, attached to 2018-11-03

Review by yam_ekaj

yam_ekaj what an awesome cap to an absolutely incredible run and, in trey's words, an "unforgettable tour." unforgettable indeed! while the first set was not the behemoth that was friday's S1, it contained some awesome moments and another coveted ballad bustout. set 2 is, simply put, a monstrous phish set. let's get to the breakdown:

we start off standard with moma dance. while this song's opening notes don't necessarily excite everyone the way some other openers can, it's still a workhorse that always brings the heat, this version being no different. a similar story for KDF; one of my favorite 3.0 songs, this always raises the energy of a room. this version had a little extra heat, as well. roggae is always beautiful. water in the sky is a great song, but they had just played it in chicago. in my opinion, this one works better if it's a little rarer, but i love it just the same. speaking of things working better when they're rarer, next comes 555. i used to not be in love with this song when it seemed like they were playing it every night back in 2014, but now it's nice to hear. this version was tight. next comes one of the highlights of the set: tube! tube jams have been so great lately, and this is one of the best. exceeding 10 minutes, this version went type 2, exploring a beautiful major section before returning to funk and dropping into the blues. a must-hear for tube fans (meaning everyone). i won't lie, i wish that they had gone straight into mike's from tube, but farmhouse was a fine version, with some nice emotional playing from trey. a mike's groove to close the set is a great choice. this mike's jam, while not lengthy, raged very hard. it seemed like they were really enjoying ripping this one up. then the big treat of the set: lifeboy! like if i could, lifeboy is one my favorite songs that i'd never heard live before. so exciting. a ripping weekapaug closed out the set, with some excellent playing by trey.

set two was, again, just a phenomenal set of phish. every song was jammed well. carini kicks things off with a dark, minor key jam. this was excellent and very different from the more standard, major-key-leaning type 2 jams of the tour. while not the longest version of carini, it is definitely worth a listen. next comes 46 days, an interesting choice here considering the brevity of the carini jam. this served as another boost in energy; an absolutely ripping version, reminiscent of the sand from friday night, with trey leading the band through multiple massive peaks. at the end, it seemed like they were going to jam this one out, which would've been exciting, but instead trey led a transition into (sans intro) scents and subtle sounds. this is a stellar version of the song, with the jam featuring triumphant major key hose jamming. simply sublime improvisation, which is a phrase i could apply to the entire set. as scents died down, trey signaled something to fish. i thought we would get 2001 right there, but instead trey counted them into crosseyed! always love to hear this song, and this version was funked-out dance party. some really fantastic playing by fishman. the jam began to fizzle, and all signs pointed toward 2001. sure enough, fish began the iconic beat. nothing better than some good ol' 2001 funk. the band just kept pounding away, starting up possum right as 2001 finished up. there were zero breathers during this set; just straight fire from start to finish. possum raged as usual, with a great page solo. i thought that would end the set, but phish had other plans. they began SOAM, and it seemed like a little bonus cap on the set. little did we know that this would be - and i don't put this lightly - and all-time version of the song, at least for 3.0. exceeding 20 minutes, this jam went everywhere: standard soam dissonance, a near-silent exploratory jam, a build into a type 2 bliss-like jam, and finally a return to the soam outro. truly magnificent phish, and especially cool for this level of improv to happen during the set closer. phish left the stage to a massive ovation.

for the encore, the band opted for the breather they'd been withholding for all of set 2. always nice to hear wading. character zero to close; this one was a hugely energetic version, with some shredding from trey.

wow, what a tour. night after night, phish displayed incredible improvisational prowess, brilliant set crafting, and superb imagination. certainly one of the most consistently good tours of 3.0, truly thrilling to watch. been a pleasure to review them night after night. can't wait for the NYE run!


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