Phish did it again last night. On the 11th night of the historic Baker’s Dozen shows at Madison Square Garden, this one themed on a Lemon donut, the band again delivered a unique set of breakouts, first-time covers, and surprisingly placed jams. You could excuse Phish for maybe missing the mark once on this run, but its clear that every single show has been an all-timer and this is why we continue to insist that this a bellwether stand for the band.
Last night’s set opened with a first-time cover of the blues standard “See That My Grave is Kept Clean” or “One Kind Favor”, performed by a litany of artists but first attributed to Blind Lemon (get it?) Jefferson. The set also featured stand-out performances of not-classics “Ocelot” and “Winterqueen”, two songs of recent vintage that got the full jam treatment at this show. The set finale of “First Tube” was truly remarkable, an intensely jammed version that ended with Trey literally waving his guitar around above his head in some sort of feedback devotional ritual.
The second set started off slowly with a puzzling silly acapella “Dem Bones” but quickly moved into jam mode. “No Man’s Land” is another new-y that got some peak extended play, before unfinished it quietly segued into a song that had some heads scratching and phones clicking. Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place” fit the theme (“sucking a lemon”) but certainly seemed like “worlds colliding” of musical genres. But the band did a bang-up job on the number — if a bit spacier than the original. Moving forward, a sample of the “sucking a lemon” vocals would continue to pop up during the set. Phish continued this strong set with a “Scent and Subtle Sounds” which not only reached jammy peaks but also contained a neatly interposed reprise of “No Man’s Land” tucked into the jam. The set ended with crowd-favorites “Prince Caspian” and a now-infrequent visit with “Fluffhead” before the band returned with a non-unfamiliar cover of the Edgar Winter Group’s classic “Frankenstein”.
This was my own personal final show of this run — acidjack is scheduled to capture tonight’s show — but I have to remark that this was all-in-all clearly the highlight of my lengthy but limited relationship with Phish. I suspect its also a highlight of the long-time and truly dedicated Phishheads, and that’s saying something.
I recorded this show from the dead center area of the taper’s section on the rail behind the video cage. The sound in the venue was extraordinary this night and our centered position was advantageous. As a result, the sound quality is superb and I believe this is my best sounding recording of the three shows I attended. Enjoy!
Download The Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]
Stream the Complete Show:
Phish
2017-08-04
Madison Square Garden
New York NY
Digital Master Recording
Sixth Row Center Tapers Section
Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (post production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:09:49]
01 See That My Grave Is Kept Clean [Blind Lemon Jefferson]
02 Punch You in the Eye
03 Party Time
04 Big Black Furry Creature From Mars
05 Dinner and a Movie
06 Ocelot
07 Poor Heart
08 Winterqueen
09 Bold as Love [Hendrix]
10 First Tube
Set 2:
[Total Time 1:24:19]
11 Dem Bones
12 No Men in No Man’s Land
13 Everything in Its Right Place [Radiohead]
14 What’s the Use
15 Scents and Subtle Sounds*
16 Prince Caspian
17 Fluffhead
18 [encore break]
19 Frankenstein [Edgar Winter]
*with No Man’s Land Reprise
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