Stereotypical tour opener with a lot of mediocre and a few wow moments. In this case, the wow came in the form of an unexpected encore of rarities.
Not a great night for improv, but we’ll slot it in tier 3 on the back of the old school 2001 > DWD and wild encore.
Tier 1: <vacant>
Tier 2: <vacant>
Tier 3: MAGA Greek1
MAGA Greek 2
<big gap>
MAGA Greek 1
No tentpole jam, but so much great improv and fun playing throughout the night. Puts the lack of good improv on night 1 in perspective. Plus, another encore worth staying for (hope that trend keeps up). Even the Antelope seemed like it had one of the better peaks in recent memory.
GA1
<gap>
MAGA Greek 2
<big gap>
MAGA Greek 1
Great setlist. And while you can quibble that Ghost never quite got there and the first half of Ruby Waves wasn’t great, you’d have to contend with the second half of Ruby Waves, probably the 🐐 Myfe, top 3ish Tube since 2004, great NMINML, and a surprisingly exciting Caspian.
Ps - Another mid-second set debut. Could tonight be the night Perseid (aka Forward People) makes an appearance?
Tier 1: GA1
Tier 2a: AL2, GA2
Tier 2b: GA3
Tier 3: AL1
Switching to tiers bc there isn’t much differentiation. Phish has gotten very good in 4.0 at consistently delivering solid shows via a little of this & a little of that. The difference between the hits, the average, and the clunkers is not nearly as stark as it used to be.
Flubby and at times low energy night with a fairly forgettable 1st set, but then a largely dream setlist 2nd w/ great jams in Carini & Sand.
Tier 1: GA1
Tier 2a: AL2, GA2
Tier 2b: GA3
Tier 3: AL1
Tier 5: NC1
A brilliant ASIHTOS (🐐 candidate) complete with some mesmerizing drumming kept it off the level of Charleston3, Grand Prairie, and Hampton1 99.
Still, between the tepid first set, everything post-Light in the second, and some out-of-control Trey vocal stylings, it’s one of the weakest shows of 4.0, and I have no doubt it will be joked about for years to come.
Tier 1: GA1
Tier 2a: AL2, GA2
Tier 2b: GA3
Tier 3: AL1, NC2
Tier 5: NC1
Solid show with 3 nice jams and room for more until god—in an unprecedented move—made sure there wouldn’t be a repeat of the previous night’s fourth quarter by forcing the band to pull a Costanza and leave on the high note of Q3.
Tier 1: GA1
Tier 2: AL2, GA2, GA3, PIT1
Tier 3: AL1, NC2
Tier 5: NC1
Hard show to rank. No true tentpole jam, but a lot of “a little of this and and a little of that.” Not a classically great setlist, but it was interesting and unpredictable.
Special shout-out to one of the few interesting Bowies since 2009. It almost crossed over in to need-to-hear territory, but unfortunately the 3.0 and 4.0 kids still have giant goooose eggs next to their stats for Bowies seen.
Tier 1: GA1
Tier 2: GA2, GA3
Tier 3a: PIT2
Tier 3b: AL2, PIT1
Tier 4: AL1, NC2
Tier 6: NC1
Took a step back & reworked this a bit. The consistency of clear highlights each show combined with the consistency of not putting it all together each show is making this tour brutal to rank. All-time ER last night & rocking (if light on improv) Q4 but mostly lame S1 until Ass-handed. And while Tube & Ghost in the encore are exciting, each might be the weakest version of 4.0.
@chopaganda (I can’t believe I’m about to say this but…) Mull is actually a really solid first set jam as well.
For 1st sets, AL2 has the clear advantage over last night to me. While ER was a top jam of the tour and Soul Planet was strong, the rest of the set is eh imo. AL2 s2 doesn’t reach the heights of ER, but I it didn’t suffer from a bleh 4Q.
But no matter, we need a T2 show or better, and soon
Chop
Josh 