12/28/18: Fun, well executed. But something is off...

Set 1: The boys come out feeling the energy the crowd immediately showed and they go to Outlive our Brains, and the crowd erupts (this would just be the first of many energetic responses to the bands song choice through the weekend). The tune was mostly in form, but got extended a few minutes (would turn out to be the longest extension to Kasvot songs played twice). Followed by martian monster and axilla just showed the excitement those 4 had to come out to play tonight. >Free felt like a breather, damn (perfect placement) and the song had a nice peak to it as well. I love If I could so I’ll check that box and take that in set 1 any day. Highlights thru the rest of the set include the meat (got real saucy at the end), Ghost (avg for song, but continued that dark fun theme from Meat). Personal opinion on the Maze and Walls: I thought they had great tension throughout and the peaks were nice, but I thought it was a little clunky coming out of the tension for that signature arms-to-the-sky feeling we all love [I’ll get back to this later, see possum!]. Walls to me sounded a little rushed for the beginning composition and I feel like the band members (namely Trey) struggled a bit with the timing. BUT once he got his feet under him in the second half of the song MAN did he soar. An excellent peak out to end a first set, and overall, I thought the set really flowed together well.

Set 2: Set 2 was good not great. I think the gems in here (namely the Soul Free, Fuego (peka), Gin & Possum) are good versions and the house was really rocking. As a person who doesn't necessarily love Soul Free, I though the band had really good direction. I love billy Breathes so I did enjoy grabbing Swept>Steep, but in the 2 slot? After that jam? I felt conflicted haha. The energy picked back up with the kasvot tun “Final hurrah” (which I am having a blast with these songs, they fit great with Phish’s setlists & flow) and Fuego. I think this song is a little not my taste, but the jams are rocking! This peak especially I remember raging really hard for. Then.. a shade. I actually like this tune, but keep the energy flowing boys, felt like we just got going again. The Gin is beautiful, lots of layers and followed by a well executed peak. & then the follow possum was roaring! [and the crowd goes nuts]. I think possum is becoming the new maze (or maybe just the better executed tune). The way they held the tension before roaring that release was really well done (also look at dicks possum from 17 and BD).

The bouncing it seemed to me like Trey had a hard time with. Bouncing & Slave was a good encore tho, the slave build especially was really well done I thought. I’d take those 2 to end a show on most nights, but the best of the encores for the run is yet to come…. Overall I think my biggest complaint about this one is the flow, but as I mentioned before, the gems in here will hold up and I will definitely relisten to a good amount of this show. Just a hair short of 4.0 for me, rating is a little low imo (currently 3.56, mine 3.7). I had a blast at this show (they're all super fun, right?), but it just wasn’t the hose.
*Note - Me being extremely tired during this show could have affected my opinion. Long day of travel > 3 hours of dancing definitely wore me out