, attached to 2016-07-20

Review by Campster

Campster A different type of show in comparison to the previous two nights.

First set:

Demand - wow, awesome bust-out and a good start to the show

Curtain With is always beautiful. At the time I was hoping for a With-out just so they still had a shot at playing Reba, but by the time they go to With I was pretty content that they did it this way. Nice playing from Trey in the jam.

Alumni -> Letter to Jimmy Page -> Alumni was another awesome call and solidified the theme of the bust-out/rarity/old-school feel to the set. Always a good one to catch.

FYF was great, and another one that doesn't come out too often.

Cry Baby Cry took me a second to even place this tune. On the shelf for like 8 years, so I'll pass out the rarity points on this one.

Monica was for Bob and was peppy enough.

McGrupp is always welcome and this was a fun version. Great song and nice placement. Keeping it up with these rare songs.

Very Long Fuse was cool and I don't think I've caught that before, so fit the bill of a rarity for me at least.

BBFCFM was fun and Fishman threw in some oddball 1, 2, buckle my shoe lyrics, which was amusing.

Walk Away was great and kept the energy up.

Sanity is just a ball. Awesome tune, great energy and I always like the Row Jimmy lick.

David Bowie works well as the set closer after all those rarities. They went toward the major key for a significant part of the jam and I thought that was pretty cool and made this a notable version. The return into the trilling conclusion was awesome as ever.

Overall Set 1: If you like rarity/bust-out setlists than this one was for you. I was having a great time during the set and Curtain/Bowie even gave us some nice set I jamming.
Highlights: (pick your favorite bust-out) I'll say Demand, Cry Baby Cry, McGrupp, Sanity & Bowie for me personally.

Second set was a different story, and not a particularly good one.

No Man's kicked in as the opener and I thought that might bode well. It was pretty solid, if not exceptional. Trey played a nice solo and they managed to get spacey for a brief moment at the end. Alas, it was not to be and they opted for Mike's.

Mike's Song gives me the opportunity to take to the soapbox for a second. So, at this point I do not want to see Mike's in the second set two hole. In a past life, Mike's could stroll around a setlist with impunity landing wherever it damn well wished to. But it's 2016 and Mike's songs just ain't what they used to be. This version was fine, good lighting from CK5 and Trey did make some nice use of the dirty tone. Overall, safely inside the box.

Fee was a nod to the large sign posted on the mezzanine and people seemed happy enough to belt this one out. I was still holding out hope for some jamming either out of the fee harmonics or towards the 4th quarter.

>Seven Below was dropped into pretty smoothly here and is a song I really like and had me thinking back a few years to a fine start stop version they played in this very room. This version did not hit those heights and contained another fine, but very in the box jam.

So we stood at the crossroads and like The Line during the first night Phish served us Waiting All Night. Bummer.

Jibboo was up next and gave us the requisite 8-10 minutes of head bobbing. Another tune that I don't really want moving in on second set real estate.

Miss You was another difficult choice to swallow and pretty much signaled that this was not going to be a great set. At this point I was liberated from my expectations and decided to just smile through the rest and enjoy the remaining minutes of Phish in the Bay.

Weekapaug kicked in and was its usual fun self. More rotation jamming occurred much to my chagrin, but if you don't enjoy Weekapaug you probably don't have a pulse.

OKP>Suzy Julius was a fine little run, which capped of an underwhelming set in underwhelming fashion. (OK I definitely was dancing pretty hard, but objectively, just nothing notable).

Overall Set II: What can I say, it was a bad second set of Phish.
Highlights: Nothing to see here.

Encore: Well after that I was praying they at least threw in a Hood. Based on the first two encores of the run I thought they'd keep it going with something interesting.

Wading>Character Zero signaled that sometimes you just have to pick up and go home and wake up the next day without a Phish show to attend.

Some final thoughts:
This is a tough show to really rate. As far as a live experience, the first set was really something to see with that song selection, but I don't think anyone will ever need to download this show unless they have a thing for one of the rare songs.

The second set was really really disappointing. For whatever reason it seems like stringing together 3 great shows in a row is not easy (go figure). I figured after the bust out fest they'd be feeling loose enough in set 2 to give it a go.

Overall this show was fun to attend and I certainly danced a whole heck of a lot. I have no musical must hear moments to recommend however. At the risk of sounding like a jerk I can't help but be disappointed.
2/5


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