, attached to 2013-07-13

Review by westbrook

westbrook Good song selection and great playing made for an excellent first set. Kill Devils Falls got everybody warmed up, and Destiny Unbound in the 2-spot was a great choice. The following Taste jam was very impressive as both Page and Trey delivered on their solos. Halfway to the Moon and Twenty Years Later made for a nice 3.0 song combo. Both has some dark jamming in them, but Twenty Years Later was especially raunchy. It's probably the best one I've heard. By the time Maze rolled around, the sky was turning an ominous orange-grey color. Perfect weather for an intense Maze if you ask me, and this one was a smoker. That threatening sky opened up during Yarmouth Road and it starting pouring, but everyone on the lawn was digging it and it upped the energy of the end of the set during a great Split Open and Melt. This one stepped out of bounds a few times, although not as much as the SPAC version, but the band crushed the return closing jam before the end riff with Trey rocking out. Taste, Maze, and Split Open and Melt were the highlights of the set for me.

When the band returned for the second set Trey played around with harmonics on his guitar so I thought we might be in for a Curtain, but soon enough Mike came in with the bass madness that can only mean one thing: Down with Disease. I was most impressed with two things in the Down with Disease, Trey's fiery soloing and the cool return to the elusive last verse of the song. Free and Bouncing were straightforward, but I did like the pairing of the songs that share the "bouncing around the room" lyric. Birds of a Feather did not break any new ground, but it did pack a punch by the time the last peak came around. Another mid-set Hood comes up next and it was not your standard, modern day Hood where the band builds a nice jam, but Trey doesn't quite nail the peak. Tonight, Trey was determined to shred the peak to pieces and he did just that. In my opinion, this is one of, if not the best Hood of 3.0. Architect was not exactly what I was looking for after Hood, but it was played well and is a nice addition to the "second set breather" catalog. Each song in the set-closing Mike's Groove was given room for additional improvisation and this made a big difference in the impact of the sequence. Mike's Song had a classic dark, guitar driven jam that places it among the best 3.0 renditions of the song. Simple got into a new groove which could have exploded if they kept going with it, but probably sensing the impending curfew, the band starts up Weekapaug before the Simple jam could really take off. It was an above average Simple, but it could have been an all-timer if they had the time to develop the ending theme. Weekapaug gave ample chances for Page melodically lead the jam while Trey played rhythmically for large portions of the jam. Waste if one of my favorite Phish ballads so I was happy to catch it on this night and GTBT was excellent just like the PNC version from earlier this week. They are really playing this song well nowadays.

Second set highlights were DwD, Hood, and Mike's Groove.

Lots of very good performances in this show, but there wasn't a standout exploratory jam that many of us hope for. Still a 4 star show in my opinion.


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