Yeah, clearly Mr. Miner is suffering from some sleep deprivation and/or pharmaceutical side effects. How can you not talk about some of the more important bust outs of not only this show but of the entire tour?
That being said, watching the broadcast the other night, I thought this show was going to be TITS (pardon the expression, ladies of the OKP) once the sndbds hit. And certainly the set list is one of the most interesting of the 3.0 era thus far. But once I downloaded and listened, I gotta say it wasn’t as impressive as what I thought it might be.
Don’t get me wrong: I still think it’s a good show with lots of great highlights (Rift, Halley’s Jam, Frankie, MCGRUPP!!!) but some of the playing this night was certainly sloppy, as evidenced in Slave and a few other tunes. I get that they are mortal and are gonna flub things from time to time, I’m not expecting perfect renditions night in and night out. But every now and again, I feel they play a song or a series of songs where they don’t listen to each other as closely as in others, and it’s hard to hide that in the sndbds. So while this show had a fantastic setlist and great energy - or at least a different energy than several other shows Phish has played recently - in the end I’d give this show a B- for the sloppy playing/communication.
I’m now gonna pull out the umbrella to duck outta the criticism and rain that is expected tomorrow in Deer Creek. I’m feeling if it’s a stormy night, a Divided Sky is in order! CAN’T WAIT!!!