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tldr; I thought this was a terrific show and had a blast. The venue was lovely, the band was generally on point, and there were some phenomenal jams worthy of being counted on a HOSE chart. And I just love the way the band is playing now. There were years (2011, 2018) when I thought I'd never see another Phish show this good again...but 4.0 has been a revelation, and I feel blessed every time I see them.
Driving up from southern Westchester where my family lives, I pulled into the lot close to showtime. I was on my own for this one. Weather report was awful and had me wondering whether I should bail, but outside of some showers on the way up and the way back and a little bit of light drizzle, this turned out to be a gorgeous evening.
The venue is lovely. Where I parked, there was a secondary stage between the lots and the venue. The grounds are beautiful, situated nicely in a northern NY type woodland. The whole thing had a great woodsy hippie vibe, and if the weather reports had been more promising, I'd have enjoyed making an afternoon of it. Great place to tailgate. Long walk from the lots to the venue, but that has some advantages. My seat was in the back of the pavillion--I think some folk had bailed because of weather, because my row was half empty and I had lots of space to dance. Definitely would see another show here.
As for the music, it was excellent if at times uneven. The band was pushing all night into improvisational space. At times it clicked, and at times it felt more like they were pressing to find something and not quite hitting it. Let me say that I've always been an improv-first guy, loving the deep long jams, and probably checking my watch a bit too often to see how long a jam had been....but at this show, I found myself appreciating a lot of Type I playing. Maybe it's just the way my antennae are tuned, maybe it's the fact that I only get to see Phish a couple of times a year, but to my ears, some of the best playing came in relatively standard Type I songs. I'm writing this without the benefit of relistening, and maybe some of my impressions will change when I do.
First set opened with First Tube, featuring Trey dancing and strutting around the stage. He took a great, energetic, melodic solo that made this a standout version to my ears.
The next song was also the first big jam, a No Men which according to livephish was 14 and a half minutes long. I need to relisten to this, but I remember thinking this was excellent. Real talk: there was SO MUCH jamming in this show that I can't remember in every case what was what, and especially with this and My Friend in the first set, I might be getting some things mixed up. I recall this one having a strong peak, but also exploring some interesting spaces before that. I found some of the lower key jamming on this night particularly good, and there was a passage in either this or My Friend that kind-of-sort-of reminded me of Montana from ALO. NOT saying it's a tease or a deliberate quote, and probably not something anyone else would hear, but it had a similar vibe. I love the explosive peaks as much as anyone (see below), but I also love hearing those four guys find a groove and play around within it. There was such subtlety to much of this music, call-and-response, intense listening....just wonderful.
As I've already said, My Friend had a similar feel to No Men, to the point where I can't remember which passage was in which jam, but ended up in a little bluegrass style jam. Great and interestingly DIFFERENT from much of what I've been hearing from them.
Trey reacted to that by saying that the band needed to "regroup", and outside of the beginning of 2001, this marked the end of the Type II jamming in Set I. I did feel a bit of a vibe shift at that point, and I wondered if Trey liked that My Friend jam less than I did. I did think there were a few miscues--not only in the composed section, but in the transitional points in the jam--but sometimes I don't hear quite right while I'm at the show.
But you know what? Much of the playing through the rest of the set, despite being rather in the box, was just WONDERFUL. As I get older, i'm learning to appreciate not only the insane jams, but also what happens when Phish just plays their songs well. This evening, the rhythm section especially caught my ear. Mike seeemed a bit up in the mix, and Fishman--who has been an absolute beast all through 4.0--was tremendous all night long. During Julius, I just absolutely got lost listening to Mike's bass runs and Fish pounding out that magnificent shuffle rhythm. Nothing out of the ordinary, and I don't know, I haven't listened to many versions of Julius from the last couple years, but I thought this was just magnificent. Could've heard it go on another five minutes easy. Same with 2001 and Character Zero. Actually, Zero really got me on this night: the band was so THICK, Fishman's playing so powerful, Trey adding dirty heavy funking guitar, Mike popping along, Page complementing everyone perfectly...again, this isn't going to make any kind of jam chart, nor should it, but I felt IT during this performance--the band just synced and rocking out tremendously.
Set break was short (I think only about 20 minutes?). Visited the surprisingly clean restroom and grabbed a tasty $8 pretzel. Worth it.
The second set was VERY jam heavy. The band came out looking serious and ready to go. I'm pretty sure they knew the Tweezer was coming as they played a perfunctory Wedge. As for that Tweezer....well, here's the thing; despite this being my favorite song to see live, and despite the fact that I somehow have not caught it LIVE since 7/1/11 (!!!), and despite it being by far the longest jam of the night at 24 minutes...I thought this was probably the LOWLIGHT of Set II (well, outside of Wedge). The first 10-15 minutes, it felt like the band kept looking for something it couldn't find. They tried things, but the melodies weren't coming, the whole this was spacey and spammy...certainly enjoyable, and there's nothing like that feeling at a Phish show when the band could just go anywhere--but to my ears, this really never took off. I wondered if the Mountain jam came because they couldn't quite figure out where to go! And while that jam was pretty good, it didn't blow my mind or feel like things had just CLICKED. I was wondering if the vibe shift after My Friend had meant that the jamming for the night just was not going to connect....
But then came PILLOW JETS. Go figure, but to my ears, this was the highlight of the night. First, you get a thick, percussive, Fish-heavy jam coming out of the composed section. This just sounded GOOD to my ears, and clicked in a way that the spammy Tweezer jamming didn't seem to. Reminded me a bit of Character Zero from the first set, but way better, and a great place for the band to go with Mike and Fish both bringing so much FIRE on this night...
and then, out of that plodding (in a good sense) jam, Trey suddenly lights up and the band turns on the heat and EXPLODES. The peakiest jam of the night, with a throbbing, danceable groove and fiery playing from all four guys. Felt just a bit like the 12/2/95 Tweezer in intent. (Not saying it's that good--that remains one of Phish's all time top tier jams--just saying that it seemed like they were going for a similar space.) Out of about 5 minutes of that, they dropped back into Tweezer, and played a short, fairly laid back jam that to my ears CLICKED more than anything in the 24 minute monster.
After this, we get Piper. The slide into Piper was deftly executed, and the Piper jam was excellent. I need to relisten, but I recall this being long, up tempo, and powerful. Overall, a terrific rendition. Reminded me of whichever Piper closed a set at Dicks a few years ago.....would have to look to figure out which, but alas, phish.net is currently on partial functionality.
The roughly 30 minutes since Pillow Jets began was the high point of the night. I had figured that the set would end here and launch some very exciting discussions about whether or not this was a four song set. But twas not to be, and instead, we got a two pack of Shine a Light (gorgeous) and a Chalkdust that was extended well beyond what I expected. I'd figured we were going to get a rave-up set closer; instead, we got yet ANOTHER great jam. My memory is shot at this point, except to say that in the moment, I loved it, and every little new detour felt like a bonus.
Expecting a long drive home through bad conditions, I walked out during the encore. I caught the beginning of BBFCFM from the back of the lawn, and started the long walk out with the strobe light illuminating the night sky as some light drizzle fell. I was out of earshot when they started Jibboo. Actually, one more lovely thing about this venue: there was a band playing a late set as I walked out, some jammy indie band called Winged Wheel. I didn't pause to listen much with my long ride ahead of me, but it created as great vibe as I and a couple hundred others made our way out.
Overall, an excellent show. I will say again, I cannot believe Phish is playing this well. Right now, I don't have any feeling that I just need to be grateful they're playing at all. They are playing SO WELL and so creatively that the music deserves the same critical eye that we gave it back in the 90s. I hear it especially in the Type I stuff. There were shows I attended during 3.0 where I sort of cringed as they played their songs and waited for the jams. Not tonight. Even the Type I playing--Julius, Char 0, the Norwegian Wood teases in Bug, the punchy Cavern, the groovin' 2001--was connected and just felt and sounded RIGHT. This guys are MUSICIANS, and tonight was about the MUSIC.
40 years later, still upside down, and we're happy that they're here. Overall, this was an excellent show from the greatest band in the mf'in universe.