Solid review. Comments on it are even better. I enjoyed hearing Peaches for the first time in a while; one of my favorite of the older covers. Roses was fun, too. Mike's Groove assessment was also spot-on; Secret Smile's arrangement did seem pretty different. Beyond that, Set I just kinda did what many of them do lately- a few bust-outs, not many jams. Melt was okay; I enjoy how its kinda become just a sonic-dissonance playing field, but I still miss them keeping the rhythm going during the jam. Idk if I felt they "turned on a dime" at the end...it felt kinda botched except for the drop back into that very last stanza which WAS very well-timed, but whatever.
Beyond that? Disease could've been predicted as soon as it didn't open the second-set the night before, and while pretty fun wasn't "crushing" by Disease-standards. The damn song has been a favorite of mine for years, and dare I say I'm tiring of its placement-predictability(lol- its only been opening second sets for like 20 years); 7/27/14's placement of Disease was a freaking breath of fresh air, IMO....but I digress. Sheeyit, I'm even harsher than Mahoney on WTU?; while I do love the song, its an almost guaranteed handful-of-ever-predictable-never-changing minutes in any set. Fuego is a legit stadium-rocker, but it's jam potential has been realized so infrequently it is also bordering on "same-ol', same-ol'". Meatstick can be fun, but pretty much never changes. I've been waiting for 20YL to do SOMETHING since 10/29/13, and am still holding my breath after last night, even w/ a Kung-injection. Makisupa can ALSO be fun, but I was at Champaign '97, so there's that. Hood is a classic, ALWAYS, but there again, last night's wasn't ALL that. I really enjoyed how Hood took a turn in '14 to a more rockin'-jam vehicle as opposed to "touching", altho I love all Hoods.
Phew. Whatever, that's my $0.02, and I haven't written more than like 3-4 of these damn things in all my years on .net. I gotta say, tho, after 22yrs of phish, its rare I don't feel at least similarly to the gang here, and appreciate their efforts.
12/28 was way better, and this was a decent show. Not fantastic. Endless knob-slobbing praise is for suckers. This is my favorite band. You can't have the stellar w/o the occasional stinker. 2016 was rife w/ 'meh' moments. Still my favorite band. I'm now going to pay more attention to tonight's show (12/30), 'cuz I've been penning this stupid thing for 20mins now and they just rocked Gin. Y'all enjoy the run. -r