8/23 Magnaball Night 3 - Post-Show Discussion

[susep]

guess i'm not quite hearing what everyone is hearing.
set II is very fun and well played, like most of this tour, but there's not a single stand-out song. far more inspired versions of all the big songs were played earlier in the tour. after so much inspired jamming this tour, DWD, Mike's, Twist, Fuego, and Weekapaug are back to pretty standard 3.0 style rock jams.
not that it's bad in any way, but calling this among the greatest Phish sets ever is just... odd.
maybe i had to be there.

i liked the first night second set better.

I agree.  After reading the glowing reviews both in the LST and here I was pretty pumped to hear however after listening last night, I too was kind of let down.  I did hear some nice raging in Mikes however overall the music didn't live up to the hype imm.  To my ears it was polished Phish, nothing mind blowing, akin to 16Aug.2015.           

[jedifunk]

guess i'm not quite hearing what everyone is hearing.
set II is very fun and well played, like most of this tour, but there's not a single stand-out song. far more inspired versions of all the big songs were played earlier in the tour. after so much inspired jamming this tour, DWD, Mike's, Twist, Fuego, and Weekapaug are back to pretty standard 3.0 style rock jams.
not that it's bad in any way, but calling this among the greatest Phish sets ever is just... odd.
maybe i had to be there.

i liked the first night second set better.

I agree.  After reading the glowing reviews both in the LST and here I was pretty pumped to hear however after listening last night, I too was kind of let down.  I did hear some nice raging in Mikes however overall the music didn't live up to the hype imm.  To my ears it was polished Phish, nothing mind blowing, akin to 16Aug.2015.         

the DWD for me was atypical, and really really enjoyable ... and the -> Scents is near perfect..

on second listen the rest of the set is pretty standard to be sure ... i think my highlight for the weekend was the tweezer > caspian

[emay]

set 2

Martian Monster - my favorite of the holloween tunes. when they drop that sample in the intro, the energy goes through the roof no matter where they are. I hope they drop this at dicks! good groove the set starts out nice.
DWD - good version....jam doesnt do much for me, lots of meandering around a theme. nothing really solidifies until last 3-4 min they come together nicely and start listening to eachother and lock in to a jam and then transition over to ---
S&SS - another solid transition. one of my favorite tunes, wish they played it more. nice drop in the 'colors in the void' section, peaceful, then takes off into overdrive at around 5 min, good stuff. this jam starts resonating well...wish they kept that going
- a little rocky transition into WTU but gets together quick. they have been playing this a good bit this tour, which I like but standard version, nothing special here.
- >Dirt - very smooth, good transition, but set is getting a little slow for me. standard version here.
Mikes - here we go, kickin it back in gear. jam gets dark and nitty gritty, trey with the echo/reverb chords is nice! jam gets nice but ripchord'd to
Fuego - trippy intro with the trey loops, nothing like the mann version earlier this tour or the other jammed out from mann 2014) good standard version.
Twist - feels rushed from the beginning like they needed to fit this in the set. mike/trey interplay is pretty cool. the the start stopish jam section is sick too, with a bluesy type afterwards. some interesting things going on at the end of the twist jam here. not sure what trey was doing with that loop but glad he stopped that quick. dig this dark build up they are doing at the end......immigrant song teases?.....
Weekapaug - weird they slowed it down sounded like their were on the a roll during that transition.....more immigrant song teases in the intro......page heavy on the clav SICK! Trey flexes some chops on the outro jam which is nice, they bring it back to the groove and finish it out strong. good stuff.
Martian Monster - not all on the same page on the transition back but they pick it up nice. Nice funk rhythm guitar from trey. love that they transitioned back into this, dance party! some trippy effects on the vocal samples! would be sick on a head full. Some spooky sounds from the band, good stuff. Overall trippy as fuck closer.

YEM - would have been going crazy with this one. love yem encores even though they seem to get cut a little short, still a sick way to go out and you know you got another 20 min to go in the show.
this yem jam gets good! nothing too crazy but a little above average than typical yem 3.0 jams. fireworks afterwards would have been awesome to see too. good dance party jam here.

[rowjimmy]

WTU was "nothing special"? The pin-drop silence is unreal.
To me, that version is way special.

[VDB]

I can see how this second set would be a little tough to make sense of, or even be controversial.

Personally, I wasn't blown away live during the webcast. Could have been due to my being very tired, but there was also that sense that they were rushing through things. Yes, we all know that size doesn't necessarily matter, but for fans of Phish improv (i.e. most/all[?] of us), when a set is light on major improv, that can't help but color one's impression.

I listened to the set again today and I guess what it deserves is the qualified praise of being a very good Phish set for being light on improv, just in case that matters to anyone. The Disease jam was a little better today than I remember it being at the time. The segue into Scents was of course great, and the subsequent Scents jam was quite powerful. WTU was, as many have noted, a pristine and poignant version.

I'd rather my Phish second sets sans breathers, but if you're gonna do it, Dirt is good and the placement here didn't bother me. Mike's will, for some time to come whenever they eschew the second jam, naturally disappoint given its (temporary?) recent return to form, so that's a thing. What we did get out of the brief Mike's jam, however, smoked. I always like Fuego, but again, didn't this used to get stretched out?

Twist is never something I'm aching to hear (call it indifference), but it often yields fine results. This version was playful and entertaining. The short blues jam, Immigrant Song quotes, and reasonably deft slide into Weekapaug: all good. Paug was fairly peppy and it birthed a Martian Monster reprise, so you can't really complain there.

All in all, like I said, it's a fine set. Whether it's "great" depends on what your expectations are and what comparables you're going to hold it up against. I'll agree with others who have expressed a preference for other sets from the weekend. But I sure don't have any reason to trash this one.

[Gundo]

The pin-drop silence is unreal.

This!

[Caravan2001]

The pin-drop silence is unreal.

This!

It was def sick.  I thought my feed had dropped out.  Must have been unreal live.  And yes, after a growler of 7% IPA to my dome and constant pen, I may have been a tad overzealous in my praise of set 2, but it is VERY good.  And it's got Immigrant Song. Best of all time?  Likely not.  Monster?  100%

[WhatstheUse?]

loved how quiet they got in WTU!

[jedifunk]

The pin-drop silence is unreal.

This!

It was def sick.  I thought my feed had dropped out.  Must have been unreal live.  And yes, after a growler of 7% IPA to my dome and constant pen, I may have been a tad overzealous in my praise of set 2, but it is VERY good.  And it's got Immigrant Song. Best of all time?  Likely not.  Monster?  100%

well said!

after listening again yesterday, i too was caught up in the moment... having not watched or listened to the band live in a long time, and having had a puff & a couple scotches, i was as they say ... N2Deep

[emay]

the dynamics in WTU are good.
probably would have been more excited about it if I was there, but I thought this one was just played well and correctly. Which I am kind of expecting the band for most their songs after how well this tour has been.

[McGrupp]

I spent this show with a beautiful babe I had met earlier on tour. We had a lot of fun together.. The music was amazing and I was a very happy dude.

The disease > sass is some buttery phishjams.

[sophist]

I spent this show with a beautiful babe I had met earlier on tour. We had a lot of fun together.. The music was amazing and I was a very happy dude.

The disease > sass is some buttery phishjams.

Georgie, be honest. 

Did you do Atlanta -> Magnaball ? 

[zimbra]

I spent this show with a beautiful babe I had met earlier on tour. We had a lot of fun together.. The music was amazing and I was a very happy dude.

The disease > sass is some buttery phishjams.

This post sucks.  The story I got was way cooler.

[McGrupp]

I spent this show with a beautiful babe I had met earlier on tour. We had a lot of fun together.. The music was amazing and I was a very happy dude.

The disease > sass is some buttery phishjams.

Georgie, be honest. 

Did you do Atlanta -> Magnaball ?

That's no secret. I did everything ATL > magna except alpine.

[McGrupp]

I spent this show with a beautiful babe I had met earlier on tour. We had a lot of fun together.. The music was amazing and I was a very happy dude.

The disease > sass is some buttery phishjams.

This post sucks.  The story I got was way cooler.

You tell it then!