You know the part of Bittersweet Motel where Trey says he doesn’t care if they miss a change, or a number of changes, he just cares about the energy in the room. That’s how I feel about tonight at the Mann. This was such a high energy show, consistent huge energy from crowd and band from top to bottom. Who cares if they miss a few changes when the energy is through the (Mann’s beautiful wooden) roof, and the jams are this satisfyingly good.

Strawberry directly into a Gin with an ecstatic jam that was easily my highlight of the first set, but the midset Coil was also great, as were the Type I rock-out peaks of Walls > 46 Days. Trey can miss a few notes in Walls any day if he slays the guitar-god peaks this hard.

2nd set is relentless. DWD wasted little time getting to serious Type II spaces, and then yet another one of the Trey newbies goes deep, as they jam The Well, and jam it hard. Length and girth in this Well jam, in addition to the aforementioned energy. The rest of S2 gave truth to the lyrics in Beneath a Sea of Stars - it really felt free of time. Despite the time stamps not crossing the 10 min mark again, every remaining song in S2 felt narratively and improvisationally rewarding. And Crosseyed > CDT put a series of exclamation marks on it.

I thought this show rocked hard. See all you beautiful people again tomorrow night.

SET 1: Strawberry Letter 23: Standard. >

Bathtub Gin: Treys vocals are pretty cringe here. The jam is hard charging and straight ahead. It does take a bit of a breather fairly late in the jam but eventually ramps back up and they set themselves perfectly for ->

Back on the Train: Nice segue out of Gin! This Train has a little extra juice to it!

The Squirming Coil: Standard. Trey has a little rough stretch around 3:50.

Axilla (Part II) – Standard.

Ya Mar: Standard.

Blaze On: Standard.

Waste: Standard. Interesting set placement late in set 1. Haven’t seen it a spot like this since 2.22.20.

Walls of the Cave: Broadway Trey and the Whale. Yikes. >

46 Days: I’m sure WOTC was the likely set closer, but they couldn’t go out like that, so they ripped this instead.

SET 2: Down with Disease: OMG Trey forgot how to play the outro part right after the composed section with the lyrics. How odd, he has played that hundreds of times live. This jam stays pretty mellow for the most part. The conclusion is an absolute mess. >

The Well: Time for some redemption and did they ever deliver! The Well vocals from Trey sound great. Vocal coach paid off on this one. This jam has like three or four distinct sections. The first is a big wall of sound with tons of dissonance. In your face! The second is very upbeat and played at a fast, almost frenetic pace with Fishman pushing his mates. This becomes celebratory as Trey takes the band back into the lyrics. But this wouldn’t last for too long and they take us right back down that deep, dark hole. Very intense. The vamp on the same theme over and over. Not for the faint of heart. Awesome, awesome jam. After it’s over – Fishman – “Can we just play that again?”

No Men In No Man's Land: Very, very short. >

Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1: Alright! Love this one. Beautiful jam, just wish it could have been stretched out a little longer. >

Piper: There is literally no Piper intro just straight to the lyrics. Pretty standard version here, I like the space they get into towards the end, but they should have kept that going. Instead… >

Crosseyed and Painless: Oh yes, bring it on! But instead this is literally the shortest version they have ever played. So strange. Would love to know what happened here, has to be a reason for this? ->

Chalk Dust Torture: At least there was a cool segue. Another very short set 2 song. Strange.

ENCORE:

Wading in the Velvet Sea: Standard.

Fire: Standard face melter. Nice bust out, LTP 7.23.22.

Summary: I thought the first set was enjoyable and solid. Lots of old school tunes as seems to be the trend this summer for the first set for the most part. Second start started off rough with that DWD, The Well absolutely crushed and then the set basically crashed and burned outside of BASOS. What happened? Really weird stuff. 3.7/5

Replay Value: The Well

For me, this is tale of two sets. Strawberry is a fun opener and a second place Gin is certainly welcome. Train follows that up and we are running solid but then Coil comes in and it’s really an abrupt shift down gear energy-wise. Love Coil, of course, but this was weird a spot for it and while the rest of the set is decent the boys never really seem to get back to the flow they were setting up.

Then, there’s the second set and this one is a doozy. Disease is gnarly and leads perfectly into “The Well.” Of all the newer stuff Phish has been laying out recently, this one really seems to have the potential and it proves it in its first outing. It’s incredible listening to the band pull the jam out of the depths again and again. The rest is just perfect song placement and flow, especially the Crosseyed > CDT. This set runs the gamut from the nasty to the beautiful and all kinds of spaces in between. Encore is fine and the ironic Fire in a water themed show gets a little breath for Trey to shred before sending us off.

Final thoughts - good show despite uneven first set. Like I said, set 2 is a monster! Side note - never heard “The Well” before so there was a lot of hilarity between my friends and I when we discovered they were saying that and not “Whale.” Good times overall and def a show you should give a listen, matey!

CK5 turned the lights out. Stage black, night black, The Mann black. Just monitors and amp lights on stage, then an emerald singularity, a star rise, softly and slowly from behind the Last Jedi. Gradual and gently growing illumination, one green lamp, as if the universe is birthing a sonic, comforting unity. Singular in purpose and stoic in approach, this malachite harmony tip toes its way through the photons until it ignites the entire pavilion in a blaze. Contrast and hue return, as colors trickle across the faces of the masses, then a familiar melody and the red worm cometh. Trey lit this up, non-stop, like a fuse heading toward a powder keg.
This show was for my Pops. This is a part of my review for STTF. Just had to have it on the permeant record.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the positive takes on this show. I was there and can say that the Mann is for my money, the best venue on the east coast in terms of positive energy. It's lawless down there, but controlled chaos. Surreal to the point that when I left shakedown, it felt like I had left another.

We carried that energy into the venue, got to our seats and enjoyed strawberry, gin and bott. Unfortunately, the flubs, the missed vocals, the wrong keys are things that I just can't shake. Trey was horrendous in Gin and Walls of the Cave. I just cannot stomach these missteps when there are so many other (and cheaper) options out there in jamband land.

As noted above, some weird placements, particularly Coil which was exciting to recognize at first but then you realize that we had downshifted from an energy standpoint. The setlist I think was overall disappointing because there are so many tunes on the table that hopefully are in play tonight.

This was my 27th show. From an actual show standpoint, I rank it middle to middle bottom. My guess is some of these good reviews are including the entire day, lot scene, shakedown etc, not just the show itself.