, attached to 2014-08-29

Review by lenuto46

lenuto46 There was nothing tame about that 1st set.. saying so belies a lack of understanding what this band is all about. Set one was classic Phish; a silly gag, a weird set-list with a few rarities (Llama, IDK, No Quarter, Ha Ha Ha), the first Guyute in over a year (played with polished ferocity), and Suzy with horns! It's not all about jamming guys.

If anything I thought set 2 was kind of tame, 46 Days got ripchorded cause it was going nowhere, BOTT was boiler-plate, Numberline was an energy killer with standard Trey doing his thing, Antelope is overplayed, and a Character Zero encore is hard to get pumped about. The magic came in the form of Simple, which was incredible, but also got cut short for Ghost. It's hard to say a 22 minute Simple got cut short, but I felt like the direction it took at the end, especially what Page was starting on his Yamaha synth, could have yielded something beautiful. Of course Hood, which has produced consistently inspired versions since the first show of the summer at Mansfield was soaring and beautiful. You could feel good about it.

Here's the thing, last night's show was amazing. If they played it at any point in 2004 or 2011 it would be contending for best show of the year, but this is 2014 and the Phish are on top of their game in a way I haven't seen since 97-98. With that in mind, the first set was a classic Phish gag and is already the stuff of legend, complete with bust-out and prog-rock treats, and set two felt like a victory lap with a stand out Simple and a noteworthy Hood. It's a good time to be a Phish head.


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