Every inch as good as the justly-lauded show on 8/15: the playing is absolutely inspired and unconventional throughout, from Limb (best since the 'golden hose' on 6/19/04?) through maybe the year's best versions of sparse-Twist, passionate-BDTNL, disco-YEM (giant B'n'D duet), songlike-Theme, and...yes...FrankenDisease. This headlining DWD is happily reminiscent of the classic Seven Below > Ghost from late '09 in Albany: heavy on enveloping textures and discrete jam movements, miles away from the blissful serenity of 6/3/11.

Weird Chalkdust and a heart-tugging Let It Loose to boot. What a jam-packed show! Don't limit yourself to the Disease - there's so much empathy, adventurous spirit, and seemingly effortless group creativity on display here.

UIC Night 2....Because 1 and 3 get the most attention, it makes this show a major sleeper. Really fun opening sequence of songs with Dinner and a Movie, Ha Ha Ha, and Chalkdust. However, the transition into Ha Ha Ha could have been better, but then a really good Chalkdust to cap off a great fun beginning to night two.

Say what you want about Mexican Cousin, but it is played well. Walls, Runaway, Foam, IDK, Ocelot and Gineseng all played great and kept up with the fun vibe of the first set. Wedge and Limb by Limb were both played really well. Limb by Limb features a Trey plinko jam.

AND THEN LET IT LOOSE to close the set. Never would have guest Phish would pull this song out ever again, especially without the horns and backup singers, but they truly nail this cover. Page sings so beautifully and the rest of the band hits every backup part at the climax. IMO, it is a major bustout, and it is one of my favorite songs, so I was real happy. A guy on the concourse during set break was saying to is phriends that you could clearly tell Phish was enjoying themselves on stage again and thaT they were real loose, and I shouted to him "Let it Loose." He turns and says, "Yeah, exactly!"

Set Two starts with a DWD monster. For those wanting real long jams, they get one and it is very good. Twist is played really great , as they continued to make any version of this song great this summer. BDTNL next. Some people don;t like this song. Hopefully here is another version that can change peoples minds. Such a fun and beautiful song. And hey, this and Ocelot will not be leaving rotation any time soon so phans who don't might as well give them a chance. (I personally thought Ocelot blossom rocked this summer, Jon Fishman was a beat master there)

Theme from the Bottom is always a song I personally like live and seems to always be played well. It fits very nicely in the set. Golden Age > Day in the Life...WOW!!!! Here are two covers I was personally chasing, and I expected to get a Golden Age as it is in heavy rotation, but this back to back combo was about as good as it gets for me. Also, would not have expected Day in the life coming out Golden Age. Phish nailed me personally with a killer combo, and as stated the Let it Loose are three covers that make this night unforgettable to me.

YEM, Before the Boy MAn part the guy next to me says this place is gonna erupt. It did, but not like what I saw at MSG over NYE this year. That was incredible. If you don't like YEM, then you don't like Phish, so it always makes for a great show, and they really have not played it a whole lot this summer.

Quick point about the Walk this Way Tease in Yem. I'm not buying it. The tease is merely the notes from the chorus in Walk this Way. And I think Trey is merely playing his guitar and happens to run over these notes that sound like said chorus from Walk this Way. A Walk this Way tease would and Should be the opening Rift to this tune, and it is not near that at all. I'm sure it would have gotten the crowd into more of a frenzie if that happened. Nonetheless, I doubt many people at the show noticed that Trey ran over the Walk this Way chorus with his guitar. I didn't, and it took me a few listens post show to hear it.

Finally, a Triple encore (11 for the run, WOW!). This show started around 805 again. The UIC phans were treated to some really long shows over the run. I was so happy at this point, I'll take the Heavy Things start followed up by SLAVE and Rocky Top. Awesome show here that is played very well and contains a very fun first set and another stellar second set. Waves>Undermind night One is just insanely good. This band is just as tight as ever and they are LETTIN IT LOOSE UP ON STAGE!!!!!

Well well well, my 5th show of the summer, and the first one where I didn't have to drive at least 6.5 hours to get to, this time it only took 40 minutes!!!! Anyway, if any of you have never been to the UIC let me say first off that the venue is literally located directly to the left of downtown, so while we were chillin on the lot (which raged) you were able to look to your right and literally look at downtown with all the skyscrapers.. very cool. Anyway, enough rambling now on to the show.

SET ONE:

dinner and a movie: very interesting opening choice, liked how they decided to opt for something different than the usual. very tight playing and high energy opener.

ha ha ha: well i mean, this was my first as was dinner, so i was pretty stoked for both, but this was a cool little tune that was over as fast as it started..

chalkdust: now, as far as the chalkdusts ive seen, this is BY FAR the best one, sooo much tension and release it had the crowd going nuts! above average 3.0 chalkdust

mexican cousin: ahhh we figured they were gonna get goofier after ha ha ha, and this one did the trick for me at least, average.

walls of the cave: now time for some lovely compositional music, and walls gave us exactly that. they nailed this take, not much of a jam but this was still a very nicely played version. it was a great choice with the relatively small intimate crowd and all...

runaway jim: standard

foam: who doesnt love foam?

i didnt know: vacuum solo was hilarious, haha seriously and then trey grabs a few otis redding t-shirts off his amp thats behind him and hands one to page who then threw it to mike, who then acted like he was gonna throw it into the crowd, but then threw it to fishman.

ocelot: ehhh im gettin kinda sick of seeing this one, ive seen it 3 times this summer and 5 times out of 9 shows..

ginseng sullivan: this was exactly what i needed after another ocelot, some good ol phishy bluegrass, this was an awesome choice for the slot.

wedge: i love me some wedge

limb by limb: good pick to help keep bringing the energy back up, nice version with a fairly decent jam.

let it loose: now this was pretty sweet, totally a highlight of the set.

overall, i was kinda hoping for an antelope after let it loose, so honestly after this set my buddy and i both were thinking the second set was gonna totally rage and by far were our expectations exceeded.

SET TWO:

down with disease: well i called it at setbreak, but i dont think anybody in the venue knew how big of a monster we were in for!! absolutely nasty down with disease, it clocked in at just under 22 minutes and covered multiple themes. there were multiple times during this jam where i just shook my head and said really?? this disease is must hear. AWESOME start to the set. some space at the end led straight into ->

twist: this was a very nice twist, good choice and very high energy. this actually went into ->

bdtnl: standard

theme from the bottom: i love billy breathes, and this is by far my favorite song off that album. "keep whats important, and know whose your friend".... awesome cool down pick

golden age: another one i said we'd probably get tonight, while it was nowhere near as good as the one i caught at SBIX, this one did not disappoint, very nice golden age.

aditl: the crowd ate this one up, seemed like everyone wanted to hear it with how loud the reaction was.

yem: I FINALLY GOT MY FIRST YEM AFTER 9 SHOWS!!!!!!!!! needless to say how amazed i was that it took this long to get one, but it was everything i thought it would be. it was beautiful, it was long, and it was funky!! haha awesome yem and i was just so happy to finally get one.

overall, much much better than set one, very nice jamming too.

ENCORE:

heavy things: standard, but was nice to hear something else in the encore spot than the usual. still chasing my good times bad times though!! ahh maybe next time

slave: yet another lovely slave, average. nice playing from trey particularly.

rocky top: we saw trey go over to mike and say something alone the lines of "hey man, lets do one more alright? alright hell yeah now lets do rocky top" and boy were we glad they decided to play another one, average rocky top but they simply just dont play this song as much as it ought to be.

HIGHLIGHTS:

set one: wotc, i didn't know, ginseng sullivan, let it loose

set two: dwd (must hear) -> twist, golden age, yem and i just have to put in rocky top, that was just awesome.

Overall this was a very fun show, alot of songs that arent frequently played so it was a nice batch of tunes i haven't heard this summer and actually i few i haven't heard yet. it was a very high energy show. i'd say download it totally, especially for that down with disease jam!!!

rating on a 5 star scale : 3.75. not quite a 4 with a few song choices. but still a great/ above average show!

After scooping up my brain from the floor of UIC Pavilion Monday night, I didn't know what they could possibly do to top it on Tuesday.

Certainly a different feel for Tuesday night's 1st set, but I appreciate it more on repeat listens.

The Chalkdust gave me hope for another explosion of a set, but set 1 was more of a fun, streamy type of trip. Very good, but likely unappreciated by some of the phans who had attended both Mon & Tues.

If you get a chance for a vacuum cleaner solo in IDK . . . you take it and you don't look back. I always appreciate those because I haven't gotten many of them.

Nice close to set 1 with Wedge>LBL into a sweet headnod into Exile on Main Street.

Set II - no matter what show I go to, I always find myself trapped in some ungodly line to the men's room or trying to get in the venue when the band decides to play DWD. I've literally seen 5 DWDs, and I've walked in late on all 5. I think fate should give me a break one of these times.

I think Twist will always be underrated only because so many older phans didn't like the Farmhouse album. I'm with them on Heavy Things (because Phish songs shouldn't be played at places like American Eagle and Outback Steakhouse), but Twist has a great guitar riff, groovy sound, and an overall great feel. They can jam it a million different ways. I enjoyed this one very much.

Backwards Down the Number Line - ummm . . . wow. I never expected any of their newer stuff to play so well live. But Backwards was explosive happiness. You could see it on the faces of the crowd and the band . . . just a great time. I felt like I was surrounded by 9,000 of all . . . my . . . friends. This was the performance that made me instantly say I need to re-invest some time into their newest stuff.

Theme - always a treat. Great chance to enjoy something slower, people watch, and take in the entire scene.

Golden Age - during my "Angry @ Phish" period from '04-'09, TV on the Radio was one of the many bands I discovered and fell in love with. I was so happy to see the phab phour covering TVOTR. They don't often cover newer bands, and I hope that's significant. I want to believe this is the band's way of saying "if you haven't done so, check out TVOTR." I concur.

A Day In The Life - knocked it outta the park. Just an awesome, awesome performance. Simply explosive.

YEM - I've gotten so many YEMs over the years, I can't help but judge the entire show based on the performance of this song. If anyone in the band misses a beat or a note, for whatever reason, fair or not, I use it to paint the picture of the show. I guess this show was a masterpiece because this YEM was pristine. Again, the best version I had ever seen

(Note - I'll never hold a candle to the true veterans who have seen hundreds of shows. I have ultimate respect for them and their understanding of this band. I've only been to 20 shows over the last 11 years, pre-hiatus, post-hiatus and post-breakup. But I do know enough to recognize a good YEM when I hear it, just like I know a bad YEM when I hear it. 8/16/11 was spendid.)

E - Heavy Things . . . now I know what the veteran phans were complaining about when I first started going to shows. I thought it was a nice rendition, but I'm over this song.

Slave - I said going into this run that I didn't need or want to see a Slave. For whatever reason, this was one of the few tunes that left me lukewarm. But like they did all thru the UIC run, they convinced me and changed my mind. This Slave was terrific.

Rocky Top - whenever this band goes bluegrass or reggae, I'm all in. It brings so much energy and Rocky Top is one of their great covers. I was shocked when I looked up the stats and saw how rare Rocky Top had become. They played it so much in the 90s I guess it deserved a break. But I'm glad I was here to see it. This version was like a trip back to the 90s when the band was young, hungry and standing in the shadow of Jerry and the boys. Simply awesome.

Overall, the 2nd set and E of this show was explosive and resurrected the insane energy of Monday night.

Am I the only one who heard a What's The Use tease during LxL? This was around the 7:45 mark on sbd recording. I heard it during the show but today listening to the board I really heard it again.

We were up in the nosebleeds for this show and remained there for Ha Ha Ha and that was it. Review on the venue: the sound in the 200 sections on UIC are HORRIFIC!

Like the rest of our neighbors, we moved down to the aisles of in the 100s and stood page side.

I loved the stuff from Junta in the first set. My first Dinner and Foam of all time. So impressive to hear and see up close where we were. Walls of the Cave was excellent - one of my favorite jam moments of the summer. Oh, it was also my first vacuum cleaner solo.

Great Golden Age. My friend Josh, who's actually really into TV on the Radio, said Phish's version was better by far.