sucker. And this goes on for a long time - gotta be 3 or 4 minutes;!! WHAT IS THIS MONSTROSITY!!!!! From here, somehow they weave their way back from the abyss they were tetering upon and spend the rest of the jam building to the expected ridiculous POWER ROCK conclusion, eventually peaking out and leading into a surefire segue into 2001...

Absolutely unreal. Now THAT was a unique Fuego!!! Good lord what even is this band doing anymore.

Despite one of the most perfect segue setups I can recall, Trey axes the not-to-be 2001 and they rip into Crosseyed.

AND JESUS EFFING BANANA CHRIST FROM HEAVEN WHAT EVEN IS THIS. NEW GOAT. NEW GOAT STATUS RIGHT HERE. WHAT IN THE F. WHERE ARE THEY PULLING THIS STUFF FROM?!?!

Anywho - Crosseyed is 13 minutes of pure magic. Immediately it feels hotter/more intense than usual (which is saying a lot!). Super uptempo, just bangin. You know we are in for some serious shiznit when Trey is ripping the backwards guitar, doing "happy birthday" teases while Fishman is hooting and hollering behind the kit.

The jam is utter magical ridiculousness. Full blown type 2 for its duration, this is the heavenly Yin to Mexico 2025's twisted and gnarly Yang. Crosseyed's jam is insane. Very 1999 combined with a modern Phish edge (or something like that). Soaring through the sky, the heavens, the ether. Yet at the same time burning with the exploding white hot intensity of 10,000 suns.

It begins by dying down to a more quiet feel, intensity remaining however. Immediately we drop straight into this textural kind of major key synthscape. Beautiful loop and synths combos. Soon some synth washes creep in and frighteningly the jam almost dies. Thank Icculus for Jon Fishman! He goes "nope!" and picks the beat back up. Barely two minutes in we are in this unbelievable haze from heaven!! Loopers, synth washes, tons of power drill..... If Trey kicked on the octave up, I would honestly think this was a summer 1999 jam or something.

With the blissful synth wash bedrock in place, Trey and Page both begin swirling around melodically. Very slowly the jam is increasing in intensity. The power drill pops in and out. Trey begins teasing the Fuego lick and we are just soaring into the psychedelic heavens.

Quickly, the jam RAMPS UP the intensity majorly. Its a swirling, snarling PSYCHEDELIC POWER BLISS jam of epic proportions. The speed increases and Trey unleashes the most ridiculous sonic noize destruction soaring peak explosion of all time. An absolute wall of sound coming at you at 5000 mph. Just as we think we have died and gone to purgatory, the jam dies a death and we go into a 15 minute Everythings Right ....

If this isnt a damn All Timer For Any Era jam, I dont know what the hell would qualify to be. @heathen - if this doesn't do anything for you, amigo...

Honestly, its kind of hard to properly describe this jam accurately. Yet another 2025 "this is UNIQUE!" jam.
I think this just replaced everything else as my top jam of the year so far. What in the love of unholy godly X Factor....

So up next we get a 15 minute Everythings Right. Tight and powerful, the jam begins in a very pretty and low key bliss zone. Its got power but they are chilling out and its glorious. Very "hazy" and synthy yet again. Then all of a sudden at th 10 minute mark it slides into minor key darkness outta nowhere, Trey rocking the vibrato effect for a creepy vibe. And in comes the darkness, stuttering away, creeping in the shadows. Very slowly it increases the intensity bit by bit. Good god the flow on this is insane. They are growing a monster! Tense and frightening, they languish in the extreme haze of this dark night, full moon aglow, wolves howling in the distance....just getting more and more abstract, slowly deconstructing the jam. Darkest, most extreme Everythings Right ever played?! We have straight up descended into the swirling vortex to hell. HOLD ME, MOMMY! IM SCARED!!!!!! Thankfully, just as I was about to lose my mind Trey leads us back into love and light and they rock it to a close like they didnt just take us into the depths of despair and fright, lol. Utter magic, once again. How in the hell do they keep topping themselves?!?!?! This is freaking ridiculous!

Sensing our despair they proceed to give us a double dose of love and light with a rocking More into an excellent Slave set closer. Honestly? That More is so perfectly placed it feels so good when you reach it.

Slave and More are both strong typical readings. Neither must hear.

The encore is a SPECTACULAR Buffalo Bill>Harry Hood combo. Hood is unfreakingreal tonight. One of those magical, perfectly created versions just oozing with passion and purpose. The build up/peak goes on forever and will just leave you shaking your head in awe. No its not a 1.0 Hood, but itll do!!! MUST HEAR!!!

All in all, this set two was a damn BEAST!!! The Fuego Sandwich, The Heavenly Crosseyed, The Dark and Scary ER.

Bruh. How they doin' that. Seriously. This band/tour just keeps getting better. Set 2 of night 2 was perfection from start to finish, but I think the 3 big jams of this 2nd set maybe blow away those of night two (except that Tweezer). And that Hood?!?!? Fuhgeddaboutit!!Move over 12/29/23 and 12/30/24! Theres a new sheriff in town and his name is BUFFALO HOOD!!

I get the 4.1 rating on .NET. It was a slightly mixed show ON THE WHOLE, but the highlights were so astronomically insane... Man...Im kinda speechless after these last two shows.