As soon as the doughnut flavor of the day - strawberry - was posted, my friends (John and Meredith) and I started guessing the opener of Saturday night's show. My pick was "Strawberry Fields Forever".
Though I was correct, I did not anticipate that Phish would do it a capella barbershop style. Which they did. And they nailed it.
At least I think so. Like I said in my previous post, those acoustics in MSG are very forgiving.
"Halley's Comet" kicked the set off proper, with its line about "thick strawberry goo" getting a wave of cheers. The rest of the set contained some damn fine uptempo rocking and swinging with "Funky Bitch", "Mound" and "Foam", but the big jams came in "The Moma Dance" (natch) and "Breath and Burning" (surprise!). "Roggae" took it down with a low-key and pretty jam and "The Squirming Coil" ended the set on a beautiful (as usual) Page solo.
Not even the drunk guys next to me, constantly trying to talk to me throughout the show - one raved about his fishing trip to South Carolina and how hard it was to find drugs in New York City, the other about living in Doylestown, Pa., and his upcoming wedding - could ruin that set for me (though the latter guy trying to sing the harmonies, caused the person behind us to shush him).
The second set opened with "Down With Disease" which is a typical, natural, predictable thing to do...and it pretty much works every time. The jam was joyous and peaking, and had me dancing up a storm for the entirety of its 19 minutes before the night's doughnut theme continued with the old Brothers Johnson R&B tune "Strawberry Letter 23". "Birds of a Feather" was enjoyable, but it was the 10 minutes of nonstop groove in "I Always Wanted It This Way" (a 'Big Boat' favorite of mine) that had me shaking my booty like a dancing fool. And how about those lights from Chris Kuroda!
I have long been a big defender of the 'Round Room' ballads, and to see my first "All of These Dreams" since 2004 was a treat. Though I really, truly tried to get into "Split Open and Melt", it was another case of the dark, noisy, 3.0 "Melt" jam with impressive sonic soundscapes that would have thrilled me much more if it was in any other song. The big redeemer, though, was the segue back into the coda of "Down With Disease". If you know me, you know I love bookends, so the set could have ended there and I would have been a happy camper. But a decent "Shine a Light" (not the best, but not the mess of the prior Chicago performance).
Just as the previous night's "Mango Song" encore eliminated any future of a mango doughnut flavor, this show's encore of "Peaches en Regalia" gave us no hope for some peach in the coming weeks. On the plus side, it was well played and was only the first in a rare three-song encore. "Cities" and "My Sweet One" kept the energy high right up to the very end.
Another remarkable show in what is already shaping up to be a memorable run. Sorry, rest of the world, but Phish playing in New York City for 13 straight shows turned out to be a damn sweet idea.
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