So, I know this topic is about a month late, but I just now remembered this board exists.
So, uh, WOW. This was my first TAB show ever; I tried and failed to catch them at the 9:30 during their first winter tour in '10 (although the snowmageddon probably would’ve kept me from reaching the venue anyhow), and I was able to pull this off without much trouble; a nice mid-fall drive down from Fairfax, saw some trees, took a detour to visit some pals in Richmond, all in all a decent day.
I knew new TAB (and pretty much anything sober Trey goes near) was tight, but… wow. Trey was completely on fire the whole time, as was the whole rest of the band. I was just stunned to watch him make his way through Simple Twist Up Dave and Push On Til The Day with so little effort; those are hard parts, and in another time he would’ve stumbled all over that. This was also the first time I’ve seen him play a show with the new Languedoc Ocelot guitar (last I saw him onstage was MPP in '10), which really seems to help show off the amount of control he has over his playing.
I was right up front, and definitely close enough to see him grinning and jumping around like a moron, which was the BEST PART. I’ve never seen a musician that happy to play a show. I’ve never seen him look that psyched with Phish, which is interesting, because with TAB he spends a lot of time in the background (especially during Mozambique and the other horn-oriented compositions). You can tell he wrote some great songs, got a great band to play them, and is just having an amazing time putting on the show.
Although I’m a tiny bit bummed I didn’t get to see a Clint Eastwood or Hey Ya, the rest of the setlist was exactly what I wanted and expected. It was too bad about the short encore (being an outdoor venue, there was an 11:00 noise curfew, which is my only complaint about an otherwise WONDERFUL venue).
This show stands up GREAT on tape, too; the LivePhish release has the most perfect sound of any live recording I have ever heard (barring, MAYBE, “A Live One” and Pink Floyd’s “PULSE”), and it goes even further to reveal how perfect this band is. I’ve been listening to it constantly since it came out.
Set 1: Cayman Review, Push On 'Til the Day, Alaska, Burlap Sack and Pumps > Money, Love and Change, Valentine, Let Me Lie, Mozambique > Gotta Jibboo
Set 2: Acting the Devil, Simple Twist Up Dave, Sand > Magilla, Burn That Bridge, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Pigtail > Snake Head Thumb, Liquid Time, The Land of Nod, Last Tube > Goodbye Head > Mr. Completely > First Tube
Encore: Black Dog
