, attached to 2009-06-07

Review by FrozenOcean

FrozenOcean i havent seen much posted about the camden show yet so i will give it a shot... i'll start by saying that i went to the show with 3 friends who have never been to a phish show before, one of whom heard phish for the first time earlier that day (he had "Picture of Nectar" playing in his car when he picked me up from the airport). he tells me, "i'll recognize tweezer if they play that". anyway the point is i spent a decent amount of time during the show trying to explain to him what i derive from phish and what makes these shows so special, and hopefully the fact that i was thinking about this during the show will translate well into my review... also, i caught fenway>JB1>JB2>JB3>GW>camden so i know how this show compares to some of the other 3.0. i will admit that i was for the most part let down by the first 5 shows of this tour, but i think camden brought the heat, especially in the second set (everyone has been talking about the camden sand...) and after this show i will definitely try to catch some of the second leg. i will generalize and say that the big difference i noticed in this show was that the improved sections had more 'structure'. which is to say that they used tension and release and trey was able to develop themes rather than just noodle around with rambling solos like much of the previous 5 shows. and more than anything else, they finally seemed to be enjoying themselves up there and having FUN.

also, the times next to each song are the time that each song was started. i put this on my setlist notes and left them on here in case anyone else finds them helpful...

SET I:
CHALKDUST (8:07) opener: pretty standard, but you can already tell that tonight is different.
FEE (8:14): not a big fan of this song actually but was happy to hear something that hadn't been played yet this tour. a little lyric flub by trey elicited a good reaction from the crowd and lead to a lot of singing along. fee led into a nice little jam with a little too much whale call from trey imho. the jam ended up ambient and kind of died.
WOLFMANS (8:24): nice. always enjoy this tune. and we got a great wolf jam tonight. lots of energy from the whole band. i think this was the first time all tour i got that 'feeling' again.
GUYUTE (8:34): never a big fan of this song but again, i was glad to hear something new to the tour, and most of the crowd was going nuts for it. pretty solid overall.
MY SWEET ONE (8:45): nice version. leo sounded great, as usual :)
46 DAYS (8:48): i think trey sounded great and there was good chemistry between the band on this one. definitely a highlight of the set. fish really added a lot to this tune.
LIZARDS (8:55): was waiting since fenway to hear this one, but this version was all but butchered. lyric flubs, page's solo was beautiful (as always) but i was really disappointed that the guitar part that is supposed to accompany the end of page's solo was just missing! you could see/hear trey try to lay it down but he just forgot how to play the lick! the trey solo part toward the end was rather flawed as well imo. oh well still a great show so far...
THE WEDGE (9:06): awesome. "take the highwayyyyyy..." put me right back in a great mood.
after the wedge page starts noodling around a little and goes into...
STRANGE DESIGN! (9:12) very psyched for this one. surprised it didnt get a bigger crowd response... great version.
TUBE (9:16): after a pretty long break between songs you can hear everyone start yelling for tuuuuuube, and trey says something about hearing a request either for this song or for bruce springsteen. tuuuuuube was great. page was flippin some serious burgers back there. trey was patient and allowed the jam to be distributed among everyone. really good chemistry. probably the set highlight for me. the jam came to an end and i really hoped they would go back into it to end the set. but instead trey says "well we might as well play this one now"...
FIRST TUBE (9:22): fine with me.... great happy energy to end the set. maybe a little too much of the whale but still...
SETBREAK AT 9:31 my notes say "best set of tour"

SET II:
SAND (10:10): well this is the song everyone has been talking about so far this tour and i will say without a doubt it was the best jam, at least up until that night. it was BIG. it was given the chance to develop. it took flight. and it landed safely. trey developed a nice little descending theme which the rest of the band built a nice chord progression around to bring everything to a close perfectly. it is a must hear for phish 3.0. the highlight of the night for sure, and for the first leg of the tour imo.
SUZY (10:32): ok not a big fan of this tune but would be happy with anything as long as its played as well as that last tune... was delighted to hear trey throw in a quick tease of the outro theme of the sand jam. i love this band.
LIMB BY LIMB (10:37): love this song, but this version was a bit tame. "taste" was teased pretty heavily.
HORSE > SILENT (10:45) you know what it is.
SUGAR SHACK (10:52): first time played. new one by mike. never heard this one. sounded pretty cool, especially the little guitar part, in something like 9/8 time. great new song.
CHARACTER ZERO (10:57): this would soon become one of the most repeated songs of the first leg, but i only saw it at fenway before tonight so it was fine with me. i thought the jam was hot.. lots of energy.
> TWEEZER (11:04): well this is another one that people have been claiming is the best jam of the tour. i personally dont agree (but it sure was good). there are just so many possibilities for this tune, and this version was pretty boring imo. had
some potential at the beginning of the jam but then trey breaks them into a somewhat hyperbole I-IV theme (at 7:07 on my copy) which gets the crowd excited but just fails to deliver the goods. if anything i would say trey was TOO patient on this tune, and this theme quickly becomes tired and repetitive amid some uneventful and unmemorable jamming. i just thought nothing interesting happened. i know there are many people out there who don't share the same lackluster opinion of this tweezer, so suggest you go listen for yourself :)
SETBREAK (11:18) well this was obviously my favorite set of the tour so far. and it was also quite short (67 min i think) so i knew we should be in store for a great encore, especially with the way they've been playing tonight... then trey comes out and asks "are you in a rush to go anywhere?...." :)

ENCORE:
JOY (11:22): first time played, clearly a trey song. very bright and cheerful. the word happy appears several times. great outro (IV-I-V in D i think) with a lot of potential.
BOUNCING (11:28): with a tweprise on the way i was worried that this song was stealing precious encore time...
> ANTELOPE (11:31): yes!!!!! now the JB2 antelope was a disaster imo, and tonight seemed like the perfect opportunity for a redemption. this version was just blistering, lots of energy and confidence. "bin you to have any MIKE, man?"
> TWEEPRISE (11:42): BOOYEAH! its bittersweet to hear this tune because you know it (probably) signifies the end of the night, but who couldn't love it anyway? great end to a great show!!!
END OF SHOW (11:45): camden was a real treat and well worth the headache of getting from the previous night's letdown of a show at GW. they really seemed to be having fun during this show, as opposed to some of the previous shows where the band (especially mike) seemed unhappy to be there. if this show is a sign of things to come, its gonna be a great summer tour. :)


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