, attached to 2016-09-02

Review by yhgtbfkm

yhgtbfkm First time being at Dick's. Sat next to some nice folks who explained that I was in the perfect spot to view the show. They weren't lying. Aside from the fact that the sound was incredibly loud (or maybe I'm just getting old), it was a great place to view the show.

Set I:
Ghost - A nice tune to get the crowd into a groove. I never tire of hearing Ghost.

No Men In No Man's Land - Holy moly. Clocks in at 15+ minutes and rages the entire time. Up until that point I thought it was the highlight of 2016 (more on this later). The nerd in me remembers that 8/30/13 (Most Shows Spelling Something) started off the same way. Maybe tonight is the night!

Breath and Burning - Guess not.

Undermind - I've read before that some people wish Phish would play Undermind the way they do on the album (which in itself seems funny if you think about how phans view studio albums). Count me in that group. Not a bad song by any means (and played just fine tonight), I just prefer the slower tempo.

Heavy Things - Aside from the flubbed lyrics, it's your standard Heavy Things. I did get a chuckle out of the group behind me who chanted "Cheesecake" after the song was over. Never gets old

Stash - I'm not a fan of Stash (heresy, I know) so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I felt like Trey flubbed the composed sections pretty badly and I thought it was the low point of the show.

Ass Handed - As soon as Fishman took to the mic and started talking about "rockin' Dicks" and "funkin' Dicks" (which is where all of the swingin' Dicks comments stem from) I knew he'd jump into Ass Handed. Trey fucking loves this song. I do too, man. I do too.

The Wedge - Yes! I fell in love with this tune when I heard it in Chicago back in 2014 (and if you've heard that version, how could you not?) and tonight's was wonderful.

Alaska - FINALLY! I always feel like Alaska and Ocelot are interchangeable, with Alaska being my preferred of the two, and I finally got one after 5 or 6 Ocelot's.

46 Days - A pretty straightforward rocking version to end the first set.

Set I - 4/5.

Highlights - No Men In No Man's Land, Ass Handed, The Wedge and Alaska

Set II

Run Like An Antelope - What a great way to open up the second set. Really got the crowd (and glowsticks) going.

Mercury - Tonight's performance really showed that the band should play this tune more often. I've been fortunate to see it twice and it's such a great song. Easily one of my favorites of the new tunes from the last few years (Ass Handed being the best, obviously)

Seven Below - very solidly played. At this point I received a text from a friend watching the show at home that said "They are really killing it this set." Agreed.

Birds of a Feather - kind of an odd segue out of Seven Below but it worked.

Wombat - Huge fan of this song. Didn't break any new ground but that was fine by me.

Tweezer - Remember my earlier comment about No Men In No Man's Land being the highlight of 2016. This trumps it. Absolutely ridiculous. I'll be listening to this version for years to come.

Runaway Jim - A solid performance but kind of got overlooked because of what we had just witnessed with Tweezer. At one point I thought they were going to segue back into Seven Below, because of how long Trey jammed on it.

Suzy Greenberg - Definitely not your run-of-the-mill Suzy and probably one of the greatest of all time. Towards the end Trey abandons the guitar in favor of the Marimba Lumina and the jam goes crazy. What a way to end the second set.

Encore:

Bug - Allowed every one to collect their breath before jumping into...

Tweezer Reprise - I kept hoping they would play the Ass Handed Reprise but this was a perfect ending to one of the greatest sets I've witnessed in person.

Set II - 6/5

Highlights - Everything. Just listen and enjoy.

Wow. The same friend who texted me during Seven Below sent another one after the encore that simply said "Best band ever," and after what I had just seen, I can't disagree. It'll be hard for Sat and Sun to top what we witnessed on Friday, but I am looking forward to see what the boys have in store.


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