The first of two great nights. 4.12 stars

Nice first set. SOAM has that original melt grove. A fun Fee well performed. Ice>Glide>Bowie makes a great set closer. I like It's Ice as a song. It tells a story; very progressive type of a song. But sometimes I think the funky changes can throw the band off. They totally nail this one. Glide. Special song, secret song, sacred song. An amazing, slightly fast tempo version. A great Bowie with a "structured jam" that walks into near lunacy finishes it off. UB Bowie...

Second set has a really good Fluffhead, very clean. Really this entire show has that great Phish chemistry that is one of a kind. You can tell they're comfortable with it. There's a BBJ in the second set. Probably a lot funner to be there than to hear it with no big ball. A cool little Mike's Song intro for a Groove. Indeed the primary riff for Simple is present just for a couple of bars. My understanding is that that riff poped up here and there in '93 and debuted in '94. I love that song. The music and lyrics are from Mike Gordon's journal. Great Gig in the Sky>Weekapaug, oh hell ya. A hard to hear Carolina on the version I have. Barbershop with one mic. As it should be I suppose. A hoppin' Rocky Top tops it off, complete whit hoots and hollers.

It should be noted that Johnny B. Fishman was on top of things all night.

"See you tomorrow."

This is the first of two shows at the Tower Theatre, 64th of the tour and just average and sloppy to my ears. I’m not saying they didn’t have fun, and there are some good moments in here, but there is sloppy playing, an out of tune guitar and blown lyrics all over the place in this one. Maybe it’s just because the recording was good soundboard quality, kind of, so I could hear all the faults. However, it does sound like somebody squished the crap out of the recording along the way. There's way too much compression on it for me.

Jim opens up and I though this was going to be an audience recording at first, but it seems to be a matrix of some sort. Jim was ok, but Mike was teasing something and he wouldn’t let it go, so it sounds like they are playing two songs at the same time, which is not that great to hear. Foam was really good, so definitely check this one out. Guelah was pretty good as was Melt except the ending. Trey never gave his official signal, so Fish didn’t know when to end. Fee was good overall going right into a better, but still not all there, Rift. Sample was pretty tight and Trey has some of his signature guitar licks in already. Ice was average for this tour and so was Glide. The screwing around during the Bowie intro caused the actual beginning of the song to be off. Fish came in and it was a mess all the way into the composed section, but the jam was ok to end this average set, in my opinion.

Chalk Dust rocked the opener spot of the second set, but there were some rough spots and Mike seemed to be all over the place. Fluff was also loose and had some messy spots in the Travels. Trey picked up the acoustic for an average My Friend and I love how you can hear the stage talk on the recording. You can hear Trey telling Mike and Page to go “right up” in the climb at the end of the second verse. Trey calls up Coil, but doesn’t tune his guitar, so stay away from this one. There are rough spots playing wise and awful bad notes throughout the whole thing. Even Page, sadly, can’t make up the difference by the ending solo. Then the Balls come out… and the best part about this was the recording source seemed to turn into a pure board! I’ll take it! You can hear Trey asking for a G starter note from Page as they do the recently brought out Halley’s. This one isn’t too bad, but they do blow the lyrics a bit. Paul was pretty good and speaking of Paul, you can hear the reverb change on the board. I love soundboard recordings! Mike’s was a good jam, though not too great to my ears, just average for this tour. Then Page leads them right into the Great Gig. Fish delivers his trademark howling and vacuum soloing, love it or leave it. Here’s where I don’t agree with the other reviewer on here. Fish gets back on the kit and plays the wrong drum part going into Weekapaug so you don’t get the usual Mike solo. You can hear Mike slap his bass in frustration. They just don’t sound very locked in tonight to me. Cavern was very sloppy on Trey’s part and he also blows the lyrics again. I don’t know what’s up, but he’s been doing this a lot lately. It was a very awkward way to close up another average set.

Everyone gets shushed for Carolina, which was fine, and then a ripping Rocky Top with a big Leo scream sends everyone out with a smile.

The energy of this show is worth four stars, but this is definitely not four star playing in my book. Sorry folks, I’ve got to go three stars on this one. Maybe tomorrow will be better?