, attached to 2003-02-18

Review by MrPalmers1000DollarQ

MrPalmers1000DollarQ In my opinion, this is an underrated show. Is it one of the best of the tour? Not at all. But if you took this one out of context and plopped it somewhere like 2019, it would certainly be doing better than 3.2 stars. I'm not sure the problem is any excessive sloppiness--although there's little slips here and there, there are worse at the next show. Instead I think the biggest critique is one that applies to many 2.0 shows (especially some of the post-SPAC 2004 shows): inconsistency. But if you take the standard tunes in stride as still-great-Phish and give extra love to the highlights, I think you'll have a great time listening through this one.

Set 1 starts out a little rocky on Runaway Jim, but by the time you hit Twist, you're getting some nice, if standard, grooves for a short walk. Big highlight for the first set is Stash, which features some really excellent Fishman percussive work, a fun moment of harmonic descent between Trey and Mike, a great chaotic and dissonant dive and explosive peak. Birds of a Feather, like Twist, is on the standard side, but Trey's solo is damn hot on this one (and Fishman adds plenty of his own spice to keep things high energy). Lawn Boy features a fantastic Mike solo, which he keeps up a bit in the last chorus quite nicely. Walls of the Cave closes things out nicely with a cool extended jam that dies down to a subdued techy drone before breaching the surface to wrap up.

The Moma > LxL combo to open set 2 is a hell of a one-two punch. Moma is strong all the way through, with some particularly spicy playing even in the composed section. A longer jam bleeds right into LxL, probably the best part of the whole show. A wonderful evolving jam takes us far from the starting point, primarily in an energetic but contemplative style. Fishman works magic throughout, and Trey's lead back into the finale is expertly soulful. Thunderhead serves as a well-deserved cool down on one of the many nice quiet tunes from this era of Phish. Recharged, the band runs us through a nice Divided Sky and a chaotically sweet Carini. YEM features a notably beautiful quiet jam early on, and some cool riff-based grooving before Trey's solo takes off in earnest. Fishman and Mike earn a medal on this one for sure. The Lion Sleeps is a fun VJ surprise to close out. NICU, Mexican Cousin is an odd encore pairing, but a fun one nonetheless.


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