PHISH, MONDAY 04/17/2023
WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST GREEK THEATRE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
Berkeley, CA

SET 1: The Curtain With: Rough intro! Trey’s guitar sounded like it was out of tune. Nice bustout – 117 show bustout! They get it together after that tough beginning and the jam is sounds wonderful.

Carini: For Frenchie, love this. RIP phanner. The vocals and composition are played a good bit faster than normal, right? Very solid version here, Trey was definitely picking it like crazy in the last three to four minutes, beautiful guitar playing – especially considering how cool it was this evening. Trey set up this exceptional and difficult segue for a good 10 seconds before pulling the trigger ->

All of These Dreams: Standard.

Stash: Fairly standard, well played I thought.

Halfway to the Moon: Personally, I am a fan of this song, and this is the perfect placement for it. Soaring version! Trey struggles a good bit with the wrap up though.

Mull: Again, fan of this tune. Love the bouncy nature of it, it’s catchy. >

Undermind: Good version.

Theme From the Bottom: Fine version. Trey hits one nice peak, crowd shows much love, and his next notes are really sour, lol. But it’s a nice Theme to close the set.

SET 2: My Soul: Good energy coming out of the break. >

Tweezer: The first 18 minutes or so are somewhat underwhelming. Lots of strumming and effects. Trey starts playing in earnest around the 19 minute mark and that is where this takes off. But it’s awash in effects by the 22 minute mark again and very mellow. I like what Fishman is doing around the 24 minute mark. Sounds amazing. Bringing them out of the mellow patch. Very heavy and the rest of the band follows suit. Awesome section. Slow, Tweezer Reprise sort of sounding stuff in the late 20’s. Aggressive! The abrupt transition back into Tweezer at the 29 minute mark is jarring, not great there at all. Then they go fishing for WOOO’s, really? Yuck. The next ten minutes are awash in effects, so that is cool if that’s your thing. I liked this section a good bit. At 37:12, Trey opts for the crutch of the standard major chord, bliss jam – not surprising at all really. Sick segue though! ->

Simple: Down and dirty, in the muck and the mire (and effects) through 12 minutes. Emerging out of that comes an upbeat jam that almost sounds ever so slightly like something you would hear out of some classic rock staple. It’s GREAT. In the 14 minute range it has a Dicks 2014 Simple feel to it, good stuff. Trey stays understated yet focused and leading. He doesn’t truly unleash the celebratory stuff until late in the 15’s and from there it would be perfect timing to unleash confetti cannons. Hose city! >

Rock and Roll: Standard.

ENCORE: Miss You – Love this song and love this placement.

Sand: Standard lil’ version here and only the third time seen in the encore slot. Great way to end a great show.

Replay value: Carini

Summary: I would rate this as a 4.2 out of five. Set one is solid yet understated. Set two is a moon shot. Tweezer is an obvious all timer yet far from perfect. But it’s super cool that the band still takes these sort of risks. Simple is fantastic and honestly – very well be the better jam pound for pound. After all these decades, this band still smokes. Thank you Phish!