Okay, so here I am, on the heels of listening to the soundboard of last night to make certain that what I think is true, is actually true. And... it is... this show is the real deal.

The first set is tight and consistent. It has a super opening trio in Faulty/Moma/Wedge, where they get to the fringes of 1st set goodness. Ya Mar & Martian are rock solid as well. I won't bitch about the rest... they are standard 1st set fare. As I hit halftime, I was thinking a good solid 3.5-4.0 show.

Out of the gate I get the familiar/unfamiliar sound of Corona, and let me say that I am very impressed. It's infectious and prone to grooving, so... let's see more. But then...

It wasn't Simple, it wasn't a good Simple, it wasn't even a great Simple... it was a Simple for the ages! This thing is a goddamned monster!!! If you haven't listened yet, do not pass go... do not collect $200!

Fuck, after that, quite honestly, anything would be fine. But the rest of the show was just as solid. Light... check! S3... double check! Cities... check! These were solid wonderful set 2 worthy versions. Then a huge Slave taboot! Loving Cup was just pure icing.

Folks, this is a serious show. Very, very nice!

This is a great show! You probably already know about the CHImple, but The Moma Dance > The Wedge in the first set had some, as the young'uns say, "extra mustard," too. In fact, I can't remember the last Moma I enjoyed that much that didn't jam Type II. The rest of the first set was well played, but kind of has to take a backseat to Simple, in retrospect (maybe the entire second set.) Corona makes its Phish debut, nice tune, into Simple, which takes on epic proportions. They're clearly playing around with a segue into Timber for several minutes during the Simple, but then they take it into a "bliss jam" type of direction, landing in Winterqueen. It's great to see legit segues from Light -> Scents and Subtle Sounds -> Cities. When I woke up this morning (tacky and kif), and looked at the setlist but not the track times, I didn't expect the Simple to be the biggest jam... I thought it'd be one of those segue-filled second sets that have several 10-or-so-minute jams. The Scents is really good, though, but it doesn't get as experimental or exploratory as the Simple, in my opinion. Slave to the Traffic Light to close the set and Loving Cup encore. I have to rate this one 4 out of 5 stars--firmly above average, for 3.0--but I hope your takeway (since you're probably already all about the Simple) is to take a closer look at the first set, especially the Moma > Wedge. You may notice they take a sort-of flub in Moma and make something great out of it. That's what I've been told is the essence of true creativity. PHISH!

Excellent show front start to finish. Obviously we all know about the Simple. It was outstanding. Being there live was so amazing. But I really feel like the SASS needs to be recognized. It should most definitely be on the jam chart....way more so than Winterqueen.
Please re-listen and consider adding it! It's a very special jam!

First set was pretty fun. Second set was great. Everyone needs to listen to the Simple, obviously. I'm here to simply say I believe that this S&SS deserves a nod in the "Noteworthy Jams" section. It was, of course, outshined by the simple, but it deserves some love on the jam chart. The segue into Cities was just about perfect as well.

Outstanding second set! A Corona debut for Phish, and then Simple, which was stellar. It explored all different kinds of musical landscapes and territories. The word epic is sometimes overused but in this case I think not. Epic Simple jam! The 27 minute+ Simple segued beautifully into Winterqueen which melded into Light. Light was shorter but still sweet as it segued seamlessly into Scents and Subtle Sounds. Another amazing exploration of another beautiful song. Their segues were very smooth tonight as we got another one into Cities, which the crowd loved. Then an always welcome Slave as the bookend to an epic set! Loving Cup encore and everyone was elated!

Northerly Island Pavilion holds a special place in my heart. My first time coming to Northerly was in 2006 when I saw Trey, Mike, and The Duo (GRAB), which was a big moment in my Phish history. So it was amazing that 11 years later I got to experience Phish play at the same venue. However, I have some major issues with the venue. First, while I am happy that they got the additional land from the airfield, the extra space is somewhat off centered from the stage itself. It felt like the lawn area was positioned too far to the left of the main stage. Since the old airfield land is next to Lake Michigan, it would have been hard to expand the lawn area to make it more centered to the stage. Also since the stages from the original venue space are still there, it creates an odd visual block to the overall venue. Of course, a universal negative of large out door venues where there is no slated area, it becomes harder to see the band/stage. But the universal plus of flat outdoor venues is that you can dance your butt off!

But there is a more serious issue with Northerly Island: getting in and out of the venue. The venue is past Soldier Field, the Field Museum and the Shed Aquarium. Only a small stretch of street and land connects you to venue, which is open and wide, but gives you very little space to leave and enter. Now picture close to 30,000 people coming into and out of the venue, it is going to get packed. There are only two entrances to Northerly Island, one for those who got pit and seat tickets and one for those who only got lawn tickets. My brother and I missed the beginning of the first song because the line to get into the lawn entrance was so long. It was also very difficult to get a cab after the show since you are not near any major streets in Chicago unless you want to walk several miles. Again, I am glad the Northerly Island expanded but I hope the owners of the venue realizes the major logistical problem of funneling that many people in and out and make some changes.

Now I did not like the opening song to show. STFTFP is a fine song, and I have heard high quality versions of it played live but it did not work well as set opener and brought in a weak tone for the first set. Stealing Time moved into to Moma, which is a great song, but The Boys goofed up. Page forgot to sing on time at the “up the rigging” section and vibe was sucked out of song. Not a horrific occurrence, again this is only the second show of the 2017 tour, but this wouldn’t be my favorite Moma of all time. After Moma, Phish transitioned into The Wedge, which was my pre-show request, and I was very happy. Wedge moved into Halfway to the Moon and then to Ya Mar and a nice groove was created. The Boys stopped but then played Martian Monster, which was the best song of the first set. I forgot how much MM is harder rock jam, which mixes some heady narration samples/vocals with a roaring guitar sound by Trey. However, when Martian Monster ended, Phish played Party Time, which was the worst song of the show. I like Party Time, it is a fun and silly song, but The Boys were just not playing it well. Trey was not hitting the notes so the song sounded off. As the rest of the set when on, a gentle Wingsuit led into a BATR and then first set ended with very strong More. Overall, the first set was filled with a few “hit or missers” but in many was it was almost like The Boys were getting out all the jitters before the entered into the magnificence and glory, which was the second set.

In my young and short history of seeing Phish live, this second set was the best Phish music I have ever heard. Now there are other shows that go down as my personal favorite shows, but when it comes to raw musical brilliance, this second set takes not just the cake, but the whole freaking birthday party! The Boys first start off with a new Phish song Corona, which was my favorite new original debut that I heard over the two days. Corona offered a nice bright spacey feel to the overall atmosphere. And Then Simple. S-I-M-P-L-E. When they first started playing, I was not thinking they were going to jump into a crazy jam. But the moment that happened, you knew you were going to hear something special. The jam started with dark minor key grooves, which almost echoed the sounds from the first sets MM. And then the segueing of Timber was a perfect addition to overall darker and heavier sound that was being jammed. It was as if you were travelling down a rapid waters, in the middle of the night, on winding and turning river, not know where the river would end but embracing yourself with pure excitement for what was ahead of you. The transition into Winterqueen was as if the raft splashed right into calm waters and there was a collective breath of fresh air and settling of peace that enveloped you with the soft sounds and gentle lyrics of Trey. I can’t stress how much loved the use of Winterqueen as nice respite from all the mind-blowing jams that were occurring in the second set.

The groove started heat up again with transition in to Light, which offered the characteristic build up jamming style that Light is known for. Then you were lost again into the crazy river of jams, which was Scent and Subtle Sounds. With no intro to the song, you really felt taken away by all the jamming. Page really anchored a lot of the crazy of the jams at this point, due to the awesome synth work. Waves of spacey, heady, and dark jams kept hitting you one after another which were continuations of the jams there were brought in by Simple. Then segueing into Cities was the punch to the face! Cities was the perfect song to carry the darker crazier jam feel that was being played out throughout the second set. It was also a wonderful ode to the great city of Chicago, (side note: while this jam was taking place you could see fireworks in the distance by Navy Pier. Truly Chicago was celebrating Phish’s visit!). Cities transitioned into Slave to the Traffic Light, which brought a more spacey and drifty feel to end all the craziness that occurred through this jam journey.

The encore was Loving Cup, which for me, is actually one of my favorite songs to close a show with since it such as rocking song and brings a lot joy to The Boys when they play it. In summary of night two, if night one brought in the meta-theme of nihilistic optimism and the balance of positivity in sorrow, then the second night jams were the music representation of that theme. The jams were dark but also light. There were moments of complete insanity but mixed it with gentle moments of calm. I heard now that this is the age of 4.0 or 3.5 Phish but whatever age it is, we are witness a remarkable display of Phish’s music.

My second Phish concert, after having seen the band the very first time the previous night. I had a lawn ticket for this gig. The lawn was very far away and was essentially just the back of the plain field. Unless you were on the rail that seperated the "floor" from the "lawn" you could barely see the band on the stage so you had to rely on the video screens. Also sound was not as loud as upfront. The lawn offered a better view of Chicago's beautiful skyline though because one was further away from the stage and so the stage didn't block the view so much. After the sun had set the illuminated skyline was a breathtaking sight I will remember forever and it's documented well on the official pictures. Partly as a result of being on the lawn I experienced this concert as a dichotomous show: From afar the first set seemed extremely lackluster and dull, despite having a strong tune as opener, the rocking "Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan". Surely this is the weakest set of this three-night Chicago run as confirmed by many relistens of the recording. The second set is where the band got into the zone, delivering a long jam on "Simple" with the lyrics "We got skycrapers" seemingly referencing Chicago, the very city where the skycraper was invented. The "Simple"-jam tortured us for several minutes with strong teases of "Timber" without properly segueing into it. "Winterqueen" featured a touching solo. At this point in the show I had figured out how to best use the few advantages of the lawn, standing and sitting freely on the grass in the back in front of a PA-speaker and a video screen with room to move around, enjoying the cooler summer night's air and the flow of the music. Ultimately "Loving Cup" sent us home with a huge Rock & Roll finale...