Fuegoblivion—World’s Greatest Dad (Rock)

Well normally I’d have filed this review sooner, but I spent the last 24 hours driving from New York up the coast and all the way out to Nova Scotia for some much needed time by the ocean, away from the city and the heat. It’s been a disturbing summer, starting with an incredibly dry start that saw forest fires all over the province out here, and then across northern Quebec, with smoke that hit my hometown in Montreal a few times, briefly providing us with the worst air quality in the world, before making its way down to the US. Then we got massive rain and flooding, not just Vermont and New York State, but throughout Quebec and in Nova Scotia as well—historic levels. The lawn swallowed by the lake in the Eastern Townships. The backyard in Petite Riviere in Nova Scotia filled with swimming geese. Then there was this past week in New York, blisteringly hot. There may not be an official theme to each show of this residency, but Heat would be on full display on this night. (Tl;dr—You’re going to want to at least hear the last 10 minutes of this Fuego).

I wasn’t supposed to hit any of the MSG shows—the Hollywood Bowl run was my treat this year—but an opportunity and invitation to housesit in Brooklyn with my girlfriend resulted in some new plans, and wouldn’t you know it, coincided with the start of the MSG run. After taking my girlfriend to her first show on opening night—a hot show in its own right that’s sounding better as time passes—Saturday was an opportunity to bring my 14 year old son to his second show. I had brought him to a bit of a dud when he was 7 in Portland in Summer 2016—the only time I’ve ever left a show early (he fell asleep). Needless to stay that didn’t happen tonight. I want to extend a special thanks to all the kind folks who chatted him up and invited him into our world. Seeing our strange language spoken with so much enthusiasm in the flesh was clearly a big highlight for him, and it was special to consider that he was basically the same age I was when I saw the band for the first time in 94. (The show itself and CK5 didn’t hurt, either.)

Alright, enough context setting—how did the music measure up? It’s hard to top the way they came out swinging on Friday, with the stock on that A Wave of Hope, Cities combo rising by the minute. But they gave it a shot! Back on the Train played the warmup role before Down with Disease surprised in the number two slot with only a two show gap since the last performance. At 18 minutes it certainly has something to offer: the initial excursion has a patient pulse, followed by a somewhat repetitive-cheap Trey riff section (sorry, not sorry), which mercifully yields to the last few minutes of slow gnarly crunch. It sounded like it might be a setup for a segue (into Death Don’t Hurt Very Long, like we saw in Toronto last summer maybe?), but they basically just stopped the jam on a dime and Page started up the sample to The Dogs. Were they trying to segue into The Dogs and just couldn’t pull it off? Had they, this would have been very slick and mean. Still a welcome performance, and it worked here even if it made the set seem a little .. impersonal?

I’ve always been a Bug fan, and had a feeling I might hear one this week—I’ve been revisiting some of the shows from July 2003 recently, and you could argue it features some of the song's strongest performances. This one didn’t disappoint, and was dedicated to Jovie (another kid in the building!). Bug did set a different tone, however, and made it hard for the sequence of songs that followed to bring a lot of power and flow to the middle section of the set. Sugar Shack and Evolve each have their respective charm—and there’s no mistaking which one is a Mike song, and which is Trey’s. But they each have their weaknesses too (for my tastes), and I was a little let down by this point, hoping we might get something a more old school and classic to share with my son—a Reba or Divided Sky, perhaps? Not a Horn hater either, but as a bookend to this stretch it didn’t do much to lift things up. But we don’t dwell on this shit in 2023.

The set ended pretty strong—at least for me. I was almost stunned when they started playing Foam and couldn’t quite believe or place it. Not because it was unfamiliar but because in almost thirty years of seeing the band I had never seen one. Foam had been sitting on top of the Most Commonly Played Songs Not Seen for probably 20 years. Cross it off the list! Nice performance, too.

I hadn’t seen Moonage Daydream, either. And like when they played Starman on 8/6/17, I couldn’t have been more amped and emotional. This wasn’t just a novelty performance though. They’ve been killing this song ever since it debuted on Halloween 2016, and this one may have been the most fiery they’ve done. Trey’s new tone really lends itself to these blistering, slightly down-temp arena rock-outs. I first noticed it in earnest at the Hollywood Bowl on About to Run and No Quarter, but when he’s in this mode he’s sounding more and more like Neil Young at his Down by the River dirtiest. Must hear fire shit.

So not the strongest first set—especially by the standards they’ve been setting in them since 2021—but Disease, Bug and Foam are worth hearing, and Moonage Daydream is a must.

How did Set 2 fare? Well if they’re going to continue opening Set 2 with short warmups, I’ll take a Wedge over a More any day. I get the desire to maybe warmup a little, and no need to jam straight out the gate … but one thing I’ll say about all four of the set openers on both nights I saw—not one of them came out of the gates loud and assertive.

Loud and assertive would definitely follow, though. I’m not a big Fuego fan. I find the lyrics a little cheesy and some of the composed sections a bit disjointed—but it has certainly been delivering some jammy goods of late, and this version, while not start-to-finish perfect, may be the best of them all. At 30 minutes, there’s a lot of material to cover. And if all that existed was the the first 20, and you argued that it was an example of how Phish can pull off long jams right now but not really do anything too interesting, I wouldn’t protest. But stick around for this one—the final third is a pretty spectacular, cohesive blast off. And they band has even done us the service of sharing the 4K video complete with CK5 accoutrements to digest what we witnessed with full body bliss.

I’m a fan of Oblivion, and happy to hear Treys songwriting taking a darker more nuanced turn. And I’m an even bigger fan of the fact that it appears to be launching jams. This one was a nice tonal extension of the narrative from the Fuego. Fuegoblivion? I mean I don’t want to alarm anyone but that very well may be what’s in store for us on the other side of all this heat.. In any case, like some of the choices in the first set, the flow suffered by complementing this incredible section with Wingsuit. I don’t dislike Wingsuit, but it was a let down for me in this slot after getting Simple here on Friday after a similar opening trio of 3.0 material. The lyrics “Nothing lasts, nothing stays / Caught in this procession of unchanging days / What's new is old, what's old is gone” amplified this for me.

The band has injected some new life in 2001 this year, with standout versions (for the era, anyway) on 4/22 and more recently 7/11 in Alabama, which features a nice long intro. I’ve always thought 2001 and it’s spaciness made for easy wins in terms of long spacey intros, but we don’t get many these days! (For the best such example, see the version I was lucky enough to be in the room for at MSG on 12/29/98). Well we didn’t get much of an extended intro here (or the second half of it!) but what we did get was excellent, with a fully deconstructed jam and ensuring -> to HYHU that was really cool.

And seeing Cracklin Rosie was a huge huge highlight for me, despite it being such a train wreck. Too bad I wasn’t on the rail, I could have helped Fish with the lyrics, belting them out as I was jumping up and down from sec 119. Last time played in 2012, only the second time played since 96? “That’s called bust-out, son!”

SANTOS smelled just fine, but with lines about space you could say there another missed opportunity here to close the 2001.

Finally, the audible gasp from the room at the Farmhouse was downright funny. No hate on Farmhouse, but this is a MSG residency, guys. No theme is fine, but that was a terrible call. First Tube was terrific…and did not make up for it.

Of course I had to hit the road and miss the Sunday show, with Izabella redeeming last nights encore, and all those 1.0 classics compromising the entire 1st set, tongue in damn cheek. Enough to make me wanna freak out and throw stuff.

Kid had a blast, though. And yeah, in case you’re wondering, so did I.