Further evidence, if any were needed, that the 'Type II' designator has outlived its usefulness. Today's Phish jams routinely mix key changes and rhythm/tempo shifts -- in the old terms, half the songs in this show go 'Type II.' Pebbles, Sample(!), Halley's(!!), Set Your Soul Free, Sea of Stars(!!!), 46 Days, and Weekapaug all step beyond themselves. And we get several improvised segues to boot, including a funky slow Pebbles > Makisupa, a gorgeous transition into the Phish debut of Silver Light, a brief but perfectly judged Mull > SYSF, an unintentionally (then intentionally) funny fakeout 46 Days > Sally, and a pitch-perfect slide from Sally into a multifaceted standalone Weekapaug. The jamming is at Fall 2021 levels of fluency and fluidity, 10 of the 16 songs in sets 1 and 2 run 9:00 or more, and Mountains in the Mist and the GOTF tunes let in intense emotions to balance the shenanigans.

Fall Tour was so good this year -- a bold step beyond Summer and and flying leap beyond what 'Phish 3.0' had led us to expect -- that this show is likely being marked down a bit for being merely Kong- and not Godzilla-sized. The best of this tour can reasonably be named the best Phish of the 21st century, and the band was unquestionably playing at a more consistently high level than at any point since Coventry, if not Big Cypress. This show is 'merely' that good, Mike and Fish merely playing their asses off, Trey merely high as a kite off his Dezron-meets-Fish-and-Ray TAB vacation, Page merely bringing a Soviet nuclear reactor's worth of electromechanical doodads to bear on his bandmates' intriguing musical/emotional problems. We might be grateful for a tour so ludicrously good (at this improbably late hour) that this excellent Phish concert manages, somehow, not to stand out. Anyway, I love it and suggest you do the same.

I noticed there aren't any reviews yet so I'll take a stab at my first one here. A little caveat, I was at this and the last two shows.

This show was pure phun. There was an ongoing chant/banter with the audience throughout different moments of the show that interestingly isn't mentioned in the setlist, but that was absolutely a highlight. (Trey said Hi, Mike said Hello, Trey Said How are you, Mike Said, Good, Trey Said I hope you have a good time, Mike said thanks, then the crowd took over Mike's part, probably happened three times or so throughout the show).

Prior to the show, I've never seen quite a ticket scene like that one. Nothing like drinking in a HS parking lot!

Pebbles and Marbles opener --> Makisupa is what dreams are made of and it's clear that the boys are on a mission to keep setlists unpredictably awesome. Sample was solid and overdue for a showing. Then, Silver Light! I must admit I have been singing along to this one in my car the last two months and I couldn't be happier to have caught a really tight debut version of this one. Halley's and MITM were well played. Mull is a really solid Mike track (interestingly no page songs tonight) and the jam was quite punchy. If I'm being honest a couple of the jams tonight felt a bit disorganized and Set Your Soul Free was the first in this vein. You can tell they were a little out of sync when they bring back the theme and Trey just can't seem to find the key. I did notice Trey tuning and messing with his gear a bit more than usual, maybe these are related. None the less we were excited about another set of "pisch music" (which is what the gentlemen in front of us googled during the first set).

The second set is a little hazier for me but have y'all been noticing that Trey is really going for it with the sort of chaos jamming recently? I was definitely getting hints of 99 Trey throughout the show tonight with the crazy effects and free-form peaks. Anyway, wish I could comment on each song from the second set, but I don't know how. All I know is it was incredible to see my favorite band in effectively someone's backyard. The weekapaug caught everyone off guard, maybe even Trey! What a goofy band. Sigma jam was really solid too!

How about that encore folks! Setlist porn 100% which performed really well in person.

See you all in Vegas. Bring your raincoats, because no one is safe from the Hose right now!

I was in attendance and the reactions are mixed on this one so I’ll settle the score: this was a better show than the forums and memes will lead you to believe. The opening P&M is the perfect show-opener trifecta: rare song, rare placement, big jam. Segue into Makisupa was buttery and the banter featured a hella rare quote - what’s not to like? Also Sample jammed like 7/25/17 and no one seems to care?? I can’t with y’all. Santana Halley’s was hot but for my money the Mull jam is top-shelf Phish: the outro from about 7min onward is the sort of dark, sticky, chunky, THICC groove I want from Phish shows. Reminiscent of Brooklyn 04 Moma and a sleeper for first set highlight, but I’m probably the only one who thinks so. SYSF jam was tasty; Mike seemed to miss the cue coming back in from the jam, but Phish is the most professional band out there and held the set closer together without issue. Please refer to Zappa’s “wind up monkey” speech if you’re unwilling to ease up on critique of the inherent imperfections of improvisational music. Suffice to say that this first set was money if not necessarily a treasure trove of classic hits… get over it, Phish is on phire.

Set 2 was effortless flow but not the balls-out party pholks were probably looking for. BASOS is kinda cringe but if they’re gonna weave it into the evening’s tapestry then there are a lot worse ways to do it than this. More buttery segues in 46 > Weekapaug; this whole segment comprised the improvisational meat of the show and is properly lauded. AtR featured the Big Red shred and the closing dyad was nicely executed even considering that IIC’s heyday might be long past.
Killer encore that largely speaks for itself - love it when Trey nails The Lizards and he did so with ease.

Despite how superlatively these tunes were played, I have to make a note here about the vibe of this show. The folks in GA seemed to be more interested in silently self-pleasuring their Phish gland rather than contributing to the collective energy in any meaningful way. All around me were shushers, pit police, and vibe killers. I suspect the largely muted second set that people in the forums are complaining about is in no small part a reaction to what the band received from the crowd in kind. If you give Phish a cocktail lounge vibe with golf claps and silent study, then you’re gonna get something similar in return; to then come to the forums and whine about the lack of heaters played is an exercise in entitlement and naivety. I love this band, but y’all can be like Star Wars fans sometimes smh

Have never posted a review myself but feel the need to draw attention to this show which appears under-reviewed and also had a few negative comments off the blog post. While this show had no A+ jam moments, at least 2/3 of the main show songs were jammed, mostly Type II, with 7 songs over 10 minutes. And maybe its just because the SB Bowl was the smallest venue I've ever seen them at and this is par for the Kuroda course in sub-5K seaters, but the light show was just sick, and the compactness of it seemed to tie it closer to the jams than I'd ever noticed in an arena or big shed. I give this one a big Huzzah and enjoyed it as much as the Forum a few nights earlier.