Gotta say from a couch tour perspective (made it to 2/3 of Hampton, listened to the other shows by webcast/after the fact) the band seemed out of sorts this last Chicago show.

I for one loved the first set, Everything’s Right has grown on me every time its been played and always has a raging jam. Destiny is never a bad time, and I like Heavy Things, although Miss You is painful to hear. Tube was honestly a little aimless compared to how good it was in Albany, but I will never complain about a jammed Tube. I don’t know why so many people seem to dislike Petrichor, a newer composition that stands with some of Trey’s best imo, it seemed fairly well practiced this time around and I want it to be in the rotation more. IAWITW is another great newer song thanks to Page’s background keyboards, and Grind is always a great set closer.

However the second set never really found its footing. Starting with a fierce Carini, the jam moved between a few different moods without Trey really gettig comfortable before Page wisely took the band into No Quarter. Trey badly flubbed the composed parts, but the song did its job of setting the mood, and there was some nice soloing from Trey at the end before Trey pressed the segue to Cities.

Cities was unremarkable, then led to an unremarkable Jibboo, then Twist. Twist is a song that almost always has some nice jamming, even if only for a few minutes, and Trey nicely guided the band into What’s the Use?, which found its way back to the Twist outro for maybe the neatest sequence of the night.

I’ll say it here for posterity, I think this Year’s Halloween album is the Siket Disc, and I will be so sad if I’m right and miss it. Shade was an unearned ballad bathroom break (god I hope they never play this one again, boring as hell with some of the most cliched lyrics I have ever heard) that put the final nail in the set. Plasma is a great song and brought some energy back into the dead crowd, but honestly should have been near the start of the set. Standard raging Zero to close things out, with Fluffhead as a nice bonus for an encore. Very much a “two set 1” show, with the band not really finding any jamming groove all night, and I found the second set pretty frustrating thanks to Trey’s seeming lack of patience. Strong Fall tour as a whole, but there were a few shows like Chi3 that were just not up to snuff for how well Phish has been playing, which is a shame. Hope they’ve been playing it safe for Halloween, which is sure to be amazing at MGM again.