PHISH
12/27/10
DCU Center
Worcester, MA
I: Sample in a Jar, Funky Bitch, Cool It Down, Roggae, Heavy Things, What Things Seem, Roses Are Free, It's Ice, Mist, Julius
II: Mike's Song > Mound > Weekapaug Groove, Farmhouse, Seven Below > What's the Use > Twenty Years Later, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Possum, Cavern, David Bowie
E: Loving Cup
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We left Geneseo around noon on Sunday. My neighbor Jamie and my friend from high school Cory were my traveling companions on this journey. We listened to the Bears defeat the Jets on the radio on the way through Illinois. The news of an impending blizzard that was about the crush the east coast had me very stressed out. I handled the driving until we got to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. This was when Cory stepped up and handled the rest of the drive which would turn out to be a winter nightmare. There were stretches of the Poconos where we couldn't see anything. It was very scary. Plow crews and emergency rescure units were out in full force but there was simply too much snow.
By the time we stopped at Cory's apartment in Hoboken, NJ that city was in a state of disaster. Side roads were simply impassible. At this point we headed north taking an extremely roundabout route that took us around New York City because the George Washington Bridge was backed up for miles. We had to dig our way onto the Jersey Turnpike literally with a shovel that I brought. The sun was shining on Monday morning but as we got into central Connecticut we began to catch back up with the storm. Finally we made our way to the Fairfield Suites in Auburn which is the town adjacent to Worcester. We parked in the garage across the street from the Centrum. This venue which has since been renamed the DCU Center is an early 80s antiquated minor league hockey arena that houses the AHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks.
Phish hit the stage around 8:15 after the crowd had been worked up by some Talking Heads on the P.A. system. Sample in a Jar was a bit of an anticlimatic beginning. "The simple smiles and good times seem all wrong" was appropriate given my change in personnel for this trip from what I originally had planned. Trey seemed to give his solo an extra go around. Funky Bitch really allowed Page to shine for the first time of the evening. Cool It Down was a great choice. This produced the only real jam of the first set. I hadn't heard that since Target Center '00 in Minneapolis. Roggae is a song I love to hear and this produced an interesting jam during the outro similiar to what they did in Amherst. Heavy Things brought about the best playing of the set. Trey absolutely owned his solo. As cheesy as that song is it consistently brings strong playing from Trey. What Things Seem is the defacto title track from Moss. It climaxed with Gordo yelling the final vocals. I'm glad they allowed Mike an opportunity to shine with his new material. Roses Are Free though always welcome was akin to the Providence Fall Tour version with no jam. It's Ice in retrospect seems like an obvious choice given the weather. Mist provided some absolutely gorgeous playing from Anastasio during the outro. "I'm on the road again" made me smile. This was extremely soulful. They blew the roof off the building with a smoking Julius to finish off the stanza. This was a fun set. It was song oriented for the most part and had some impressive playing along with a few moments of awkwardness.
This show was going to need a good second set to warrant it a winner and that's exactly what they did. This was a particularly fiery version of Mike's Song though it still did not contain the second jam portion that it once did. When they dropped into Mound that was the highlight of the entire show. The winter lyrics were perfect for the situation. I hadn't heard that since MSG 12/31/02. Weekapaug was an energetic version to finish off yet another interesting 2010 Mike's Groove. The choice of Farmhouse in this slot was questionable. While a ballad in this slot worked this song that strongly resembles No Woman No Cry provided a lull in a set that had been balls out up until that point. Seven Below had the most interesting improvisation of the night. Kuroda did a great job of using white lights during this part of illustrate the crystals of snow that are spoken of in the lyrics. Trey's emotive playing eventually led into territory very similar to What's the Use. Trey began teasing it heavily. After bringing the jam to a conclusion they started up the song proper. They allowed What's the Use to come to a natural conclusion before morphing into Twenty Years Later. I thought Trey's guitar sounded a bit off during the verses. Wading in the Velvet Sea provided an opportunity to get some water from the fountain. Possum got things going again. "You end is the road!". Cavern worked well in the false set closer spot. You could sense that David Bowie was on its way. I've heard Trey shred the final codas better than he did last night. It was the first show of the run and they hadn't played since Halloween. There was some moments when that seemed to be apparent. I called the Loving Cup encore. This was a really fun show with several highlights. The references to the blizzard that we all drove through made this a unique performance.
pictures taken by Dave Vann (phish.com)
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