New Years, 2019-2020 Recap

 New Years Run 2019-2020 Recap

TL;DR: Four mostly excellent shows. Set 2 of 12/29 and all of 12/30 were definitely the musical winners for sure. 12/28 was terrific as well, though served more as a warmup gig, imo. 12/31 had one of the best gags in my opinion as it was incorporated into the music rather than just being a visual treat. 12/31 was stunted musically (though it had great moments!) but of course that is not the point on 12/31 - the party and the gag are And they nailed it despite the circumstances

12/28/19 New York City**
Literally the entire show. A very strong 4.2 kind of "hotter than the sun rock show rager" gig. Lots of great shorter jams and strong versions. Best Disease of 2019. Fantastic start to the run!!!


12/29/19 New York City (Set 1 was ok, set was a MONSTER. AMONG THE BEST SETS OF THE ENTIRE YEAR)
Kill Devil Falls
Beauty of a Broken Heart
Feugo
My Friend My Friend
Birds of a Feather
Carini (MONSTER. Top jam of the year)
>BOTT (FLAWLESS)
>Bathtub Gin (MONSTER. Top jam of the year, vol. 2)
>Golden Age
>2001
>Sneaking Sally
>Chalkdust Torture
Harry Hood (18 mintue Type II beast)
Show of Life
Run Like an Antelope


12/30/10 New York City** (Fantastic show, 36 min Tweezer, rarity-loaded first set...)
The Final Hurrah
46 Days (HOTTEST EVER?)
Curtis Loew
Blaze On (17 minute beast!!!)
Corinna
Mike's Song
>Contact
>Weekapaug Groove
About to Run
More (EXTRA SAUCE!)
Tweezer (36 minutes, insane)
Ruby Waves (13 min, INCREDIBLE)
>Steam (RIPPING)
>Tweezer Jam
>Ruby Waves Reprise
>Traffic Light (Magical!)
Rock and Roll


12/31/19 New York City (Send In the Clones! Fantastic show, though a bit stunted musically)
Halley's Comet (Threatens greatness)
Maze (Chill but COOL)
Fluffhead
Rise/Come Together (HOT!)
Punch You In the Eye (Played great!)
Wolfman's Brother
>Light (Type I epic)
>Twist (INSANE)
>Soul Planet (About to go NUCLEAR and then ripcorded...
>Mercury (Fantastic Type I)
>Possum
Send In The Clowns/Clones
First Tube
Sand
Drift While You're Sleeping (GOSPEL ROCK HEAVEN EXTRAVAGANZA! GOOSEBUMPS!!)
What's The Use
You Enjoy Myself (One of the FUNNEST ever!!)

2019-12-31 New York City, NY

 12/31/19 New York City

Watching the webcast of this one

Set 1 -

Martian Monster - Definitely not an expected opener, imo, but dang if it doesn't get us raging right off the bat! Very fun and gets the party vibe going. Wonderfully fluid playing from Trey - like butter. Backwards guitar and all Not exactly must-hear, but an interesting opening choice that was well done.

>Buried Alive - The ultimate opener for me. Makes no sense having it in the 2nd spot ala 12/8/19 but whatever. You know what though?! Somehow they actually segued from MM into this - and it worked! Alright, let's get it guys! Awesome! Again, not list-worthy but a fine rendition.

AC/DC Bag - Great, standard Bag. Nothing to mention, just delivers like expected!

Halley's Comet - Fantastic! About 11 minutes long. This is really where the fun begins. The first three songs were great but were the warmup Gotta say the lighting is really adding a lot - lots of dark purples and yellows give it a really great vibe. The jam is pretty dark and funky for a while and then slowly turns into Bliss Peak. So smoothly though! The guys just Guitar Hero this jam. Type I excellence of the best kind!!! Great Halley's Comet! Eventually the Bliss returns to the dark funk and we are in Type II ville.

>Prince Caspian - Not sure if that counts as a ripcord or a segue! One second they were in HC and the next beat it just immediately became Caspian. Worked better than expected. You could hear the Halley's jam dying off, so it's ok. Tons of energy on this one - OOOOHHHHH TO BE PRINCE CASPIAN!!!! cue bright white lights and the whole room exploding, lol Some cool feedback playing from Trey on this. Very nice. Gordo even gets some solo action in.

>Sparkle - Just as Caspian was starting to cook they jump into Sparkle. Sparkle is Sparkle, but it is pretty funny see a near-moshpit in the crowd

>Axilla II - Great set choice! DON'T SHINE THAT THING IN MY FACE MAN!!!! YES!!! STOP HITTING ME IN THE HEAD WITH THAT PAN! YOU'RE PISSING ME OFF! I'M SERIOUS!!!

Zamfir Story - A continuation of the pan story, lmao. Only Phish
Holy hell the laughing samples from Fishman lololol. And then they summon Zamfir onto the stage...holy hell my sides

>Maze - Slighty abstract version on Trey's front. He pretty much holds off on shredding, preferring to slash chords instead, but that just means Page gets more time to shine. I hate that Trey can't shred a Maze like he used to, but for a "new age" 2019 Maze, this one is uniquely good, imo. Definitely worth a listen.

Fluffhead - Performed pretty flawlessly for the most part on all fronts, this excellent Fluff is made even better when you see all the shots of Kuroda syncing the lights with the technical music. Awesome stuff. Great Fluff!!!

Rise/Come Together - Wow!! Yes, I said wow! This one hits hard and really pulls the set together to close with a bang. Move over "More"!!! There's a new set closer on the block! That whole pre chorus section of the song just hits big time on this one. I'm a part of you and you're a part of me, etc - everyone in the room uniting as one giant rock and roll family. THIS THING SMOKES!!! Really great closer for the set, imo


All in all, a very fine first set. Very "Jukebox Phish" as people will say, but that's fine sometimes! Halley's went deep for a bit and Caspian almost made it there. Fluffhead raged and Rise/Come Together tore it down hard. A strong set but not a classic. No major complaints here - a perfect kind of warmup

  

Set 2

Punch You In the Eye - Yes! My favorite song and opener! Holy crap that light show.... Thankfully they come out strong and hard with this one. Nothing kills the vibe worse than a friggin' limp-wristed PYITE (you know the kind I'm talking about). If it ain't hot, it's a waste. For a 2019 rendition this one brings a good amount of heat. YES! GET IT TREY! HE NAILED THE LANDLADY SECTION! THIS PUNCH IS A KEEPER! This is not flawless, but hot dang if it's not the best late-3.0 Punch I've heard in who knows how long. Thank you Icculus for blessing us with a GOOD Punch to open the 2nd set!

Wolfman's Brother - Someone gets lost and Wolfman has a trainwreck, lol. It doesn't come off the rails but there is massive confusion for a solid 10 seconds at one point. A really, really groovy and chill funk jam follows the song as expected. Man, oh man, the lights really add so much to this. Almost like the band and CK5 are jamming against each other, each one pushing the other. God this thing is a PARTY! If I was just listening I might think less of it, but watching the video...the whole place is just full on in sync. The band, the lights, the crowd....the vibe, man! Terrific little Wolfy!

>Light - Not my pick for next song (awful segue), but I love the song so I'll take it. Ironically, off the bat, Light gets dark. Immediately we drop into some dark Type I.5 areas. This quickly morphs back into the expected, well, light. Very smooth transitioning from section to section. Mellow and grooving. The whole time Trey is staring off into space and the band is riding this Type I feel. They never take it off the deep end, content to just enjoy the basis the song has given them, like a good Grateful Dead jam or something. Oh, but wait, there's more! Page starts to stab at his THX synths and the mood goes dark again. Yea, it's Type II time! Funky dark dance party grooving. But Trey won't commit and is determined to keep it uplifting, spamming major chords when the rest of the jam wants things to go minor. He leads us back to the brightness and while we are still in Type II, things are definitely heading in a more beach-party, NICU kinda way. Soon Page jumps back onto his rock and roll piano, abandoning the synth. This returns things to a classic Type I Light bliss jam again. Totally just rocking good now. Very upbeat, lovely piano and Trey just spamming little rhythmic phrases throughout. Really loving the piano - that Stonesy kinda classic rock thing. AWESOME. They are killing it! Trey is still staring at the sky, totalling IN THE ZONE, just killin' with a vengeance. All in all, this Light was very unsure of what direction to choose and ended up kinda being a little, excuses the pun, lightweight by the end, but they really gave it the ol' college try. Worth a listen.

>Twist - Beastly little Twist. Gordo is definitely the MVP here. Trey lays back throughout and Cactus picks up the slack, just laying it down thick and dark and groovy. If you like Mike you need this in your life. Solo Gordon Twist This Twist rages HARD and there is barely any Trey in it! For 3/4 of it, Trey is just playing rhythm, letting everyone else take the reigns. But then near the end he introduces a cool hard rock kind of ascending guitar lick the the other latch onto and the thing reaches a red-hot climax. FANTASTIC TWIST! MUST HEAR! HOTTEST TWIST EVER?! I mean, they freaking go rock god destructo mode on this sucker, just melting faces and stomping everything in their path to dust. And then Trey reintroduces the theme and this MONSTER comes to a perfect conclusion. Good lord, man.

>Soul Planet - Fantastic stuff. Once the song ends and Trey hits that stuttering delay that usually signals an upbeat rock jam, instead he hits it lightly and the guys drop into an extremely funky Moma Dance type of jam. Totally unexpected by me. Gordo is still tearing it up, while Trey is playing with delays and effects, layering a cool soundscape for the others to play over. Some really cool stuff going on in this jam. Everyone is jamming together as one and it's just got it going ON! At one point the guys bring the playing down to a whisper. The darkly aquatic ambiance starts to seep in, Gordo busting out the power drill! BUT DAMMIT THEY KILL IT RIGHT THERE! SON OF A B! WHY! WHY! YOU WERE POISED FOR LIFTOFF AND INSTEAD JUST....STOPPED! NO!! SCREW YOU GUYS!! UGH!!!

>Mercury - At least they make up for it by going into Mercury, my favorite song (along with 20 others ). If you're gonna ripcord at least go into a song I like! Thankfully, the song portion is one of the best performed versions I've heard. No slop here and the tempo is sprightly. The jam goes and Trey is still just playing rhythm master for a while. Excellent Type I ensues, and if I was looking for an "album ready" version to put on a faux studio release, this one would totally take the cake. And then it ends! Kinda disappointing....

>Possum - Glowsticks! Glowsticks everywhere!!! Pretty funny, Gordo is totally into the vocals. Get it Page! Great piano from him. Overall a ripping Possum to end a pretty good-if-uneven set.


All in all, this set was MOSTLY top notch. There were some VERY unfortunate ripcord moments and Trey seemed lost in the jams at times, but for the most part it was excellent. Very difficult set to try to recap. A lot was fantastic, but there were some head-scratcher choices here and there.

 

 Set 3 - Clone costume

Send In the Clones - JAZZ BALLADS A CAPELLA Send in the clones, holy hell this is amazing. Gotta grin on my face, haha.

First Tube - And on to the descended risers they go... And the clones take the stage as the risers ascend! Is this not one of the friggin' coolest gags ever or what? Gotta love the choreography and the wigs Reminds me of marching band I don't know what is going on but I can't wipe this grin off my face...
Lmao the band look terrified to move on their risers - can't say I blame them! Good golly this is just so much stupid fun!! "SEND IN THE CLOOOONNNEEESSSS!!!!" And to top it off, the First Tube is pretty dang excellent anyways! Talk about a kickoff to a set!!!

Auld Lang Syne - Is ALS (talk about unfortunate letters, eh?). Lots of balloons and cheering etc etc etc

>Sand - Ah yea, let's get it boys and girls! Dance party time! CLONE VOCALS. CLONE VOCALS EVERYWHERE! The platform choreography begins and Trey's platform immediately gets stuck, lol. Sorry Mike, Trey ain't raisin up to meet you! Pretty funny, the 3 guys are down low and Mike is just way up by the ceiling by his lonesome, lol. Musically, things are in murky dark-Sand land with Trey leaning hard on his gritty wah for a while before giving us some standard rock licks. The guys keep it in pretty standard Type I with Trey churning out more hot licks, though at the same time seeming appropriately hesitant - you can see him looking around like "wtf is going on with my platform", lol. Props to him for not really letting it affect his playing! After a while things start to peak and the clones end up on some platforms, vocalizing along to the jam. Incredibly freaking cool stuff. This is weird as hell, but at least it's something interesting to look at!!!

At this point the song finishes and Trey is stuck in the air with the other 3 on the ground. There is a lengthy break, presumably to figure stuff out. Some funny banter between the band and the crowd follows with Trey leaning down a lot, holding on for dear life. As Fishman says though "don't worry - Death Don't Hurt Very Long!" Eventually Trey says "I'm goin for it" and decides to continue on while hanging in midair. And the show must go on!

Drift While You're Sleeping - Definitely not what I expected in this slot, but let's see what happens! All the clones are asleep and then gradually wake up, adding vocals and whatnot. It actually sounds fantastic with them all harmonizing together!!! Cool! "Down the stream you ride - down down down".... Those background vocals really sound great on this. Wow. Then when we get to the calypso section all the clones get their "light oars" and start sailing on the platform risers. From there it is on to lightsaber/flag girl choreography with the light sticks. At this point the rest of the band has resumed their platform theatrics, moving up and down either side of the stationary Trey. Once the reggae section begins, more cool lightstick movement occurs, the clones forming a moving wave among other things. This is awesome. I don't care how dad-rock this song is, you can't knock the sentiment - "and love will carry us through!". This song gives me chills every time and these soulful gospel vocals by the clones just push this one over the edge. Absolutely fantastic. I've got goosebumps on my arms....and you know what, the climax of the song with Trey going nuts soloing like his life depends on it seems all the more special with him being the only one in the air at that point - It's like, all eyes on Trey, just tearing it up in the sky!!!

"WE MOOOOVVVEEEE THROUGH STORMY WEAAAAATTTHHHEEERRRR!!!"

Ahhh, chills, man, for real....

I freaking love this band.



What's The Use - Interesting choice after Drift! I never would've called that. WTU is just WTU (though of course there is lots of cool ambience) but I'm assuming this was used as a "break" spot for the clone dancers who sit this number out. I mean, they aren't absent - they are using cool mirrors to move beams of light around the arena in a choreographed manner. But it's not like they are running around, lol. Freaking gorgeous as all hell though.


You Enjoy Myself - Rough/hesitant start to this, evening requiring a total restart. That's ok though. Trey is seen throughout crouched on his platform trying to listen to his monitor. Cool moment when Page plays an extended note and Trey turns the microphone around trying, kinda successfully, to get everyone in the building to harmonize with it. Awesome bit of crowd interaction!!! Very Zappa. As the instrumental portion of the song continues, the clones leave the stage and all eyes are on the band. When they reach that part, Trey stands up from his crouched position and aboslutely NAILS that screaming sustained note. KILLER PEAK, YO!!! From here the clones return to the stage and join in on all the vocals. Trey is having an absolute blast, grinning like there is no tomorrow.

AND THEN COME THE TRAMPOLINES!

Ah yea, clones on 'lines, here we gooooooooo....

This is so hilariously stupid in the best way, lol. All the clones cheering each other on as they do their trampoline rotations....

...and suddenly they are gone again....

From here the guys bust into jam mode and Trey just rips it up for a few glorious minutes. Fantastic. The clones return to the stage and Gordo spurs them on with some absolutely glorious bass soloing. GET IT, CACTUS!!!

Then the vocal jam begins and it sounds like a bunch of Sims all trying to talk to each other, lol. Kinda creepy in a way. An insane gospel-from-hell vocal raveup follows, eventually culmination in a chant of "We are your clones! Happy New Years!"

Wow, what can you say? That was definitely a YEM for the classics book imo!!!

Tweeprise - Trey says we are in the air and stuck here until next year, so encore time it is It's Tweeprise at the end of an insane NYE set. Yea, it's sick.

Rescue Squad - C'mon guys, this ain't a song. Get over it. Trey was stuck. It did not happen on purpose. Why is this even listed on .NET....



All in all....wowzers! What a set! If you just listen to this you will likely be disappointed - this needs to be seen to properly appreciate it. If you judge this without having watched it, I refuse to acknowledge your review, lol Incredibly cool set. As for the whole show, it was a mixed bag, but overall very good and sometimes awesome. It's a New Years show so I can forgive some hesitancy (occupied minds) and whatnot. This show should definitely go down in the annals of great NYE gigs though - that 3rd set was freaking awesome.....fantastic end to a great year of Phish!!!!

 

 

2019-12-30 New York City, NY - SUPER TWEEZER

 Had no time most of the week to listen, so as I sit here this afternoon, why not continue onwards?

12/30/19 New York City, NY

Set 1

Wilson - Opener! That's a pretty rare thing! A pretty rocking and high energy version to kick off the show with a bang. Nothing you haven't heard a million times before, but certainly welcome.

The Final Hurrah - Great choice for second spot. Kinda like Moma 2.0 or something. What's with the keys/extended synths that sound out of key? Did somebody trigger a wrong patch or something?? Right before the first Faceplant Into Rokk section. Great energy on this though - gets slightly cookin' with some tastefully restrained playing from Trey and the rest of the guys (especially Mike) throwing in all kinds of tasty licks beneath him. Great little group effort!

46 Days - Right off the bat you can feel the heat. Straight from the get go! It's one of those "oh dang, this is gonna rock!" versions. As with TFH, Gordo is tearing it up - listen to him soloing under Trey. Awesome peak section in this sucker. Phenomenal 46 Days imo. Just grabs you by the face and rips your skin off. THIS IS INSANE!!! HOLY CRAP THIS IS HOTTER THAN THE SUN!!!

PAUSE - No, for real. Go back. Do not pass here without listening to that 46 Days.
Penance paid? Ok, you may proceed....

The Ballad of Curtis Loew - Who the hell saw this one coming?! Wow, unexpectedly great to hear! Trey is nailing the leads, Page is singing great, the crowd is lapping it up. Wonderful!

Blaze On - Still hate the song, but once can't deny a monster when you hear it!! 17 minutes. Really great and ULTRA funky! Hints of Plasma at times. The jam goes through several different phases. Gordo is still absolutely tearing it up. We go from typical raging funk phest to blissy kind of thoughtful jamming to some more abstract kinda stuff. This is terrific. For 17 minutes they sure give us our dang money's worth here! Absolute dance fest. Must-hear!!!

Corinna - The Taj Mahal classic. 3rd MSG run in a row its getting played! The crowd loves it from the start and the vibe is so choice. Just wonderfully chill and grooving. Vibetastic, yo. Oh lord, Page, your keys do something to me....

Mike's Song - Oh yes, that energy, baby. Let's rock! This sucker is HOT like a 1.0 version!!!! Get it Trey!!!

Contact - Winter Wonderland segue out of MS into...Contact! Completely unexpected and freaking awesome. Freaking awesome funk jam in the middle.

Weekapaug Groove - Its WG.

About to Run - Killed it in Charleston. I don't think this one is as good as Charleston, but the effort is there and the rest of the guys are smashing it to pieces. A+ for effort!

More - Is More. What else did you think was gonna close the set?! This one feels like it has extra mustard sauce. Everyone is shredding it up and just killing it. Great way to close a terrific set.


All in all - WOW! What a freaking set!!! Almost the entire set is worth at least one listen. Rare song choices and placements, a 17 minute Blaze On bonanza, the hottest 46 Days this side of 2003 and more energy (for 2019, at least) than you can shake a coconut at! FANTASTIC FIRST SET!!!!

 

 

Set 2

Here we go!!!


Tweezer - 36 minutes. We know the deal, lol. 4 minutes in and the jam begins. Trey holds back initially letting Gordo take the reigns (MVP tonight!) for a minute. But this is just the taster for the main course. After the next "Look who's in the freezer!" they do a cool little pause for a minute, dragging out the break for a few seconds. Very cool moment. But then the real jam proper begins about 5:30. The crowd is going absolutely nuts - can anyone elaborate what happenned then?? Right now the guys are biding their time, Trey taking it slow and easy, Page filling in his gaps with lovely piano. A "typical" Type I Tweezer rage fest ensues for a good few minutes after this. Around 8:30 there is a glimpse of change - Trey starts doing cool sustained note patterns that the other guys pick up on. It's a brief view around the corner to other stuff, a signal if you will.
By 9:30 Trey has turned on his dirty switch and his wah pedal and things start to get heavy. This is great stuff. By 10:30 Trey and the guys start kinda jamming off of the ascending Tweeprise motif, but quickly shelve it for brighter pastures. Only 30 seconds later and Page has moved to his organ and we are seeing inklings of bliss scattered throughout. Everyone is playing TOGETHER and building this thing minute by minute, moving from scene to scene like a fast-paced action movie. By 12 minutes in Fishman starts to break the mold doing some cool rhythmic action which the other guys pick up on and begin to jam off of. From here Page introduces his dance-party THX synthesizer while Trey is doing the delay-plinko thing. We are officially in Type II land.
This lasts a solid 90 seconds before Trey leads the band into "Went Gin Ascended Peak" territory. Everyone doing their best sustained notes, presumably holding their axes skyward in the process. Trey is doing his trills and guitar god stuff while the rest of the guys just lay down that beautiful foundation from upon which he will peak til the cows come home.
Come 15:45 and the mood abruptly shifts again! Trey switches on his delay, Gordo gets his robot-bass on, and Page is laying down those NASTY organ groans like gurgling death. Some great rhythmically-charged playing ensues with the guys still listening to and jumping off of each other. How they can play together like this so fluidly is just remarkable. I know I generally prefer the Phish 1.0 "build it all up very slowly" ideal, but you just can't ignore how damn GOOD they are at this stuff. Seriously. It's just crazy.
17:50 or so and the guys DROP into a dynamic and beautiful section as lovely as a whisper from your lover. How the hell did we just go from volcano explosion to intense beauty in a matter of seconds!? That's what I am talking about! Now it's rim-shots from Fishman, gorgeous melodic lines from Gordo and plinky string picking from Trey.
Around 19:30 and we are in 1999 Ambience Heaven. Things get even quiter, but Trey begins to slowly strangle his guitar - one long gnarly note after another - and the synths come back to haunt us. But we are still in gorgeous major key environment! This is incredibly cool - sounds like some Smashing Pumpkins circa 1993 stuff or something.
21:20 and the boys all sync up again on a new melody line, jamming this upwards and onwards. Ever so slowly the intensity builds with each repeat of this musical phrase. Page is on wacko synthesizer, Mike and Trey are holding down the fort, continuing the line they've established. 22:30 and Trey starts to play around with leads again while Page takes his spot in the ensemble section. They could totally separate this jam out for it's own "Siket Disc"-type of singularity. Name this something and start playing it, now! They really take their time with this though. It's wonderful to have them wade in it instead of jumping immediately to the next thing. This is what I'm talking about - they are BUILDING it and not just jumping in. It evolves slowly and steadily, each turn through introducing something else.
At 24:30 there is a distinct "end" to that jam section with Gordo now introducing a new pattern. Trey quickly latches on with Fish and Page following suit. The energy is now building back up to a more bluesy and rocky vibe. Bliss heaven is in the rearview mirror now. They milk it for a bit and it starts to sound like they could jump into Party Time or Undermind if they wanted to. Thankfully they do not though and we get another huge cheer around 26:30 (again, anyone know why?). This cool-ass jam is now approaching slightly-funky rock ville with Trey jumping on the wah pedal and Page on his 70's keys. Awesome stuff.
Freaking awesome Page around 28:30. Again, they guys latch onto yet another thing one of them is playing. I know I'm being redundant as hell, but they are all listening to each other so well!!! Page and Trey making this new rhythmic patter and jamming it out like it's part of a song they've played forever. Yea, it's simple, but the point is that they so quickly adapted to each other like it was nothing. That's fantastic.
By 30:00 roughly they have moved on to the next section. More of a party vibe going on, leaving the blues in the past. Yet another absolutely wonderful section where more stuff is introduced and the other guys just latch right onto it. Check out 31:45 if you love your Divided Sky extended held notes We are now slowly building towards more blissful and guitar-ragey peaks. This is outstandingly cohesive for a jam. Just fantastic. Trey is in the ZONE just laying down perfect leads left and right, the crowd going nuts and fueling him onwards. We are climbing that mountain, baby, heading for the peak!!!!! 33:30 and you can feel the room exploding with Trey just going for it. He hits that note and the whole place goes kaboom!!!
34:00 and the peaking subsides for some dirty Trey with lots of delay effects. The guys drop down to near silence, Fishman introducing a slow and plodding beat that the guys funkily jump behind. What is this?! How did we go to this?! I'm really stupid - can you guys tell me what they are quoting here?

Anyways, that's the unfortunately stunted end to an otherwise masterful jam. Wow.

This jam didn't blow my mind like I expected. I absolutely loved and enjoyed it, but the most exciting part of it was how they were playing so well together as if they were glued together. It wasn't completely "oh my god world destroying" or anything - It was just really, really, REALLY, well done!!! Does that make sense?

Anywho, I loved it and it will definitely get another listen or two. It felt very "heard this before" for the most part, but again, it was done so damn well!!!! Can't complain!!!  

Set 2

Ok, since Tweezer was big enough, I'll just continue on from here

Pan Story - I don't know what the hell this is about. Is it real or fake (anyone know anything, lol?). But it's a weird enough curio moment that has to be heard, lol

Ruby Waves - Great choice to pick us up off the floor This version is 13 minutes and all kinds of beautiful and strange. Straight into Type II, we get some aquatic-sounding, synth-laden jamming with Trey using his volume pedal. Very, very cool rendition. This kinda sounds like something a Piper could evolve into, ya know? Pretty intense! Around 8 minutes the guys lighten up a bit. Fish keeping that steady high-speed rhythm, the other guys play plinko with Gordo getting fancy with his effects. Everyone is playing together with noone particularly taking the spotlight. Great to hear - the four guys playing as one. 10 minutes in and Guitar Strangulation begins Trey takes the center and lays it down. Sometimes tastefully, sometimes just bursting out at us, wailing! He even gets a pinch harmonic in there at one point, lol. Very cool delay effects from Trey. The intensity keeps building - is this a Crosseyed or something?! By 11:30 the guys are ON FIRE! Quick! Get the hose! I'm burning up here!!! But then 12:30 rolls around and we QUICKLY quiet back down, heading for ambience. I still can't believe how smoothly they are able to do that.

That Ruby Waves was one of the absolute best "concise" Type II jams of the year. Forget that Tweezer and grab this sucker - this RULED!

>Steam - Perfect song choice out of that smoldering pile of ash and rubble Ruby Waves left us with!!! Absolutely RIPPING Type I beast!!! Fantastic Steam!!! 6:02 but dang do they make use of it, holy hell

>Tweezer Jam - GET IT BOYS!!!

>Ruby Waves - They segue PERFECTLY back into the RW theme! THIS IS MAGICAL! X FACTOR ALERT! This little jam fades out into dark ambience quickly. For a solid and DARK 9o seconds or so, we are in Scary Movie land. What the F is this?! It comes to a whisper of a close into....

>Slave to the Traffic Light - Holy freaking hell, talk about perfect set placement again. That RW jam into Slave was SO perfect!!!! That was some 1.0 magic right there!!! DANG!!! Not much to say on this - It's Slave and it's fantastic. You know what you are getting. Just magical

Rock and Roll - ITS God-dang ROCK AND ROLL WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?! IT KICKS TAIL! TALK ABOUT A PERFECT SHOW CLOSER!!!


All in all, yea, this show definitely approaches 4.5 territory on .NET if you ask me (I think 4.7 or whatever is a tad over doing it, lol). This is easily in the top 3 or so shows of 2019 so far. Ho-lee-free-king-krap. Forget the Tweezer for a minute - the rest of the show was incredible. Think of that Tweezer just as a bonus! The REAL highlight of the show for me was the Ruby Waves>Steam>Traffic Light section. That whole section of the show was gnar bars!

Yea, this show will rightfully be remembered in years to come, I am sure of it!

2019-12-29 New York City, NY

 12/29/19 New York City, NY

Really great looking setlist tonight for my taste - The first set is pretty much all favorites of mine from start to finish. Set 2 is loaded with classics as well!

Set 1

Turtle In the Clouds - Great opener!! Not the tightest ever but very good overall. On the whole this one is fine and a good opener. Not an all-timer version like Providence was though.

The Moma Dance - Great chill vibe on this. At first I wasn't too impressed at all and was about to write it off as "just ok". But about halfway through they bring the dynamics way down, enter a good jam mode and slowly bring things to a relaxed simmer. I hesitate to immediately call this list-worthy, but it's worth a listen!

Kill Devil Falls - The relaxed vibe continues - I guess it's gonna be a "chill" night! That's ok. Chill is fine - sleepy is not, lol. This is one relaxed sucker, like if the Dead decided to have a crack at playing the song. I mean that in a good way! Sugar Magnolia vibes on this one for me. But eventually it cooks up some major heat and by the end Trey is wrangling his guitar like it owes him money. Killer KDF!!!

Yarmouth Road - Some really funky Gordo on this, but this feels lacking in energy (even given the vibe of the set). Feel like I'm falling asleep here (and I enjoy the song!). Not the best version, imo....

The Wedge - Still exceptionally chill. Fine version, though rather undercooked (seeing the theme of the set yet?), but at least Trey gets some very nice leads in throughout. It builds a decent enough amount of heat to come close to KDF. This is actually a very fine Wedge at the end of the day, but not anything special.

Beauty of a Broken Heart - Oh yes, I absolutely love this song. Great version. The hottest thing since KDF and very well performed. Sometimes this one is lackluster sounding (due to rarity, I guess) but it really sounds well rehearsed. Awesome to hear! Great version!

Fuego - Awesome. Get it Trey!!! So, they get into some nice chill grooving with the jam. Trey is just letting it rip, but he's picking and choosing rather than spraying the hose everywhere. He's doing lots of little Zappa-esque "bursts" of notes. Starts playing with some delays and things. Very, very nice Fuego!!! For a Type I version, this is pretty darn strong, imo.

>My Friend My Friend - Great segue! Trey tees it up and the guys knock it down the fairway. It's all about the meltdown and good lord does Trey summon those hell demons on this sucker! I need church! AWESOME.

Birds of a Feather - Absolutely melting heat. Wonderful version that makes use of the chill vibe as well as the raging heat seen in MyFe and KDF. Killer

While My Guitar Gently Weeps - What?! Where did this come from?! Mega bustout - first since 2013. Your mileage may vary but not my favorite Beatles song and not my favorite Phish cover. Very good performance though with Trey trying hard. Not on MY highlights list, but I'm probably in the big minority.

Walls of The Cave - Is WOTC. It's hot. It rocks. But it's nothing special. I love the song but am so bored with it by this point - literally every version is the same! Would flip if they opened a set or something with it. As it is, just a fine, typical Walls to finish the set with a bang.


All in all, this was a fine set. It was a massive step down from the night before. The playing was not the problem - other than Yarmouth Road sounding drastically tired, the rest of the night had a "let's take it easy" vibe that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, but there weren't any definite "ouch" moments. A fine set that does the trick, but not one anyone will likely be raving about years from now. 

 

Set 2

Carini - Yes! Energy! Not the song, lol. EVERYONE WAS SCREAMING WHEN THEY SAW THE LUMP!!! This thing is disgustingly nasty. In the GOOD way! Trey is just using his 'Doc like it's some cheap street hooker, abusing it every which way. Downright gross. Around 7 minutes in we switch to a blissful kind of ambient jam. Trey is quietly laying it down while Page layers in the synth washes and stabs. Steady march kind of beat from Fishman. This is some proper Type II right here, boys. Everything stays from here, though getting slowly more funky. Trey is going off the deep end with his delay pedals and backwards effects and this and that. The synths then change up, as does Fishman's playing. We are in outer space now. How did this happen. Trey starts some blissful kind of patterns with the synth washes still happenning and Fishman riding the cymbals. From the ugly depths of guitar-strangulation-hell to the upper peaks of the clear blue skies. WOW!!!! Magical jam!!! Things slowly "devolve" from here into pure ambience pretty much. The jam slowly, slowly recedes back into the murky depths of the cave it came out of, leading us into BOTT.

Real talk - where the hell did that Carini come from. That was definitely among the best music of the year so far. I wouldn't hesitated to put that in the top 8 or so jams of 2019 so far. WTF!!!!

Back On the Train - For as over the top as that Carini was, this BOTT is perfect in it's laid-back nature. It sounds exactly as your typical BOTT sounds (this is not 6/14/00, lol) but when the playing is this damn good you can't ignore it. This BOTT has so much energy and it's wonderful listening to it rage. Trey and Page even solo "together" for a lengthy chunk of it. Incredibly cool. One of the best BOTT's you will ever hear, I assure you. DONT SKIP THIS BEAST!!!!

Bathtub Gin - Oh god, what is gonna happen now?! A 16 minute Gin after all of that?! This thin is absolutely ON FIRE. This is not some mid-tempo funk jam. The guys must've downed 10 Red Bulls at set break or seomthing. For the first 11 minutes it is high velocity guitar shredding 1996 arena rocking Phish of the A+ variety. Is this Gin?! Sounds like it came out of Rock and Roll!!! But then at 12:45 we abandon the speed rock and dive headfirst into complete rhythmless ambience of the 1999 variety! WHAT EVEN IS THIS?! Trey whips out the THX Intro synths with Trey slowly reintroducing the Gin theme. Fishman picks up on it and the band slowly ends gin - PROPERLY.

X FACTOR EVERYWHERE. WHAT EVEN IS THIS SET SO FAR?!

Golden Age - Pales in comparison the the epic grandeur of the Carini and the Gin, but if this is just an interlude in the set, it's one of the best dang interludes you could want. Straight up funky rage. As with BOTT, it's exactly what you expect out of GA, played with such energy and enthusiasm that it just rides at that next level. Fantastic little version. The last few minutes go into Type II Space Funk of the best variety - laser beam and outerspace sound effects aplenty. This absolutely sets up 2001 for a perfect tee off!

>2001 - Spoiled segue aside (dang it, Fishman!), this is nothing more than the absolute perfect choice coming out of GA. 8 minute dance party extreme. Really great stop-start "woo!" jam on this, lol. They go full on off the deep end with this, Type II heavy stoner jam raging and then back into the main theme one last time. Absolutely incredibly little 2001. Skip at your own peril!

>Sneaking Sally - Nothing special. Just an absolutely wonderfully performed Type I Sally (and that makes it list worthy!)

>Chalkdust Torture - MACHINE GUN TREY POURING LAVA IN YOUR EARS. 'NUFF SAID.

>Harry Hood - I'm not a Hood guy, but a 19 minute Hood?! Yes please! They really go deep on this - not your typical 3.0 Bliss Rager. Thank goodness! Very delicate playing from all, kinda jumping in and out of the shadows, kinda jazzy and dark in a good way. Terrific. By about the 10 minute mark they have slowly begun to bring the intensity and tempo back up, increasing the heat one bar at a time. This goes on until a good rave-up "woo!" section at about 12 minutes in. From there we transition into the lengthy "you can feel good about Hood" part of the song. Smooth sailing from there. Also, this features the single longest held note I have ever heard in my life - Trey holds one damn note for SEVERAL minutes non stop like it's competing with a Divided Sky pause section. Oh my god. Fantastic 3.0 Hood. Speaking as someone who is usually waiting for it to be over, this one will have relistens from me!!!

Show Of Life - My favorite rarity that nobody else likes. SOL is SOL. It's great. On the list it goes

Run Like an Antelope - Red hot Antelope to kick this flawless set to the curb.


All in all, I was absolutely blindsided by this set. For how chill set 1 was, this was the complete opposite. This was X Factor city - they were just up on that next level for this set. Both the Carini and the Gin are MUST HEAR renditions easily going in the top of 2019 pile. The entire set was just A+ from start to finish though. If I was rating just this set, I would give it like a 4.5 or something. As a whole I'll give this show about a 4.2 as the first set was fine but rather sleepy at times, but the second set was a MONSTER. This was absolutely one of the best single sets of the year. I don't know what the hell they did at set break but they need to do it more often. Damn...