SET 1:

Kill Devil Falls: sure, fun opener. A rock’n’roll night is coming! Page with some choppy organ soloing to start off the jam. Playful. Classic Trey soloing from there to kick off the evening.

Cavern: interesting in the two slot! Drums sounds awesome at the beginning. Played with conviction. >

Foam: awesome!!!! Always thrilled to see this one pop up! They’re not letting the foot off the gas tonight so far. Good tempo and execution from the start. Pretty much as smooth as you could hope a 3.0 Foam would be, this tune really went downhill after 2015 or so but there some real good versions for a while there. Nice confident Trey soloing too.

Guelah Papyrus: fuck yeah. Massive confidence on display to go for this straight after one of the most difficult tunes in your catalogue. Strong Asse Festival. VERY long pause. >

Chalk Dust Torture: wow absolutely no rest in this setlist. The early 3.0 setlist approach is where it’s at. GREAT call. Really great tempo from the start, must be up there with the fastest 3.0 versions if not the fastest. Very busy 90s-style interplay at the start of the solo, with Mike and Trey coiling around one another and firing out rhythmic lines. Tension and release is the name of the game in this jam. At 5:00 diverts to a strange tense space, then erupts out of it, and then suddenly… ->

Whole Lotta Love: YES!!!!!!!!! WOWWWWW how awesome is this?? Hilarious way to play with fans’ expectations regarding the Halloween album. Just a snippet of this is played, then we go back ->

Chalk Dust Torture: fuck yeah. Ripped up and finished in style.

Ha Ha Ha: hilarious. Love this song, love Phish. Perfect for the moment. Tiny Whole Lotta Love tease in the outro, then >

Walk Away: this is one hell of a set that they’re putting together here. Standard and shreddy.

Wolfman’s Brother: full on vocal jam following the song proper, very cool/funny. The VJ takes the band into a funky percussive groove that feels somewhat left-field for Wolfman’s. The jam becomes more atmospheric and abstract from there, still keeps the funkiness but kinda melts away into a space somewhere between plinko and 2001-style ambience. Really good. Stuff happening everywhere. Listen to Fish popping off around 9:30. Great jam that Trey full on ripcords for >

Undermind: .net calls this a -> but I don’t buy it. You don’t see many unfinished Wolfmen though so I’ll allow it. Little bit more spice in the solo section than usual. A real odd ending flourish and then >

Bathtub Gin: fits the vibe of the set really well. This Gin goes pretty high and in a less overtly blissy manner than I’m used to these days. Check it out for sure. More Whole Lotta Love teases in the outro.

The Squirming Coil: cool, solid set closer with stunning Page at the end - pretty awesome version of this actually. Maybe a bit too contemplative/low energy for this particular set though.

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SET 2:

Tube: hell of a set opener. A touch slower than normal at the start. Page killing it on the ivories in the jam. They’re really going for it here! Trey and Mike plinko it out while Page rages away for a while, then Trey moves to effects and we build in intensity. Grooving big time. Drop into the shuffle at around 4:10. Nice. >

Possum: interesting old-school pick for this slot. I like me some type 1 picks to kick off set 2. Massive massive Whole Lotta Love tease at around 6:00 that explodes convincingly into a tall peak. Mostly standard otherwise but they still played this one with passion in early 3.0. >

Tweezer: here we go! MORE Whole Lotta Love teases the instant that the jam starts up, and then pretty much straight after that Mike starts playing a very familiar bassline… ->

Heartbreaker: awesome. Fantastic. Short. ->

Tweezer: straight back into a rockin’ Tweezer jam after a verse of Heartbreaker. Shift to a mellower major space around 0:55. Interestingly it’s Mike again who calls for the next Zeppelin tune… ->

Ramble On: LOVE this one! First time playing this tune since the 90s. Very shaky and loose performance, Fish comes in way too early for the first chorus, but everyone’s having way too much fun to care. Listen to the crowd reaction during the second verse, what a treat it must be to be in that room. ->

Thank You: only one verse. Fun! ->

Tweezer: literally twenty seconds of this, and then… ->

Stairway to Heaven: WOOHOO! Had to happen. Starts from the solo preceding the rock verse and continues (sort of, lol) to the end. Dying at the dramatic rendering of the final lines. Thus concludes this wild, fun, sloppy third quarter. Trey afterwards: ‘happy Halloween, we’ll see you next year!’ lol hilarious.

Halley’s Comet: cute. Brief solo, then Trey signals the end - almost sounds like No Quarter or Bowie for a second, but instead we get… >

2001: I’ll absolutely take this here, yes please. Loving the unconventional intro with the jazzy Fishman grooving before he kicks into the beat, really good stuff. Beat starts off nice and fast. Sounds spacey and psychedelic from the get go. Trey painfully flubs the first refrain. Second jam sees Fish diverting from the standard 2001 beat in response to Mike and Page’s disco-style playing. True Mike masterclass here. The funk at 7:00 is totally irresistible, big fan. Sounds almost loungey but still maintains all the energy you’d want. I prefer my 2001s consistent and repetitive but this is a real good version. >

David Bowie: perfect out of the effects that close out 2001. Some chanting in the intro along with plenty of goofy effects. Composed section is okay. Unique start to the jam, much more of a fluid, ambiguous full-band approach than is normal with this one. Returns to a more standard Bowie progression around 7:00. Jam builds subtly and efficiently with some nice dextrous Trey. Climax is good. Good Bowie.

Show of Life: I don’t mind this song when it’s earned, and the show needed a cooldown for sure. Solo is good. >

Backwards Down the Number Line: ooooo I dunno about this following directly after Show of Life. Put this earlier on and you’re in business. Some neat Trey playing including some weird modal stuff towards the end of the solo, and then he randomly decides to unleash some machine gun! Sounds very nice here with the trilling. He puts in the effort here, makes up for the placement. >

Good Times Bad Times: had to happen. Communication Breakdown bustout would’ve been sick too. Ripped and raged.

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ENCORE:

Sleeping Monkey: nice. Torchlight anthem. >

Tweezer Reprise: apparently the Mike bomb during the start of this was one of the biggest ever. They play a little more Whole Lotta Love right at the end here just for a victory lap. Tearing down Atlantic City before the big Halloween show. Cool!

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OVERALL: I would have been bouncing off the walls were I in attendance to this one. Zep was never a massive favourite of mine but the boys are having so much fun during this show and it’s palpable through the tape. Love the old school setlist antics too, something that’s direly missing from modern Phish for sure. Am I going to return to this show much? Probably not - some of the magic of the evening is lost over tape, and to be honest a lot of the actual performances of the Zeppelin stuff are sloppy and clearly unrehearsed. Some setlist choices like e.g. Show of Life > Number Line and The Squirming Coil to close set 1 are a little iffy too. Good dexterity from Trey all round though, which makes tonight’s solos all round great. Check out the Gin, 2001, Wolfman’s, Tube, Number Line and of course the set 2 Zepfest.

3.8 sounds a bit stingy but that’s what I’m feeling for this show.