SET 1:

Sample in a Jar: nice, loose and anthemic. Page’s vocals are very high in the mix.

Free: not crazy about this placement, but it gets a somewhat extended guitar-led jam with plenty of crazed runs – Trey sounds super pumped for these shows and you can hear it in his playing. Not quite a top-tier Free – I prefer it when they take this song to slightly odder places – but it’s a good one and sounds very old-school.

Simple: once again a pretty unusual placement, but despite being short this one has the same swagger as the last two. Loose, jazzy and confident from all four members. Nice! With around 6 minutes to go it dives into some lovely space and it’s clear Trey is gearing up for a segue… >

Back on the Train: exactly what the doctor ordered at this point in the show. Fourth song in a row that’s done very well, especially from our resident redhead. Guitar theatrics for days in a tight 7 minute package.

Waiting All Night: love this song. So beautiful. This one is a little bit rough around the edges though.

555: the crowd noise dying off instantly when this starts up is very funny. Standard.

Roggae: pretty mellow jam with a few odd moments from Trey.

The Dogs: great way to get the energy up! Well done.

46 Days: raging end to a mostly raging set. Trey decides to go absolutely ham in the outro – awesome.

SET 2:

Chalk Dust Torture: slooooooow tempo at the beginning, Trey sounds great vocally though. Initial jam is pretty standard and tense. Then after the return to the head, something interesting happens – Trey unilaterally decides on a second jam which leaves the rest of the band (Fish especially) high and dry. After a minute they course correct and we’re into an awesome warbling krautrock-style jam. Love Mike and Trey settling on a theme around 9:30, leaving Page to solo on clav. From there on the rest is just utterly fascinating – psychedelic, drippy, Miles Davis-like one chord bliss that isn’t particularly smooth in how it transitions between sections and thus wouldn’t be considered one of my favourite 3.0 jams but it’s definitely a unique and awesome moment in their modern history. Weird, adventurous, experimental Phish. 10:00-15:00 is spine-tinglingly good especially, as is the mini After Midnight jam that starts at around 16 minutes in. Outro melts away into some crazy effects that remind me strongly of a Radiohead song I can’t place. Impeccable transition into… ->

Ghost: another great choice. Long and patient intro. Seems like it’s just gearing up to get going and then… ->

Can’t Always Listen: never heard this one before – sounds very 70s Lynyrd Skynyrd or Allman’s-like, almost to the point where I could be convinced it were a cover. Not a bad song but odd placement and amusing hearing the crowd perk up when they start this, thinking that the band just started up some crazy type 2 Ghost jam. >

Ghost: comes back from the dead at the end of Can’t Always Listen and we get some ominous effects-driven band interplay that I’m a big fan of. Page high up on the keys adding washes of notes is just great. Pretty eh ripcord into >

Waves: mostly standard but check out the droney outro! Reminds me of portions of the Chalk Dust jam and continues the experimentation of this set. >

Bathtub Gin: woah, interesting placement. Fun mini vocal jam at the end of the verse going into the solo. Jam is very mellow until the last few minutes, not quite hose-y bliss jamming but pretty pleasant overall. Then Trey just fires out a ton of arpeggios reminiscent of the end of Bouncing and we get a big 2015-style uplifting peak. Doesn’t really do it for me as much as I expected but a very good Gin all told.

Mike’s Song: awesome way to keep up the momentum. There’s a very nice, albeit short, funky jam in this one. Would recommend. >

Bouncing Around the Room: cool choice for the meat of a Mike’s Groove! Trey obviously got the idea to play this from the Gin jam, funny. Not big on this placement though. Trey’s arpeggios are weirdly shaky here which is odd because he was playing them so well in Gin. >

Weekapaug Groove: chugging along nicely, then all of a sudden Trey teases a familiar lick, and then… ->

What’s the Use?: Wow, can’t imagine how much of a shock this was live! Literally just slams into this more or less out of nowhere. People seem to love this particular WTU? but it’s not especially standout to me outside of its placement – Trey attempts to give it a huge shreddy peak which to me feels a touch forced. Prefer my WTU?s mellow and contemplative. ->

Weekapaug Groove: straight back into it. LOVE the Auld Lang Syne tease right at the beginning of the jam. They get down and dirty with the funk for a little bit and then return to the refrain to close out the set.

ENCORE:

Character Zero: standard with great Trey moments.

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OVERALL: a weird show that feels a little bit to me like less than the sum of its parts. Looking at the above review it looks like the recipe for an all-timer but something about the show’s flow and smoothness is a bit lacking to me. I think Set 1 is actually a little underrated here and the loose playing helps there rather than detracts, but Set 2, while super interesting, is a bit all over the place. Similar story with Trey tonight. Many songs here have about 30 seconds to a minute of absolute masterclass playing from him surrounded by other parts that feel disjointed. The middle 5 minutes of CDT is one of my favourite bits of Phish in their entire history, though.

Let’s say around 3.7 stars.