, attached to 2012-06-22

Review by Kurtzboy

Kurtzboy This was my third show, and it was a great/beautiful night. I saw it with my buddies Freedom and Jordan, in a sense (via texting between sets), Ellie, and, in spirit, Harry. We’d gotten there early, and of course, the boys were a bit late. So, expectations (Mine. This was Freedom and Jordan’s first show, and they didn’t know what to expect.) were running wild. A song by song breakdown:

Wolfman’s Brother: The first time I heard this song was through watching the Bonnaroo 09 video feed. It was, honestly, the first time that I “got” the jamming part of Phish. So, I was quite happy to be hearing my first Wolfman’s. Honestly, it’s pretty standard (except for this cool, funky line supplied by Page at around minute 6), but the energy was radiating off of it. Big fadeout and >..........

Peaches: This was when I felt that this show might not be an average, run of the mill show. I dig this Zappa song, and love when Phish covers it. Anyone that wasn’t up and dancing for Wolfman’s, was for Peaches.

Shaggy Dog: I have to be honest, I didn’t recognize this song when they kicked into it. I had to look up the setlist online, to figure out what it was. Apparently, it’s quite a bustout. Phish-grass is always fun, but this defintely wasn’t as much of a highlight for me, as I’m sure it was for some.

Runaway Jim: Pretty standard, but defintely rocking and energetic. Everybody in my section of the lawn was singing along. There was this cool section with what felt like a huge pause, before they kicked back in.

Light Up: This is one of those covers that I personally feel doesn’t appear in enough shows. It’s fun, it’s energetic, it’s funky, what’s not to love? This was also a highlight for my buddy, Jordan, because he’s a huge classic rock and Traffic fan. Page, of course, destroyed the solo. And.............>

Wilson: I’d been rooting to hear this song, because I named my new (as of march, anyway) puppy after it. So, I was pumped beyond belief when they kicked into it.

Alaska: I’d been talking before the show, in one thread or another, about how Alaska has really been growing on me, and how I wished I got one. Well, my wish was fulfilled. Alaska was, as always, rambling and ambling. Still cool. There was one part of the jam, that I felt got mildly dark (for Alaska anyway), but I can’t seem to locate the exact time.

Stash: I love it when Phish gets jazzy and dark. Stash jams can get too chaotic for me, and this one defintely reaches that point several times, but I still enjoyed listening to the clashing, dissonant, interplay between Trey and Page.

Llama: There was some pretty humorous (although I think the Moma abortion was staged) banter before this one, about how Fishman can’t count, and therefore screwed up Poor Heart and Moma Dance. I’m glad he did, because it meant we got to hear Llama. You could almost bottle up the energy during Llama. Everybody was up and grooving.

Buffalo Bill: Trey made a joke about finding songs that start with drums (it’d last the rest of the set), so he said that they’d play Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill was fun as always.

Saw It Again: Another song that started with drums. This was a favorite of my group, as everybody was banging their head. If you couldn’t tell by the rest of the set, you could tell by now that the boys were enjoying themselves, and ready to play a special show for us.

David Bowie: An exceptionally long intro to Bowie (filled with trivia) led to a Bowie that didn’t really jam that much, but was still groovy. A nice way to get everybody pumped for set two.

Disease: I was calling for Carini to open set two, but instead we got Disease, which is, IMO the perfect set two opener. Disease got the ball rolling with an exceptionally upbeat motif that eventually settled down into a funky groove before segueing into...

Guelah: I was dancing quite hard by this point. This was also the point at which I noticed some.......ahem.......sketchiness (let’s just say that mirrors and rolled up dollars were involved) next to me. Said sketchiness defintely gave me an unease for the rest of the night, but Guelah made it easier to ignore the sketchiness and focus on the music.

KDF: This is where the true meat of set two comes out. Like Alaska, KDF has the same sort of rambling feeling, no matter what. Of course, KDF is much more energetic. There was an awesome groove established, that gave way to two minutes of pure space. Get this KDF, if nothing else, for those two minutes. I started to feel like a 2001 was coming up next, but of course, Phish defied my expectations once again with......

Twist: This is what will be talked about when people talk about this show. I honestly can’t put into words how outstanding this Twist was. It felt compact (at 14 minutes), but it still covered an extraordinary amount of ground. It was funky, rocking and dark at only 14 minutes. At around minute 10, I texted Ellie with only two words: Fucking Great. This Twist was the highlight of the show. Get it. Now.

Halley’s Comet: Halley’s is fun, and I was excited to see where they’d go with it, but it was your typical 5-6 minute Halley’s. Still, an awesome way to bring us back to earth after Twist. There was a quite fluid segue into....

Sand: I’ve been loving this song lately. I know Sand is always funky, but this version felt especially funky to me. I was grooving like there was no tomorrow during this one. Mike was absolutely on fire during the jam section. After the jam, there was an exceptional segue into..

Roggae: After Sand, I was slightly let down by this, but if you’re going to have a cool down song, Roggae’s an awesome one to have.

Carini: I can’t get enough of this song. Everybody on the lawn was bobbing to Carini. Mike let out some bombs early on, that absolutely shook my entire body. I dug the energy, but I wish that they’d let Carini go on a little bit longer, instead of pulling out CDT.

CDT: I was calling this as the end of the set. As always, CDT was energetic as can be.

Golgi: I was surprised by the choice of Golgi to end the set. Golgi’s a great way to get a positive feeling vibrating, though. So, everybody was jumping and singing along.

Fluffhead: Wow. I was defintely not expecting this. Apparently, it’s the first Fluffhead encore since 1990. Fluffhead is my dream encore (well, maybe YEM). It was an outstanding way to end an outstanding night. Now, it’s time for post show blues to set in.


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