hotel carack: Phish Made Magic and was Pure Delight from Start to Finish in a Crazy Bustout Sunday Show. Recap and Setlist

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Phish Made Magic and was Pure Delight from Start to Finish in a Crazy Bustout Sunday Show. Recap and Setlist

Phish made a statement tonight with a show that was crazy good from start to finish. Not to mention bustouts from start to finish. Once again, never miss a Sunday show.

I'm still speechless as I sit down to write this and I don't even know if I can do it justice. I should just list all the bust outs since this show was pure cake the whole time. Everything was well-played from the "Landlady" opener to "Ha Ha Ha" and " Destiny Unbound". Then, it just kept going up with "My Friend, My Friend" into the first "Mango Song" of the tour. After that came the amazing first time since Halloween 14' "Timber" but that wasn't the end. It had to go into "Timber(Jerry)" back into "Timber", so that's "Timber>Timber (Jerry)>Timber" then since that still wasn't enough, let's throw in a "Ballad of Curtis Loew" as another bustout and after "Mound" and "Winterqueen" let's end the first set with "Bold as Love"! Is that enough tour bust outs for you? And that is just the first set. They had something to prove tonight. They came out swinging and it's coming on harder and harder so look out west coast.

After a well deserved rest from the what was easily the best first set of the tour, they come back and Page drops the first "Drowned" of the tour. Keep in mind, most 0f these haven't been played for years and the whole band is nailing them like it's a practice game. The music didn't stop from there swinging into the "Twist" and then slowing down for a "Waste" and then upping the tempo back up immediately for "Piper" and keeping it going for "Simple". Keep in mind they still haven't stopped playing when the new song,"Breath and Burning", which I'm really starting to like and especially in that slot, drops. Next, it's time for a little bluegrass fun with "Rocky Top" and that NY crowd sang it like they've been in the hills of TN for years before you start to see Page make some adjustments and we take off for a wild "Martian Monster" that saw the whole band get deep into the funk then Trey moves to the Marimba Lumina and Mike goes to guitar while Page picks up the bass, to turn it into a whole other kind of spacy dissonant jam. As they rotate back, Trey plays the opening riff of "Golgi Apparatus" and hey, wouldn't it be weird if they finished it with another bustout? Well, the keytar is there so let's go "Frankenstein"!

After an encore of "Character Zero", this crowd was worn out and you could hear it. It wasn't a standout Zero but the main story tonight is bustout city and the return of the band to the form that was missing and the set construction, although full of risks, was a tour winner. Shows like this is why people still see this band on a nightly basis. To think, I didn't even want to listen much less write the recap. However, this show was a pure delight from start to finish.

Written by: Greg Heffelfinger