, attached to 2017-07-25

Review by Donkenshtein

Donkenshtein Wow. I'm really glad I went to this show haha. I was part of the horde of raised of fingers wandering around the 7th Ave entrance, and fortunately got a cheap ticket from a phriendly phan (thanks!). By the way, all the "normal" folks asking me what the fingers up meant was pretty funny.

During set break, a guy next to me at the urinal asked what the opener was. When I told him "Sample in a Jar", his response was "Ok that's missable." Normally, I would agree, but Trey gave us a sign of what was to come when he extended his solo in the middle of the song, which was greeted with pleasantly surprised approval from the crowd. "Sample" rocked!

"Lawn Boy" in the second slot? That is surprising. What was even more surprising was Page grabbing the keytar after Mike's bass solo. And what was even more surprising was that Page's keytar solo led into a 30-min jam! On Lawn Boy! And this was not a throwaway jam. The amount of peaks and valleys in this jam was unbelievable. I was sitting up high Page-side, and what a good night to be Page-side. I watched Page use every piece of gear he had on that stage, it was awesome.

"My Friend, My Friend" is always a welcome song for me. The song composition is really cool, and the crowd gets really into it when the song breaks down after the intro. I will say I thought Trey struggled a little on the intro - I heard a lot of Page over Trey. Skip the "myfe" and head into another tasty jam.

"Stash" killed it, per usual. This song was very welcome. Always a crowd pleaser, love the crowd participation in this song. "Stash" always has really cool jam potential, and on a night where jamming was the theme, we knew we were in for a good one. The boys delivered. The guys next to me were going back and forth at each other, "This is a 4-song set! We are seeing a 4-song set!" Wrong (same guy was also wrong later in the show when he called "Buffalo Bill" during the first few notes of "Makisupa" haha). I was wondering too if that would end the set, but then here comes "Bathtub Gin", another crowd favorite. Always good for a fun, dancey jam, and this was no exception. I LOVED THE FIRST SET.

Blown away by set one's jam-filled donuts. What on Earth are we getting next?? The band came in with "Fuego" which can be kind of a polarizing song - some people like it, some people don't. I like it alright; it's a good jam vehicle with some cool riffs. "Fuego" jam was pretty good, lead into the song "Thread". Out of the new songs, this is one that I like more. Trey mainly stuck to the composition on this one, they didn't try to go far out. They ended "Thread" and went right into "Crosseyed". That really brought the crowd back to life! Huge applause of approval, time to dance! The back-up vocals seemed a little lost on the lyrics at times, but Fishman held it together perfectly. Fishman was hyped! I am a huge Talking Heads fan and this was my first time seeing Phish play "Crosseyed" so I was pretty stoked.

"Crosseyed" jam was definitely the highlight of the second set. Another long jam with high peaks and low valleys - very enjoyable. The band gets low and we move into "Makisupa" - universal 'light up your joint' cover. Time to toke and have some fun. This was a pretty good "Makisupa" too - Trey was passing off the lead to the other guys and the song held together pretty well compared to some other versions I've heard where they don't know what to say haha. We had a little "Jammin" tease from Trey, appeasing all the folks that called it for the jam-filled donuts theme.

"Makisupa" jam lead into the brief "End of Session" section, which I thought was pretty cool. It reminded me of some of the far-out, low, ambient jams you'd hear in 1.0. However, the set went way downhill from there. The low point of the show was definitely "Tuesday". I try to keep an open mind for the new stuff, but I'm sorry, this song stinks. I couldn't wait for it to end. Trey did his best to liven the crowd with some high-peaking guitar soloing, but it didn't work. At this point it was past 11pm and I was wondering, "Are they really going to close the show with this song?!" Thank God, they threw in "Cavern". I like "Cavern" a lot and I thought this one rocked well. I laugh to myself when the entire crowd is singing along with the last verse (the "Give the director..." part). It's just such a goofy verse - hearing thousands of people shout along to it is kind of funny to me, but also really cool. I think anyone seeing at their first Phish concert might be pretty confused haha.

Encore we got a mediocre "Julius" which didn't blow any one away. Fine song to dance to, but doesn't really ever blow the lid off the place. Getting toward the end of the song, and what do you know, Page is out from his station and has the mic in his hand. "Lawn Boy Reprise"!!! Loved it. Definitely capped a very unique show, I think one that will go down on that all-time list of memorable shows. Again, all I can say is... I'm glad I went!


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