SET 1:

Your Pet Cat: Fun show opener! Funky as ever, wish it were longer.

AC/DC Bag: Very slow and a little uninspiring. Fun little loopy segue into… >

NICU: standard but flubby towards the end.

It’s Ice: nice, very old-school feel to the start of the show. Page’s voice is very coarse and aggressive during the verses, get the man a throat lozenge stat. There are worse renditions of the composed section out there but this one is not the greatest, especially at the end, though I appreciate the funky jam. Totally searing clav work.

Horn: it’s like we’re at a ’93 show with this setlist. Better played than the last few but still not ideal. Needs some confidence.

Divided Sky: that’s three pretty tough compositions in a row – appreciate the ambition for sure, but Trey really is missing the sauce so far. Rough until the solo section and then Trey comes into his own a little with some real nice licks. Good second half for sure.

Axilla: Rough flub going into the verse riff but it’s corrected pretty quickly. Whole thing sounds a little dissonant somehow?

Maze: old-school city! This is very strong actually. Page RIPS in his solo, and Trey does pretty well too (except for the end tag which he somehow plays in the wrong key.) Maze is one of those songs that almost always feels like it produces ‘above-average’ versions but I feel confident in saying this really is above average. Tight.

Train Song: nice, love this one. Never not welcome. Band doesn’t sound very in sync though.

Julius: once again I implore Page to take a throat lozenge or some tea. Surprisingly a really good Julius for the era though. I’m very protective of Julius performances because it was my first favourite Phish song and post-’94 performances feel like they’re missing the intensity that the song needs, but I’m a big fan of how they approach this rendition and would definitely recommend. Love that Fish briefly teases the La Grange beat in the jam.

SET 2:

Tweezer: funky from the very beginning though Trey still seems to be struggling a bit with articulating notes. These struggles vanish once the jam begins – this one is just awesome from the very beginning, with the full band riding a stormy funk groove that reminds me of real old Tweezers. Hard to give a play-by-play here because it runs through several tiny themes across its runtime but rest assured this is a Tweezer you HAVE to hear, a definite all-timer. Could it have used a slightly clearer peak? Sure. But the band falls back on very few crutches in this one. Just 22 minutes of mellow funk, sometimes happy, sometimes dark, almost always hose. WOW! Not many better jams from 2016. >

Sand: awww hell yeah, funk city. This is another stellar version that gets as dirty as any other Sand they’ve played. Short but as sweet as wading through a sea of molasses. Fish is a total groove machine here and on Tweezer – in this whole set really. A+. >

Limb By Limb: tasteful, well-placed and endearing. >

Suzy Greenberg: bundles of fun. >

Harry Hood: lmao @ Mike’s meatball tone in the intro. Composed section is very clean. Jam starts very mellow and even somewhat evil – funk central around 8 minutes in. Unfortunately doesn’t really transition convincingly into a peak and the outro sounds rushed. Would have been very relistenable if they had stuck the landing. >

You Enjoy Myself: mostly strong composed section with a particularly nice pre-Nirvana. Jam section, like everything in this set, is largely funk-driven. Pretty great B&D too which benefits from the funk focus – WOW @ 15:25, Mike Gordon ladies and gents.

ENCORE:

The Lizards: now THAT’S an encore pick! No complaints here.

Tweezer Reprise: standard, a little flubbed.

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OVERALL: not sure why some other reviews are touting this as a flub-free show because it most certainly is not, especially in the first set – great setlist but very hit-or-miss performances especially from Red. After setbreak they come out a transformed band, and Set 2 is pretty spotless to me outside of a weird Hood. Funk is everywhere here. Tweezer and Sand are both tremendous versions and deserve many relistens. However overall I do feel like this show doesn’t hold up too well as a complete product. Trey just sounds a little exhausted.

3.5 stars or maybe a bit above.