https://medium.com/the-phish-from-vermont/relentless-7-13-14-f4ade4bf833e

Relentless: 7/13/14
A tour, year, era, band just went to the next level

“It takes a few moments of whirling around, Before your feet finally leave the ground, And fending off fears and hearing the call, And finally waiting for nothing at all.”

I want to say “I have no words.” But, of course, that doesn’t work here. I also want to announce, “Best of 3.0.” But, honestly, we all will need to re-listen to figure that out. All I can say is that right now, as I write in the wake of this show, I’m experiencing the natural ‘high’ of Phish. That feeling of adrenaline and giddiness when you know they’ve done something truly monumental and unexpected. This second set contained some of the most “hooked-up”, patient, and downright celebratory Phish improvisation I have ever heard. And, that came in the wake of what many said was the best first set of 2014. As I mentioned in my first review, I can only afford two shows this tour. My first is CMAC on Tuesday. I have high hopes, but seriously how can tonight be topped?

Let me quickly recap what was a really solid first set — feel free to skip ahead.

“Sand” —This was the first “Sand” opener ever? That seems insane?! In any case, I think “Sand” has actually remained relatively “in the box” in 3.0. Sure there are the legendary Camden 09 and Dicks 12 (and probably a few more) versions, but usually it is a straight ahead rock-funk solo over the Sand groove from Ernesto. So, if I’m going to get one of those (which last night was), then I think the First Set opener placement is excellent (as opposed to set 2). High energy, funky, nice jam. Great start.

“Winterqueen” — I’m not sure where this song should be played. Doesn’t feel right in the two slot.

“Reba” — Now we’re talking. Besides a guitar-fall apart at the end of the ‘fugal’ segment (where Page and Trey play fast melodies apart in time) this version was well played, crisp and had your generally awesomely beautiful “Reba” jam-peak (just don’t compare it to 90s peaks). This is my favorite Phish song (just as a song — and not for potential exploratory jams)— the combination of classical composed material and the melodic, bliss-jam is just perfect Phish to me. I think the tightness of this version was a sign of how locked in they were on this particular evening; a sign of things to come.

“Birds of a Feather” — Third of the tour, I think? Seems too close to “Sand”— minor key funky jam with a Trey peak. Not the greatest pick for setlist diversity, but fun nonetheless.

“Water in the Sky” — I wish they’d go back to the slow version. I love it as a slow country song with a Johnny Cash like ‘train roll’ bass line. Nevertheless, a fine standard version here.

“Possum” seems to rarely end up mid-set like this. I like it. Page got a solo (which he always should) and he absolutely tore this shit up on the organ. Trey’s solo then lifted the jam into its normal blues/lunacy of Possum — employing staccato licks, with flurries of dissonant and chromatic notes.

“Runaway Jim” — Odd placement here (really you could say that’s three in a row of Phish’s particular take on ‘country-blues’) but one of my all time favorites and I’ll take it. This jam started off quiet and patient, eventually built to — what else? — Trey octave phrases. I just had a hypothesis: Perhaps Trey’s sit in with Soule Monde on May 1st spurred this fascination with octave jazz phrasings. He plays them constantly during that set. The jam then got weirder, as Trey worked his loops a bit, to create a candidly awkward Jim-peak. But, all the while, Page was going absolutely off on the piano.

Next, “Bouncing” went into “Maze” for a ‘classic’ pairing. Page’s solo was, as usual, total fire. The way Page plays off Trey’s chordal, often chromatic and dissonant “comping” (in a jazz way) is how this solo constantly builds tension until the mid-song eruption. Trey’s solo was played with more authority than usual in 3.0, but to be honest this will always be a song for-mid 90s Trey.

“Split Open and Melt” — This has become a very nice ‘old school’ Phish set. This was your standard awesome dissonant/crazy “Melt.” The craziness of these jams is comparable to what we’ve heard in the SPAC “Limb” or the Randalls “Ghost”. Except “Melt” delivers this lunacy every time. It very early exits the “Melt” structure: Trey is playing hypnotic, repeated phrases, as Fishman and Page go wild around the building dissonance. As the loops start to layer, Fish and Mike are playing these truncated rhythms and Page continues to solo furiously on the piano. Then Trey starts singing the loops he his employing and the tension builds some more — until you can hear Page hint at the “return” to the ending of the jam and Trey quickly follows. Great version.

OK, how to sum up this set? Relentless. Even after the Tahoe Tweezer, Phish took a break and there was really no other noteworthy jams. After the 28 minute Chalkdust last night, Phish threw down 27 more minutes of top notch exploratory improvisation.

This monumental Chalk Dust needs to be broken down in parts. I hear four distinct sections. (1) Buttery bliss section (5:20-11:30)— Since this is my favorite place Phish jams go, this is a good start. This section was highlighted by incessant melodic work by Page while Trey comped chords. Once Trey found a beautiful melody, Page switched to organ to give it that ‘soaring’ quality. This section petered out with more chords and pretty arpeggios. Then the jam quickly turned minor with a blues lick by Trey at 10:27. It got dark and rhythmic for a few seconds until Trey switched the chords to a major feel and (2) — Calypso groove section (11:30-15:32) — We’ve often heard this style in “Light” but it is upbeat island music, but also densely rhythmic. Trey played some punchy chords, then some light melodies, then he found a really anthemic chord progression (14:25) that he emphasized a couple times as Page got on the piano. Next (at 14:48) , he oddly switched the key of those chords (in a a way that totally worked) and it sounded to some like the end “power chords” of Mike’s Song. To my hear, it sound exactly like the opening chords of “Limb By Limb.” (maybe Trey was planning a ripchord and then remembered they had played it this run!?) The jam started dissipating a bit into melodic flourishes before turning dark again. (3) Rhythmic textures (15:33-21:34) — This section was groove based established out of the rhythms in the Calypso section. It started out with dark rhythmic bursts that established a relentless groove between Mike and Fish and Page on the clavinet. Trey then turned the chords more light and major (again) and emphasized some more pretty melodic themes. (4) Loopy space jam(21:35-25:30) , Trey stopped playing guitar and initiated his digicrap pedals into “liftoff” mode. Underneath the loops, Page was pounding away on this piano in ways so melodic it contrasted with the dissonant loops well. At 22:43, Trey comes back to the guitar to play some droning chords, only to abandon it for loops again. Page is now on the organ and the groove is getting quieter. Eventually (24:14), Mike inserted a repetitive melodic phrase that forced Big Red back to his guitar to play some syncopated arpeggios. At 25: 30, Mike’s melodies take over and Trey settles into the coda section where he is simply playing this earnestly beautiful chord progression on rhythm guitar with Page and Mike providing the melodic color. Feedback — into end at 28:27.

Where there ever more appropriate lyrics sung, “It takes a few moments of whirling around, Before your feet finally leave the ground, And fending off fears and hearing the call, And finally waiting for nothing at all.” One might expect this “Light” jam to not do that much after the epic journey we just witnessed, but don’t forget this “Light.” It is an amazing and unique version. At 6:20 it is “out” of Light per usual, and it is quiet and “Hood”-like. We get the Sonny Rollins St. Thomas tease at 6:43. As @mrminer noted on twitter, this was jazzy-ass set. The following minute is your typical rhythmically upbeat type ii Light jam. It has not been noted yet on Phish.net, but at 8:14 Trey starts emphasizing a chord and Mike goes into a descending 4 note chromatic bass line. Trey picks it up, and here we are: Mind Left Body jam!!!! In my view, this is simple a four note chromatic descending melody (which is what is played here). It is not really a hard and fast composed melody. Well, Phish took this MLB jam for a ride and built and built it to peak #1 at 9:47, then laid back for a bit before Trey initiated some machine-gun arpeggios at 10:05 to create a stunningly celebratory and amazing peak #2 that finally erupted at 10:35. The jam fizzled out and before we knew it, we were in “Tweezer.” Wow.

One of these days “Tweezer” will open a set — and then really watch out. But, this 16 minute version is the best of the tour thus far. RELENTLESS. The funk section is dark and nasty, and by 8:46 the band switches gears to more melodic rock territory. By 9:25 a slow chord progression has been established and by 10:25 that has patiently developed into a full on rock theme. Trey is trilling underneath this as Page provides piano flourishes. By 11:10 the trills have taken on extra urgency and at 11:28 we get a full on glorious rock peak — a full on celebration of the previous 50 minutes of music. This peak continues for the next 3 minutes (!) until, on a dime, the band kicks back into the “Tweezer” theme. And, we get the full on classic slowed down Tweezer ending of days past. A nice touch (even if it gets sloppy around 14:59 where I think Fish thought they just were going to end it).

I think “crying” became the theme-reaction to “Wading” next (not sad Coventry tears, but joyful celebratory tears). Trey’s heartfelt solo is a nice coda to the incredible three song jam-fest preceding it. “Sing Monica” was probably needed next simply because they will not do a 3 night run without going through most of Fuego (although Wombat? Didn’t Have That???).

“Slave to the Traffic Light” — is perfectly placed here. I have often said, after exploratory jam-fests such as this we need a Slave or a (type i) Hood to reflect and celebrate in the most soaring, bliss-jam way possible. This Slave is incredibly patient and sparse (Trey plays sustained notes rather than melodic phrases) until the peak kicks in. Its patience is a direct result of the patient jamming that came before it.

Encore: #Line are you fucking kidding me? Just kidding. They could play “Secret Smile” here and it would be fine. I think #line was not needed after “Wading”, “Sing Monica” and “Slave” all have pretty melodic solos, but who can complain. “Tweezer Reprise” takes us home in proper fashion.

Phish giddiness. That’s what last night created. While I’ve felt this a lot in the last year (7/31, 10/29, 10/31, 12/29), I’m not sure I’ve heard such a sustained run of Phish brilliance over a 55 minute section; that is what we heard last night. It was truly relentless and amazing. When I got my CMAC tickets in March, I predicted it would be the “sleeper” show. Way out of the way in upstate NY before Phish turns firmly to the midwest in Michigan and Chicago. We’ll see if there’s anyway they can top this past weekend. The Randalls run is surely in the running for the best run of 3.0, or easily the best run since Dicks 2012. Amazing. And, so much tour left to go!