Set 1
The show opens tonight with a 13 min Wolfman. This one kicks total ass. It's extremely tight and funky with an overt heaviness about it. This is a super hefty boy! Or, well, wolf. 
Trey isnt ripping, instead patiently picking his spots. The jam
eventually shifts and heads for the sky. A terrific slow burn, soaring
peak section ensues, lengthy and melodic. It goes on and on and on
getting heavier and heavier just exploding with magic. They definitely
spray the hose on this one! The next Factor magic coming out early!! This was a really really great version. Definitely must hear! Wow.
Up next is fast Llama. Taken at more of a mid-tempo pace (by fast Llama
standards), it takes him a minute to lock in, kind of stumbling into
this song. It's an okay version but nothing that excellent or fantastic.
The following Martian Monster is about the same, delivering a solid reading but nothing you need to run out to hear.
Up next we get the continued revival of Devotion to a Dream. Great to
hear and solid but nothing exceptional or overly exciting. Trey sounds
particularly tired on this one. It does pick up majorly in the end and
rocks satisfyingly to a close but I was worried for a minute there!
Man, after that killer Wolf opener, this set is now kinda floundering a bit, sounding tired and uninspired. Huh.
Up next is perennial favorite Divided Sky.
Thankfully DS is very strong tonight. Laid back but very tight
musically. Definitely a strong reading. I dont think it tops the others
from this year that Ive raved about but its certainly worthy
competition!! The back half of it absolutely TAKES THE F OFF! Killer version. Borderline must hear for me.
Axilla is really strong tonight, continuing the heat out of Divided Sky. Excellent type 1 face melter.
SICK AF segue out of Axilla, melting seamlessly into a 9
minute Hey Stranger. Hell yes. Fishman takes charge pounding away while
Trey slyly and patiently takes his time going at it nicely with the
robowah. Excellent - really terrrific vibe and tightness on this, very
"late night". Ya know what, I think this is must hear. The boys are LOCKED IN with each other, the jam flowing ridiculously smoothly. Killer killer killer.
The set concludes with the trio of Steam, Taste and Wilson. Steam is a fantastic, goopy, slow burn meltdown. Definitely must hear, some x factor at play. It crushes!!! Holy smokes that peak section!!!!
Not much to say about the others. Both are strong as with the rest of the set but also ridiculously unspecial for the most part.
All in all this was a weird set. It wasn't tired sounding for the
most part and the boys were locked in with great flow and tight playing.
Wolf and Steam and Stranger are the must hears. There isn't much to say about this set. Is give it a solid B+
Set 2
Let's try this again shall we? The second half of the show opens with a giant monster of a 27 minute Carini. Holy smokes Kaiju Phish returns. Lets go! Immediately its apparent this will be different from set 1. Everyone is just EXPLODING with
energy on this sucker. It rolls along like a freight train, just
pummeling you into the ground with its massive weight. The jam begins
initially in upbeat chill bliss rock mode. It picks up pace mightily and
ascend swiftly into a soaring melodic peak-rage section. This thing is
just bursting at the seams!!! If it ended around the 8
minute mark I'd still rave about it. As it is, at that point the peakage
subsides. The guys all seamlessly lock in tight on a chordy, rhythmic
motif. Trey starts doing that nice "beep boop bop" upper register
picking while Page jumps on the washy synths. The jam has now entered
type 2, evolving into a hazy, late 90s style bliss-haze excursion. All thats missing is Treys pitch shifter. Around
10 minutes the drums drop out and you think its going to hazily fade to
a close. Thankfully Trey keeps playing and Fishman starts some tribal
tom tom work and the jam keeps going. Heck yes. We are drownin in major key bliss boredom, meandering now -- please do something!!! Trey
kinda answers, jumping briefly on the wah as the jam quickly begins to
slowly morph into a darker and much more intense area. Hell yes, this is more like it. Very
powerful and brooding vibe, Fishman still favoring the toms big time.
As with the initial "power rock" peak section at the front of the jam,
Trey sets some loops and this darker area evolved into a similar area.
The band are locked the F in sounding like one 8 armed
monster. Just flawlessly working together, flowing like water, the jam
goes on. Page starts with his keys and Trey keeps going with chordal
vamping (for the love of god rip a damn solo, please!) This is fantasti, despite my comments, haha. Unfortunately again, at 19 minutes it shifts back into light. Ugh, cmon now. Why is it so hard to get a dark and nasty Carini??????.... The
jam devolves again into a veeerrrryyyy laid back bliss jam, watery
synths and ethereal loopage going on, etc. Masterful soundscaping work.
Slowly it starts to work back upwards. At 24 minutes it just SHOOTS INTO THE SKY!!! WE ARE FLYING TO THE MOON!! STRAP IN!!! An incredible and magical soaring peak section evolves, VERY MUCH evoking memories of the Camden 99 Chalkdust. HOLY FREAKING MOTHER OF ICCULUS THIS IS INCREDIBLE. MY JAW IS ON THE FLOOR LETS FREAKING GO!!!!
And in one of the best setues of all freaking time they then go
SEAMLESSLY into an 18 minute Light! Holy smokes lets go!!!!! ALL HAIL
OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR X FACTOR MAGIC!!!!! As far as the actual
song, this is one of the most perfect readings Ive heard in a while. No
its nothing technical but its so damn TIGHT. Good lord they are crushing.
Yeah, I get the 4.5 rating, lol. The jam begins with the expected major
key rocking before flirting with darker waters for a brief moment. Trey
sets a loop and Page gets on for a piano solo. We are in that
transitional kind of "type 1.5" area, if you will. Trey is doing great
melodic work answering Pages piano calls. They all soon synch up on a
cyclical little motif together. The jam is inching towards darkness but
its more of a laidback night time vibe more than anything. Trey still
stuck in Chordal Vamp Land. They spend a loooonnnggg time in this one zone. Almost to the point of feeling meandering. THANK
GOD Trey hits the robo wah and Gordo answers with a bass burst. The jam
is in this really powerful but chill kind of dark zone. Its dying to go
deep but they are just refusing to relent. The intensity slowly ramps
up and the jam gets really powerful, they still sound lost for direction
at the same time, refusing to commit to one way or the other. This
is a really frustrating and bipolar jam. Dark/light/dark/light/... Just
pick something and take it deep for the loe of god. At 15 minutes they stumble into a slow build peaky section. And from here they proceed to just annihilate the universe. Bang
your head and snap your neck, this is the most POWERFUL jam of the year
- its like a 40 ton weight just dropped on your head. Omfg the final
few minutes are just peak destruction, holy hell.
After a certain point you can swear they start inching
back towards Carini. And then they move into a full reprise of the theme
and the monster hour of Carini>Light comes to a conclusion.....
Daaaaaaaammmmmmnnnnnnnnnn.
Thats about all I have to say about that....
Truth be told that was not one of my favorite jam pairings. It WAS
absolutely incredible but as far as personal "preference" goes it was
way too in the box and I was kinda getting bored/annoyed after a while. But thats the uppity thing I can ever say so disregard me. From a
power/energy perspective, thats up there with the best stuff ever
It was just kinda disjointed at times I thought, really not doing "enough" in the extened run times for me personally. But nitpicking is nitpicking and im an ungrateful ass. They exploded the universe regardless.
Set 2
The set follows on with a 17 minute Sand! And holy moly does it actually
use the entirety of its run time like I would hope and pray it would.
Right away a whale siren is looped and you know this is going to be a
banger. It gets into that grimy night time funkiness as oh so excellent
for a good long while. Slowly the jam begins to morph, becoming ever so
hazy and ethereal. It turns into this giant orgasmic mushroom cloud of
psychedelia. It's absolutely incredible and contains more x Factor than
you can shake an x Factor with. MUST HEAR! One of the most unique versions of all of modern Phish!!!!
After a do-nothing Piper, comes a terrific reading of The
Lizards. Definitely must hear, this one has some kind of extra
emotional oomph to it big time. It sounds awesome and made me misty
eyed, for real. Wow.
weget a 20+ min YEM. Very strong reading on the whole, tight and fiery.
Great Trey soloing, and dont miss Page doing Smoke On the Water, lol.
After several minutes of the vocal jam, around the 18 minute Mark they
come back in with a robo funk jam at last for several glorious minutes.
Killer version overall I'd give it a must hear!
Because this is Phish, they proceed to close the night with a crazy 12
minute jammed out Meatstick. Wtf?! Not much to say you just need to hear
at all costs. Total x Factor and absolutely freaking awesome!!!
All in all, I thought this show was a very very mixed bag. The
highlights were titanic, but the set itself felt like it lacked a little
bit of flow. It felt like a bunch of separate elements in a row instead
of one big piece of music.
The Carini>Light sandwich is incredible for sure, but for my personal
taste the pair felt pretty bland or hesitant at times. This sounds
nitpicky but I don't know how to explain it. It felt like Trey was
really holding back or lost for what to play a lot of the time.
Sand was the big keeper for me. That was legitimately amazing. On the whole I don't think this show is LOADED with A+ material! From top to bottom though it's just too disconnected or underwhelming at
times or whatever the hell you want to call it for my personal
preference. It's not as strong as Birmingham, imo, but its close for
sure.
My main issues are that the jams are way too "in the box" regardless of
how powerful and face smashing they are. The Carini just sounded
downright unsure of itself much of the time, though made up for with
everything else.
Also, it really felt like Trey was barely doing anything but chord
jamming tonight. That got old for me. The second set as a whole just
didn't feel like one "singular experience" for me. It felt like one
random song after another which takes me out of the immersion a little
bit.
However, dumb nitpicks aside, Carini>Light, Sand, Lizards, YEM and Meatstick are all MUST HEAR! All of that being said, it goes to show you what a mind blowing era of
the band we are in when I can nitpick that much about a show that is
actually this strong!!!
I can understand the 4.5 rating even if I didn't enjoy this show as much as many others.
ADDENDUM:
9/17 was weird - I feel like it's a show I might feel wildly different
about on another day, considering my "protracted" listen through it. I
had to abort after set 1 on Thursday, and then yesterday I was
definitely propery
in it like I should be when playing a show,
but at the same I also had that thing in the back of my head like "ok,
let's get on to the next show"
9/17 was effing loaded with awesome stuff - again, my issues are stupid
nitpicky "personal preference" type things that would only really bug
someone like me who is
sat in a truck, by themselves, sitting at an
asphalt plant for two hours, hopped up on adderall with nothing else to
do and thinking WAY too "intently" about what they are listening to 
It's the kinda stuff most would probably never even hear/think about, haha.
Looking back, the Piper is
only thing in that 2nd set that isn't
properly excellent, imo. And that's really just because its so short and
is more of a transitional piece more than anything.
My main issues:
1. Trey "holding back". He wasn't hesitant but it was rare that he "let loose" I thought
2. The jams being kinda bipolar. They flowed awesome, the playing was
great, etc. They just weren't as "deep" sonically as I like
3. The 2nd set felt like a bunch of "singular" big pieces to me rather
than a big, interconnected whole. That's just how it came off to me for
some reason
So, as you can see, those are 3 stupid things that would only annoy a crazy person like me
I get the 4.5 rating. PERSONALLY, for my preferences and opinions I'd
rate set 1 like a B+ and set 2 a very strong A, but not quite A+
But at that point it's splitting hairs so..... We are talking about fractions of a point here, lmao.
I really hope the 3 Hampton shows deliver because they look friggin
AWESOME!
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