Show Reviews

PNC has a special place in my history with the band as those 99' shows were the beginning of my first summer tour.  I go to 3.0 shows with a sense of appreciation and nostalgia, knowing full well, that what we have today is not what we once had yesterday in terms of everything from the scene to the music....and Im fine with it.  Some things are for the better, others are for the worse.  And thats coming from a guy who rightfully accepts that he missed the best years of the band in the mid-90s. 

I actually thought this first set was well-above par.  Stealing Time into Camel Walk was solid as was the Jibboo-Wilson-Seven Below.  The SOAM was a treat.  I cherish the Type II jams when they come these days, and this one deserves a listen.  It is not a tight jam, more chaotic psychedelic noise that verges on being lost, but they hold it together...barely. 

I am glad to see the balanced criticisms of the 2nd set.  I couldnt have asked for better song selection, and I wont kill the set.  But not counting the Tweezer->No Quarter which was amazing, the songs were all truncated.  Remember those days when a Piper or Twist would drift off into ambiance....then Fish would start riding the hi-hat or Trey would repeat a chord progression and then another voice would join in and off we all went? 

Well there were about 5 times in this show that allowed for that 'moment'.  Each time the ambiance drifted into silence ending the song or as in Ghost the groove was killed mid-groove. 

This is what we have all witnessed in 3.0 (except for about 4-6 nights of magic scattered throughout 3 years of touring, and you all know the shows Im alluding to).  Great song selection, increasingly crisp playing, especially of composed songs, but a perceived unwillingness to take those leaps of faith into the unknown.  I appreciate what we have.  I love checking out the younger phans and experiencing new adventures with old friends.  But that love and that appreciation goes hand in hand with lower expectations for the music.  Trey and Co. can not be expected to play like they once did when they play 1/4 as many shows per year.  The improvisational chops are just not there, the playfullness is not there.  I dont expect 20 minute jams, and most of the time these days, I dont leave disappointed when we get our 7 minute Ghosts.  I'll take it, but its so, so different from what the entire crowd expected the minute that bass line hit in other eras of Phish.  And so it goes.  Love them for taking the stage, take it all with a grain of salt. 

This show had the oppurtunity to be a once in a life time show, but to no avail.  The second set setllist is every phish heads wet dream!  Tweezer>No Quarter is a monster!!!  Beautiful stuff.  Carini starts out hot and then is killed for Piper.  Ok no big deal.  Piper then heads for space and is then cut . . .  damm.  Oh wait Twist is next.  This one is good, not great and then we get the first Ghost of the summer.  Broken record once again as this one is stopped again by Trey for BDTNL!  Uggghhh.  I love this song but not here after 6 minutes of Ghost.  Sorry but they (Trey) let this one slip away my friends

Phish's second night at the PNC Bank Arts Center in New Jersey was another setlist packed with gold, but venue authorities caused a few impatient moments from Trey.  While the first night at the PNC Arts Center rang in around 2 hours and 50 minutes, the band had to crunch and crunch during the second night in Holmdel and this was felt in 'Seven Below', 'Carini', 'Piper', and 'Ghost'.  Opening with the strong 'First Tube', the band unconventionally lifted the song out of its second set placement, where it recently has been making the encore appearance.  Phish then trudged their way through 'Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan', 'Camel Walk', and 'Heavy Things'.  Last December, 'Heavy Things' made its way sounding more like the studio version (at least with Page's lines) but this time around they seemed to have gone back to the laid back style of the song.  Things seemed to get better as the band rolled into a cooling 'Gotta Jibboo', still featuring a little Whale, something that Trey has been waning off of as of late.  A jarring and awkward 'Wilson' made its way to the first set, but the night was quickly saved with the first 'Seven Below' of the summer.  Personally, I expected a nice transition into 'Ghost' to make like old times.. but what can you do.  At least they played it that night, right? ' Kill Devil Falls', another repeat of the summer, didn't quite make the same impact as the 13 minute monster unleashed in Bethel Woods, but it still brought the house down.  With rain drenching the lawn section, the band treated everyone to the new summertime anthem.  After a fairly standard 'Axilla', Phish broke into their first 'Split Open and Melt' since Utica, NY on October 20th, 2010.  One of the songs that truly makes a lasting and unique impression every time it has been played over the past year, this version likened itself to the dark creation from Hershey Park on June 13th, 2010.  Again, Page takes the cake for probably the hundredth time the past few days when they closed up the first set with 'Suzy Greenberg'. 
The sense that Phish was being forced to end the show earlier than Tuesday was certainty felt in the second set, save a grand twenty minute opening segment of 'Tweezer' > 'No Quarter', the first time performance of the Led Zeppelin song off Houses of the Holy.  Page took lead on vocals and treated the crowd to another psychedelic gift.  As if to show that they have their own Zepp style, Phish broke into 'Carini', the dark and jarring rock song about one of their crew members. ' Carini' floated into a nice easy jam and could have continued for a few more minutes, but Trey left the piece unfinished and moved onto a short and quick 'Piper'.  A rough transition into 'Twist' made it clear that a 'Ghost' was definitely around the bend. ' Twist' was given decent treatment and made its ambient way into 'Ghost', confirming what I knew would happen after hearing 'Seven Below'.  This barely 8 minute version was strong despite its tiny size, containing 'No Quarter' teases.  The set closer, the summers second 'Backwards Down the Number Line' also was fire but felt rushed.  Only a few minute after 11 o'clock the band broke into the first of two encore songs, 'Show of Life', the newer and slow paced retrospective rock ballad followed by the predictable yet fun 'Tweezer Reprise'. 

definitely better than night one... but still struggling to make something happen. 

set I.

-first tube and stealing time were a great way to start, standard versions, but very solid. 
-camel walk was really slow.  and trey messed up the middle section pretty bad.  not a good version at all. 
-heavy things was a let down for me, but jibbo was very nice with a nice little first set jam. 
-wilson>-7>kdf these really got the crowd going and trey was definitely feeling it.  -7 below had a great jam for a second until it tapered off to nothing and kdf started, which is always nice first set. 
-axilla seemed slow, but rocked as usual...
-melt was great... probably one of the more interesting melts of 3.0 this song has come a long way since 2009.  very cool type II jam for a bit. 
-suzy was great, page was all over that, as usual. 

set II. 

-i was surprised by tweezer, i thought they would wait a little longer after bethel,,, but i think they may of wanted to keep the tweezepplin myth alive. 
-i loved no quarter, as did everyone, well played, great cover, loved it. 
-carini>piper>twist>ghost were all well played but im really getting sick of the half assed awkward transitions.  i need to relisten... the jam out of twist was really going somewhere than it falls apart and trey starts ghost. 
-the transition into bdtnl made me cringe.  we're in this great ghost jam funking it out and trey just randomly kills it and starts playing bdtnl.  i felt like the rest of the band was like "wtf?" 
-bdtnl did rage like crazy though.  the crowd ate it up and trey played really really well.  definitely a highlight of the show. 

as soon as they ended i knew it was going to be show of life>tweeprise.  i love show of life.  as far as phish "songs" as in singer songwriter-esque songs it is there best.  trey and the dude really achieved something great.  i did notice that fish never went to the open highhat as the song built up (which is normally one of my favorite parts) but that was ok.  solid version... and what can i say about tweeprise... nothing. 

overall i think this show was way better than night 1.  but other than a few highlights that ill relisten to (no quarter, melt, bdtnl) this show is not going to be in heavy rotation on my ipod.  it feels like the usual 3.0 problems.  not enough give and take, too much trey noodling instead of developing something interesting. 

btw... did anyone else notice they played 5 songs from farmhouse?  it was like summer of 2000 all over again. 

Frustrating and enjoyable show.  I wish there were less shows like this in 3.0, but maybe that's for another day.  Any Phish fan that didn't jump ship after 2009 will find a lot to like here, but it will be no more or less enjoyable than any show plucked at random from the modern era.  On paper, Set II is the stuff of legends.  In actuality, it is merely decent.  The Tweezer>>No Quarter is the highlight, but the Tweezer feels like a missed opportunity, and the phrase "missed opportunity" doesn't even deserve to be in the same sentence as this horrid joke of a Ghost.  Download the No Quarter simply because they killed it (and the crowd loved it!)  but otherwise, this show doesn't offer much that is worthwhile to your seasoned 3.0 Phish fan. 

i feel inclined to agree with a few of the earlier reviewers.  this show had huge potential......but......
i'm pretty sure i read the word 'cringe' in there to describe someone's reaction to the awkward transition out of ghost into number line, and i couldn't agree more.  after the new year's ghost, a lot of people were eagerly awaiting a return of the summer ghost.  it came out of a way too short twist, but i was ok with that, well, because it's ghost.  but the cringe was held over from the close of the first set with susie.  i understand that they are going to repeat songs, alas, but after only 2 shows, we really didn't need another susie to follow a solid soam.  those 8 minutes certainly could've been split among twist and ghost, or donated entirely to one of them.  it was indeed a raucous number line, and for that i'm appreciative, but i felt that at the end of fall/new years run, what had returned was some of the magic of teasing out some of the monsters and playing them for a while.  i still very much enjoyed this show, and venture to say i'll reexplore it for a while, but instead of leaving this show feeling sated, like after 10/30 or 12/31, i left with that feeling of, what if they just....

This was a pretty good show i found that their jams were especially incredible everyone seemed to be having a great time in the first set.  Then when everyone was coming back before the 2nd set this great huge clowd engulfed the show with lightning almost pumping everyone up.  Then when they started playing tweezer it started pooring rain everyone was going crazy and bouncing off the walls it was incredible. 

This was hands down best show of phish 3.0 I know a lot of you will think that's high expectactions but the boys were flawless.  One big thing I noticed is they are now "sharing", it's not all about Trey anymore, the boys are so much more mature and wise... last night was all Page, he sounded so crisp and was on fucking fire.  The Tweezer into No Quarter was the best Tweezer IMO....I've seen how the song has evolved over time and this was fucking BEEEYOUTIFUL.....The No Quarter came out of left field and they fucking nailed it.  The whole second set was pure psycedlia/funk fest songs melting into each other, reminded me of the funk years of '97.  I am still in awe and shock.  The axilla into melt was another winner.  Listen to this show!!!!!!!!  Very hard to top this show, Thanks guys, you did it again. 

May not have been the most well-played of shows BUT they served up a severe can of musical whoop-ass over the course of the evening and it was a great overall experience, hanging with my peeps and the crowd round us being generally kind and receptive to what was coming out of the stage. 

Stealing Time slayed!  Camel Walk got the funk-on going on and the rest of the set was solid thru and thru, no real faves, every song getting a pretty good work-over. 

Second set was an old-school musical lesson delivered by the band, starting with a gnarly Tweezer that finally gave way to the ominous keyboard textures that Page was eliciting from his cabinet and musical history followed and it was just off to the races afterwards, it just seemed like one big ole' glorious song climaxing with an over-the-top Backwards Down the Number Line.  If there is video available, look closely at the final Trey rip and it should show, maybe in slo-mo, the sparks flying off his guitar as he was frantically trying to shred his strings off it. 

The Show of Life was poignant, the Tweezer Reprise allowed the assembled masses such as myself to get their final musical orgasm out of their system before perhaps retiring for a smoke and a drive home, whatever that may represent on the road. 

The venue should be proud of itself, they (finally?)  did the right thing, we seemed to do the right thing and the band certainly seemed to keep up their part of the bargain. 

Holy wow!  I came out of the night before thinking "What a great way to start my Phish summer (Missed Bethel).  Hell, one of the better shows I seen.  In before disappointment and TTE on night two!" 

And then bam!  I was spectacularly wrong.  In my opinion, this one blew night one away, and then some. 

We start off with the First Tube opener.  Yeah.  What?  I don't know, but it was great.  A bit early, that song is better feeding off already created energy (Hence often use as a closer/encore), but I digress.  Still rocked. 

From there we just smooth along the first set, nothing more to say.  Very balanced, very tight, a HELL of a lot of funk.  Loved it. 

So then it's like, calm down, calm down, we have another set.  And I'm like, bring it on!  And they did!  Tweezer was one of the better one's I've seen (Read: Only a few) but I sadly had no idea what No Quarter was.  I'm not a Zepp fan, never was, so while everyone cheered I was befuddled.  That's not against the show of course, the band played the song well, I just couldn't enjoy it as much while being unfamiliar with it. 

I'd mention all the other awesome, but there'd be no room left for the show's shining moment: Number Line.  Oh. My. God.  Starts off just standard stuff, fun bouncy Number Line, as it always is.  Then they jam.  And they jam HARD.  Everything aligned to become something wonderful, magical. 

And then it ended.  Encore, nothing much to note, but hey, show was great.  I wuved it, you should too. 

Jibboo was nice.  I was bobbing around to this one.  Always has a fun little jam. 

Wilson was rocking and this was my first version.  Awesome fun. 

>Seven Below was an interesting choice in the first set.  I like the placement considering its straightforward but fiery jam.  Good stuff. 

KDF was ok, just paled in comparison to the tour opening version...

Axilla was high energy and appreciated. 

Split Open and Melt was one I had been hoping to catch for a while.  This version definitely got out there.  I don't know how they scotch tape this jam together, but someone kept it stuck together enough to collapse into the ending.  Highlight. 

Suzy took as back into Page's realm (house).  Good closer. 

Overall Set I: Like last night, a strong first set with lots of good songs and a couple nice jams.  Melt was deeeep. 
Highlights: Camel Walk Jibboo Wilson>Seven Below Melt

Set II reads like an erotic Phish novel, full of all the sexiest of second set vehicles you'd hope to see over the course of 3 or 4 shows! 
Alas....

Set II opens with a Tweezer that paired with a colossal warm spring downpour.  This was a lot of fun on the lawn!  Energy was absolutely crazy as the skies opened for the jam.  Good version, but nothing amazing, until they wound into ->

No Quarter!!!  Someone on lot said they sound-checked Houses of the Holy - so this is what he meant.  This was amazing particularly with the huge energy on the lawn.  Such an awesome cover (I've since seen a couple more versions and this one holds up- second only to SBIX for me). 

After that opening pairing I thought this was going to be magic, especially when they kicked into Carini! 

This one stayed short though and the jam got beheaded in favor of...

Piper, which held some promise for more jamming but was similarly guillotined for ...

Twist.  Twist actually contained a beautiful outro solo section that could have gone for ages, but I think 8 minutes or so was about as long as Trey was willing to go in this one so he chopped into Ghost with the requisite awkwardness of the previous transitions. 

Ghost was downright bad!  I mean literally this might be the only bad version in the history of the band.  It starts to cook at like 7 minutes and poof!  Trey goes Numberline all over us. 

Numberline was actually the best out and out jam of set II.  It was a great peaking version (but not as good as Bethel II).  That wasn't enough to wipe away the bad taste of the previous sequence of ripchords. 

Encore: Show of Life kind of fit in a bad way. 
Tweeprise was awesome as usual! 

Overall Set II: It's better than I am going to give it credit for.  Tweezer>No Quarter was absolutely awesome.(although the Tweezer jam was ordinary).  Twist had an interesting minute or two at the end.  Numberline was ripping.  But the bad outweighs the good when it comes down to Carini>Piper and Ghost having absolutely no replay value.  The ripchord was simply in full effect on this evening. 
Highlights: Tweezer>No Quarter, #line

Overall: This was an average/good show.  It could have been a great show.  Above average set 1, promising (unfulfilled) set II.  Still listen to that Tweezer > No Quarter...what a moment. 
2.5/5 I won't be too harsh. 

Overall this show was meh.  The boys just never seemed to be able to get in synch. 

Gotta Jibboo was fabulous.  Really great mellow jam.  Split Open and Melt nearly lost the plot for a bit, but they held it together.  Definitely deserves another listen, as it may translate well. 

No Quarter was sick to hear!!!  Not sure how it sounds yet in the recording, but I was blown away at the show. 

Other than that they just kept cutting the songs short in the second set, so momentum continually got stomped. 

I commend them for effort.  They weren't being safe, and they were struggling, so I will be happy to put up with a ton of shows like this if it means they're willing to take risks to find a new direction. 

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