4 18 26 The Sphere #3
Set 1
An old school set one that begins with what else but Buried Alive! Let's go! No flubbage, high energy, great stuff! The energy continues with a ROCKIN Bag in slot two to build the momentum. This one just burns. Right away they are off to the races, Trey just ripping it down. An absolutely fantastic type 1 reading. Im giving this a must hear - it crushes!! It peaks to oblivion, just laying waste. Man, the boys came to KILL and it shows. Heck freaking yes.
Keeping the old school theme going, We now get an excellent reading of Reba. It's nothing special or must here but it must be noted that it's basically played flawlessly and it does have an excellent solo even though it feels way too short. In other words, I'll take it!
Up next is the first major surprise of the run, the first ForbinBird since 12 31 23!!!!!! And it's absolutely fantastic thank God! Sounds like they rehearsed the crap out of it! They NAIL both songs at proper speed. Trey even completely nails the fast part in Mockingbird! A+ modern reading, easily the strongest version in a decade. WOW!! Must hear for the quality alone.
Following that we get a massive X Factor Magic SMACK in the face with an 18 minute Sigma. And holy moly mother of god what a beast it is! As with Bag, it's up tempo and powerful absolutely bursting with energy. It's tight and red hot. The song itself is one of the best readings of it I've ever heard. The jam is just magical. It begins with a dark and ominous "Storm clouds approaching on the horizon" kind of vibe. Slowly this turns into this more ethereal kind of hazy blissy upbeat zone. This is an excellent portion and goes for a good while and you start to just sink into it as if laying on a cloud. Slowly it begins to pick up intensity and tighten back up. Check out Fishman answering Treys playing. Around the 13 minute mark it's slowly starts to ramp up and for three entire minutes they unleash one of the gnarliest, most unhinged peak sections of any jam in recent history. An absolute fireball blast. The kind of peak section that will give you chills and have you questioning your life. Even better they actually completely nail the return to the song and it WORKS instance. A+++++++ across the freaking board. Holy crap you have to hear this at all costs. It's truly one of those amazing all-timer versions.
They keep the fun going with a blazing Walk Away. Not much to say it kills as usual. I know Joe Walsh was in the house but I don't know if they played it for him or not (surely they had to know!)
The set then concludes with a terrific 15 minute Gin. This one is absolutely killer and another must hear, It mostly stays in that rocking type 1 zone but it's got a funky under belly about it. Really terrific, You got to get this. . The peak on it is just fantastic even by type 1 Gin standards. Holy crap the peak on this just soars!!!
All in all this was the best first set of the three shows so far and it's not even close. Basically A+ and flawless across the board from start to finish. Id say Bag, Forbinbird, Sigma and Gin Are all must hear readings. Just crushing renditions!!
For the love of God please let the second set live up to the quality of this first set. If it doesn't I'm going to be so cheesed off!!!
Set 2
The 2nd set begins with a terrific 16 minute Oblivion. And THANK GOD they actually keep it dark!!! ITS A MIRACLE!!! This one is really cool - its very textural. Very patient. Lots of Trey laying robo loops as a bedrock atop Pages hazey keys etc. Definitely not a shredfest. Im calling this must hear.
Following that comes a monster 25 minute Simple! Starting on an awful note, Trey somehow completely botches the intro causing a near trainwreck lol. Thankfully the jam is pretty damn awesome. It starts in a hazy bliss or whatever for a bit. Around 9 minutes it starts to shift and deviate. Around 12 minutes they kick it into high gear. Fishman kicks the tempo up and they launch into a super fast kind of hard rocking funk jam. Man the boys ARE KILLING it!!! Unfortunately Trey starts to meander and kinda goes AWOL for a bit. After A while in the wilderness he makes himself known again and starts to figure out his playing. The rest of the guys are refusing to give up the funkiness and so you get this really great juxtaposition of Trey doing his stock upbeat bliss rock whatever a top the rest of the guys doing this hardcore funk rocking. Listen to Gordo!! Somewhere around the 18-minute mark the jam just absolutely explodes and we get one of the longest extended peak EXPLOSIONS since the damn St. Louis 2024 Tweezer. It's absolutely incredible and will have your jaw on the floor. It's the definition of world destroying and it just goes and goes and goes and goes without stopping. Holy moly it is bonkers. And just when you think they are finally going to get crazy with this, they slow down heavily and begin this staccato funky rhythm Jam. Unfortunately it melts down into a hazy bliss like some 1999 kind of jam. And basically for the last two or three minutes they fade the jam out to a perfect conclusion......
Obviously that's a must hear jam but I can't say it was my favorite. When it clicked it was incredible but Trey was definitely the weak link in this sucker, sounding hesitant to explore beyond basic soloing and it seemed like he kept cutting exploration short. Those are nitpicks though because this Simple Well absolutely blow you away and crush your head. Basically the jam is really messy for lack of a better term but when it's great it's incredible.
An 18 minute Tweezer keeps the party going. This one is just terrific, I'd say there's some X Factor going on with it. It feels very Phish 1.0 - the flow on it is out of this world. There isn't really anything strange about it This is more of a textural and hazy kind of reading. It starts off interestingly very quietly and spends the first half slowly working into this very cool kind of ethereal (What other words should I use??) haze, for lack of a better term. They spend a long time building this cloud of sound before it begins to wind down. Halfway through just when you think the jam Is dying a death, they change their minds and work it up into a rocking and kind of dark finale for the second half. It's a very textural jam with everybody working as one. A jam in two halves, This was the most cohesive piece of music this set and just about rivals the Sigma in set 1 for me. MUST HEAR.
After a flawlessly gorgeous version of Waste, we get another must hear with an absolutely phenomenal 11-minute reading of Twist. This is another version that feels very 1990s Phish. Again the flow is out of this world. The guys are locked in and Trey is awake. They are clicking like you wouldn't and deliver an A++ type 1 reading. But just when you think that's all it's going to be it somehow morphs going type to into an absolutely astonishingly beautiful bliss rock jam. No seriously it's different than your typical boring "just what you expected" bliss jam. That beautiful haze again just permeates everything and it's a cloud of beauty and wonder. It's honestly an astonishing jam and the return into the song proper to close is so perfectly satisfying. HOLY crap you have to hear this it was absolutely insane.
The set ends with a typically raging Antelope before a party tastic encore of Walrus and Tweeprise
All in all, This was an absolute mega bomb of a show. The only real "problem" (and I'm sure as usual I'm the only person in the universe that picked up on this or whom it bothers), Was that the jams were a bit hindered by Trey seeming hesitant in the first half of set two or by him kinda refusing to "go with the flow" at times. Once we got to Tweezer though It was off to the races.
If set two was stronger in the first half I would say this is of such a quality that you could put this among, say, The top 10 shows of the year if it was 2024. As it is I would rate this a very strong 4.3 or so. 4.275. Something like that. It definitely delivers the goods and then some.
There was so much must hear material but some of it was definitely better than others and I need to make the distinction of "small boy" and "big boy" must hears. Small boys being selections that are definitely a cut above but perhaps aren't necessarily particularly special, definitely above average.
Small boy must hears:
Oblivion
Bag
Gin
Big Boy Must Hears:
SIGMA OASIS HOLY CRAP
Simple
Tweezer
Twist
The 2nd set begins with a terrific 16 minute Oblivion. And THANK GOD they actually keep it dark!!! ITS A MIRACLE!!! This one is really cool - its very textural. Very patient. Lots of Trey laying robo loops as a bedrock atop Pages hazey keys etc. Definitely not a shredfest. Im calling this must hear.
Following that comes a monster 25 minute Simple! Starting on an awful note, Trey somehow completely botches the intro causing a near trainwreck lol. Thankfully the jam is pretty damn awesome. It starts in a hazy bliss or whatever for a bit. Around 9 minutes it starts to shift and deviate. Around 12 minutes they kick it into high gear. Fishman kicks the tempo up and they launch into a super fast kind of hard rocking funk jam. Man the boys ARE KILLING it!!! Unfortunately Trey starts to meander and kinda goes AWOL for a bit. After A while in the wilderness he makes himself known again and starts to figure out his playing. The rest of the guys are refusing to give up the funkiness and so you get this really great juxtaposition of Trey doing his stock upbeat bliss rock whatever a top the rest of the guys doing this hardcore funk rocking. Listen to Gordo!! Somewhere around the 18-minute mark the jam just absolutely explodes and we get one of the longest extended peak EXPLOSIONS since the damn St. Louis 2024 Tweezer. It's absolutely incredible and will have your jaw on the floor. It's the definition of world destroying and it just goes and goes and goes and goes without stopping. Holy moly it is bonkers. And just when you think they are finally going to get crazy with this, they slow down heavily and begin this staccato funky rhythm Jam. Unfortunately it melts down into a hazy bliss like some 1999 kind of jam. And basically for the last two or three minutes they fade the jam out to a perfect conclusion......
Obviously that's a must hear jam but I can't say it was my favorite. When it clicked it was incredible but Trey was definitely the weak link in this sucker, sounding hesitant to explore beyond basic soloing and it seemed like he kept cutting exploration short. Those are nitpicks though because this Simple Well absolutely blow you away and crush your head. Basically the jam is really messy for lack of a better term but when it's great it's incredible.
An 18 minute Tweezer keeps the party going. This one is just terrific, I'd say there's some X Factor going on with it. It feels very Phish 1.0 - the flow on it is out of this world. There isn't really anything strange about it This is more of a textural and hazy kind of reading. It starts off interestingly very quietly and spends the first half slowly working into this very cool kind of ethereal (What other words should I use??) haze, for lack of a better term. They spend a long time building this cloud of sound before it begins to wind down. Halfway through just when you think the jam Is dying a death, they change their minds and work it up into a rocking and kind of dark finale for the second half. It's a very textural jam with everybody working as one. A jam in two halves, This was the most cohesive piece of music this set and just about rivals the Sigma in set 1 for me. MUST HEAR.
After a flawlessly gorgeous version of Waste, we get another must hear with an absolutely phenomenal 11-minute reading of Twist. This is another version that feels very 1990s Phish. Again the flow is out of this world. The guys are locked in and Trey is awake. They are clicking like you wouldn't and deliver an A++ type 1 reading. But just when you think that's all it's going to be it somehow morphs going type to into an absolutely astonishingly beautiful bliss rock jam. No seriously it's different than your typical boring "just what you expected" bliss jam. That beautiful haze again just permeates everything and it's a cloud of beauty and wonder. It's honestly an astonishing jam and the return into the song proper to close is so perfectly satisfying. HOLY crap you have to hear this it was absolutely insane.
The set ends with a typically raging Antelope before a party tastic encore of Walrus and Tweeprise
All in all, This was an absolute mega bomb of a show. The only real "problem" (and I'm sure as usual I'm the only person in the universe that picked up on this or whom it bothers), Was that the jams were a bit hindered by Trey seeming hesitant in the first half of set two or by him kinda refusing to "go with the flow" at times. Once we got to Tweezer though It was off to the races.
If set two was stronger in the first half I would say this is of such a quality that you could put this among, say, The top 10 shows of the year if it was 2024. As it is I would rate this a very strong 4.3 or so. 4.275. Something like that. It definitely delivers the goods and then some.
There was so much must hear material but some of it was definitely better than others and I need to make the distinction of "small boy" and "big boy" must hears. Small boys being selections that are definitely a cut above but perhaps aren't necessarily particularly special, definitely above average.
Small boy must hears:
Oblivion
Bag
Gin
Big Boy Must Hears:
SIGMA OASIS HOLY CRAP
Simple
Tweezer
Twist
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