, attached to 1999-07-20

Review by waxbanks

waxbanks The boys sure put on strong shows in Toronto, huh? The show highlight might be the jumbo Ghost in the first set, which wades patiently through standard low-key Phish funk (maybe a little more fleet than usual?) before building up a head of steam and topping out in a roaring late-century Phish climax that's no less affecting for being familiar to every Phish fan. The YEM jam is mostly three-way porno-funk, with Trey hanging out in relaxed fashion atop the wah pedal. When Page hops from the clav/Rhodes to the acoustic piano Trey starts to get freaky and his bandmates are happy to join him; the result is standard-wonderful YEM material, even if it ends without any old-school 'hose' (or a bass/drums jam!). The nightly setlist oddity is the Zep cover: exhilarating, but (to be mercilessly frank) you can safely bypass it in favour of Phish's thematically-similar 11/27/09 cover of Golden Age (by Brooklyn style-nerds TV on the Radio). The rest of the second set is tremendously engaging (and engaged) stuff though, particularly the multifaceted Twist > Moma pairing. Check out Trey's gleeful impatience at the opening of 2001 too!

What I've heard of Oswego doesn't flip my lid, but there's some phenomenal Summer '99 stuff out there - start with the next night's Simple > Toe > Caspian if you need convincing. On the other hand, why would you need convincing?


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