I should probably not be surprised that last night's show was so good. Have I turned into such a jaded vet after 78 shows since 1993 that I can not bring myself to expect two great shows in a row? I saw some of Phish's years of mind-blowing consistency - the days in the '90s when the thought of seeing a bad show never entered my mind - and I was there for the years when Trey struggled not to flub in song after song, though I sat out most of 2009 because I found it too painful.
But this is a new Phish - focused and rehearsed. And while the playing is not as fiery and barnstorming as in 1994 and the jams are not as out-there and spacey as 2003, there seems a renewed passion and...ahem...joy in the playing. Or maybe it is in me.
Last night, the new vibe pervaded the old tunes, starting with classic trio of "Mike's", "I Am Hydrogen" and "Weekapaug Groove" to set the tone. I was still in the lot and decided to stay there a while because the people were so great and the sound was fine, entering the venue and roaming the outskirts for the second half of the set.
If you took out "Ocelot" and looked at the setlist for set one, you could easily mistake it for a show from 1994 as they cranked out oldies like "Gumbo", "Halley's Comet", "Punch You in the Eye", and the excellent set-closer "Suzy Greenberg" with full precision. But while 1994 was prime Phish, full of excitement and vigor, songs like "My Friend My Friend" and "Wolfman's Brother" never sounded so good as they have in the 3.0 era, and especially last night. The laser-pointed focus of the way Trey built the former to its climax was perfect for those of us who grew up with the band from it's heyday. The wild abandon of the old days was great for the old days, but we are all a little more mature now and like our freakouts controlled and our climaxes huge. Just listen to last night's peak in "Possum" and you will see what I mean.
OK, so the flub monster did attack Trey once in the show - he began playing "The Horse" but screwed it up. But instead of soldiering on in awfulness as he may have in the 2.0 era or in 2009, he stopped, made a joke and turned it into a funny and special moment - an onstage conversation that ultimately led to everyone's favorite Page crooner, "Lawn Boy".
As for the "Ocelot", I can only say that never in the three years of its existence would I have expected it to be a set highlight, but Phish still manages to surprise me.
As soon as the set ended, I walked forward while most folks walked back to head to the port-a-johns. I managed to get right up to the rail, albeit far off to the side, under the speaker cabinets. Except for when he stood to play his clavinet during the killer funk of "Sand", I could barely see Page, but I could see everyone else, especially Fish, perfectly. And the sound was right in my face, so it was perfect. Set Two's "Crosseyed and Painless" opener was once again a gauntlet thrown down, hearkening to last year's Super Ball IX. Of course, EVERY "Crosseyed" last year was amazing, and this one was no different as we danced and sang the "Still waiting" chorus.
And the jam! Look, if you were at Big Cypress, you know that the late night "Crosseyed" will never be topped, but this jam was still stellar as it rocked in various directions for several minutes before landing on "Slave to the Traffic Light".
I have a complicated relationship with "Slave". I have felt its four-chord transcendence in its finest moments (the Great Went and Big Cypress) and have been let down and deflated by its worst (the directionless 12/30/1998 and the god-awful mess of 6/25/2000). But last night's was top-notch - maybe it works best at outdoor festivals - despite its odd placement.
The real transcendence came through "Light", a song I will forever regard as the jam that brought me back home to Phish.
I wanted no part of the reunion in 2009. Trey said five years earlier that they were done and I accepted it and moved on, clinging to the good memories of a great decade. I turned 30 shortly after and it felt right to leave Phish with my 20s. In the late summer of 2009, a friend gave me some discs of that summer's shows and, though there were good moments, I winced regularly at the ever-present screw-ups. There were a shadow of the band I once knew. Then 'Joy' was released and they proved that they could still make studio albums that you want to keep in the car and put on repeat. So when they came to Madison Square Garden in December, I figured I would go once for old time's sake.
That show was superb through and through, but "Light" transfixed me. This was the new Phish that I wanted to keep hearing and so I found myself going back again. And again. "Light" has become the theme to my renewed love of Phish and last night's jam took it to the edges of face-melting, mind-blowing wonderment, even calling back the "Still waiting" chorus of "Crosseyed".
As with last night's gentle "Billy Breathes" comedown, the only place to go after that monster jam was to the quietude of "Theme from the Bottom" which built nicely into the climax to start the rocking again with "Golgi Apparatus".
The only placement mishap came with putting a less-than-stellar "Backwards Down the Number Line" three quarters of the way into the set. After all the energy swirling through the previous hour, it landed with a thud and I think the band knew it. Trey couldn't get out of the solo fast enough and Page did not even bother with the backing vocals most of the time. Nice to see Trey pull the ripcord with good reason!
The best thing to do then was fall back on a can't-miss set-ending "Run like an Antelope". The jam was reliably awesome and Chris Kuroda's lights were dazzling (especially with those new rings of LEDs). Even the progression into the final chorus that often falls into disarray was tight and punchy leading to glow sticks being flung from every angle as the crowd went wild.
Speaking of reliable, the Zeppelin classic "Good Times Bad Times" as the encore gave us seven more minutes to rock hard as Trey let it all out while Fish hit the skins with brutal authority, propelling another excellent show to its close.
Two for two in 2012. Is the old rule that became the exception now the rule again?
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