Finally a decent listening job today!
7 25 25 Saratoga
Set 1
Really fresh choice of First Tube to open the show. Why isn't this a show opener more often?? It works great!! Good stuff!
Then immediately we go into a nearly 21 minute Gin, setting the tone that tonight is going to be one of THOSE nights!!! 
Unfortunately, as expected,
its one of those "10 minutes longer than it needs to be and does
absolutely nothing with its time" versions. To be fair, playing energy
and tightness wise, it is excellent. And the peak is about 2 minutes
long and absolutely nuclear, the brownie points for that. But the
majority of the jam is them just stuck in that upbeat melodic Bliss rock
that gets boring after about 3 minutes. Others will call this must here
and I can see the merit, but for me personally this is a complete
snooze and a skip. What I'm saying is, I can acknowledge its excellence, but for my personal preference it's a piece of crap.
ALSO, Good golly this is the worst mix of the summer by far!!! What in
the hell is going on?!?!? It's just a wall of noise making it very hard
to distinguish separate instruments aside from the constantly rattling
symbols and when Trey is ripping. I THINK Page does some cool synth work
at one point, but I really absolutely can't tell (for real) because the
mix is so horrendous that you LITERALLY cannot hear him. He is
inaudible!!! There is no excuse for this crap! UGH!!
Thankfully The inspired setlist calls continue with the following
Devotion to a Dream! A really excellent reading, super high energy and
rocking. Great stuff. Aside from the mix!! Listen to the first
half of this - Page is INAUDIBLE. Not low in the mix, but INAUDIBLE.
Eventually he is heard, but then Trey takes over the mix slack and it
becomes extremely hard to hear him!!! This mix is so bad it's absolutely
distracting in the most negative way.....
Thankfully things KINDA get acceptable soundwise for The Well. Another
a+ song choice, this is a typical type 1 reading, nothing more nothing
less. Excellent regardless. For the love of God though jam it out again please!!!
And the hits keep comin with a 9 minute BOAF. And this sucker just EXPLODES!!! One
of those versions that just slowly builds and builds abd builds until
you reach a point where you are slowly beginning to think "holy freaking
crap". Absolutely must hear - some definite x factor at play!!!
Following a strong, and very welcome, Strawberry Letter 23, The Old Home
Place and Lawn Boy give us a very nice respite before the next must
hear of the show.
Hey Stranger is OFF THE HOOK tonight!!! Very lengthy (about 13
minutes!), this one is a complete funk WORKOUT from start to finish.
Page is going nuts with the Clav (right?), making a funky, soupy base.
Trey then comes and patiently robo wahs his way to oblivion. One of
those slow build readings that stays in one zone but does so with
absolute aplomb. Again, definitely x factor in play on this one. MUST
HEAR!!! THIS IS SICK!!!!
The set proceeds to close on a RIPPING Walls of the Cave. Nothing
special but a great, high energy choice. Strong enough to call must
hear! They friggin go for it!!!! Damnnnnnnnn. Antelope territory big time on this one!
All in all, this was a very strong set from start to finish!!
Super high energy and rocking from start to finish. Definitely among the
very best first sets of the whole summer, made even better with the
inspired and colorful song selection and flow. Never mind the actual
playing.
There isnt THAT much thats must hear, but everything was genuinely at a
base level excellent level of quality. Not a single weak link and a
raging time from start to finish!!! One of my favorite first sets of the
summer!!!
I would say Birds, Stranger and Walls are must hear, but most would
include Gin as well. First sets dont get that much better than this!!!
Set 2
An 18 minute SYSF into a 30 minute Chalkdust. My god.... Set
Your Soul Free is terrific. Easily the strongest reading since god
knows when. Super powerful and high energy, there is a ton of OOMPH to
this one. Like a perfect 3 act play, it begins with a great kind of dark
and tense psychedlic zone. Synths and robi wah, etc. Then it shifts
upwards into fantastic bliss rocking, leading to a very large peakish
kind of section. From there it gets psychedelic again, staying light
this time. Just morphing and flowing, effect in play, etc. Extremely
cool! Finally winding down, they successfully (though very awkwardly)
shift into Chalkdust.
Chalkdust is a beast, of course. The song itself rips, smashing the door
in forcefully. Immediately going type 2, it spends the majority of its
time exploring every shade of abstract but blissful jamming imaginable.
Very psychedelic and hazy, but also incredibly tight and FLOWING! This
is one of those jams where it feels like one instrument played by 4
people as one. Tons of rhythmic shifts, wacky sideways up and down, this
that abd the other, while staying upbeat. This goes all the way to the
18 minute mark. True strangeness creeps in with a wacky skippy beat and
obtuse sideways synths, loops, bass fx...It goes full "upbeat Melt" on our asses!! Love
and light meltdown destruction!!! Thats pretty unique!! LOADED with x
factor magic, add this to the all timer list. An absolutely ridiculous
and strange kind of "screwed up jazz" reading of Chalkdust. For the next
4 minutes, we descend into the wormhole from heaven. ENTER THINE VORTEX ALL YE WHO HATH CHOSEN ADVENTURE!!!!!! Out
of the wormhole we morph into a VERY hard rocking section like butter.
This builds to the expected hose explosion of a thousand suns. Picture the 2022 Bangor Disease - times 10,000. My effing god. The
final 4 minutes see them shift again into this cool lowkey kind of
skippy jam for a while. It slowly winds down and they organically morph
flawlessly into Sea of Stars. Beyond Alzheimer reading right here, this makes the Mexico 2024 Godzilla Stomp version sound like child's play.
There is none more epic than the 2022 SPAC Chalkdust.....
Sea of Stars is gorgeous and works so amazingly well, winding down and naturally segueing perfectly out into a 12 minute Piper.
And OH MY SWEET UNHOLY MOTHER OF SATAN'S OUTER SPACE BUTTHOLE.
GOAT. GOAT RIGHT HERE OF THE MODERN AGE. GOAT TIMES 1000. CASE CLOSED.
100,000 NUCLEAR BOMBS AND 5,000 NASA SPACE SHUTTLES ARE NOT EVEN IN THE
SAME UNIVERSE AS FAR AS THE INTENSITY AND SPEED AND HOSE EXPLOSION
INSANITY OF THIS JAM. EVEN WITH PHISH 1.0 I HAVE NOT HEARD ANOTHER JAM
APPROACH THIS LEVEL OF BRAIN EXPLOSION.
Um.... What can you possibly say when no words in the English language
(or any other for that matter) can accurately describe and depict the
events unfolding in this Piper?? Piper, is heavy, and grimy and fast and
beyond ripping. Beyond nuclear. Beyond Jesus. Beyond anything your mortal brain can't even fathom.
If you have not heard this, stop what you were doing right now. Stop
playing with your child, stop whatever important business transaction
you're currently conducting, take your hands off the wheel and crash
your car... Whatever you need to do to hear this Piper do so immediately.
APPARENTLY ITS POSSIBLE TO TRAVERSE OUTER SPACE WITHOUT A SPACE SUIT!
You know how I go on constantly about how 2023 was the year of pedal to the metal full-blown floor it Phish? There
isn't a single jam in 2023 that even approaches the mind-altering
intensity of this one performance. With this Chalkdust>Sea of
Stars>Piper Trifecta we have officially blasted through the ceiling
that is Mexico 2024 in terms of what the benchmark is to reach for in
terms of modern Phish.
This was a masterpiece. This trio was beyond a masterpiece. What is beyond a masterpiece?!
I give up with this band I swear, every time they top themselves, they
somehow come along again and top themselves 10 times harder. ....
Bringing us back to terra firma, it's like a kick in the teeth getting
slammed with a 15 minute Everythings Right. I just mean that they took
us so far out into the land of.....whatever, that it's like "huh?!
What?!", getting shaken awake, haha. A terrific reading, the song is
extra powerful. Wonderful laid back jamming to start with great
connection between everyone, eventually turning into the expected
cheerful type 1, again slowly building serious heat and rocking to a
close. Maybe not essential, but damn is it great regardless and a
perfect set capper.
Smashing encore of killer readings of Loving Cup and Antelope. Nothing
to say. Great as always. What CAN you say after what we just heard?!
Now THAT was set of the year. F me, that trio of Dust through
Piper has to be worth of being among at least the 50 greatest sequences
in their entire career. They did it. They officially destroyed the
benchmark of Mexico 2024.....
SYSF is fantastic and essential, but is absolutely laughable in the wake
of what follows. That is beyond insane. That Chalkdust makes Mex 24
look like Lawn Boy .......It doesnt matter what else gets played this
year. Jam of the Year, and maybe the last 5, is right here....
The nearly 4.5 rating on .NET is actually perhaps underrating this.
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