, attached to 2018-10-31

Review by yam_ekaj

yam_ekaj wow. what a show. another just insane phish show, but in a different way than normal. i'll start with the 'regular' phish and then move on to the 'costume' set.

first set is pretty standard fare. personally never seen buried alive live before, so that was a treat. it was especially sick when trey very seamlessly worked a buried alive tease into an excellent ghost jam. definitely worth checking out this segment. a nice transition from ghost to crazy sometimes. free and more are standard, both well-placed in my opinion. i think this is the first more to not be a closer or encore; i like it much better this way. halley's is always a treat, and this version was especially so as they jammed it out a bit! trey even signaled to mike and page to stay in one of the ascending keys, a la hampton '97. while this jam certainly wasn't at that level, it was quite good. a bit of a ripcord into ocelot, but the ocelot jam seemed to have a little more kick than usual. theme pretty standard, a solid first-set workhorse these days. first tube was fire, with trey really going for it.

skipping set 2 for now, set three was quite good in my opinion. certainly dragged a bit during the 4th quarter, but i still loved meatstick and antelope. however, the SYSF thru Numberline segment is excellent in my opinion. three true jams in a row. SYSF set the tone early with a quick move to type ii. tweezer was magnificent. while it was short, the band really went for it in the minor key section, and then beautifully switched to major, and then again back to minor in a new key. it felt like a composition on the fly in the best way possible. really incredible egalitarian jamming, which each member contributing and listening to each other. the jam petered out a little earlier than i would've hoped, and when ASIHTOS began, i was a little skeptical. however, as usual, the band delivered in a serious way. this ASIHTOS is not to be missed, with trey employing the whammy pedal in a soaring, emotional way a la '99. the transition from ASIHTOS to numberline was slick, and i personally think that song works in this spot (not a closer or encore, but keeps energy up enough.) trey always delivers the good during the solo, and he did so here. all in all, very solid set. certainly not the best frame of the tour, but quality in many different ways. don't miss the tweezer > ASIHTOS specifically.

ok, now onto set 2. oh boy. receiving the phishbill was a surreal experience; how was it possible that they were doing something this obscure? my first thought was certainly disappointment, as i had been hoping for some classic album for which we're all hoping. i pushed those thoughts away, wanting to go in with an open mind. turns out i didn't even need to, as phish delivered again. the first few songs i was a bit skeptical, but they really hit a stride with Say it to me Santos (a song i think will be in rotation), FInal Hurrah (containing the now-iconic "faceplant into rock" line), and then the absolute heater that was Death Don't Hurt very long, with trey absolutely going off. while those were my favorite tracks, i really enjoyed almost all of them. just another incredible presentation of original music by phish, a la 2014.

on that note, i am personally in the camp that believes all of these songs are originals. the phishbill's writing is too crazy for no one to have ever heard of this before; if this band existed, and their story is as crazy as phish says it is, someone would know about it. furthermore, this is a logical progression of some of the recent halloween shows. '13 was billed as their music, and it was. '14 was billed as a real album, which it sort of was, but it was really their music. and now '18 was billed as a completely different band, and it turned out to be their music. just goes to show again that phish is not willing to become complacent. they could easily have played like physical graffiti or are you experienced?, and everyone would have been very pumped. but instead, they continue to push the boundaries of their own tradition, while staying true to their identity as goofball pranksters. god, i love phish.


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