An intro to this review archive!

PLEASE READ!! - Welcome to Warewolf95's "Idiot Review" archive!!

 Howdy folks! As the title says, welcome to my archive of live show reviews as I have posted on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums website! I pr...

Sunday, September 28, 2025

2025-07-16 Philadelphia, PA

 7 16 25 Philadlephia

Set 1

The opens with a shock surprise - a rare reading of The Dogs! Not sure how I feel about it in this spot but its always great to hear! Actually it sounds pretty dang good. Trey is just soaring. Great stuff.

The momentum continues with an excellent version of Evolve. Not much to say and it isn't much here but it is a genuinely great version!

Up next is something extremely odd - the most wrongly placed Fluffhead of all time, lol. Seriously, what the corn? Why HERE?! Honestly, at first it kind of sucks the energy out and the crowd doesn't even applaud much. But once it gets going it turns out to be a terrific reading!! Not topping Boulder, but either way compositionally it's played basically flawlessly!!! "The Chase" in particular! No, seriously! They nailed that as good as any great '90s version I've ever heard. Hats off, yo!!! The finale of this Fluffheas doesn't feel very amazing but other than that it's a stellar reading on the whole. And who can complain about that! :)

Also of note, the band feel WAY tighter playing wise tonight than on 7/15. Awesome.

Yay, another version of Gumbo pops up! This one only reaches about 10 minutes. AND HOLY MOLY GET YOUR FALLOUT GEAR, THIS ONE IS NUCLEAR!!!! X Factor all over this sucker, things CLICK in a ridiculous way. Downright magcial, they deliver MAYBE the version of the year (yup, saying that!). Just insanely tight, the funky robo jamming is supreme, and the slow burn, explosive finale is what dreams are made of.
.MUST HEAR AT ALL COSTS!!!

Following that comes a rare Pebbles and Marbles! And just like Fluff, Pebbles is TIGHT! No typical awkwardness here! SICK! No, really, its "what the F" levels of tight! Sounds like they rehearsed the crap out of it. Definitely not your "typical good but slightly underwhelming" modern version. Nothing must hear, but it feels so good to hear a tight version like this.

An 11 minute Roggae delivers the 2nd must hear of the night. X Factor all over this sucker, it sees them morphing the song into a genuine jam that, while mostly type 1 (despite a brief minute of darkness!), flows like the Nile. Honestly, this may be the closest to a Dead-sounding jam as Ive heard from Phish. Dont tell me this doesnt sound like a Dead song/jam tonight! So muh more than a Trey solo vehicle, this Roggae is just killer. Must hear!

Following a rusty Ginseng, we get the ever rare Guelah. Not must hear but of course more than welcome. Good stuff.

Following a standard Julius, the set concludes with Must Hear #3. This 13 minute Melt is a beast!!! So much more than robo vortex deconstruction (though there is plenty of that!!!), it delivers a shockingly cohesive and "proper" jam. They slowly morph it and work it, sliding it over the abyss into the black whole without it all falling apart. Then they magically slide back out and into the song to close. This is modern Melt PERFECTION right here. X Factor on this sucker for sure!!! Holy moly that was GREAT!!!

All in all, I thought that was a genuinely awesome set. 10 MILES better than set one of the first night. Tight playing and terrific song selection as well as three true-blue must hear pieces elevate this set majorly. Killer set.

Gumbo, Roggae and Melt are all genuine must hears, and shout-out to Fluff and Pebbles! 

 

Set 2

Another SUPER inspired set call, the 2nd set opens with a 15 minute....The Curtain?!?! Holy moly!!! Has this EVER opened a 2nd set?! Oh and it's a killer version. The song is tight with an excellent power to it tonight. Hefty Curtain, ya dig? The solo is terrific, the prehistoric Reba, if you will. Honestly, im just going to call this must hear.

Up next is the interesting combo of Wave>Mercy. Wave is 16+ minutes tonight. Its an interesting (in a bad way) version. The song is tight and energetic, if not especially raging. The typical rocking deviates at the 8 minute mark. They somehow stumble perfectly in sync into a cool stop/start pattern. From there, the jam goes full ADHD, alternating between low key whatever, upbeat rocking, darkish robo whatever ....its a mess. But a solid one - the actual music being played is enjoyable, but it changes direction constantly and fails about 10 different times to achieve liftoff. Way better than the meandering of Sand, and I can see folks digging this. But to me this came off as a disjointed mess. This is NOT bad jam, but its also a very uncertain kind of one....

I will say though that the segue into Mercy is pretty decent. Too early in the set for my taste but always great to hear. And this is an excellent version worth a listen.

Kicking things back up, we get a 13 minute Simple. Making up for past mistakes, the song immediately drops into an ultra funky kind of heavy funk groove, sounding like a Mike's Song jam or something. Sick. Out come the synths while Trey and Gordo both solo melodically. SICK. This baby is cookin!! Getting more rhythmic, out come the delays and watery, robotic synths. We are in THE ZONE. Lets GO! Rip that robo wah, Trey! God, this jam is so sick. Listen to Cactus just tearing it the F up, holding it down like a 10 ton weight while Page and Trey do their robo boogie on top. Eventually Trey starts to lead them out of Roboville, playing clean, but Page and Mike refuse to let go, lol. So the jam takes on a gooey kind of 2021 sound to it. In a classic moment of Phishyness, Trey full on stumbles into the macarena. Yup, we've got a macarena jam here, boys and girls. Dicks 14 Simple dance party?! Yea, well, they didnt get THE MACARENA! All hail our lord and savior X Factor Magic once again!!!! :D THIS SIMPLE IS SIMPLY AWESOME!!!! MUST HEAR!!!!

After the macarena party, the jam dissolves into a wacky dark zone for a few a minute before morphing neatly into another Ether Edge. Check out Pages glorious piano soloing during the verses!!! Great little version on the whole with a cool bit of jamming out into Maze.

Wonderful setlist call, a late set Maze to kick us back into high gear. Excellent as ever, not much to say.

After a very good version of 20 Years Later, the set explodes to a close with a nuclear bomb Antelope.

Inspired encore again of a nice YEM.

All in all, this show was way better than night one. Set two was far from perfect, but apart from Wave, there really wasn't anything wrong with it at all except for lacking a big jam.

Id say Simple is the only true must hear of set 2. Id give this shiw a solid 4.0
 

No comments:

Post a Comment